Happy feast day to meeee...

Sorry I didn't blog this past weekend; it's a sign I was having much fun. On Saturday I was at Prince of Peace Abbey for a day of recollection. I spent much of Sunday in the Northridge area where a nurse friend had her home and a crisis pregnancy center blessed by one of our priests. On Monday I caught up on sleep and promptly lost the regained ground by staying up till midnight chatting with two friends. If you think we might have been talking about you-- we were. :) And today I was celebrating my sister's birthday with family at a restaurant over the water in San Clemente. I imagine I'll mosey on over to work later this evening and set up some BAC cultures... with luck my boss will be there and notice me working late. :)

But that's not what this post is about. This is about something I never knew until a month ago. September 2 is the feast day of Rachel, the one I was named for, the one in the Old Testament who was so beautiful that Jacob worked fourteen years to marry her! I had no idea OT people even had feastdays, but at least in the old calendar they do!

It seems odd to me that Rachel ever got to be such a popular name. I suppose many people who use the name now just like the sound and aren't thinking much of the origin, but for the ones who deliberately pick Bible names (and that included my parents), why on earth pick Rachel? Her one good attribute was beauty and that was hardly any credit to her. She otherwise seems to have been a selfish, unfulfilled, manipulative, idolatrous liar whose husband took one other wife and two concubines (all better at childbearing than she) before she died young and in pain. And none of that matters as long as she had good looks?

Such a common name anyway, and therefore very boring. I don't understand the mentality of those who pick names because they're common. Never let me name a child; I'd go for stuff like Hephzibah for a girl and Melchizedek for a boy.

But anyway, it's nice to have a feast day! You may all pray for me now.