Apple Pie is Dutch (updated)

Very, very late. But since the blog is set to Alex's timezone I'm not. I had a semi-blog planned in continuation of discussion of naming/parenting/small children. But I'm sleepy. List of things:

--Saw incredible fireworks (a day early, but who cares? More tomorrow.)

--Ate the best apple pie I have ever had in my (albeit short) life.

--I have a problem with people who take pictures of fireworks. They're meant to be ephemeral little bursts; the point is that they're pretty for two seconds and then dissolve into smoke and memories. They will have still existed even if you don't have photographic evidence of them. To me that's like cheating.

--Am very, very tired. Going to indulge myself and sleep on the couch.

Explanation/continuation later. Check back soon kthnxbaignight.

----marking passage of time line----

And so: it is now Sunday night and my day has gone kind of the same. Minus pie, and that makes me sad. Also plus mosquitoes, which makes me sadder. Going to sleep on the couch again, it's cooler (and impervious to the sound of fireworks) in my basement. I'm still short enough to fit across it comfortably, and it's all cushiony. It's like camping or something, I don't know. I just really prefer couches to beds in general for sleeping purposes--in bed it's like sleeping is imperative, couches present more options: reading, talking, the lulling quality of television, anything you can do sitting down. Plus the knowledge that you're sleeping on something you shouldn't but doing it anyway.

Have you ever had the fact that you look like a *insert name here* come up in conversation? It's odd. Never just *name*, either-- A *name*. As if all people in the world with that name are in some sort of category based on looks. I get Jessica and Amy a lot. I don't look like anyone but myself, to myself. ("Renata" is not the sort of name someone would probably pick at random, though. It's not even recognized by spellcheck.) I don't get it. Do I look like someone the person making this observation knows named Jessica? Are they cleverly following the sociological trend in baby naming and deduced that Jessica was the most popular name given to girls in the year I was born? Are they offering it as a suggestion if I ever want to change my name? By the same token, though, it's kind of interesting to see what people associate with a certain name (and the defiance of them, like Vita's excerpt. Like a total pacifist-vegan-Jewish guy named Adolf. Except that would be more like irony. . . but seriously, what do you expect from anyone named Adolf?). I can't come up with any real stereotypes for the name Jessica (generic, pleasant enough probably), nor do I think I fit them.

Or I'm overthinking this and it's harmless smalltalk that even I've subjected others to. (That and the "guess my middle name" game...)

Oh, and the 'ignoring your infants makes them self-sufficient' theory is in my opinion kind of crap. Babies need to be babied--that's why it's a flipping VERB. It's what you DO to babies. At some point this can stop before it reaches spoiling them, but since I'm not a parent I can't estimate this well. . . I'd suggest before they learn to be manipulative.* During the course of this editing, I've been listening to this in a continuous loop. Enjoy...

Footnote: This requires knowledge of said child. I used to lie face-down, unmoving, in the middle of the floor to freak my parents out when I was around 3.