In our family of animals we speak of "running the gauntlet" when one of our womenfolk is forced to introduce a male friend into the pack of females. The gal invariably resists, makes excuses and then tries to run for the hills until the guy punches through the resistance and ends up in the hornets nest of the Madonia Matriarchs. All hell breaks loose but after plying the males with food and drink the deer-in-the-headlight look subsides and they get into the groove of what it takes to hang in this feline family. As Soren said after an entire weekend ensnared in the Madonia web, "It's smooth sailing now..."
A younger female in the clan has finally graduated out of the total mess of what we still call a "high school education" without too many scars and to celebrate we tried to wrangle as many kinfolk as we could to hang out at mama bird's house without coming to fist-a-cuffs or experiencing a full blown Italian shouting match over some inadvertent petty insult. In fact, it all came together- a surprise visitor from the west coast appeared and a variety of siblings and odd friends all collided for a pretty damn good weekend...in my opinion. And I have a LOT of opinions.
(We whiled away the weekend in harmony by driving to St. George Island and Wakulla Springs, catching some local music, and sharing meals...Slideshow not loading today but I will figure it out somehow soon...))
