Frankie Bird

In the interests of full disclosure, I'll just share the fact that, while I usually just call her Frankie, my parakeet's full name is, in fact, San Francisco. This may or may not be a coincidence, but at the time I named her, I for one thing thought she was male, but also I had never even thought of living in San Francisco.

Frankie began her life with me as part of my senior art project for college, six years ago. I was studying imagery and symbolism in Renaissance paintings of the Annunciation (as in the Virgin Mary), which involved a series of clothing pieces, performance, and finally a copper wire bird cage in the shape of a pregnant woman. Strictly speaking, I probably should have gotten a dove to go in the cage, but the pet store in Elyria, Ohio was fresh out. They did, however, have a big open-top plexiglass cage with probably about two hundred parakeets fluttering around inside, unable to fly out because their wings had all been clipped. They were mostly blue, purple, green and yellow - not exactly sacred colors for a bird that was supposed to represent the Spirit of the Eternal Creator. And then there was Frankie. Almost completely white, except for a little cerulean on his breast and between his wings, she sat calmly on a branch by herself, like the kid on the playground who would rather think philosophical thoughts than play around with the other kids. This was definitely my bird.

So in she went to my ten-dollar flea market bird cage, which the pet store attended told me absolutely not to wash with soap because the soap would kill her. She had her name before I even left the store. I can't say exactly what it was. I just looked at her and the name San Francisco just popped into my mind and it seemed to fit. It was like I asked and she told me. There was really no other name I could give her.

It wasn't until about a year later that I started thinking about going to San Francisco. Was it because of my bird's name? Or was it just because of all the things I kept hearing about the city that made it seem somehow attractive? Was it perhaps just because I've never been to the West Coast, despite having spent a decent amount of time in various European countries? I'm not sure, but it was probably all of these things. So Frankie/San Francisco just kind of reminds me that that's where I want to go.

Will it be odd to have a bird named after the city you live in? (or near.) Maybe a bit. I could change her name to Boston. But I don't think I will. Frankie will always be Frankie, her ornery Frankie self.