It's just another mindless Monday

So this is my sister's panda, Pudge. My sister loves pandas. Her bedroom is covered in them. Panda wallpaper, panda pillows, panda bookends, panda pictures, at least 100 stuffed pandas, the whole works. She keeps finding new space for them and keeps getting more pandas. It's actually pretty easy shopping for her, just go buy her a panda. In fact, I want to say that several Christmases or birthdays, I did just go out and do that. She was happy, I was happy, we all enjoyed Christmas and no one fought.

My mother, in a similar vein, enjoys frogs. Our kitchen at home has frog wallpaper, frog scrub brush holder, frog key hooks, more of the works. My mother's office at school has a frog rug, frog umbrella on the wall, little frog toys that are randomly dispersed, more the works. Once again, when I run out of ideas for gifts for Mom, go find a frog thing. I think I've given her frog jewelry, frog scarves, the usual. Happy Christmases, one and all.

And here's where I run into weirdness. Well, more weirdness than this post already has. I don't have a favorite animal. I don't think my dad does either. My dad has said tiger before, but I think that was just because he needed to pick an animal. There's certainly no tiger rooms in the house (although that would be pretty sweet, come to think of it. Tiger stripe wallpaper, tiger painted TV). My dad made a big stained glass tiger thing once, but I'm not sure where exactly it is in the house. Maybe he gave it away, who knows.

But getting back to me, I don't think I have a favorite animal. If pressed, I suppose I would say bear or dog, but that's because I'm like a dog anyway, and bears are a) freaking powerful and b) the symbol of my two favorite teams. I don't own a room full of bear stuff and unless I marry someone who wants that, I don't think I ever will. I look around at the rooms of my apartment and I see what I have "collection" wise, and it's either Cubs stuff (which Mary has remarked that I'm easy to shop for in that regard; just go buy me some Cubs stuff and I'll be happy, which is generally the case) or comic books.

I'm not sad about the whole thing, I'm just sorta wondering if other guys are like this. In other words, guys, do you have a favorite animal that you buy a lot of things for, or is it more collection stuff? And is that a process of how we were raised, to like things over animals? (with the exception of dogs, because every guy likes dogs. If you don't like dogs, you're like the worst person ever. You can prefer smaller dogs or something, but if you don't like any dogs, worst person ever). Girls, are you raised to like a certain animal? Or are you just going to comment on how adorable my sister's panda is?

Followup questions for both: guys, are the things you like generally sports teams or superhero teams or bands, or individual players, superheros, or singers? And for girls, if you do like a certain animal, is there a reason that animal X is cuter than animal Y? Not so much (to use my sister as an example) why pandas over cobras, but more why pandas over regular bears? or cats? Why does my mom like frogs instead of salamanders?

Sorry the post is crazy, but these are the things I think about. I'll try to keep the inanity to once a week, but who knows what will happen? Hopefully coming later this week: Super Bowl predictions, my first in another series outlining baseball divisions, another That Guy Sucks, another musicians of note, workout and weight loss updates, and maybe something about superheros.