Important fact #1--I have 3 sisters, 5 brothers, and two parents. If you add all of those people together, and me too, that's 11 people. 11.

Important fact #2--In the hierarchy of siblings (a.k.a. birth order) I rank number 8. So, if you do the math again (which you really don't have to do because I'm doing it for you) that means that of those 11 people, 9 of them are older than me, one of them is me, and one of them is younger than me.

Hi Seamore!

Important fact #3--Right at this moment, four of those 11 people live on the East Coast; two in Philadelphia, one in New Jersey, and one in Massachusetts. (Was my semi-colon usage correct in that last sentence?)

Important fact #4--Tomorrow morning, early-ish, I and my mother board a plane. We will get off of said plane in Philly sometime tomorrow afternoon. I will then spend 4 days with the East Coast Theoden family, and then return on Sunday.

Um. . .

I'm freaked out.

Shall I tell you why?

Oh, okay.

I've been surrounded by family from the beginning. (See important fact numbers 1 and 2.) I fell asleep to noise at night and I woke up to noise in the morning until I was in high school and the first awake.

Having lots of siblings is great for a lot of reasons.

I went to numerous parties that my older siblings hosted, and learned how to throw a party.

I have an uncanny ability to sleep through noise. It came in very handy in high school when the band teacher was doing sectionals and I was tired. It was easy to collapse on the floor of the band room and sleep through sectionals and have someone wake me up when we all needed to play. That was one of the definite advantages of playing percussion.

The fact that there are lots of people make for great family reunions. There are lots of friends for the cousins and everyone has a great time.

I have 8 built in friends. 10 if you count my parents. We were a tight-knit family that got along fairly well by the time I came along. The fact that I was 100 percent sure that my siblings and parents all adored me kept me unscathed in high school. I knew that no matter what happened with friends and teachers and crap like that, I had people that loved me.

This Jessica Andrews song? It's me, pretty much.



There is one disadvantage to having a gazillion siblings.

The first time I remember being home alone in my house was when I was 16. Running errands? Two to three people. Running around the neighborhood? Always people. I fell asleep to noise at night and I woke up to noise in the morning. I am extremely unaccustomed do doing things by myself.

This has manifested itself time and time again. Every time I move in to a new house I lay in my bed at night for days trying to accustom myself to the new house noises. It took me two to three years of marriage before I could go to the store by myself, especially at night. (I even had an argument about it with Faramir.) In the whole time I have been married, I have gone on one sort-of vacation by myself. (It was for Mary Kay, so it didn't include any sight-seeing, unless you count looking at a bunch of women in red jackets as sight-seeing.)

I am going on vacation. Without Faramir. Without my kids. With my mom. To big cities the likes of which I really haven't seen before (Philly and NYC). And I'm nervous. I am not used to doing things by myself.

This is hard.

I started panicking last night about the whole thing. Partially that panic is hormone induced, and partially that panic is induced by having sick kids and worrying about spreading our home-town diseases to the East Coast and hoping that my sick kid-lets will be alright in this insane flu season. But partially that panic was induced by thinking of pushing outside my little comfort zone.

It's not stopping me though.

And so, I shall take some Dramamine (I do not fly well) and get on plane tomorrow.

Wish me luck!!