Strange and Bizarre

I make no secret about the fact that I take great joy from hearing about things that are strange and bizarre. Who doesn't?

In my former life (which was really not all that long ago), before I filled my days with trips to the library, kissing boo boos, and potty training, I worked as a nurse on an OB unit. Which, make no mistake, gave ample opportunity to witness and hear about things that are both strange and bizarre.

One of my favorite weird things was when people would come up with absolutely crazy...no, make that unique, names for their new offspring. My favorite naming incident involves the same family, spread out over the course of several years (of which I was present for two of the three blessed events).

First came along a little boy. Thunder. That's right, they named the poor, innocent baby Thunder. Now I know that babies can be loud...but Thunder?! That just seems mean. I mean seriously, if little Suzy came home and told you all about the new kid in her class, Thunder, you know that your first thought would be "his name is WHAT?!" If I were the teacher, I would be inclined to repeatedly call the kid Joe or Jack or something, and hope that it stuck.

Having one child with a strange name is one thing. But a whole family? Dear Lord. Fear not, because Thunder was not alone in his I-have-a-dumb-name plight for long. After a couple of years, he was joined by a brother who arrived in a rather abrupt fashion. Name? Lightning. That's right - like the electric bolts thrown by Zeus. Oh yes...they named their baby Lightning. And I can assure you that they did - I typed the birth certificate myself.

And what better to round out a pair of rough and tumble boys named Thunder and Lightning, but a little girl. Just in cast you feared that this little bundle of joy would not get to claim the same parental abuse regarding a name as her brothers, fear not. Rain. Which, admittedly, is not quite as nutty...I mean, unique, as Thunder or Lightning, it's still not going to be making the top 10 (or 100, or even 1000) baby names list. And when you couple the whole family together...well then you've got a whole storm system, and isn't that something special?