All in the Family

Happy unofficial start-of-fall everyone!

I celebrated the unofficial start by "rowing" into Philadelphia to take my three younger cousins out to lunch. (Those of you around the area, you will remember the weather on Tuesday...for those of you not, it rained. Hard.)

In middle of lunch, my entering-freshman-year-of-high-school cousin announced she had signed up for cross country. And enjoyed it. It took every ounce of energy not to jump across the table and hug her. I instead opted to pound her with every question I could get out, waiting impatiently while she answered each one until spitting out the next one. And I made her pinkie swear to run Rothman with me in November.

On the way home, I sat in traffic and smiled at the thought of a Family 5K...me, my mom, my aunt (who runs, obviously if she's in a fantasy race with us), and now my cousin. Running side-by-side, smiling, linked at the elbows...all that was missing in the vision were the colored Grateful Dead bears running along side us, bib numbers and all.

Good luck this year in cross country, Jessie! If you quit, I'll kick your butt.