The goofy apple doesn't fall far from the silly tree

I'm not saying anything about Miami losing to Louisville, because, inevitably, it'll wind up about Florida State losing to Clemson. {Sob.}

Instead, I'm going to blog more about my mom. Or, in particular, the weird conversations she and I have.

Yesterday, I wrote about how different we are -- which is completely true. But in some ways, she and I are very similar. For example, we have similar senses of humor. And when she was younger, she wanted to be a writer.

Most importantly, she and I are both talkers. If not for work and other commitments, I think we could talk on the phone for hours. Sometimes we do. And when we get going, we talk about the most random stuff, in the most random stream-of-consciousness way. If you were listening in today (I'm talking to you, NSA), it probably made your head spin -- and not in a Lukas Rossi kind of way.

Somehow, we wound up on the conversation of baby names. I was mentioning some of the unusual names that some of my friends had used or were considering for their kids. We also joked about a lot of the kids my age with hippie parents who gave them names like "Rain" or "River."

She made a comment about how naming her children was a very diffcult thing to do, because she had to worry how the name sounds, what it means, and whether the kid will be made fun of, etc. So, she didn't think unusual names were such a good idea.

I laughed at her, and noted that she chose a name for me that is not very common.

"Oh, but Dara is a beautiful name," she protested.

Again, I laughed. "Taste is subjective, Mom. When I was a kid, I hated it because it was different. I swore I was going to change it."

She was a little surprised, and asked me what I would have chosen as an alternative. I told her I didn't really have anything picked out. But then I jokingly said that it would have been something girlie like Cloud Rainbow.*

My mom laughed at me and said, "Well, I always accused you of having your head in the clouds."

I mentioned this to Inbal tonight at the Jon Stewart show.** We laughed about how Cloud Rainbow, Attorney-at-Law would look on a business card.

So, now I've decided that Cloud Rainbow is going to be my new alter-ego. Like, whenever I do anything really girlie, I'm going to blame it on her. For example, "This nail polish is very pink. I wanted to go for something a little more subdued, but Cloud Rainbow convinced me to try it anyway." Or -- more likely -- "I only needed the one pair of shoes, but Cloud Rainbow convinced me to buy all three, since they were on sale!"



* This was a joke. Anyone that knows me knows that it was a joke, because I am not -- and never have been -- particularly girlie. Unless you are comparing me to my sister, who continues to be the most tomboyish girl I have ever met. Next to my sister, I am a complete princess.

For this reason, I also joked to my mom that we should rename my sister something with the middle name "Potato." Just because.

** As for the show, it was very funny, but Merriweather Post isn't the best venue for a comedian.