Hey, Jealousy

I was "home" visiting my parents this past weekend+. I got to hear a little about their plans for visiting Joleen and Sunny. I'm so jealous!!!! I'm afraid to learn the details of what they're going to do, because I think it would make me cry. I'M THE ONE WHO'S WANTED TO GO TO AUSTRALIA SINCE 3RD GRADE, DAMMIT!!! *sigh* They'll be in Australia for a month or so, at which point Joleen and Sunny will be taking a vacation from work. So they'll be exploring Australia together. Going to Cairns, Scuba/snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef; Going to Alice Springs, near Uluru/Ayers Rock; I think they're going to Darwin, not sure what the draw of Darwin is; obviously they'll be in Sydney. Anyway, they have all sorts of cool things lined up. Then my parents will fly over to New Zealand for a few weeks. Bastards!!!

And I will be in the midst of grad school, learning all about information use and users.

Australia is kind of a scary place, what with all the animals there that can kill you. Seriously, it has an insane number of lethal animals--snakes, spiders, scary-ass sea creatures. Dingos. Boxing kangaroos. Koalas...they look cute, but I hear they're bitchy.

Which reminds me of that gigantic squid they found relatively recently. It's like, 45 feet long or something. EWWW. CREEPY. At least they're deep sea dwellers. Oh, I just found this "map" of where they seem to dwell, based on recovered specimens. I hate how they all congregate along shore line. Stay away! You're deep-sea based! Shouldn't you be in the middle of the fucking ocean, or something?!? Crikey, look at all the dots around New Zealand. :/ And Florida?? Actually, they appear to be forming some sort of plan to surround North America...I think they're out to get me! Apparently they're not into India or SE Asia.



So the "Most Popular Baby Names" list for 2007 came out. Guess which name sits atop #1, yet again? Emily. It's been the #1 name for girls since 1996. That's 12 straight years of reigning supreme. It's weird, because I always thought that Emily was a popular name for people my age...I knew a decent number of them. But when I looked up popular names from 1981/82, Emily doesn't even make the top 25. I don't think it cracks into the top 25 until like, 1988 or something. I guess Jacob is the #1 name for boys, and it's been #1 for 9 years or something. I don't like the name Jacob. Jake is fine, but Jacob bothers me.

#4 for girls is Ava. Two of my cousins are preggers (Becky and Katie). They're due within a month of each other (late Aug/early Sept). Katie knows she's having a girl, and they decided to name her Ava Lynn (Lynn is Katie's middle name...and her mom's middle name). Apparently, Becky has also decided to name her kid Ava if it's a girl (they're doing the whole "let's have it be a surprise" thing). There's some drama going around because of that.

You know, Kudos to Katie and Nick (her hubby). I find it a breath of fresh air that someone decided to 1) Find out beforehand if it's a girl or a boy, and 2) Tell people what you're going to name it. It seems that everyone wants to be "surprised" about the sex of their kid (how surprised can you be? It's gonna be one of two options...hopefully...), and the trend seems to be to keep possible names secret from everyone until the kid's born. I just find that annoying. Personally. I guess some people say, "We have a few names in mind, but we're going to wait until it's born to decide..."Yes, this grotesquely covered ugly newborn looks SO much more like a Jenny than an Isabel!" Whatev.

Sarah, regarding social security numbers: The last 4 digits would have nothing to do with your family...it's pretty much a random number. The middle 2 numbers also wouldn't have any connection to a sibling or family member. The first 3 are based on area. Since 1972, those numbers are based on the zip code of the mailing address you used when you first applied for a ss card. You're not given a ss number at birth-you must apply for one. Was Jason born in Madison? I don't know what my siblings ss numbers are...I think Joleen and Brian should have the same first 3 numbers, but I might have a slightly different one than they do. Joleen, what are the first 3 numbers of your ss number? (That's not dangerous to divulge, is it?)

The tree outside my balcony is now laden with green leaves. Yay!!!