Friday, March 2, 2007

March didn't really come in like a field of black sheep with my family's faces Photoshopped on their bodies.

I am sorry I used this as an excuse to post yet another picture I have been dying to share. I should just post the picture, talk about it and move on. Why be so sneaky?

Actually, March came in like a LIONESS. Like a cranky, pms-ing Queen of the Jungle! Her gut was bloated and her back ached. She was pissed off and her wrath was felt all across America. There were tornadoes and blizzards and the wrong people voted off of American Idol. March 1 was a Lion plain and simple.

Now, back to my family being black sheep on a hill...

The story begins simple enough. Each year my family has a reunion.

I know you are thinking, "So, every family has a reunion. What is your point, Stuff?"

Well, our family is a bit competitive when it comes to the annual reunion. You see, there were 5 Sisters in the original clan. The 5 Sisters all married and had lots of babies who in turn had lots of babies making 5 mini clans. The 5 mini clans agree to meet one weekend in June for fried chicken and a White Elephant Auction. The Sister who is best represented is declared the winner. There is no trophy or ceremony or even an out loud mention of this. It is simply an understanding between them…a silent bragging right. Sure, they acknowledge it subtly with snorts of disgust to least represented, but it was never anything written in the manual of our family.

My Grandma B was one of the Sisters and she did a phenomenal job making sure we all attended. She was a master at making us feel it was our duty. She did this with guilt flair.

When she died, our clan’s place in this competition dwindled slowly. Our attendance at the war reunion was usually pretty slim. There were members of us peppered throughout the years, but in 2005… we had NOBODY there. We let down Grandma B. We earned the snorts from the other clans. We were sheep of the darkest hue.

I forgot to mention that each year the planning and hosting of the games reunion was done by a different clan. Our year was 2006 and we needed to redeem ourselves from our poor showing in the previous year. We planned a reunion to rival all others. We created a Family Feud game complete with theme music and sound effects. We had family trivia. We had a fabulous cake. We even created a website to get everyone excited for the big weekend.

Our theme was “Don’t Be a Black Sheep… Come Graze with Us”

We were ready for redemption. We were ready to make Grandma B proud. We accomplished all of this while wearing a T-shirt with this on it:


This photo was on the back. The front had a picture of the wearer’s face with a curly mane of black sheepiness around it.

We are way too crazy, creative, and cute to stay down for long!

Let’s see the rest of ‘em try to out shine Grandma B’s clan!