A vagrant, a bum, a rail rider...

My friend Holly is quite lovely. She's tall, elegant, usually well dressed, carries herself very nicely. Reminds me often of a curly-haired Anne Hathaway in many of her features and mannerisms.

She also has one of the most malleable faces ever. It's a wonderful thing to behold. Truly.



For example, there she's imitating a hobo.

No, no, don't try to make sense of it. Just enjoy...

Michaelmas

Meet Michaelmas Monkey. In this picture, he's taken the passenger seat on my final move from Michigan to Kentucky. Please note his commitment to staying hydrated.



Michaelmas was a gift from dear friends as a mascot for my upcoming grad school adventure. At graduation from this particular program, I shall have a tiny sock monkey pinned to my gown. Finding out about this ritual caused several of my friends to take to calling this the "sock monkey school." Knowing my friends--heck, BEING my friends--you'll understand why they were rooting for it from then on.

When I pulled this charmingly goateed fellow out of his gift bag, it was love at first sight. And not too many minutes later, he told me his name. Don't laugh; a lot of my things name themselves. They just do, okay?!

Anyway, he said his name was Michaelmas. I thought that was a bit odd, but who am I to protest?

Today I looked up the term. I knew it was the feast of St. Michael and a colloquial name for a flower. But do you know what else it is? It's the fall term of a year of college. Yup. My monkey named himself for the adventure he represents...which I'll be undertaking in just two or three weeks.

This is why I let things name themselves.