Last night I was up late and I heard the end of the good weather.  The wind and rain came in suddenly, like a mugger running up behind you. 

So I was really surprised to wake up this morning and see sunshine.  I spent most of the morning goofing off on the porch.  I had a ton of work to do and I flirted with the idea of a bike ride and in the end I sipped coffee and read until 11:00.

I love my job.

I sauntered upstairs and took a look at my orders and picked out the easiest, fastest way to make the most money.  I painted for three hours and then it was time to pick up Josie, take her to karate, drop off what I'd painted, pick up a check, cash it, go to Sam's club and buy ribeye steaks for dinner, pick Josie up from karate, stop at target to buy some little presents for Zack's birthday tomorrow and go home. 

Jay came home and grilled the steaks just the way I like em; rare and juicy.  Then I watched Interview with the Vampire with Zack and helped Josie do her homework.  It was math.

This was one of the problems:  "..49, 64, 81, 100...        what are the next three numbers in this sequence?

I said "Oh, this one's easy.  You can see right away that those are square numbers..."

Josie "They're what?"

"Square numbers.  See?  Seven squared is 49, eight squared is 64..."

"That's not how I did it."

"It's not?"  I looked at her worksheet.  "But you got all the next numbers right.  See?  121 is eleven squared, 144 is twelve squared..."

"Really?  I didn't know that."

"Then how did you get these answers?"

"I figured out that 49 is fifteen less than 64, which is seventeen less than 81, which is twenty one less than 100, so I added twenty three, then twenty five and twenty seven."

We just stared at each other for awhile after that.

It would be interesting to see what she would do with an IQ test.  Years ago there was a mensa test in a magazine that I had her sister take.  At the end it gave the answers and you got additional points if you finished it in under fifteen minutes.  Katie finished the test in nine minutes and got them all right.  She was seven.  I don't know if I've ever taken a real IQ test, but those mensa things just test a person's ability to spot patterns, which is certainly a handy knack to have but I don't think it's much of a measure of intelligence.  I mean, yes, I know my kids are very smart, but no, I don't think they're Einsteins or Hawkings or anything.  

I don't believe in esp.  Not the way it's talked and written about at least.  I do believe that some people's ability to spot patterns; paying attention to what most people don't notice, is sometimes mistaken for some kind of extra sensory perseption.  

For example, I have correctly predicted the birth of several of my nieces.  It's not witchcraft or mindreading, I just noticed that since 1960, every eight years a girl was born into the family.  I'm eight years older than my sister Katie, who is eight years older than our sister Mary Jeanne, who is eight years older than my daughter Katie, who is eight years older than my niece Alex, who is eight years older than her cousin Hattie.  I told Alex and Hattie's Mom's that they were carrying girls based on the year and I was right.  This won't go on forever, but if anyone in the family is expecting in 2008, I expect it will be a girl.  If this pattern is perfect, there will be another in 2016 and that will be the end of it, as there will then be eight of us.

Much wierder than predicting Alex and Hattie's sex was what happened almost six years ago.  I dreamt that I was pregnant.  In the dream, people kept asking me if I thought it was a girl or a boy, and I answered "I don't know, this isn't mine."  The next day, my sister told me she was pregnant.  That freaked me out a little, but now that I know Molly better, I understand.  Of course, she was screaming "TA DAAA!!" I'm just the only one who heard her.

No, I don't believe in esp, but sometimes, these things just happen.

 

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