I Have The Best Family Ever!!!

After several weeks of contacting back and forth with my cousin Tim, he decides to come up and visit me in Jersey. When I say "up" I mean it. He has recently moved to Nashville, TN, but being from the South for all of his life he has a slight Southern twang.

The festivities all started on Thursday when I picked him up from Newark airport. Surprisingly, the airport was not too bad and we were quickly out of there once his flight had arrived. Tim has also become friends with one of my good friends, Jacque, so we decided to go meet up with her, so that they could meet after talking online for months now. We head to her place and quickly decide to grab some food, since there is mutual stomach growling going around. After realizing the sushi place is closed for the day, we hit up the next best thing....the pizza place. Ricky, Jacque's brother, meets up with us and helps us finish a pie of white pizza with grilled chicken.....this is just the start of the breaking the diet and work out regime that I have been so strict about. After finishing the pizza I also decide to relive my childhood and I buy a chipwich which I begin to explain that it tastes as if God hand-crafted it himself.

We head over to a cousin of Jacque's place where they are having a BBQ. Tim and I being to drink the Gentlemen Jack and Jameson Whiskey (not together, for Christ sake) that we had purchased earlier in the day. After several good drinks, that continued to get stronger and stronger, we headed down to the local park where there was a fireworks show. With the disappointment that was the fireworks over and behind us we head back to Jacque's and swim in the pool long enough to sober up and make it back to the my house. After a long day we finally crash and try to rest up for the next day.

The next day Tim and I basically lounged around the house all day, taking frequent cat naps and watching "The Flight of the Concords", which my cousin has recently gotten me into. Tim, who is very easy going, was up for anything, so I decide to head out to Long Island where we meet up with with one of my friends and her two sorority sisters....yeah, sorority girls.

With quick introductions we start to drink and catch up with the girls who have been drinking all day to celebrate the 4th of July. In order to help us catch up we start to play some card/drinking games. We also decide to play the "Blow Games". NO PERVERT! not that! The girl whose house it is, her father is a retired probation officer, so she has a legit breathalyzer test. So, we all decide it would be hilarious and fun to see what out blood alcohol levels are. After a little confusion on how to use the damn device we see what everyone is at I realize that I am definitely doing a good job at catching up to the girls, having blown over 0.115 very easily.

After several more beers I start to think it would be a good idea to start to antagonize the parakeet that has been giving Tim and I the evil eye all night. I begin by attempting to poke the bird, but in the intoxicated state I am in the bird is a little too quick for me. I then think it is a smarter idea to try and move my finger real slow towards him and then poke him at the last second. Just as I am about to poke the evil bird, he jumps on my finger and perches there looking at me. Without knowing what to do I stand still as the bird (whom I have no idea what the hell the birds name is) starts to climb up my arm to my shoulder. Being scared to look at it, for it might peck my eyes out, I sit there motionless. Now, the bird (who I think is going to try and kill me because I have been tormenting it) begins to peck at my ear lobe....but it doesn't hurt.....not at all....the bird is a big baby! Tim and I start to pass the bird back and forth taking pictures with it and mentioning how we want to become pirates! We wrap up the night after many pics with the bird, many more breathalyzer tests and a lot more booze!

The next day, Saturday, my Grandfather and Uncle Brian come up to the home to visit and see Tim. (On a side note, my Grandfather is one of the most amazing people I know....that I think I will ever know. He has lived an amazing life and is going to turn 100 yrs old this year. But, he is a whole other story.) Tim and I sit there and talk to my Poppop about everything that has been going on....how Tim likes living in Nashville, how I am searching for a new job, etc. We then start exchanging stories from the last family reunion....who got really drunk (me), who made a fool of himself (me), and just the amazing time we had and how we have to have another reunion real soon.

That night, Tim and I, made plans to get into the city and see one of our other cousins, who just recently moved there, Shannon. She has currently started working at a restaurant, Gabriel's, as a pastry chef. We made arrangements to meet up with her at the restaurant and we would sit at the bar, have a couple drinks, and wait until she got off of work.

While we were waiting she made us some of the best deserts I think have ever touched my lips! There were several sorbet's, a peach cobbler, and this (to die for) chocolate truffle that was flavored with Grand Marnier and covered in raspberry sauce! Shannon goes on to tell us that the recipe for this thing consists of 4 lbs or chocolate and 4 lbs of butter. So, basically it is a heart attack in a small chocolate disguise.

After several drinks and a lot of discussion about "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Arrested Development", Shannon finally gets out of work...it was a little slow so she got out early. We then proceed to a nice Irish Pub about a block away from Gabriel's. We order a round of Guinness and just start to shoot the shit. I believe the quote of the night was from Tim saying (after he returned from the bathroom), "In case you were wondering, yep, I am still damn sexy!". Haha, what can I say, he is definitely my cousin.

There was also a lot of discussions about Oct, when Poppop turns 100, about another family reunion, and that at the next reunion how we are all going to get matching family tattoos. Then there was also talk of the possibility of me moving to NYC to live with my cousin. I said that I would seriously consider it if I could find a good job.

Once the several rounds of Guinness were finished and the bar lights started going up we figured it was time to leave. We drove Shannon up to her studio apt in Harlem and headed back to Jersey.

Sunday made for a nice relaxing day for Tim and I. A couple exchanges of stories from weekend and watching some TV. I finally dropped him off at Newark to catch his plane around 4:30.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend with my cousin and I definitely can't wait to see him again. Possibly flying down there, to Nashville, in August for a concert.