My siblings and I, numbered 1 to 12, oldest to youngest:

1 of 12. (brother) The family alpha male. Always takes charge whenever there is a family get together. A partner in a top 100 law firm. Dude with the most testosterone. When he was three he got out of my mother's sight for a few minutes and climbed into a pen with a sign on it that said 'Beware! Vicious Dogs' When my mother spotted him he was wrestling with the dogs and laughing.

2 of 12. My big sister. Class valedictorian, class president, head cheerleader. Married the quarterback from another local school. Two daughters, two cats, a dog, and a house in the suburbs. She works about 30 hours a week at a job she is way overqualified for and will never be fired from. Just happy to raise her children, be a wife, do the PTA thing, and go to church. When one of her cats died she dreamed that they had buried it alive, so the next morning she called the Vet and asked them to check. 2 of 12 is the person I am most likely to call if I need personal advice.

3 of 12 (brother) Disabled. Works part time and has a lot of other disabled friends he hangs out with. Plays sports, collects music, and works a little bit. Probably the best looking male in the family.

4 of 12. (sister) When I was young she used to be my best friend. She dropped out of college after two years and never got her life back on track afterwards. Worked as a manager at a fast food place, then as a bank teller. Tried to pursue a career as a writer and when it became apparent that wasn't working out, became a radical antiabortion activist. After being arrested a few times and spending a couple of months in jail, she decided to become a nun. After a couple of years, the nuns kicked her out for arguing too much. Then she came home, gained an enormous amount of weight, and has been doing pretty much nothing since then. I don't really have much to say to her anymore. I thought of the two of us I was more likely to end up in her shoes.

5 of 12. That would be me. Tall (at least for my family), introverted, geeky. Reasonably intelligent but not the brightest wit in the family. In addition to being my grandfather's reincarnation, I was born with a piece of my placenta hanging covering my face, which my mother tells me is the sign of a prophet.

6 of 12. (brother) Least academically gifted. Works as a librarian. Had a failed career as a radio announcer. Sings in his church choir, falls in and out of love at least two times a year. Quirky and creative but not very focused. Composed family songs "Sitting on the Farm Waiting for Someone to Love" and "Don't Build a Building on My Landscape." that are played every year at Christmas. The original Captain Mysterioso Lunchbox.

7 of 12. (brother) The boy who could do anything. Gifted academically, physically, and musically. Class salutatorian, (lost valedictorian to the kid with the photographic memory), Physics Ph.D.. Works for Intel and plays bass guitar in a band in Portland, OR. Very distant from the rest of the family. He got married for the second time last May and only let the rest of the family know a month later. We still haven't met his wife.

8 of 12. (brother) Ph.D. in biophysics. Now working on an MBA. Married twice. Two children. Can be very charismatic at times, but has a few problems that prevent him succeeding at anything for too long. Published his own Science Fiction magazine for a few issues. Got Greg Benford and Ursula K. LeGuin to contribute. Then his first marriage went down the toilet and so did the magazine. A few years ago I got in a fist fight with him and broke my mother's kitchen table.

9 of 12. (sister) The nun. Class salutatorian. Looks a lot like me, but at five feet even is at the opposite end of the height range in the family. Very prim, proper and organized. Worked as a librarian for a while after finishing a Masters in Chinese and then decided that she wanted to join a convent. With her organization and work ethic she'll probably end up a mother superior.

10 of 12. (sister) Engaged to the Arabic guy, works in the pharmaceutical industry. Not the brightest by a long shot, but on her way to making a big success out of her life. Which is especially amazing because she has suffered through a lot of adversity (which I won't ever explain in this journal) I used to dislike her but now we get along. Likes to run marathons.

11 of 12. (sister). The family communist. Does not shave her legs or and wears funny clothes. Works as a social worker in Portland, Oregon. Feisty, very likable wench. A few years ago she was engaged to a really nice guy that everyone in the family liked, and we figured that it was it for her. Then she dumped him. "Too clingy. He was dragging me down."

12 of 12. (brother) Another salutatorian. Very intelligent and everybody's buddy. After graduating from college summa cum laude he got a masters in music theory using the heavy metal band, "Black Sabbath" as the basis for his thesis. Now he's working on his Ph.D.

Not too bad for the kids of a very poor factory worker. One high school valedictorian, four salutatorians. Nine college graduates. Two lawyers. Two Ph.D.'s with one in the works. Three master's degrees. There are fourteen and 1/2 years separating oldest from youngest. No twins. Mom was pregnant nine years of her life.

We were one of the poorer families in the area. We did always have enough food, even if it was mostly pasta and powdered milk. For clothes it was hand me downs and trips to the Salvation Army. We got one Christmas present each and one birthday present. Once I got twenty five dollars total for birthday money from Aunts and Uncles, but after it sat around for a few weeks because I couldn't figure out what to spend that much money on, my father spent it on food. The house was uninsulated and very cold in the winters, but we stayed in the same place. In fact, with twelve of us, trips were pretty much impossible anyway. We were the family that other folks in the neighborhood would raise donations for around Christmas, which was always a bit embarrassing. It wasn't complete poverty by most standards but things were pretty tight. And I'm proud of how well we've done for the most part.