I can't think of a better way to tell you about my awesome family than to discuss my awesome nieces & nephews.
I love my entire family - like all families, we have our challenges, issues and sometimes pain. But there also exists love, forgiveness, laughter, and joy. To my own fault, I don't know my nephews in Virginia all that well, but my one nephew, whom I'll call Frank, is a great kid, really smart, 16 or 17 I believe, and from what I know, seems to be on a path of higher education and a career in technology.
My nieces, however, I do know well, and they are the sunshine of my life. Here come the fake names: Frank's sister, Melissa, is 16, an amazing actor, has the Ziemer Chutzpah, writes really insightful, quirky and thought-provoking poetry, is funny, and like all three nieces I'll focus on mostly here (since I know them all pretty well), gorgeous. Melissa is always doing funny things with her hair, and I reckon she got some lip piercing or maybe her nose, which is adorable, and which I suspect her parents were not thrilled with. The bummer - really with her whole family, parents included - is that she's so far away, so I'm lucky to see her once a year. That throws a wrench in bitchenosity, but I still see her on facebook, we chat occasionally, and I get to follow her life and see the fantastic things she's doing, being a kid, having fun, presumably getting into some trouble, etc. I had a scare around Christmastime, about some personal stuff going on in her family, and the way in which she, I and finally her brother Frank - mentioned above - were able to connect on that stuff was remarkable. Melissa is smart, sassy and hysterical, just the way a Ziemer should be (even though she has a different last name, she's still totally a Ziemer). Melissa, like the other two in Burbank, is my Facebook daughter. She calls me "dad" when we chat, and it honestly wells me up a bit. I should be so lucky.
So the other two in Burbank... I'll call the 13 year old Cupcake, and the 15 year old Lexus, just because those names will likely irritate the hell out of them.
Again, the disclaimer here is that, with these two, I remember when they were born, have celebrated many-a-birthday with them, watched them go from little girls into gorgeous, talented, sassy young women, and have been fortunate enough to be around for some of the hard stuff too, which is maybe one of the greatest blessings in my life. Damn, I have it good.
So we'll start with Cupcake, since she's the junior. This girl, I remember this little kid... Short, chubby, cranky, quiet-but-fierce, irritable... As a kid, although cute and all that, she seemed pretty unhappy. Putting on my psychoanalytical hat, I suspect she was pretty peeved with being smaller and less athletic than her sister, who really got a lot of attention with her soccer rockstarness. More on that later.
So here's this little kid, sweet and funny but also seemingly-misunderstood, who has a lisp and a grudge. Oh, the identification. So I get the honor of watching this child turn into something that is absolutely remarkable. I get to watch her become an amazing person, right before my eyes, which must be deceiving me. I have had the honor of watching Cupcake become this sensitive, sarcastic (definitely a plus in the Ziemer Clan), sweet, gentle, creative, smart, knockout woman. She is truly remarkable. Truly. This kid says things that are way beyond her years, and has insight and intuition that most even semi-aware people would kill for. To see her and how she has become not only tolerant of but a fan of her sister - and to see how she is becoming her own person, how she and her sister are still amazing friends, but Cupcake has some of her OWN friends now, and has broken away from the "sidekick sister" shadow that she fell into at a young age... It is an amazing thing to have the privilege of witnessing. This kid and I have talked about some really deep and heavy stuff, and have also laughed and celebrated our own joys. Wow, as I write this, I'm reminded of just how much I miss these girls.
So the other one now... Lexus. Yeah, she'll love that. This girl was, at a young age, incredibly gifted with the soccer ball. And, also at a young age, she was beautiful. Of course, as her uncle, I was honored and proud to be amongst those genes... But wait, where the f*ck is mine??!
So the thing is, I could imagine that other little girls - without Lexus' field skills and stunning "California Blond" looks, probably couldn't stand her. But the thing is, I never saw that. And I believe I never saw it because she was - and still is - the sweetest kid I ever met. Perhaps the sweetest person I've ever met. Honestly, I hope to someday be as kind, patient and humble as this girl. It blows me away. Because of her dad - my brother - she inherited the sassy personality, quick and sharp humor, integrity and good sense (sadly, that's probably more him than me). Certainly because of her mom - as is the case with her sister - she got the patience, sensibility, reasoning, sweetness, hottie Norwegian tannable-skin, light eyes and blonde locks, and just overall "goodness", among other things. Again, I've had the honor of watching this girl go from an 87 Toyota Corolla into a 2011 Lexus. Horrible, I know, but I had to work that name in here.
One last anecdote on these two above... Last time I was in L.A. with the familia, I had the most amazing experience of dancing with my nieces in the living room one evening. Cupcake had broken her knee in a bad soccer spill just before I arrived, and we were hanging out over the holidays, kind of bored. I plugged my iPhone into their little boombox, and we proceeded to take over the living room, chasing their dad away to watch TV elsewhere, while I got to turn them on to awesome 80's grinds, amongst them Prince, Madonna, Big Country, Duran Duran, Joy Division, etc. That was something I'll cherish forever. Little Cupcake propped herself up on the couch, and was rolling her hair around, doing crazy things with her arms, and shaking both her functioning and gimp leg around. (Don't worry, she's since recovered, so I can call her a gimp - I did it then too.) We laughed so much, doing all of these crazy moves we were making up, and it was really a thrill for me, this guy who is becoming the kind of uncle that I could only hope to be to my own kids someday, if I'm so lucky.
So a big hug, smile and thank you to ALL of my nieces and nephews, especially the ones I've yet to meet, and very much so to those in Virginia who I can't wait to know more. And thanks to the parents - my brother and sister, and my s-in-law and b-in-law, who brought these morsels of happiness into my life. These are some big morsels, and I am reminded again that I just might be the luckiest guy around...
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