I’ve noticed something lately – a lot of cars, in addition to the silliness of a vanity license plate now have a big personalized sticker on the windshield. I’ve been seeing things like “Kathy’s Hummer” and “Jen’s Truck” and such. Sometimes, the particularly lucky and creative have matching windshield sticker and license plate. It’s just wacky to me.

Maybe it’s because I’m afraid that if people knew which car was mine they’d be more likely to key the paint or something. I don’t know, it just seems…frivolous.

I understand certain personalized things. Jake has a cute half-sized guitar with his name embroidered on the gig bag. It’s cute. And it’s not like it’s a backpack and some stranger might use knowledge of his name to get him into a van with no windows. I mean, if some dude at the club after the gig is like, “hey, you must be Jake,” I think he’ll be rock star enough to deal with the windowless van.

I like personalized books too. I still have one from when I was a kid. It’s about this cool alligator who comes to my house on my childhood street and became my friend. That was pretty cool. Plus, it helped me learn how to spell Susquehanna.