I thought about writing a long post about Christmas. But no such luck for you guys; laziness won out. You will have to be content with a short random post about work and wait longer to hear about the interesting things we did in Georgia.

I have come up with a mind game to fill up free thought time as I ring up orders on my register. After taking each order I have to ask the customer to give me their first name so they can be paged when their order is ready. So I think about names. The number of different names I get is surprisingly low and most are very common. Sometimes I get Kates and Katies, sometimes there are several Eric's or Ryans, sometimes people spell their names for you, and often I have to get people to repeat to make sure it was really Joan and not Jane. One older lady named Polly and I have a happy little connection going on because I told her I loved her name and thought I might name one of my own children that someday. Today I got two women with guys names- Danny was one, can't remember the other.
Anyway, my mental game is very simple: everything I type in a name I think of a person I know with that name. Surprisingly, there are few times when I can't do that! Paul, Diane, Joan, Ryan, Mary, Terry, Katie, Margaret, Bob, Tom, Connie, and on and on.... I feel so rich! How many people have such a wide circle of friends, family, acquaintances, and distant far-off cousins? Today I suddenly realized that I didn't have to stop with thinking warm, fuzzy thoughts about them- I could pray for them! I can pray for the "Jan" standing in front of me, and I can pray for the Jan I know who lives next door to me. Cool!


change of subject


Speaking of distant far-off cousins, we just found one! My father's father was the youngest of three sons- his brothers were ten and twenty years older than he. They were not devoted Christians, and in fact the oldest, George is usually described as "George, the horrible man,..." He was an alchoholic and not a really pleasant person. But he did have one advantage over the others: every member of Grandpa's family tends to drop dead of heart-attacks before their time. George beat that particular gene by pickling his insides with liquor. One of Daddy's sisters actually asked her doctor what she could do to keep her heart healthy and he suggested following in the footsteps of good 'ole uncle George (and I kid you not). So if any of you find beer bottles stashed in the back of fridge, please remember why they are there. :-)

ANYWAY... getting back to the point... Due to religious and other differences, Grandpa didn't keep in close contact with his brothers, and didn't talk about them much to his children. For years now my aunts have been poking about in the dark corners of the internet, looking for cousins. This Christmas we found one!!! His name is William (my last name) and he is the son of the infamous George! That makes him Daddy's first cousin and my first cousin once removed! As soon as I found out I was so excited! I didn't realize I would feel so interested but it is different now that there is actually a flesh and blood relative. What if he looks like us? Does he sound like us? Walk like us? Is he a Christian? Does he have children? Etc. We do know that he was actually looking for us as well. We haven't e-mailed back yet, but are planning too- and maybe meet him sometime! Again, cool.

Okay, I want to read my book for awhile before bed. Goodnight.