Stand in the rain, you won't drown, and someday what's lost can be found.
Yesterday one of my coworkers told me that I come across as a Mormon. And even though 1) I have nothing against Mormons, and 2) I put no stock in said coworker's opinions, this is not something you want to hear when you're trying to convert to Judaism. Yesterday I saw the episode of "Sex and the City" where Charlotte converts and puts a mezuzah on her door at the end. I don't know yet if want a mezuzah when I convert or not. (Update: Here's my mezuzah!)
Anyway, I think maybe I came off as Mormon to him because I'm so clean-cut and boring, which is funny because my Mormon friends have more drama than anyone I know. I should've told him that he comes across as a bag of flour.
Back in 2003, shortly after I got my truck, I came across a red-white-and-blue toy donkey while browsing in a second-hand shop. I bought him and named him Alan Roosevelt Moore -- Alan after Al Franken (whom Sara and I got to see in person when he gave a speech at our college at 2004), Roosevelt after FDR, and Moore after Michael Moore. We called him Moore and sat him the back window of the truck, where he stayed for the next three years. In 2006, Mom accidentally threw Moore away, and I feel a little stupid for saying this, since he was just a stuffed animal, but I was pretty upset over it. (I posted about it here.)
This week, Sara bought me a new, similar red-white-and-blue toy donkey. I don't like this new guy quite as much as Moore -- he is smaller and a bit more cheaply-made -- but I am happy to have an all-American jackass again. I plan to put him in the back window of Muse Watson (my car). After much thought, I named my new donkey Jethro Michael Errant: Jethro after NCIS's Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michael after my Jewish grandfather, and Errant after "ears like errant wings," a line from GK Chesterton's poem The Donkey. (Yes, it has a Christian theme, but do you know of any other poems celebrating donkies?)
As with Moore, I'm going to call this donkey by his last name, Errant. According to the dictionary, it means 1) deviating from the regular or proper course, erring, straying; 2) journeying or traveling, as a medieval knight in quest of adventures, roving adventurously; 3) moving in an aimless or lightly changing manner: an errant breeze.
Here's a picture of Errant. I scoured through all my old photos, but I don't have one of Moore. :(
Only two new episodes to go in Season 8 of NCIS! From the spoilers and promo photos, it looks like Mike Franks is going to die on Tuesday (Swan Song). I'm kinda dreading it. Mike's not a main character, but I named my car after the actor who plays him, Muse Watson, and will be sad to see him go.