Here's a suggestion for a fun family activity. Have everybody Google their names and see who they are in another life.

Here's what we learned:

My sons currently share names with a male model, a "food and nutrient expert" in the United Kingdom, a sixth-grade triathlete, a tattoo artist and a member of the Crabtowne Big Band (since 1985).

Meanwhile, my husband is a police officer from Georgia who shot a neighbor's dog while off duty.

See?

What could be more fun?

Because my name is so common, I have a lot of incarnations.

For example, I am an associate professor of mathematics and statistics, a librarian, a realistic painter with an interest in "intaglio etchings," a life coach, the powwow coordinator for the Muskogee Creek Indian Tribe east of the Mississippi in Taylor County, and a Cabarrus Pets Society board member who has been quoted as saying "we want to rescue as many animals as we can and find them the right home."

(Because otherwise, my husband, the off-duty police officer from Georgia, might shoot them.)

Oh! I almost forgot! I'm also buried in the Long Island National Cemetery!

The Ann Cannon I think about the most, however, is the one who wrote "Sexuality, God's Gift for Adolescents."

She's written several other books. "Virtual Reality: Youth Camp Bible Study" and "Bible Teaching for Youth Through Sunday School" instantly come to mind.

But for my money, those titles just can't compare to the first, which is when that Ann Cannon should have hung it up and said to herself, "Dude. I am the Michael Jordan of evangelical writers for young adults."

Maybe I think about that Ann Cannon because she's a writer, too, although I have a hard time imagining myself writing a book with a title like "Sexuality, God's Gift for Adolescents."

My teenagers: Mom! We're hungry now! When are you going to fix dinner?

Me: As soon as I quit writing this book about you and God and also sex, OK?

Would I even want a writing life like that? Um. No.

There are other lives I think about sometimes, though. The Lives Not Here. The lives where I (effortlessly!) cook like Giada on the Food Network. Or write a best-selling series about sexy vampires and make a million dollars. Or wear the latest style without worrying that it makes me look "boxy."

Or live on that Greek Island with Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan.

Only in a different house. Because I wouldn't want to get in their way. Especially when Pierce Brosnan starts singing.

Yeah. I DO think about all the lives where I'm smarter and leaner and more effective.

Doesn't everybody?

But then the front door slams. One of my kids says hey. One of my dogs barks. And suddenly I'm back in my own skin.

I think about dinner and what I should fix (BLTs probably).

Then I look out my back window and think again how beautiful it is here when evening steals across the sky.

e-mail: acannon@desnews.com