Finding Cousins

I am finding a bounty of new experiences this year with cousins. Cousins I've never met. Actually people that aren't my cousins, really, but could be if we were actually related. All are distant or by marriage.

I was the b-a-b-y of the family (can you say "accident"?) and was born 18-21 years after my brothers. My brothers were born when all of their cousins were being born. I was born about the time everyone was getting married and there for all my nieces and nephews are half a decade or so younger than me and were also all born about the same time. All my REAL cousins then (are you following the math?) are 18 or so years older than me.

So now the cousins that I'm adopting or are adopting me are all my age and all over the place. The fun goes like this.

Cousin Carol, a doctor, calls me by my last name. She is Robert's cousin. We met in Moab (after only a couple phone calls and less emails) and backpacked for a week in Canyonlands. And we did great - we're talking more trips. We now refer to ourselves as Team 49. She's just about to turn 50 and I just turned 49.

Cousin Claude, an engine engineer for Pugeot, in Paris. I will meet him in a few weeks when my happy toes get off the airplane in France. He's picking me up at the airport, taking me to meet his family, giving me my first French dinner in a long, long time and depositing me at my hotel at the end of the day.

Cousin Sharon. Sharon is a niece of one of my sister-in-laws. I'm going to spend a night at her house when I'm in the Denver area. She and her husband just got back from a stint in the Peace Corps. I can't wait to hear all of her stories.

And then there's Cousins Karen and Alicia - another set of relatives from the same sister-in-law. They just moved to Washington State. I did not get the opportunity to see them last weekend, but hope to again soon.

The adventures just don't quit. And I love the fact that at 49 I get cousins to play with - FINALLY!