Ode To A Framily

(USED TO BE A PICTURE OF A SHANTY HERE)

Yesterday I spent the day job hunting and got 0 applications and 1 $10 parking ticket. It was not a good day. And then I got a call from a friend and went down to the local place of alcohol to have a few beers. I can't believe how therapeutic conversation in the sun with the Magnificent Basset and a gang of friends can be.

In America, or at least where I live (I forget that the rest of the country is so different than here that I should really not generalize because I don't know anything about the rest of the country) family is not just those you are related to. It's also the group of friends that become your core social group. The people I spend Christmas Eve with. The people I celebrate my birthday with. The people to whom I send mass emails when anything of any significance in my life happens. The people who make me feel better no matter what. These are friends who are family. These are my Framily.

My parents have a Framily too. They were like aunts and uncles to me. They changed my diapers and went to my softball games. They drank in celebration when I graduated from high school. They are a part of the normal family in the social world I grew up in.

In my Framily there are the more distant members, the folks I see every few gatherings. There are those who I see or speak to on a weekly basis. There are those who are at every gathering. There are those who I live with and depend on for the roof over my head. There are those who live far away (more than 15 minutes by car) and those who live within walking-home-drunk distance. But if I ever needed any of them, they would be there for me. And more than my actual blood family, they know exactly how to make me feel better when I'm down. They do it without even trying. And the cool thing about a Framily is that it is so diverse. We've got a little bit of everything in the group, and it makes for conversation that always sends me home thinking, laughing or combination of the two.

Most people choose their Framily. Mine was bestowed upon me. I thank my lucky stars for them.