Cast of Characters, Intro and Ard

I have an awesome family.  The outcome of this, of course, is that I have all of these stories about all these awesome people, and I prefer not to use real names on the internet if possible*.  So, I want to start a series where I talk about how awesome my family members are and tell you what made-up fake names I'll be calling them.  I'll try to make it entertaining.  If it's not, you have my official permission to skip those posts, for what it's worth (SPOILER: not a lot).


My fiancé is a middle child.  Specifically, he is the sixth child out of a group of ten siblings.  Everyone talks about how big his family is and how hectic holidays must be for his family, etc., etc.


I, on the other hand, have only one brother.  He's awesome, in part because of his absolute dedication to (a) math and (b) playing the cello.  He plays cello metal in a quartet of flexible membership**, and I am going to coerce him ask nicely if he and his quartet will play cello metal for my eventually-upcoming wedding.  He's the second from the left in the video below, or if you are challenged in right-and-left department like I am, he's the one with the brightest cello and the long curly blond hair (that he uses for headbanging while playing).

We call him Ard when we're teasing him.  I think this is suitably anonymous.


Everyone assumes this means I have a nice normal family in terms, at least in comparison to his family.  They are incredibly, incredibly wrong.  See, my mom is Sibling Number Nine (out of ten), and my father grew up with three younger brothers and a younger sister.  Most of these siblings grew up and had more children, so I have a giant family full of aunts and uncles and cousins that's going to get even bigger when we finally get married.


The best part about our future giant combined family? I love almost every single person in it (some of you, I haven't met, or met so long ago it doesn't count). I am truly blessed.


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*Employers don't need to know about your personal life, and many Google your real name.
**As in, there are seven or so high school/college students who all learn roughly the same music.  When they actually hold a practice or get a gig, around four of these show up.