I gave up the idea that I could expect one consistent spelling from the world. My real pet peeve is mispronounciation. My last name is spelling phonetically? What's so damn hard about saying it right??
Would you believe Southerners really are the only people who get it right on the first try?
One time, in grade school, I started spelling my name with -ie because everyone -- teachers, friends, all of my parents' friends -- spelled it that way. So I thought it best to conform. And then my mom found out. And she was really mad, not at me necessarily but that I'd somehow thought everyone else had the right idea about my name. So from that point on, I really have to make a point to tell people how I spell it. But I don't like to do it -- for fear of sounding bitchy? (I'm not trying to be)-- and yet, it is my name.....
Then there's me. Can you believe people ask me how to spell jennifer now? Crazy all those hippie new age mom's that named them genifer, jenifer, genefer. bleah. Then of course there's the last name. Before I was married everyone spelled it blunt instead of blount. Now nuessen is either newson or neussen.
Some one spelled my name Ghannah Penet this morning. No one here gets my name, it´s just too english. So I´m Anita, which is a name I´ve always hated. I wanted to be Ani. But they have to make everything diminutive here.
If I were in a Spanish-speaking country, they'd probably call me whatever the Spanish word is for "Freckles" (I want to say it's "pecas" or something? I have such limited knowledge of Spanish -- do much better with French.)
Some people take to calling me Les or Lez -- and I like that. (Jen used to call me Ezzy, and I thought that was cool and creative! And that's what Kris Groening always called me). My name is pronounced with a 'Z' instead of 'S' (again, this is a really more an issue for my mom and love she had for a soap actress on Y&R when I was born -- yep, folks, that's where my name is from!!). I rather like "Les" though -- however it's pronounced.
No problems with last name now -- Allen. Pretty easy.
Well Malaschak is just about impossible for anyone to either spell or pronounce. Like Gretchen, I always assumed that it sounds just like it looks, but sadly the mysteries of pronuciation escape most of the people I regularly run into. Ok, he's really crying hard now. When I come back I'll tell a funny story about a misspelling of our last name.
You know, I don't think I've ever met a Lesss-ley. There's one at work, and I say zzzz.
I wouldn't have traded up by taking Tim's name: Gittings is Scottish (that's Tim's explanation, so maybe the Scots are persnickety about their spelling?), and everyone spells it with Ds anyway, unless you spit the name out "Git-ting-zzz."
Plus, Ellie Gittings just sounds dumb. (Paula sure did yell at me when I told her that! ha!)
(Funny, last night, watching "The Wedding Singer" for the gazillionth time, there's a moment when Drew Barrymore's character realizes her name will be "Julia Gulia" once she marries her fiance.)
I had some problems not so much with taking Allen as I did with losing Sieger. I miss the name still, but it meant a lot to Topher that I take Allen. We never debated it much -- besides I love the sound of Lesley Allen. And alphabetically, it rocks! I did consider hyphenating -- especially in my field, I face a lot of feminist critics who dismiss my choice -- but in the end, I'm still me! (And to be honest, my one feminist move at our wedding was walking down the aisle alone, and I now really regret not having my dad walk me down aisle. Weird how certain platforms alter with age.)
I just want to be Google-able. (I merit like 10 pages of results!)
At any rate, I never even considered changing my name because I've established myself. Plus, I just really like my last name.
When occasionally I'll wistfully want to share a name with Tim, he suggests going back into our Celtic family histories and finding a name we might have in common. But to me, that'd be even more far removed than just taking his. And then he says, "But I'd still keep Gittings for my professional name," and I say, "FINE, I'm keeping my name for ALL purposes, then," and we're at an impasse. It's easier to do nothing about it.
p.s. I had both mom and dad walk me down the aisle. It meant a lot to me, though mom kept coaching me as we walked the million miles, and I was ssssooo nervous, and kept saying "shut the fuck UP, MOM!" (ok, so maybe I edited that for her ears) so the actual event wasn't really that meaningful.
Gretchen Cranky. Hmm. Yeah...I'll be careful how I say that one. Anyway, misspellings. We decided not to find out Asher's gender before he was born, and so there was a lady who teaches with Jason who wanted to get us a gift for the baby. She made this fabulously cool two-sided fleecy blanket...huge thing, like 6 feet square probably...one of those where you get two fleece fabrics and fringe them and tie knots all around the edges. So she made this blanket and then took it to the embroidery shop...you can all see this coming, right? She had them embroider our last name on the corner of the blanket since we obviously didn't know his first name. And she left out the C!!!!! So we have this lovely blanket that says "Malashak" on it. She realized her mistake when she saw the nameplate on Jason's classroom door AS she was bringing in the gift. She was quite apologetic, and of course we both raved about the blanket and I don't care one bit. I felt sorry for the woman! So it all turned out fine, of course.
