A lighter note than the events of the past few days. This site is eleven months old today. That makes this a very appropriate day for me to tell you about me and the elevenses. Yes, thanks. I know that's not a word. It's my quick way of saying that eleven is a significant number to me. So are its multiples.

I inherited the elevenses from my mother. Her first encounter with them was at her birth---she was born on 11/11/11. And the number cropped up many times through her life. Perhaps it was coincidence; perhaps it was meant to be. We never worried much about it; we just acknowledged it.

Eleven is significant in my life first and foremost because I'm also a November baby---but not the eleventh. Which of course gave Mother another eleven.

Not all the elevenses are happy ones. My father died in November. Other sad things have happened in that month, or on an eleventh day. The fact that sadness is involved makes me refer to the number as significant, rather than lucky.

Note that the elevenses are only truly significant if I don't try to make them happen. In other words, were I a betting person, I wouldn't bet on it. I do, occasionally, use the number or a multiple in naming something. But that's more paying homage to the eleven than expecting anything significant.

Several times in the years since Mother died, there have been significant elevens that seem to be attached to her. One that is a little trivial in terms of the money, but told me I was making a good decision: I chose to cash in a certificate of deposit I had bought with some of her life insurance money, to pay some bills and give me a little breathing room. This CD was one that renewed ("rolled") every thirty days, with a few days during which cashing it in meant no penalty. The day it rolled I was too busy to go to the bank. When I got there the next day, it had earned eleven cents more in interest.

A recent one involved a gift for me from a friend, of my name as a dot com. It was something she knew I wanted, just to have it, so she offered to buy it for me as an early-early birthday gift. She brought me a check for the purchase. A little later in the week, when I was heading to the bank with the deposit, I noticed the number on that check. I asked my friend if she had chosen to use that check on purpose, and she said that she had not. She knows the significance of the elevenses, and has joined me before in paying homage. But since that was not the case this time, we figure my mother wanted to indicate her approval of the domain purchase. The check's number? 1122.

And all in all, it has been a happy eleven months. Becky Says!