Did You Know...

"Alaska covers 570,373 square miles of land, plus an additional 45,000 square miles of water.
It's the biggest state in the country. Alaska is 2.3 times the size of Texas, 10 times the size of Georgia or Florida; and 499.7 times the size of frequent comparison victim Rhode Island. Alaska covers 20 percent of the total U.S. area. Alaska stretches across 57 degrees, 34 minutes of longitude between 52 and 54 degrees latitude." And on top of it all, Alaska has a population of 626,932. I looked all this up on alaska.com because a lady in the grocery store parking lot asked me a question.

Ian, Sam, and I were walking (quickly) out of the grocery store yesterday on our way to the MOMS Club Halloween Party. It was drizzling but not very cold (only about 60 at this point). I was asking Ian where his jacket was - he had it earlier and was getting wet so I figured I'd ask (he's old enough to keep track of it but I still have the call as to whether he wears it or not). There was a lady next to me with her kids all decked out in their rain boots and slickers (we have boots but no slickers - and it really wasn't raining hard enough then to even justify the boots, but I digress). She turned to me and laughed and said how she couldn't WAIT for it to snow. Now, we've only been here through one winter, but as far as I remember it really doesn't snow until like JANUARY or FEBRUARY. It's October. So as a response (I really wasn't sure what to say honestly) I mentioned that a friend in Alaska had already gotten 6 inches of snow.

Then came the question. "What's your friend's name - I have a friend there too - maybe I know her?" Huh? O.K. So this is where we get back to the facts above. 570 THOUSAND square miles, 626 THOUSAND people and she thinks she knows my friend. I told her the first name then told her to have a good day and she smiled. Guess she didn't know my friend after all.

Now, it's one thing if we were talking about a high school, or a small town, but an entire state? Am I missing something? Then again, how much smaller would my world have gotten had she indeed known the same person...