i can't help myself. whenever i get bored, my mind wanders. very far. so sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic (is there any other kind in SoCal?) where the 91 and the 5 intersect (before i had to dodge some rocks some punk kids were hurling from a pedestrian bridge before the imperial hwy exit), i looked up at the freeway signage and, unbidden, i thought that "artesia" would make a pretty name. while perhaps a little bizarre and unwieldy, it could easily be shortened to "tesia" (pronounced "tisha," i supposed.)

of course, my mind wanders even farther, and i start to wonder if i could get away with naming a kid "california," (shortened to "cali.") man, i am just increasing the number of arguments as to why i should not be allowed to reproduce.

some other names that my friends say violate the 8th amendment:

being a big lord of the rings geek, i have always been obsessed with the names galadriel and arwen. i read a young adult book about a girl named galadriel (except everyone called her "gilly") and i actually know someone named arwen.

when i was in a relationship, we actually thought about baby names. for fun really, considering that we were still quite young at the time, but nonetheless, there were some howlers.

sampaguita (tagalog for jasmine, the national flower) which would be paige for short.

naitadhanan (tagalog for fated) which would be shortened to nai

clearly, there is something wrong with me.