COLUMN: Twin?

While I'm sure some people toss and turn and night worrying about politics, solving world hunger and other important issues, I on the other hand find myself up at 2 a.m. thinking about some of the dumbest things imaginable.

One that has been driving me crazy as of late has to do with a town a little over 20 miles from Whitehall. I can't for the life of me understand why almost everybody I talk to refer to Twin Bridges as just "Twin". I have not ever heard anyone say we are going to go watch the baseball game in "Three", have lunch in "Virginia" or watch the Trojans play in "Big", so I'm not quite sure why a special case is made for our neighboring town.

It's a cute little town that I never mind taking a trip to, but why is the last part of the name left off?

I'm hoping by writing this someone can explain to me why this is the case, because my curiosity is peaked and I need to know. It can just be because it is easier because then it would be applied everywhere.

Perhaps it is a thing started by locals in Twin Bridges, or maybe just something people in the Whitehall area started to say. I would find it weird if people referred who lived here or Twin Bridges referred to Whitehall as "White", and thankfully they don't.

Maybe "Twin" has become like "LA" for Los Angeles and that is the way everyone refers to it, and maybe it has had that name for so long nobody is sure where it came from and it is just passed down through the generations.

Unfortunately my conundrum with the Madison County town is just a small sample size of my nighttime stream of consciousness.

In the past week, I have had some real doozies that have resulted in the need for a lot more coffee than is good for me. I'm not quite sure why I'm thinking about if they sell hot dogs out of the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile or how "dry shampoo" actually works, but it's a nightly problem. Between my over analyzing and watching the clock I'm actually lucky to get any sleep at all.

And in those precious moments where I'm off to a wonderful slumber, the two cats in the house will not let me enjoy myself. I've known a lot of people that don't like to sleep, are ready to go for a full day after five hours of sleep, but I actually like to go to bed and to get nine or 10 hours a night. Even though the cats sleep most of the time, they always think that nighttime is time to jump on the head of their human at 4 a.m. Waking up with an animal on your head is never fun and it takes me a few minutes to realize what in the world is going on.

I'm hoping that maybe with a little more exercise, the removal of the clock, and perhaps a little meditation my nights might become a little smoother.

At some point the cats may also mellow out with their "romper room" and all will be well. Until it's 4 a.m. and I start thinking about Twin Bridges.