The Aberash Family

I've had lots of friends throughout my life, and never a single best friend. Throughout all the friends that have come and gone throughout the years, though, there are some who have never faded - my family. We are the Aberash family. There are ten of us, all Christian artists, all but one in college, all but a few from homes so broken that Aberash is the closest family we have...and most better-looking than the average bear. We've slowly gathered over the past eight years. We met at church, with a few of us at a time being tossed into a small group, then a few small groups sharing a house. The church encouraged us when we slowly fused into one group, and began moving as a unit, taking up the front quarter of the seating at the high school service every Sunday and piling a dozen people into a booth at a local restaurant, then Kevin's SUV in the days when he was the only one old enough to drive.1

As time passed and regime changes at church wounded hearts and sensibilities, our relationship faded from one based strongly at church to one existing mostly outside of it. Once we could all drive and meet at our leisure, extraneous people fell away, more people were picked up, and Aberash was slowly formed. We've been together through the thickest and the very thinnest, and have been forged by fire. I truly believe that this family was my destiny just as much as that which I was born into. Let me give you an introduction, by gender, then in alphabetical order:2

JORDAN is a musician (guitar, drums, piano) and a Chemistry major, and is Kevin's roommate. He's quirky, devistatingly attractive, and a magician! (He's going to start doing birthday parties for little kids soon.) He just turned 20. 3

KEVIN is also 20. I had a massive crush on him for, like, three years, but I'm well over it now. He's a music composition major, and regularly composes large pieces for multiple pianos and/or marimbes(sp?). He's the most physcially affectionate man I've ever met, and he's a great snuggler. He plays percission and piano. He recently bought a disgusting, salmon-coloured porcelain bird.4

NICK is 18 - his birthday falls late. He's a guitar player and former model/actor, and engaged to his girlfriend. He's an engineering major and a member of an engineering fraternity, but he isn't as geeky as you'd think.5

PARKER is 19, turning 20 soon. He's a film major, and will be making movies someday. He's also an AMAZING musician - he writes and records his own music, and he's fabulous at it. (Very folksy, and a bit like Bright Eyes if Connor Oberst could sing.) He's also an actor, like myself, except he's much better at improvisation - he made it into his school's elitist improv troupe as a first semester freshman. Many of us think he's me, with a penis.6

WES was initiated into our family a few weeks ago. He's 14, but the boys have taken him under their wings. (He's Kenzi's brother.) When we met him, we all thought he'd grow up to be a good man, and now that he has four amazing men to mentor him, we know he will be. 7

JESSICA is 18. She's at University with me, and she's Nicole's roommate. She's a pretty blonde dating another pretty blonde (they look like an Abercrombie ad) with a deep, deep love for children. She's going to school to be an English teacher, but she's a really amazing writer. (Not on sw, unfortunately.) She's also a visual artist, and tried to play the guitar for, like, ten minutes. (She does that.) I've known her the longest.8

KENZI is the youngest of the "old ones" at 17. She's still in high school, but she'll be rooming with me next year. She was a competitive ice skater, then cheerleader for forever, but noow she's a salon receptionist with a lot of spunk. She's a visual artist, is learning to play piano, and is going to get into musical theatre with me next year.9

KYRA is 19, another pretty blonde. She's a hostess, and a poet, though she tries to hide her stuff. She's absolutely insane - once, she jumped over/through a bonfire. Of course, we were, like fourteen. She's going to a community college right now, dating the love of her life, and headed to be a nurse before long.10

LUSIE (me!) is 18. She's a theatre arts major, and did theatre in high school, too. She's actually pretty good at it. She can't actually play anything - she has wee little hands - but she sings okay. She has a very strange sense of humour, and has a thing for puns.11

NICOLE is also 19. She's Italian, and quite possibly a ninja. She's a Psychology major, but she's done EVERYTHING at some point in her life - concert pianist, played field hockey for forever, proficient in numchucks. It's kind of ridiculous. She's very, very quiet, and tells awful stories.12

So, that's my family. We're scattered across the Southeast for school, but whenever we can, we get together to play music, improvisation games, and musical improvisation games, like this:13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSCajLtAltE14