Perhaps I should explain. The thing is, my family is not exactly the 2.3 child atomic family. My mother is the strangest person I have ever met. Every month or so she discovers a new obsession- this time it’s yoga and “calming affirmations”- and sticks to whatever regimen or religion she’s picked out of the whirling chaos that is her head. At least for a while- in a month or so it’ll be kickboxing, or charity, or Buddhism. She works as a cooking instructor- food is the only constant in her life. Even though right now we’ve been eating nothing but curry at home, I know she could whip out a perfect lobster or Baked Alaska if she were in the “mood”.

My mom and dad met as recent divorcees at a resort trying to drown their sorrow in bikinis and alcohol, and realized they had a lot in common- the divorcee status, the children… My dad had Annemarie and my mother was the proud parent of Christian. They got married while my mom was already pregnant with Ember and I- though, at that time, she was still called Amber.