I would like share the following very entertaining story. As background, I sent two gifts to my friend who just had a baby. One was for the baby and one was for the new big sister Maggie.
“Picture if you will…a child’s toy…a purple ball..about the size of a volleyball…of the variety that appears to be hairy, covered with elastic fibers for endless tugging…and squishable, so when a child stands on it, it pops a thinner ‘bubble’ off to the side, covered with those same purple hairs, now sparse…this ball has been named ‘Julie’ by one Maggie [rest of name], for reasons unknown. No other balls in the home have names. No other toys that do not imitate animate objects are named. This ball is special.
When I gave Maggie her gift from you folks, she opens it and then asks who gave it to her (because her ears were closed I first told her, due to the staring-at-a-wrapped-package phenomenon, perhaps gummed up with fantasies of the contents of said package). When she hears ‘Julie’, her eyes bugged out of her head and she had the biggest smile I’ve seen in a long time. “Julie the ball?! Julie gave me a gift? Hooray!” I had to disappoint her and tell her it wasn’t from the ball. But it will remain a priceless moment.”
Those of you who know me in real life will probably not be surprised that my namesake is something with weird squiggly hairs.
–nadj
