Congratulations meara! Easy travels and great success ~ma to you.

I'm glad I got to meet you in the flesh before your flesh moved to the other side of the world. Gosh, I hope those two events aren't related.

Much healing ~ma to your Ma, Hil.

Hil, I wish all the best for your mom.

Seems like Karen has some sort of good news. Yay armpit indeed.

Boo meara, especially since I haven't met the DC crew yet. Oh well. More in Seattle to visit.

My dad gets to take a break from the hospital and go home for the weekend. I think. He isn't being released for good, just for a little bit. Still, that should boost their spirits.

Hm. I'll take this slow moment for the three-peat.

I had my very first pedicure today and, sadly, the experience sucked major ass. Too first-world to go into detail, but it has prompted me to write a letter to the spa's president/corporate headquarters. Fie on them.

Later though, I met a really interesting fellow in my search for a mentor.

He really pushed me on a topic that, before now, I would not have considered... I changed my first name when I was about 19 mostly because the evilness of my childhood seemed tied up in it. I even joked that if anyone called me [birthname], I knew instantly that they were not someone I wanted to talk to.

As the years went on, I came to love my chosen name, odd spelling and all...it's a conversation starter, it's memorable, I've used it so much it really is a part of me.

But this fellow pushed me back on my heels by saying that I am kidding myself about having completely integrated my past if I refuse to use that name.

Something feels really true about that, at the same time, I just don't know what to think about what feels like (but probably would not be) a major life change by going back to the old name.

Weird.

Then, a random stranger on the Metro, who knew nothing of what was on my mind mentioned the importance of names. It seemed like a sign.

yay meara!

yay for Karen!

ma to mom , Hil

I spent about three hours today trying to get my internet connection back. After I had gone through the usual check all the connections, turn modem on and off, rebooting, lather once, repeat, I called Earthlink to see if there was a problem with the service. I spent about an hour and a half on the phone, about half the time on hold and the other talking to one person with a nearly indecipherable accent, who, after having me go through all the things I had already done, finally decided it must be the phone line and transferred me to another person. I was on hold about 20 minutes for the transfer to get another person I couldn't understand. She finally checked with the phone company, which told her they had changed settings on the line and it would be fixed by 9. They couldn't have checked that before I went through the tortures of the damned? Somewhat ironically, I was talking to people in India, which I know is where Earthlink has outsourced its tech support, in order to find out what was happening to phone lines in Atlanta, the home of Earthlink.

The drain is absolutely the worst part. Three nodes is not too bad, Hec, but I know she'll feel better after she gets the scan results. The other factors are whether it's HER2 positive, which is more aggressive but for which there's a new drug that seems to be working great, and whether it's hormone positive. Okay, that's probably more than you wanted to know. I'll be thinking about her.

Yay armpits!

I have been thinking about my last name quite a bit lately. When we married my husband and I each took the same name, a name we decided had special meaning for us. If I had taken his name I would have changed it back right away but I feel like the name we took is half mine. I also dropped my middle name, Jane, which I hated. Now I kinda like it. Also my maiden name is Irish and I do miss being a Mc. The deciding factor for me originally was that it was cheaper to keep the name I had. I'm not sure what's making me ponder my old name lately.

Thanks, everyone. She's having an angiogram tomorrow, so we should know more then.

I have been thinking about my last name quite a bit lately. When we married my husband and I each took the same name, a name we decided had special meaning for us. If I had taken his name I would have changed it back right away but I feel like the name we took is half mine. I also dropped my middle name, Jane, which I hated. Now I kinda like it. Also my maiden name is Irish and I do miss being a Mc. The deciding factor for me originally was that it was cheaper to keep the name I had. I'm not sure what's making me ponder my old name lately.

I kept my hyphenated married name. I really like it...it's a combination of two of the most common surnames in the history of talking apes, so slashing together gives them at least a little bit more interest.

I completely and totally dropped my middle name when I got married and, no matter what Mr. guru says, I'm not taking that one back.

I love the idea of taking a third, meaningful married name. I have a couple of friend who did that and it just seems like such a great idea. But I can also see wanting to be a Mc. My family is Irish, but not near as 'ethnic' as that.

I have been thinking about my last name quite a bit lately. When we married my husband and I each took the same name, a name we decided had special meaning for us. If I had taken his name I would have changed it back right away but I feel like the name we took is half mine. I also dropped my middle name, Jane, which I hated. Now I kinda like it. Also my maiden name is Irish and I do miss being a Mc. The deciding factor for me originally was that it was cheaper to keep the name I had. I'm not sure what's making me ponder my old name lately.

There was a recent article in The Age about changing one's name on marriage [link] Author has some strong opinions on the issue. (I found it rather offensive, really. Bec changed her name to mine, Wallybee didn't, in neither case did our experience bear any relationship to the dynamics in that article.)

Something feels really true about that, at the same time, I just don't know what to think about what feels like (but probably would not be) a major life change by going back to the old name.

I'm thinking about the directional metaphor you used there. It seems to me that there's room between refusing to use your old name, and giving up the one you've chosen. Accepting your old name as part of you doesn't mean rejecting what the new name represents, right? How would it feel to you to treat your old name as something of a 'middle name'? I'm thinking about ways to make it feel less like going back to your old name and more like bringing your old name forward to who you are now.

Or I'm spouting crap, which fortunately I'm pretty comfortable with, and Wallybee seems to enjoy.

Hec, glad to hear that Karen is in good spirits. Continued ~ma to her.

Hil, ~ma to your mother.