Cuz

I have 2 cousins in Israel with whom I don't keep in contact. In the US I have 2 cousins who are half-brothers of each other, a step-cousin (half-brother to one of the previous cousins), and my mom's cousin who is the same age as one of the half-brother cousins, so I call him my cousin. Doesn't matter. Let's say I have 3 blood cousins who live close by. One of them is 16 and has a pretty serious case of Tourette Syndrome. He's the coolest kid and I love him to death, but the family marginalizes him due to his illness. My grandparents, who are also his grandparents, hate him and yell at him all the time. His own parents don't know what to do with him and until too recently were in denial about the whole thing. They took him to Russian voodoo women instead of a licensed medical and/or psychiatric doctor. The other cousins taunt him for his weight, his interests, anything and everything. I try my best to keep in contact with him and support him.

My other cousin looks Mexican but is, of course, a Russian Jew. Mexicans have asked me if he's Mexican. He's one of Tourette cousin's half-brothers and has a shaved head, giant cz earrings, pants hanging down under his butt, high all the time. He's in his late 30s and a couple years back discovered that he has a daughter. She's an adorable half Russian Jew, half Mexican 6 year old. He tries to take care of her, he really really does, but her mom raised her superbly for the first 4 years of her life and maybe it's better that way.

The third cousin (mom's cousin) was the one who brought his then-stripper girlfriend to my birthday party a few years back. He's also in his late 30s or early 40s and he and Mexican-looking cousin used to go out clubbing and partying all the time until the latter started taking care of his daughter. We just found out that he is getting married to a 25 year old (I'm 26) who he knocked up. Best of luck to them! I can't wait for the wedding...