It's all in the genes

I finally decided to open up my laptop. So 30 minutes and a million pop up windows later here I am. It was really bugging me that my paragraphs weren't showing up on my iPad. Then again, it also annoys me that I actually have to spell stuff right because apple auto correct won't fix it for me. Le sigh.

So last time I was saying how I contacted my dad and started talking to him. Well a few days ago I sent him some of my questions through a facebook message. And we ended up messaging back and forth for about 4.5 hours. Holy cow. Time seemed to fly by. And I learned a lot.

Did you ever wonder how much of your personality is related to how you were raised and how much is because of genetics? Me too. And now it's looking more like genetics has a lot to do with it.

When I was talking to him, I found out he likes Investigation Discovery, Silence of the Lambs, and even read a book on Charles Manson. His dad was into forensics too apparently.

That alone just kind of surprised me. I mean... SotL is one of my favorite movies. I get so... excited when I see it on tv. I mean I majored in forensics. My mom's even been like ok where do you get this from you are way too into this creepy stuff. Well I guess I know now.

His mom and his grandma are/were into genealogy. No one in my mom's family is. I mean my Busia a little bit but not like what he's described.

Could it be in the genes?

Other similarities:
I listed a bunch of concerts I've been too. He's seen them all. The Styx concert that I went to last summer? He had tickets but gave them to a friend.
He said he has a dark sense of humor, quick wit, and over analyzes things. When I read that I was like whoa... cuz... thats me.

It just seems so weird that we have all that in common and we've never actually met.

Anyway on the topic of genetics and asking questions... I found out a bit of medical history. I wasn't planning on asking right away but it came up. I wasn't considering that an important question to ask, but all the websites I looked at (I had a hard time coming up with questions so I Googled), suggested that one.

Turns out it is important.

Apparently cancer is in the family. Lovely. His dad and his dad's dad died of cancer. His grandfather was in his 50's and his dad was in his 60's when he died. Not freaky at all. His sister had cancer but is a survivor. His mom's sister died of cancer in her 60's. There might have been another one in there. But either way its scary. As far as I knew I only had to worry about heart problems on the Bieda/Lapinski side.

You must be able to tell how excited I am.

On the bright side (I think, my uterus hasn't decided how she feels about it yet) twins run in the family. His mom is a twin (with the sister that died). Identical twin even. I used to think that was so cool. Now I just think holy cow how would I tell them apart? If I had identical twin boys though I would totally name them Fred and George. Haha. Anyway. My grandma's sister had a son that had twins (boy & girl). Then one of her granddaughters had twin girls. I don't know what my chances are, but I'm thinking it's quite possible I'll end up with twins.

I kind of like that idea though. I don't know.


I'm feeling really good about this whole... talking to my bio dad thing. Everything is positive so far. I still have more questions of course but that will come in time.

And then there's the whole I'm going up to Pennsylvania the end of September thing. What will happen then? Will I just stick to the norm and hang out with my Busia & Pap? Or will I meet some new family? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Until next time genealogy peeps!

The Lapinsky Curse

Let me just get this out there... the curse isn't any spooky voodoo stuff. Nothing paranormal. Just genetics.

The Lapinsky women all have one thing in common (excluding maybe 1-2 females per generation). We used to all joke about it. But now I'm determined to beat it. Lets look at a photo to see if you all can guess what the common feature is.



These are the Lapinsky women (and Stanley in the middle). My great grandmother Mildred Bieda (Lapinsky) is in the greenish brown dress.

Now I'm going to go out on a limb and say potato pancakes, pierogies and kluskies and bacon *might* have been a contributing factor. Perhaps. Milly is the smallest of the others but she's not a skinny minny either. *pauses, waits for lightning strike or similar sign....*

In any case, most of the women on the Polish side of the family have a little extra weight particularly around the mid section or that little pooch. Annoying as hell.

Obviously I'm not going to show photo proof that we all have it. I value my life too much.

Anyway I've been working on that and so far so good. Lapinsky curse is slowly disappearing. But it got me thinking about family genetics and similarities. There may be a genetic tendency but thats no excuse. I'm going to kick the Lapinsky curse in the bum.

That's all for now folks. I'm toying with an idea for the next post. If you watch Who do You Think You Are on NBC you may or may not know there is a drinking game. For all interested you can go here. On a separate note, last week I was watching Harry Potter 3 and found a Harry Potter workout. Example: Harry faints from a dementor- 20 jumping jacks. And for everyone who has seen #3.... thats quite a bit. So I was toying with that and WDYTYA... What about a WDYTYA workout? Take some of the ideas from there and just switch out drinking for crunches or something (yes not as fun as alcohol... but healthier!) I'll work on the idea a bit more and hopefully post it before next week. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If no one's interested then hey I'll do it for me.

Until next time