August 30, 2008

The Meaning of a Name

After a long first week of school for all of us, we decided to grab a quick dinner at Friendly’s. We waited too long. Lil C was tired and beyond hungry. When she’s tired, look out. She has violent tendencies. She’ll pinch you and laugh while she does it. She gets whiny and miserable. Unfortunately, I’m always the one who has to sit beside her in the booth.

While trying to ignore the whining, Big I was telling us about her day at school. Her teacher had been paging through a book of names and telling them what their names mean. She went around the classroom and told Big I that her name means, "belongs to God." Although we knew the meaning of her name when we chose it, we didn’t know that we were giving her a very appropriate name for her personality. She is an angel, a total sweetheart. She also had that whole saintly experience last year. It was pretty amazing to us. She then went on to tell us that her teacher said that her own name means, "one who will never be married." Mr. BBM and I cracked up laughing. Clearly, the 2nd graders don’t get her humor. She’s an older single woman and she’s a riot.

At some point in the conversation, Big I asked us what Lil C’s name means. I laughed for a moment and then said, "Her name means prophetess of doom’." Big I almost spit her milk out her nose. Through her laughter she said, "What does that mean?"

"Well, it means ‘one who fortells or predicts bad things will happen." Big I threw her head back so hard from laughing that she smacked her head on the booth. Mr. BBM was laughing equally hard. It was contagious, so I was cracking up laughing too while Lil C sat there looking serious, perhaps as if she were about to predict doom.

We didn’t know it at the time, but we picked a near perfect name for Lil C as well. She is the little devil to Big I’s angel. She can predict doom because she’s usually the one causing it. The other night, she covered herself head to toe in baby powder, leaving little powder footprints all over the carpet upstairs and making herself look like a ghost. Two days before that, she ventured into my Mom’s room and loaded the toilet with toilet paper. She’s always finding a way to get into trouble.

Last night, as my parents were packing up to go on vacation, Lil C looked right at my Mom and said, "You’re going to die at the beach." I told her that wasn’t nice and asked her why she said that and she matter-of-factly said, "Mom-Mom, you’re going to die at the beach." I strongly discouraged my parents from taking their ocean kayak along after she said that and my Mom got a little panicky. It was kind of creepy, but I figured that Big I, with her fascination for all things morbid (like the dead mouse on the street in front of our new home), put her up to it.

Later last night, as I was drafting my fantasy football team, I thought maybe Lil C meant that fortelling for me. With a draft pick five out of eight, I was concerned about my team. Plus, I did no pre-season studying like I usually do. I simply haven’t had time. So, here’s my team:

QB: Donovan McNabb
QB: Matt Schaub
RB: Brian Westbrook
RB: Marion Barber
RB: Lendale White
RB: Jerious Norwood
WR: Reggie Wayne
WR: TJ Houshmandzadeh
WR: Santonio Holmes
WR: Nate Burleson
WR: Chris Chambers
TE: Kellen Winslow
TE: Ben Watson
D/ST: Chargers
K: Nick Folk

With the exception of Kellen Winslow, I don’t have a single player I had last year. Maybe this spells fantasy victory? I’ll have to see what my little prophetess of doom thinks.

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