Most people are born into one thing FAMILY. It’s very simple in fact. You take your family,
much like you do with any plant and you water it, feed it, give it nutrient,
sunlight and provide it with everything you’d want it to give back to you.
For me, from the start my tree was always well nourished. I
was born into a very loving family. Being a first born made me loved from the
start. ( that’s so first child of me) I
was well wanted and prayed for at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the hopes that I
would be a baby girl, and as Irish luck would have it girl I was. For I was
born with red hair, and since I’m oh so special I was announced over the radio
by my papa. Ah that’s right famous from birth.
Just because you are first born in your home though does not
make you special to the tens of other young kids around you, most importantly
the rest of your family. Sure if you’re the first grandchild everyone dotes
over you and buys you tricycles and plays games with you, entertains you. If
you happen to fall in the middle then the jokes on you, If you’re like me
growing up with nearly all male cousins on one side of the family you may have
had a Davey Crocket hat thrown at your head to make you think it was a live
animal. You may have had to create your own fun like making up plays and
wearing old clothes for “costumes” and being the Beatles in your nana’s
basement. But nothing, no holiday or
family get together could be complete without your cousins.
Cousins, we all have them. Some we’re close with others were
not, But mainly they are people who see our families for what they’re worth.
They are our first friends, the only kids at our first birthday parties and the
only people who have old family videos of us to make even Miley Cyrus embarrassed. Second cousins, first cousins once removed
whatever the technological word is let’s just call them for what they really are,
cousins.
I have enough cousins to make Kate Middleton jealous. Every
time I talk to someone I feel like I am always referring to one of my cousins, so much that a colleague
of mine often asks how may cousins I actually have. So I organized my cousins
into categories to make it easy for my friends and co-workers to know who I am
talking about. I have the Lilly cousins, the vineyard
cousins, my cousin with the new baby, my cousin getting married, my other
cousin getting married, my cousin who’s my best friend “the nurse”, my cousin
who lives in Maine, my cousin with the little girl that comes in here and so on
and so forth,
My dad was always very close with his cousin and this made
me particularly close with my “second cousins”. These second cousins of mine
share the same Irish swagger that I have and have a challenging time at biting
their tongue but have done so when necessary. We are opionated, we are always
right but most importantly we are all Moynihans. ( I sang the song when I wrote
that DKM)
This weekend is my cousins wedding OTV, That’s a fancy word
for On The Vineyard. (Any of you moms out there, I know you are familiar with
fancy words thanks to Fancy Nancy). I have been waiting for this wedding since
I first met Karen, mainly because these two fit together like Guiliana fits
Bill. They just work. I love that they aren’t over the top, or bragging how
much they love each other, they are actual real people. This is as refreshing
as an outdoor shower on the cape.
I have been thinking about this day since I got their
gorgeous save the date in the mail last fall and couldn’t wait to show TK what
the Vineyard was all about. I was excited to be cheesy and instagram us on the
Flying Horses, and hanging out on the Island Queen. Much to my “surprise” TK told me he would be
working this wedding weekend and would be unable to attend the wedding. ( womp
womp ) He reminded me multiple times that if I liked living in Boston and
wanted to wear Lululemon pants and drink Starbucks he would need to work for a
living and would not be able to make it. So I pulled up Boston Strong pants and
moved on with my life. And now I am trying to pack all my luggage into one bag
since I won’t have anyone but myself to carry it for me.
So this weekend I am going back to my roots and being “Before
TK Bridget”. I’ll be OTV with my cousins
and pretending that the weekend doesn’t end of Sunday and celebrating
everything that LOVE, LIFE and FAMILY has to offer.
I may also be hoping
they are doing some last minute filming of The Vineyard for ABC Family because
a girl can dream can’t she? Especially someone who’s birth was announced over
the radio
All my love C & D xoxo
