Bad days can have unexpected surprises (01/29/07)

Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed but occasionally a day that starts out bad can hold unexpected surprises.

I woke up the other day and was absolutely miserable. A hot bath didn't help. I sat on the couch waiting to die and wondering if I should call in sick. I finally decided the cat wouldn't appreciate my messing up her schedule like that so I got dressed and walked across the parking lot to work. The cat was relieved to have the house to herself.

The cold air felt good and I decided there was a remote possibility that I would eventually feel better. Then I stepped in a snowdrift and snow went down my socks. Marvelous.

It was my day to be paper girl and as luck would have it the pressmen were having a much worse day than I was. I had skipped lunch so I could do part of the paper route at lunch and I was getting hungry. The pretzels from the munchie machine didn't help much. The newspapers finally consented to be printed late in the afternoon and I took off to deliver. I wimped out and did the businesses and the out of the way houses by car but most of it was done on foot.

I silently blessed each and every house that had a clean sidewalk and resolved to come back later and clean off the treacherous ice-covered ones. I never made it. As the cold reddened my cheeks and the exercise made me regret the extra sweater, I realized that I was feeling pretty good.

Then I saw two little girls playing in the snow. They were gathering snow into miniature mountains and placing hats on top of each one. Then they draped themselves over a pile of snow at the end of a driveway and giggled as only little girls can. One child picked up a chunk of snow-covered ice and placed it on her head. She wore it like a tiara for about three steps before it slid off her pink hood. They were soon called in to the warmth of the house and they protested that they had just come outside.

It warmed my heart to see that children can still play with simple things and I was very grateful that they hadn't pelted me with snowballs.

After I got home I settled down with a cup of hot chocolate to check the e-mail. There was another treat. A distant relative had sent me a link to her family tree and I found a whole new bunch of relatives. I discovered that the reason I couldn't find my great-grandmother, Eva, was because her first name was Sarah!

I remember Eva from when I was very small. She was old and frail and my mom would go over to her house to help take care of her. Eva would always ask me my name and I would reply, "Diana." Then Eva would say that no, my name was Freddy. That my mom had given birth to twins and that she had thrown Diana in the ocean and I was really Freddy.

I remember this would upset me to no end as I proclaimed that I was Diana not Freddy. Since she died when I was around four years old it never occurred to me that she didn't know what she was talking about, or that my mom had never seen an ocean, let alone thrown a baby into one. In Eva's defense I probably did look more like a boy than a girl. According to the family tree I was sent, Eva gave birth to twins at one time but neither of them lived. So maybe she was confusing me with them, although I'm still trying to figure out the ocean part of the story.

I fixed a nutritious, if smelly, dinner (I fried fish) and settled down to find out who else I was related to. I saw people from France, Germany and a whole bunch from England listed as ancestors. I wondered how many days they had that started out awful and ended up happy.

I'm looking forward to delving into this treasure trove that was sent to me. Plus I have a new relative that shares my interest in the past and a cat that was glad I went to work. Also be careful what you tell small children as sometimes that is how they will remember you.[[In-content Ad]]