Fun with Family

As if your own family growing up is not enough to make you start twitching, when you get married you have to learn to contend with a whole new set of people and norms that are just about as foreign to you as they can be. Take for example the unlikely traveling companions that I was with last week. I was returning from Phoenix after having spent a few days there after my father-in-law injured himself in a motorcycle accident (this is not the topic of this blog, but he is fine you can go to Maloof's Casino if you want more details on how he is doing. I was picked up at the airport by my father-in-laws first wife, Virginia. Along with me was her son's wife, Monika, and his current wife's daughter, Jill. Andrea comes from his second wife, thus having me round out the set of one person connected to the family from each of his marriages. And yet here we all are in one car, pitching in as a family should. Virginia gave me a huge hug when I was leaving to take Jill back home from Monika and Brian's place. Honestly as much divorce as can be found in the Maloof clan, they seem to be able to be fairly civil about it. Family is still family, no matter who is currently married to whom. Coming from a family with no divorce this has been an interesting learning curve. I might joke about needing a chart to keep track of who in who in Andrea’s family (actually that is not a joke it is a good idea), still in the end we are all each other's family and that really is all that ends up mattering.