Gimme A Break

Hubby and I love the Monday night comedy line-up on CBS. I'd have to say our favorite sit-com is Big Bang Theory.

At first you wouldn't think a show about 2 physicists would produce many laughs. But you throw in a hot blond neighbor, a geeky friend and foreigner afraid to speak when women are around, and you have a lot of funny story lines. The main character, Sheldon, takes anal retentiveness to a whole new level. I know, coming from me, that must mean a lot. He makes my sometimes "over-structured" life seem normal.

In the episode the other night, he was really stuck on some equation. Two sleepless nights' stuck. So he figured he needed to walk away from it and do something menial to occupy his mind for awhile. That worked. The answer came to him suddenly. It had been there all along.

I'm sure those of us lower on the intelligence scale than Sheldon have experienced this. Have you ever been working on a puzzle, can't find the piece, keep looking, can't find the piece. You step away from it for a bit, sit back down and it's right in front of you!

That's how this family tree project has been for me. For years I was looking at a connection between 2 families one way -- two guys being brothers -- when I never considered it could be something different -- say a brother and sister that connected the 2. It took some time away from the project and the endless Internet searches for me to see the light. That and some help from a couple of strangers who had a different angle. And information to back it up!

No, this isn't some mind-boggling scientific equation (fiction or otherwise) that can save the world. But it could open some new windows in my research. And it definitely will erase some headaches!

Sometimes we just need a break.