It Could Have Been Me

OMG..I just had a thought. A terrible thought. You know how everyone sorta collects something. It can be shoes or bracelets or action figure or elephant figurines. I know a girl who collects penguins. Now its not that she particularily likes Penguins (and as we all learned from Looney Tunes, "Penguins are practically chickens"). but but did mention her love for them for about one week as a child. Now everyone in her extended family are always on the lookout for penguin themed items. I would estimate that 2/3rds of her gifts for birthdays or Christmas are of that theme. She has most everything you can mold or cook with, or carve, or knit or paint that is penguin related. She can't very well tell her relatives after all these years that she got over the whole penguin thing when she was 12 because by that time her collection was so large that she had a room in the house just for that. Over the years it has become an oppressive burden as everyone else keeps adding to this horror room more than she ever does or did. I used to laugh before I realized that if I had been more vocal about my hatred of the cephalopod as a kid that my jokey relatives would have found it hilarious to inundate me with all manner of octopi or squids. Well, I am here to say that it wouldn't have been funny at all. Thankfully I dodged the bullet but had to leave cousin Penguin behind. HEY! It was her or me. You don't know. Its a jungle out there! (Though I did steal pretty cool 'Chilly Willy' and 'Opus' figures from her because 'Chilly' and 'Opus' are the bomb.) This cartoon with Bugs, Humphrey Bogart and the Hobokan Penguin is still pretty sweet after all these years.