7.09.2005
Mood of the Moment: I miss Crystal...
Music of the Moment: DHT - Listen to Your Heart (this song is addicting...)
So today is the day. The Gathering is today. Oh yes, none of you blog readers would truly know what the gathering is. Most of you will probrobly never experience it. Those of you that are close to me, I fear that you may someday. For that I appologize. My family tends to suck people in and take them as their own. But, alas, the gathering is an inevitable event in my family, and the friends of the family. It has become nearly ritualistic. For most, it starts around oh, say, 3 or 4. By most, I mean to say those that were not blessed with the gift of good cooking. I unfortunately am not one of those people, and I have made the mistake of making things for people before, only to have them say "you must make that for the Fourth"...."the fourth...that is what most call it. For you see the Gathering always occurs the Saturday directly after the Fourth of July. It is not truly a celebration of the Fourth. It is simply an excuse. I know what most of you are thinking..."ok, it is a get together of family and some friends...."you are correct, but what you fail to realize is the sheer capacity of my family. I am related to half of North Carolina. I have very rich and quite powerful relatives, the only thing is that I only see them once a year...at the Gathering. I forget people's names. I ask people "are we related, or are you a friend?" There is usually not a great deal of segregation between classes, which is one of this event's pros. There are, however, segregations between ages and types. As I child I loved it, because I was surrounded by at least 20 kids around my age, and we all played together. Now, however, I have gotten older. and I am one of the Kellys, instead of just being one of the children. This would not be so bad, except for the fact that my family takes it's already oversized gossip-mill into overdrive during this event. It is what is talked about for months, secrets are spilled...rumors started...lies...stretches of truths...or even the spreading of truths that are really nobody's bloody business. My grandmother, however, is a "godfather" of sorts in this rumor mill. Everyone knows this. She leaves the Gathering every year with a million new facts, fictions, and everything in between. I mean, you people really dont understand the utter quantity of people that are there. There are acres upon acres of land, and yet it is still neigh impossible to go somewhere where you are not in close proximity to someone. There is enough food to feed an army...we are an army. There is not one person bringing this dish, one person bringing that....there is everyone who knows how to cook anything brings at least one of everything they know how to cook, and still we will run out of most things. We eat in waves, if we all waited in line, it may stretch to the other side of the county...there is never near enough room in the house, or ath the tables and chairs outside, so the elderly (oh, and there are a LOT) get the chairs...the children usually get to eat inside, and everyone else finds a nice rock, stump, or dry patch to sit on. *sigh*...oh well, I am afraid I must go now...I have....more cooking to do.
There is a light at the end of my tunnel though...I get to skip out on the late night dullness of the Gathering...because I get to go CONTRA-DANCING tonight!!! hehe, well, 'till later...
Much Love,
~DeAnna~
It seems
Worth the wait
To see your smile again...
Music of the Moment: DHT - Listen to Your Heart (this song is addicting...)
So today is the day. The Gathering is today. Oh yes, none of you blog readers would truly know what the gathering is. Most of you will probrobly never experience it. Those of you that are close to me, I fear that you may someday. For that I appologize. My family tends to suck people in and take them as their own. But, alas, the gathering is an inevitable event in my family, and the friends of the family. It has become nearly ritualistic. For most, it starts around oh, say, 3 or 4. By most, I mean to say those that were not blessed with the gift of good cooking. I unfortunately am not one of those people, and I have made the mistake of making things for people before, only to have them say "you must make that for the Fourth"...."the fourth...that is what most call it. For you see the Gathering always occurs the Saturday directly after the Fourth of July. It is not truly a celebration of the Fourth. It is simply an excuse. I know what most of you are thinking..."ok, it is a get together of family and some friends...."you are correct, but what you fail to realize is the sheer capacity of my family. I am related to half of North Carolina. I have very rich and quite powerful relatives, the only thing is that I only see them once a year...at the Gathering. I forget people's names. I ask people "are we related, or are you a friend?" There is usually not a great deal of segregation between classes, which is one of this event's pros. There are, however, segregations between ages and types. As I child I loved it, because I was surrounded by at least 20 kids around my age, and we all played together. Now, however, I have gotten older. and I am one of the Kellys, instead of just being one of the children. This would not be so bad, except for the fact that my family takes it's already oversized gossip-mill into overdrive during this event. It is what is talked about for months, secrets are spilled...rumors started...lies...stretches of truths...or even the spreading of truths that are really nobody's bloody business. My grandmother, however, is a "godfather" of sorts in this rumor mill. Everyone knows this. She leaves the Gathering every year with a million new facts, fictions, and everything in between. I mean, you people really dont understand the utter quantity of people that are there. There are acres upon acres of land, and yet it is still neigh impossible to go somewhere where you are not in close proximity to someone. There is enough food to feed an army...we are an army. There is not one person bringing this dish, one person bringing that....there is everyone who knows how to cook anything brings at least one of everything they know how to cook, and still we will run out of most things. We eat in waves, if we all waited in line, it may stretch to the other side of the county...there is never near enough room in the house, or ath the tables and chairs outside, so the elderly (oh, and there are a LOT) get the chairs...the children usually get to eat inside, and everyone else finds a nice rock, stump, or dry patch to sit on. *sigh*...oh well, I am afraid I must go now...I have....more cooking to do.
There is a light at the end of my tunnel though...I get to skip out on the late night dullness of the Gathering...because I get to go CONTRA-DANCING tonight!!! hehe, well, 'till later...
Much Love,
~DeAnna~
It seems
Worth the wait
To see your smile again...
# posted by DeAnna : 11:57 AM
