Soup's On

Another successful cousin dinner last night at my brother’s place. Thanks Bonz! No Krystal this time; she was missed. Hopefully she’ll make the next one. I thought I wrote about this before but can’t seem to find an entry. Maybe I just thought about writing it. Little by little more of my family is moving from Northern California to Southern California. It’s been great for us down here but our families who are still up there can’t seem to identify with the appeal. That’s ok, it’s fine with us. Right now there are six of us who all live somewhere between Manhattan Beach and North Hollywood. Let me see if I can remember this. Noreen was first. She moved here to attend Long Beach State. Next was me – a job offer. Bill came down third to continue his pursuit into the music business. Ruben was after that. He came down just for a fresh start. Raquel, Bill’s sister spent a few years in San Diego before moving to Hollywood. She too wanted to change her surroundings. Last was Krystal. She is now here going to school just like her big sister Noreen did. We all still travel up to the Bay Area at Christmas although I’m starting to think our relatives should give us all a break and journey down here at least once. So we started having these “Cousin Dinners” a couple of years ago. It was a great way to get us all in a room without there being a special occasion. Just the cousins, no guests or significant others, in a relaxed environment. A little dinner, a little wine and lots of catching up with each other. We rotate around with who sets it up. That person either has it at his/her place or picks a restaurant to meet. My turn hasn’t come up since I moved but I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a really great experience to get to know my cousins as adults. It seems people don’t always have a lot in common with cousins. It’s the same for me with some of my other cousins (and yes I do have many). Our little LA family, though, does really genuinely like and care about one another. I don’t take that for granted. All of our parents have also told us that it makes them happy that we’ve done this. I hope they continue and who knows, the migrating cousin tradition may not be over yet.