Its Only 365 Days
158/365: THAT'S NOT MY NAME
7 JUNE 13
I've been seriously thinking about legally changing my name. This is now the fourth time I've sat down and really thought about it and each time, I am more convinced that I should do it especially with the new business.
If you have a simple name, count yourself lucky. My name and its origins are actually very complicated. Starting with my first name. I am named after my aunt who died before I was born. Unfortunately my mother couldn't really bring herself to call me by my first name despite picking it because it was rather painful to do because my aunt died young, both she and my dad started calling me by my middle name which is my dad's mother's maiden name. Friends were often confused when they came over because they wondered who "this person" was that my parents were calling me. My last name is the strangest of them all. It has no family history at all. Apparently my dad's father picked the name off of a traveling doctor who was passing through and simply adopted it as his own, so I'm not really sure what if any family name we have on my dad's side.
Here is where the frustration kicks in. In my whole entire life, I'm talking birth until now, there have been exactly 3 people to EVER pronounce it correctly. One was a fifth grade teacher who had my brother a few years before me, the second was a substitute teacher, and the third was my high school choir teacher who was a former opera singer. That's it! Can you imagine what that's like. Every time I answer the phone I must endure some person on the other end not only butchering my name, but then asking me how I pronounce it, then when I do phonetically spell it out for them, they either continue to pronounce it incorrectly, or they laugh and say, oh well, I'll just call you by your first name. I find that absolutely disrespectful when I come across the latter. I understand if you can't get it--American tongues don't really get the sounds correctly, but at least have the decency to have some respect for the person and whatever heritage they may have attached to their name.
Anyway, I've had enough. I thought for a long time about the name because I thought it had a little more relevance, but knowing its more random than anything, I don't feel the need to attach to it. I thought about taking on my mother's maiden name which I like, but I'm rather attached to my initials. I used them in such a creative way for the first ever name I had for my photog business so in that way they are sentimental to me. For two years now, I've been using the name I'd like to use on my business cards and website. I only accept credit/debit/cash, so writing checks to me is not an option, therefore I haven't had to deal with it, but I find its much easier with the shortened version of my last name, to conduct business without all this upfront hubaloo of people screwing it up.
I did some research and the only thing stopping me now is laziness. It's this processssss with about 20 steps to it involving multiple forms, notaries, going to court, being interviewed by a judge, more required signatures, paying upwards of $300, and finally getting your name changed on all of your cards and social security and the like.
By the by, I hope this doesn't rock your worlds, but I've been going by a nickname on Flickr. At first when I joined I refused to give out my name, but several people kept poking and poking wondering what to address me as, so I just gave a nickname, Bee or Bev, and have been going by that ever since on here and if you notice whenever I talk about friends or family I only use the first letter of their names. It's just to protect myself, friends, family. I talk about a lot of stuff and I try to be as open as possible as these are essentially records of my days as footnotes of my life to myself. As much as I've come to respect a lot of you Flickrati out there, I don't know the you-you's? I only know the internet yous which for all I know, could be anybody, so in that way, I don't think you need to know "everything" about me. I've met a lot of people here and other social media type sites the feel the same way. There are just too many crazies out there and my trust is at a high high premium.
Image: here are the pulled up carrots. Not that big at all despite it being 3 weeks over the time alleged for harvest. I think the soil was just too compact for them to really grow outdoors, so I've started a new batch indoors which I'll transfer out later in a giant tub. These are supposed to get to 6-7 inches at least, but these came out more like 3, maybe 4 inches each.
158/365: THAT'S NOT MY NAME
7 JUNE 13
I've been seriously thinking about legally changing my name. This is now the fourth time I've sat down and really thought about it and each time, I am more convinced that I should do it especially with the new business.
If you have a simple name, count yourself lucky. My name and its origins are actually very complicated. Starting with my first name. I am named after my aunt who died before I was born. Unfortunately my mother couldn't really bring herself to call me by my first name despite picking it because it was rather painful to do because my aunt died young, both she and my dad started calling me by my middle name which is my dad's mother's maiden name. Friends were often confused when they came over because they wondered who "this person" was that my parents were calling me. My last name is the strangest of them all. It has no family history at all. Apparently my dad's father picked the name off of a traveling doctor who was passing through and simply adopted it as his own, so I'm not really sure what if any family name we have on my dad's side.
Here is where the frustration kicks in. In my whole entire life, I'm talking birth until now, there have been exactly 3 people to EVER pronounce it correctly. One was a fifth grade teacher who had my brother a few years before me, the second was a substitute teacher, and the third was my high school choir teacher who was a former opera singer. That's it! Can you imagine what that's like. Every time I answer the phone I must endure some person on the other end not only butchering my name, but then asking me how I pronounce it, then when I do phonetically spell it out for them, they either continue to pronounce it incorrectly, or they laugh and say, oh well, I'll just call you by your first name. I find that absolutely disrespectful when I come across the latter. I understand if you can't get it--American tongues don't really get the sounds correctly, but at least have the decency to have some respect for the person and whatever heritage they may have attached to their name.
Anyway, I've had enough. I thought for a long time about the name because I thought it had a little more relevance, but knowing its more random than anything, I don't feel the need to attach to it. I thought about taking on my mother's maiden name which I like, but I'm rather attached to my initials. I used them in such a creative way for the first ever name I had for my photog business so in that way they are sentimental to me. For two years now, I've been using the name I'd like to use on my business cards and website. I only accept credit/debit/cash, so writing checks to me is not an option, therefore I haven't had to deal with it, but I find its much easier with the shortened version of my last name, to conduct business without all this upfront hubaloo of people screwing it up.
I did some research and the only thing stopping me now is laziness. It's this processssss with about 20 steps to it involving multiple forms, notaries, going to court, being interviewed by a judge, more required signatures, paying upwards of $300, and finally getting your name changed on all of your cards and social security and the like.
By the by, I hope this doesn't rock your worlds, but I've been going by a nickname on Flickr. At first when I joined I refused to give out my name, but several people kept poking and poking wondering what to address me as, so I just gave a nickname, Bee or Bev, and have been going by that ever since on here and if you notice whenever I talk about friends or family I only use the first letter of their names. It's just to protect myself, friends, family. I talk about a lot of stuff and I try to be as open as possible as these are essentially records of my days as footnotes of my life to myself. As much as I've come to respect a lot of you Flickrati out there, I don't know the you-you's? I only know the internet yous which for all I know, could be anybody, so in that way, I don't think you need to know "everything" about me. I've met a lot of people here and other social media type sites the feel the same way. There are just too many crazies out there and my trust is at a high high premium.
Image: here are the pulled up carrots. Not that big at all despite it being 3 weeks over the time alleged for harvest. I think the soil was just too compact for them to really grow outdoors, so I've started a new batch indoors which I'll transfer out later in a giant tub. These are supposed to get to 6-7 inches at least, but these came out more like 3, maybe 4 inches each.