The Triad

I mention the The Triad on this blog sometimes, so I figured that I needed to define The Triad. No, it's not a cult (although my husband might disagree with you). It's not a self help group (although it does kind of serve as one).

The Triad consists of me and my two older sisters. Triad #1 is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met, and the older I get, the more I realize how alike we are. She is married to a great guy, S, who I've known since I was nine and remembers me back when I had a retainer and a bad perm. He also makes a mean home brew. Triad #2 is truly a hilarious person and the coolest soccer mom I know (and I mean that in the most complementary way possible). She is married to K, a Cabela's poster child who plays my favorite rendition of "Everything that Glitters is Not Gold" on the guitar. They have three munchkins I love dearly.

The older we get, the closer we get. They are the kind of sisters who would drop everything and fly halfway around the world if I needed them. I would do the same for them. It's family. They are my best friends, and when the three of us get together, the menfolk just end up occupying themselves, because they don't get most of our jokes anyway. We share an awesome bond that gets us through all kinds of fun shit that life throws our way.

My dear husband coined the phrase, "The Triad". See, at Christmas time, we always play some sort of board game, like Scattergories or Taboo. Taboo is a game where you pick a card and your team members have to guess the topic on the card. But there is a list of words on the card that you can't use to describe the topic. For example, you can't describe the word "ice" with the words, "cold", "wet", "igloo", "frozen" etc. So the first round might go something like this:

I look at my card. "Okay, this is so funny. (I laugh for a moment at the upcoming inside joke. Then laugh some more.) Then finally, "They grow on trees, and-"

The Triad, in unison: "Picantes!"

(As in, the stuff that makes Picante Sauce. Yes, there's a story there. Picantes grow on trees - you didn't know?)

Hubby: "That's not fair! Like we can compete with The Triad."

And thus, the term The Triad was born. That's also why the boys won't play Taboo with us anymore.