tremendous

Tonight we celebrated my grandfather's 80th birthday. And by "we" I mean me and 61 other relatives (and kind of, sort of, really not relatives), all seated around small tables at the Skyroom. No, I don't know why we celebrated there. Probably the family's extreme nostalgia for the BYU--I've heard that it can happen to people, although I'm not sure I believe it. And the EN was challenged by the two uncles who opted for USU instead. Let's face it--if you have the choice between a nice celibate lifestyle in Provo and becoming a "True Aggie" in Logan, which are you going to choose? That's what I thought.

I love my grandfather and it was fun to see some of the tributes to him. The five grandsons in the three-to-five year old range sang a song about chewing gum that apparently Grandpa sang as a youngster and most of his children and the older grandchildren remember him teaching them. I admit that I have no memory of the tune, but it was entertaining to watch the boys singing around wads of bubble gum while singing "My dad gave me a quarter to buy a garter. I didn't buy a garter; I bought some chewing gum."

The Jester sang "I Want to Grow Old with You" from The Wedding Singer. He's a good performer and he altered the words about being put to bed when you've had too much to drink. The cousin who jumped on the IWtGOwY bandwagon forgot the alterations, however, and so there was plenty of merriment accompanied by the Jester shaking his head as he played his guitar louder.

Grandpa's a singer himself, so he began with the French national anthem for no apparent reason other than he learned it for a BYU production when he was in college. Then the Nauvoo classic "Old Mother Hubbard." He sings it opera-style and really gets into the performance. The final number was "The Men in My Little Girl's Life," which he sang at each of his daughter's (first) weddings. A girl was chosen from each family. I admit a little chagrin on my own part when they chose LaLa for the "married" stage, along with some ribbing by my older married cousins, but I survived.

Dinner was something chicken or chicken something, naturally. The high point there was my cousin Nate's wife asking if each missionary was given a life-sized cardboard cutout--my dad had brought the Sven cutout and my grandfather had introduced him/it earlier.

I love my family, especially this extended family. Cool uncles, funny aunts, great cousins, cute little kids running everywhere. But I'm starting to feel even more on the outside of things. One of my older cousins (older meaning late 20s, early 30s) proposed to his girlfriend last night. He spent a lot of time talking with LaLa and the cousin her age who got married in the summer. Both of them are 19. There's only two cousins around my age still single. D is in a relationship that's going on year two now and L is a lesbian--with a girlfriend. Even the younger cousins are married or dating. My world of books and poetry, etc., doesn't match up with theirs anymore. Not that it ever did. But when we were all in high school, we were at least on the same page--or at least somewhere in the same text. Now I don't know what book they're reading.