You might've heard of the book. I'm just using the title as a post title, though. Here I am talking about a balloon.

Yes, a balloon. It is a blue color, I guess you could call it sky blue even if it is not quite that shade. On it are various crooked lines which are supposed to represent the International Date Light, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Prime Meridian, and Equator. All lines and drawings were drawn on the balloon with a black Sharpie marker. The continents can be seen on the balloon, and they are labeled, along with some deserts and countries and islands, and of course the oceans.

Right now, the balloon in question hangs from a ceiling fan. This ceiling fan has two chains hanging from it. One you pull to turn on the lights, the other you pull to turn on the fan. The balloon has a white cord tied around its end, and the other end of the cord is tied to one of the chains of the ceiling fan.

The balloon has been residing in my house since quite a while ago, when I first brought it home. In my history class, we were doing an activity where we blew up balloons and drew the world on them. Neither of my "teammates" wished to bring it home, so I just held on to it all day. It was a problem walking home with it, so I attached it to one of my keychains. Ha! Having so many of them came in handy. I kept looking back as I walked to make sure the balloon was still there. It kept bobbing and swaying, but at least it stayed, until I came home, and found the white cord, which is its leash.

In a way, this is kind of sad. As I can't have a cat or dog, because of my mom's lack of love for animals, I end up leading a balloon of all things on a leash. Probably I should name it, if it's already my pal. I can't tell what gender it is. They call the earth Mother Earth, but the balloon just seems rather male to me. Maybe I should give it a unisex name, like my name...

Now for a switch of topics. Sometimes I read a magazine called Reader's Digest. Mostly I read the jokes, Ask Laskas (it's an advice column, I guess you would call it), and perhaps an article or two. This time an article about baby naming caught my eye. Apparently it is a very exciting thing. Some people just name their kids trendy names and others name them all sorts of things, like Lexus (a car!), Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards), and so on. I found out that my name was the 41st most popular girl name in 1996. I didn't know I was that common. D: And oddly enough, one of my friends, her name was 40st. So close together it's scary.

Labels: baby naming, balloon, ceiling fan, earth, gender, keychain, label, leash, magazine, map, name, readers digest, sydney

Top ↑