I was feeling down the other day when we got a notice that a Cousin of mine got married. First it looked like a wedding invitation, but having never contacted me before in his entire life, we obviously didn't rate an invitation to the wedding. And yet they had the nerve to send an after-the-fact announcement with a separate gift registry page. So we aren't good enough to ever talk to or invite, but you want gifts from us? That's some bullcrap right there.

I was thinking of swallowing my pride and trying to get in touch with him anyway when I saw they were married in the Hamptons. This seemed odd, since they live in Texas. I wondered if her side of the family were rich; maybe we'd could some good networking out of them. I also have a Disney World vacation villa reservation that I need to sell, but don't know anyone rich enough to buy it. But I found out it was just a place they'd heard about, the family didn't live there.

Then I thought of this other cousin who rooked my single uncle into co-signing her student loan, then defaulted on it so they came after him and threatened to take his house, making him literally sick with worry. She had used the money to spend 2 years in France. Hey, I always wanted to go study in France for a while or even just see Europe, but of course being a responsible person I could never afford to do it.

It's hard to find readers for your blog when you can't tell your "natural readership" -- friends and family -- about it. That's the only way I can feel free to write about my evil cousins etc. Also I am still keeping hubby's job loss secret because our family does not have any contacts that could help him network his way to a new job, so why worry them unecessarily? Not to mention some people just feed on other people's misfortunes. I only want to tell people who will think good thoughts.

How did that girl who ruined her own finances through overspending get people to visit her web site and pay her money? How did she get the press to drive traffic to her site? If I put up a "tip jar," would anyone rally to the support of good, deserving people, or is it only the stinkers who manage to thrive?