Her cousin John married my little sister on Friday.
Curiously, though John's mentioned his cousin Katie, and though this family bears the delightful, terminally British name 'Pilkington,' I made zero connection until Friday.
I was chatting with John's dad about grad school (where I am currently) and the state of American education in general, and he brought up his "brilliant niece" ( ), who wisely triple majored in a quite diverse range of subjects, thus making her a very effective tech writer, and who now also is becoming involved in grad school in the "Dallas area."
I also briefly exchanged cordialities with her father, and stood next to him in the group picture.
So, I suppose now we're cousins-in-law or something, and I'm secondhandedly real (though I've also met Novak, but neither of us realized it at the time).
Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
Wait, who are you? Cause I'm sitting here with a confused look on my face, recalling 4 MattB's that I happen to know in real life.
[ June 21, 2004, 12:39 AM: Message edited by: T_Smith ]
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I'll go ahead and share that I have learned that I am related to A Rat Named Dog. We are third or fourth cousins -- far enough apart that only mormons would bother knowing.
Anyway, *I* think it's neat.
[ June 21, 2004, 01:14 AM: Message edited by: mr_porteiro_head ]
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Mormons aren't the only people that keep track of distant cousins.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
But distant cousins that you have never met?
But yeah, you are right. I apologize.
[ June 21, 2004, 01:14 AM: Message edited by: mr_porteiro_head ]
Posted by Wetchik (Member # 3609) on :
Heh, I haven't seen any but on of my cousins in over 10 years.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote: But distant cousins that you have never met?
*nodnod*
Yup, the cousin-some-number-times-removed who is an architect made a whole family tree on drafting paper (cuz it's the only thing big enough). My mom has a copy (on many many sheets of regular paper), although it is now 20 years out of date.
One of the cool things I plan to do in Chicago after Kamacon is meet some cousins (third? fourth?) I never have before. My mom has, my brother has, and they're first cousins to some friends of mine from high school.
And now I'll get to meet them too.
And last year, when I went to Israel for my brother's wedding, my uncle kept bringing another and another and another distant cousin that my mom and I had not met before. Was fun!
Then there's the former classmate whose family traces back to a certain well-known (in Jewish circles, at least) person. My family traces back to his older brother. We get a kick out of telling people who have known both of us for years that we are cousins (and that was even before her brother married a third cousin of mine).
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
No way!!!! You're Amy Bowman's older brother? That's awesome!! How was the wedding? I heard they didn't have a reception. I got something for them off the registry at Target - kitchen tools, I think.
There are now two Amy Pilkingtons - my middle brother is the same age as John and he also married an Amy. That's pretty wild.
*grin* Yeah, have I mentioned how my uncle thinks I'm cool? They are so neat. Have you seen Uncle Van do his impressions yet? He's a musician too. Very fun.
quote:who wisely triple majored in a quite diverse range of subjects
*nods solemnly* Oh yes, of course. Did that on purpose, I did. I certainly meant to make myself know a little bit of everything. No, of course I didn't just keep taking classes and adding minors as long as they'd let me so I could stay in school, why do you ask?
Congratulations on the family wedding. I have a cousin here!
Cool.
[ June 21, 2004, 12:21 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Haven't they been dating for practically a decade by now? We've been practically related for a really long time.
And now I need to go and see about switching programs to the one I want. My uncle has such a good opinion of me - I'm feeling guilty. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
::instinctively likes kat's uncle::
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
*agrees with Noem*
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Yeah, he's cool. I'm doing some work for him this summer.
This is still flabbergasting for me. It's like When Worlds Collide. Holy cow.
[ June 21, 2004, 12:00 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]
Posted by MattB (Member # 1116) on :
Heh. The reception/dinner deal was a lot of fun, the highlight being John and his mom Betsy swing dancing at a speed probably unsafe for normal humans.
Somehow my mother convinced the Salt Lake City library to let them do the thing there. If you've ever seen the library, you know how stunning the building is - five stories tall, with an atrium whose ceiling goes all the way up with the west wall entirely glass. That's where we set up the tables. There's also a long winding staircase that they naturally had to walk down at one point.
Heck, they even borrowed my friend Randy's Vespa to make an exit on. Quite a night.
I believe the two met in their junior years of high school; they're both now twenty-three, so yeah, it's been a while. Apparently, he came back from his mission "weird," as Amy described it, and took a year or so to re-normalize, as is often, I understand, the case.
Nate, you probably have no idea who I am, given that I've been posting about four times a year recently. I placed your request for _Atlas Shrugged_ at the library about a year ago. You returned it late. Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
You mormons are creepy, all knowing each other and stuff. ::shudder::
Ni!
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I'll bet the swing dancing was awesome to watch. Sounds like a great wedding - I'm very glad.
Did any of my brothers go? Do you know?
I feel this somehow legitimizes me. Yes, I'm telling the truth about who I am. We have outside collaboration! Turns out I DO live in Dallas!
While it goes quite far in establishing the probability that MattB is real (all the details seem to be correct, although I'm suspicious about the Vespa bit ), I'm afraid it takes actually meeting two Hatrackers in person to remove all doubt. This just means you need to go to Amka's next LAN party to establish true realness.
--
Becky, no kidding. I met someone recently and mentioned that I had a brother on a mission in Mexico. "Really, what mission? My parents are headed to Mexico City next week to be mission presidents."
That's right - my new friend's parents are going to be my baby brother's mission presidents. A hush fell over the field, the wind whistled and a spooky cello played. It's just crazy.
[ June 21, 2004, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
Wow!! This is too cool...
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
agrees with kwsni.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
This thread title has fun implications now and will work even better after August 5th! We should bump it every 6 hours for the next 5 months. *runs away*
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Narnia, you're funny.
Did I mention, Matt, that if you make Katie cry other-than-happy tears, I'm gonna round up a Hatrack posse and we're gonna hurt you?
Just wanted to make that clear. Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
This thread is uber-sweet.
quote: While it goes quite far in establishing the probability that MattB is real (all the details seem to be correct, although I'm suspicious about the Vespa bit ), I'm afraid it takes actually meeting two Hatrackers in person to remove all doubt.
Guess the suspicions have disappeared. Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Yup. He met a group of us at a pancake house in SLC.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
), who wisely triple majored in a quite diverse range of subjects, thus making her a very effective tech writer, and who now also is becoming involved in grad school in the "Dallas area."![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)