Monday, November 17, 2008

My middle name should be Cleopatra

I spent most of today diligently not looking out the windows, trying to deny the fact that it was snowing. While driving in to work, I pretended that what I was seeing was dandelion fluff. Yeah, that's it - dandelion fluff. Couldn't be anything else...

*sigh*

Actually, my middle name is Grace. It's a name I'm very happy with, since I picked it out myself. When I was born, my parents gave me a superfluous first name and always called me by my middle name. This caused all kinds of problems for the extremely shy child that I was, from having to explain to teachers that I went by my middle name to being taunted by schoolmates with accusations that I couldn't even keep my name straight. So, when I married the first time, I ditched the first name, took my middle name as first name, maiden name as my middle name, and his last name.
When the divorce rolled around, my lawyer told me I got a free legal name change as part of the deal. I decided to go back to my maiden name, but without the original first name. So, I needed a new middle name.
I dithered and dithered and dithered. Nothing sounded right. The hearing was getting closer and closer, and I still couldn't come up with a name.
Then one evening I tripped over something (probably my own feet), and in my head I heard a friend's voice saying (as he so often did. I'm clumsy...) "Well, Grace is not your middle name."
"Aha!" I thought. "But it could be!"
And that was that.

Didn't help me much in the clumsiness department, though.

3 comments:

Anna M said...

Nope, not dandelion. I got woken up this morning by the roar of the snowplow. There's good things and bad things about living on main street two blocks from the border station but I do love nice clear roads.

I think being able to pick your middle name should be mandatory for everyone. There's so many wierd names out there!!!

Joansie said...

Well, the weather is even worse today (sigh). Interstate closed in some areas.

I have several birth certificates with name changes. First, they mispelled my first name, the second my middle name was mispelled, the third was incorrect again so my mother left it as is. So it is JoAnn spelled Joan. Hubby (ex and should have been a clue) didn't like my name so he called me "Jone". No wonder I have an identity crisis...lol.

Laurie said...

You are more than funny with the choice of middle name. Very very wry.