My brother and I are out getting some ice cream and I realize this girl in the shop looks strangely familiar. I look at her. She glares at me. I look back. She furrows her brows.

"Excuse me," I say, "but do I know you from somewhere..."
She lets out a small exasperated huff and says "Yeah. Its me, your cousin Valerie!"
Oh.
As we're leaving my brother scratches his head and says "Yeah, I thought she looked familiar too..."

...

At last count, I think I have 34 first cousins. But, because of the way in which the family is distributed, there are second-cousins I feel closer to than some first cousins and so my family feels even larger than that. I only have one sibling, my younger brother. When my mother stopped at only two kids, she tells me that relatives wondered aloud if something was wrong, if something was the matter.