My parents were married on October 6, 1973. They met while my dad was playing hockey in Milton, Ontario. They came from such different places - my mother immigrated to Canada from Italy when she was 4 & my dad is from a small town in northern Ontario. My mom has always held a steady job our whole lives, while my dad is an entrepreneurial spirit who has never really held a steady job & always strived to give his family more.
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| My parents & Derek - so much suede happening Thanks google images! |
I was the youngest of 3 kids and we could not have been any different from each other. My oldest brother Derek is 9 years older than me and he is "the smart one". He was a professional student for many years, until finding his groove as a film editor. He is an avid movie buff, a fantastic cook, and one of the funniest people I know. My second brother David is 5 years older than me and he was "the jock". He was a natural born athlete, excelling at hockey, baseball & golf and is also up there as one of the funniest people I know. He now welds for a living & has created the love of my life (aside from hubby), my niece Ava.
On the whole, we have a 'normal' family life. We are very close, we get together for dinner's on the regular, and sometimes we fight. That is normal right?
Since everyone knows OCD and anxiety are genetic, you have to assume that it is not just me who has a few screws loose when it comes to mental health issues in my family...and you would be right. I am probably the one who suffers from the most issues, but I also think I am the only one who really is comfortable accepting and being open with all my crazies.
We have VERY addictive personalities. We love what we love, and we can't get enough of it. We all share one similar addiction/obsession but i'll get to that at the end.
I will start with my dad. My dad used to be an alcoholic, thankfully I am too young to remember since he has been sober now for 25 years. Alcoholism is a root of OCD & anxiety, and as much as I think I take after my mom, I know the root of it likely comes to from my dad's side. I have 2 cousins on his side that also suffer from anxiety and there is a long history of addiction issues with his family. After he kicked the booze, my dad found a new addiction in Pepsi. I can recall as a child the side table by my dads chair having about 20 cans on it from that day of pepsi drinking (yes he has diabetes now).
My mom suffers from similar OCD & anxieties that I suffer from, and a lot of my habits have been picked up from her. I haven't spoken about a lot of them yet (coming up in weekend reveals), but on top of the ones I share with her, my mom is also an obsessive cleaner, and a closet hoarder.
Derek is by far the least 'crazy' of us all. He isn't very obsessive about anything(except the family obsession), he has an impeccable memory for dates, which I think is a bit of a branch of OCD, but nothing major. As a teenager he did have all his VHS taped movies categorized, numbered and then a separate book that would index them, but otherwise there isn't much crazy when it comes to him.
David I think is the most closeted crazy in our family. He is a total neat freak, which blows my mind considering how he was growing up. Now, he has a cleaning schedule, like "fridays at 4pm I clean the baseboards". I don't know if he recognizes it but he is obsessed with routine, schedules & timing. He grocery shops the same time every week, if a BBQ is at 4, he shows up at 2:30 and then texts you every 10 minutes until you are there...at 4. He also is a pantry-loader & a label facer. The first time I walked in their cold cellar, I was stunned by the organization & quantities, and his wife confirming it was him that did this.
We all have our little bits of OCD & anxieties that make us who we are but ....
There is the family addiction...our obsession and weakness that plagues us all.
F O O D
I can honestly say we are all addicted to food. I am not exaggerating, it is a constant obsession - when eating, we have no shut off, we eat and eat and eat, until we are ready to explode and we love every single minute of it. When we aren't eating, we are thinking about eating. Food is what we do.
I honestly wish I could remember more about food growing up, but I do know there was never a limit. I know I have always loved it and always eaten beyond my means. My mom being from Italy where they came from very little, has always had that European mentality of "EAT EAT", and it is one of the outlets for her to show love and feel like she is taking care of us.
You would think my family would be all 300+ pounds. We all struggle with our weight, some more than others. I was always fat, and only in the last 5 years have had successes with controlling my weight and being a normal size. My dad is overweight, like unhealthy overweight, and has no self control EVER with food. My mom has always been the healthier of the bunch but she struggles also. Derek was always just a big guy, he is very tall and was always thick. In the last year, he has dropped almost 40lbs and looks incredible. David then takes the cake (no pun intended) for the worst eater. He is an absolute food-aholic. I cannot even begin to give you guys a picture of what he is capable of eating. He is the most yo-yo with his weight, but generally resides on the overweight side of the spectrum.
At any given family event, we will have a pasta dish, pizza, potatoes, 2-3 different kinds of meat, potatoe or pasta salad, and then a minimum of 3 different kinds of desserts. It still never ceases to amaze hubby how much my family can eat. We all have a love affair with food, and I could write all day about food and the effect it has on our family. I am in a happy place just thinking of eating.
Some of the greatest family memories are from the last 5 years when we have all moved out, and come back and laughed around my parents table, stuffing our faces and leaving wanting to puke.
We all may be a little bit crazy, but at least we are not alone.
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