Big family to-do's...

...leave me cold. That's one of the reasons I'm not particularly close to my family. But I have been watching with some interest as my neighbor Bob spent the last several weeks talking about and preparing for the christening of his first (or is it second? I can't remember) grandchild, a girl. Bob is a Polish Catholic. And apparently that means that every living family member within two thousand miles needs to attend the christening, and then attend a big barbecue at Bob's house.

He has been working himself to death to get the house looking pretty... endless cleaning, new paint on the inside and the outside, a new lawn on both his lots, lots of new mulch and plants and a new garden in the back yard and and and and.

Bleagh! I can't imagine.

And he's doing it not because he's particularly religious, nor because he's absolutely wild about his little granddaughter. It's mainly, from what I can tell, because the extended family expects this.

I have a hard time understanding this. But then, I have no biological children or grandchildren, and I am not close to my family or extended family.

Nevertheless, a big party is going on at Bob's house right now, and he graciously invited his neighbors, including us. Unfortunately, I had to leave to go to the airport, and I am writing as I wait on my plane (which is delayed, so I was going to miss my connection, but Continental was very kind to get me a different flight through Atlanta, first class, even, on Delta). I will get to Chicago by midnight tonight instead of 6:30 PM. Luckily I do not have to teach first shift tomorrow (the first day of five weeks of training), but instead I am teaching second shift (3 PM to 11 PM). So I can sleep in a bit.

I think Bob will be much more brutally tired tomorrow than I will be. ;-) But that's the joy of family.