That's What Family Is For

The holiday season is a time to be spent with family and loved ones, waxing nostalgic at the days of your youth while comfortably ensconced on the couch watching A Christmas Story for the 9 millionth time. And since my infamous cousin Gabriel has decided he wants a blog entry all to himself, I will share a few of our memories with the rest of the virtual world. Maybe it will help me get in the mood to at least do a little holiday shopping.

Once Gabe and I were playing outside in the summertime and I ran inside to get a quick drink of water. When I got back to the porch I saw Gabe across the yard laughing maniacally and waving his arms about. As he ran towards me I realized that he was not laughing; he was, in fact, screaming in terror as an entire hive of bees stung his little head. Since my older cousin was once again in charge of watching us, she filled an enormous mixing bowl with ice and made Gabe dunk his swollen head in it for the rest of the afternoon.

Gabe and I were also computer savvy, even in the days of Commodore 64. We laughed ourselves silly playing Goonies on the good ol' C64, making Mama Fratelli dance a jig as counterfeit money fell all around her. We became Lemonade Stand tycoons. We traveled around the world with Carmen Sandiego before she had an a capella group to back her up. We LOAD *8 *1'd ourselves into a computer frenzy.

We used to shake up the powdered iced tea container and then lift the cover and inhale iced tea dust into our lungs. When you're 9, everything is funny.

Gabe was also the undisputed King of pranks when we worked together. He once shaved down an alka-seltzer tablet with a pocket knife and hid it in his mother's package of NECCO wafers. Once he drank a co-workers bottle of coke and then squeezed balsamic vinegar into it (very forcefully, so that it looked foamy and bubbly like coke). One time I drove up to visit him at Keene with a friend and we ate cold jambalaya in her car on the way up. We stayed up all night drinking, then drove back down to open the store the next day at 6 a.m. in a car that smelled like old sausage and paprika, rice everywhere.

One time Gabe at a dead bee out of my grandmother's windowsill.

There were all the family camping/beach trips. One memorable night my aunt told us a story as we were driving to the campground about how the fog on the road was actually the ghosts of dead people. And then she sang Molly Malone in a scary deep voice. We shrieked in terror and then demanded more.

Then there was the time we did Secret Santa at work. Gabe's Secret Santa bought him a computer scanner. Mine bought me a bag of jelly beans. Good times, good times.

Yes, Gabriel and I have had our share of moments. I miss the goof, I think he should move away from the dreaded Big Apple. But I know he's happy, and so I'm happy for him.