Aunt Michele and that's with one L

As I drove into Ocean City over the Longport Bridge, the guy in the toll booth took my money and said simply, "How ya been?" Nobody in WI says "How ya been?". Nice as the day is long the people in Wisconsin, but rarely familiar. Everybody here behaves somewhat familiarly and they're sort of bored about it as if you always come over the Longport Bridge that same time everyday. I likey.


I've always felt awkward about the use of the monikers aunt and uncle for non-related adults. Like if they're not related and you call them uncle, it will cause them to touch you in ways that make you feel uncomfortable and you won't tell anybody. Ok, everybody has their irrational fears...Chip thought the babies would be switched in the nursery and we would go home with the wrong one. No explanations, no apologies. It also seemed confusing to call everybody aunt and uncle and a little disrespectful to the few and the proud, so I kept the list for our kids exclusive to the Webster's Dictionary definitions.....except for one. Aunt Michele. She's my roommate from college and one of the inner circle of about seven women unrelated to me that I'd consider giving a kidney.



We are common-law marrieds, soul mates, inextricably-intertwined (you can google this phrase, it's legal) for 28 years. Possibly bordering on Kay and Flo, those Dick-Clark-loving autistic twins on the Discovery Health Channel. I could tell you stories, only they would bore you because you experienced all the same things with your own Aunt Michele back in the day. But the reality is most people lose touch with their aunt micheles and that's a damn shame. Nothing like an old friend to keep you honest and give you a place on earth to be your authentic authentic self. Not the poetic one Dr. Phil talks about but the warty, farty one that worries about creepers molesting kids that were forced to call non-related adults, "uncle". Aunt Michele accepts my quirks with an "Alrighty then." and moves on. I hide nothing from her and that's likely a byproduct of peeing with the door open for three years. Hey, we were always busy so when one of us was sitting for the moment, it was the ideal time to check in.

Can you get back in touch with your own Aunt Michele? Sure you can. Facebook has made this person accessible to you again. My Aunt Michele isn't on Facebook so it's a gamble, but maybe one worth exploring.

Evil therapist noted these long standing relationships as an unusual (I heard strange) priority in one's present life. Well, it may be rare but when I see our kids together, I know my priorities are in order and evil therapist is wrong. The past seven years we've been busy raising our families and we don't talk everyday anymore, but her cell phone number is burned in my brain and I know she's out there to catch me if I fall as she's done thousands of times before.



Classic Philly heat today. Mid 90s and high high humidity. Even the weather is welcoming me back.