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July 23, 2009
Family trees
Tree, originally uploaded by Adnan Yahya.
A friend of mine has this roommate, who is rather unsavory... She's not a good friend, steals from her company, and lies to get out of work. She also happens to have a boyfriend who has rubbed me the wrong way on several occasions. First, he insulted my beloved 92 year old land lady, and then he ridiculed my friend's tailgate party after he invited them to it although they had nowhere else to go. As you might imagine, I don't have a favorable impression. I would be pleased if I didn't have to see either of them ever again.
Meanwhile, my grandpa's brother passed away a few years ago, and then the brother's wife, my great aunt, passed away last week. They were nice, gentle people, but people I rarely met. My parents went to the funeral in NE Ohio, where they met the grandson who happens to live in Chicago. The next day, there was another memorial service in Buffalo, where some more of my relatives, with my last name, were attending. They also met the grandson.
After awhile, they finally put two and two together: the grandson, who lives in Chicago, is the same person as my friend's roommate's boyfriend. This guy, who was rude to my landlady and many of my friends, is my god damn second cousin. Fortunately, he does not carry on the beloved Osgood name, but still - he's family now.
I do not know how to compute this. On the one hand, he's related to me. On the other hand, he's kind of a jerkwad. In his defense, he was drunk all these times he misbehaved; yet, when I and many other people get drunk, we don't behave like that. So it's really not that defensible.
I guess it could be worse, though. My family, for the most part, gets along. There's fights here and there, but we're all on speaking terms and get along when we come to visit. So maybe we were due for a little disharmony. I don't anticipate much of a problem - I mean, we share 1/4 of the same great-grandparents, which is a tenuous relationship. If he had sisters, which I don't really know if he does, I could legally marry one of them. I'm still displeased that we share a common ancestry, though.
entry no. 1400
Posted at July 23, 2009 09:09 PM