What's in a date?

I may be not the best example of a religious person, but I try. I have my beliefs and I struggle like most other people with them on a regular basis. I usually do not share my beliefs with other people unless I know them, like them, and can trust them to offer me a good “give and take” when it comes to discussing such a topic.

Our well meaning but nosey gossipy and opinionated neighbors stopped by the other night to discuss the hawk incident. They are an older (late 60's) couple, who are heavily involved in their church and take every opportunity to tell us about how wonderful and know-it-all they are. We have experienced their “Holier than thou” advice and opinions on more than 6 occasions. They like to remind us of how the people who owned the house before us were such good Christians, and would help them with their yard work and other chores. And there have been numerous times of un-solicited advice on how to raise Maxfield. Like I said, they mean well but are opinionated.

After discussing the hawk, the conversation turned towards idle chitchat. We have not spoken to them in months and they were catching up on everything that was happening with us. They were asking about how Lauren was feeling with the pregnancy and all and the of course the question of due date came up. We explained that the actual due date is June 18th but there is a slight gray area and that it could be earlier than that give or take 10 days.

It was at this point that Mrs. Neighbor said, “Oh well, the baby could be born on my birthday which is June 6th.”

“June 6th? Really? That is also Bill’s birthday.” Lauren said.

Which I responded, “Yeah. How cool would that be? Oh-six, Oh-six, Oh-six. 666. Wouldn’t that be interesting?”

Now I have said some shocking things to people in my life, either as a joke, which this was, or in all seriousness but I have never seen someone get as visibly upset as this woman did. She became quite flustered and said, “Well, then, ah, maybe that would not be such a…umm, good date. Let’s hope, uhh, umm for another date.”

I kind of felt bad for saying it but it was my mom who pointed out the possibility of this birth date to me. My mom is a religious person. She taught Sunday school for many, many years. She was a Eucharistic Minister for her church and she has volunteered countless times for many church events. She brought this joke up to me several times. She is even from the same generation as my next-door neighbor. Does my neighbor really think that a kid having that birthdate will really turn out to be evil?

I expressed to Lauren that I kind of felt bad for making the woman uncomfortable. And Lauren said, “Some people just can’t take jokes. Besides do you really care what she thinks about us?”

“No. Not really.”

“Then she can go pound sand.”