I don't even try to get people to spell my first name right. There are a thousand ways to do it, not just two or three, and so I have given up. Not to mention the fact that my parents felt the need to complicate things with an extra capital letter. The only thing that really annoys me about my first name is when people treat it like 2 names and put in a space. Lee. ARGH.
Canelazo? They have that here. I haven´t tried it. Actually, there´s a lot of stuff I need to try before I go home. And a lot of stuff I never need to sample again, like blood sausage and guinea pig. It gets really cold here...I forget I´m on the equator sometimes. But we had a week of hard frosts at night recently, which was really bad for the crops.
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I gave up the idea that I could expect one consistent spelling from the world. My real pet peeve is mispronounciation. My last name is spelling phonetically? What's so damn hard about saying it right??
Would you believe Southerners really are the only people who get it right on the first try?
One time, in grade school, I started spelling my name with -ie because everyone -- teachers, friends, all of my parents' friends -- spelled it that way. So I thought it best to conform. And then my mom found out. And she was really mad, not at me necessarily but that I'd somehow thought everyone else had the right idea about my name. So from that point on, I really have to make a point to tell people how I spell it. But I don't like to do it -- for fear of sounding bitchy? (I'm not trying to be)-- and yet, it is my name.....
Where's the emphasis in your name, Gretch?
I see it as kuh-REN-key, though I think when you say it fast, the REN is more nasal, like REHNG.
Then there's me. Can you believe people ask me how to spell jennifer now? Crazy all those hippie new age mom's that named them genifer, jenifer, genefer. bleah.
Then of course there's the last name. Before I was married everyone spelled it blunt instead of blount. Now nuessen is either newson or neussen.
Some one spelled my name Ghannah Penet this morning. No one here gets my name, it´s just too english. So I´m Anita, which is a name I´ve always hated. I wanted to be Ani. But they have to make everything diminutive here.
If I were in a Spanish-speaking country, they'd probably call me whatever the Spanish word is for "Freckles" (I want to say it's "pecas" or something? I have such limited knowledge of Spanish -- do much better with French.)
Some people take to calling me Les or Lez -- and I like that. (Jen used to call me Ezzy, and I thought that was cool and creative! And that's what Kris Groening always called me). My name is pronounced with a 'Z' instead of 'S' (again, this is a really more an issue for my mom and love she had for a soap actress on Y&R when I was born -- yep, folks, that's where my name is from!!). I rather like "Les" though -- however it's pronounced.
No problems with last name now -- Allen. Pretty easy.
Well Malaschak is just about impossible for anyone to either spell or pronounce. Like Gretchen, I always assumed that it sounds just like it looks, but sadly the mysteries of pronuciation escape most of the people I regularly run into. Ok, he's really crying hard now. When I come back I'll tell a funny story about a misspelling of our last name.
You know, I don't think I've ever met a Lesss-ley. There's one at work, and I say zzzz.
I wouldn't have traded up by taking Tim's name: Gittings is Scottish (that's Tim's explanation, so maybe the Scots are persnickety about their spelling?), and everyone spells it with Ds anyway, unless you spit the name out "Git-ting-zzz."
Plus, Ellie Gittings just sounds dumb. (Paula sure did yell at me when I told her that! ha!)
(Funny, last night, watching "The Wedding Singer" for the gazillionth time, there's a moment when Drew Barrymore's character realizes her name will be "Julia Gulia" once she marries her fiance.)
I had some problems not so much with taking Allen as I did with losing Sieger. I miss the name still, but it meant a lot to Topher that I take Allen. We never debated it much -- besides I love the sound of Lesley Allen. And alphabetically, it rocks! I did consider hyphenating -- especially in my field, I face a lot of feminist critics who dismiss my choice -- but in the end, I'm still me! (And to be honest, my one feminist move at our wedding was walking down the aisle alone, and I now really regret not having my dad walk me down aisle. Weird how certain platforms alter with age.)
I just want to be Google-able. (I merit like 10 pages of results!)
At any rate, I never even considered changing my name because I've established myself. Plus, I just really like my last name.
When occasionally I'll wistfully want to share a name with Tim, he suggests going back into our Celtic family histories and finding a name we might have in common. But to me, that'd be even more far removed than just taking his. And then he says, "But I'd still keep Gittings for my professional name," and I say, "FINE, I'm keeping my name for ALL purposes, then," and we're at an impasse. It's easier to do nothing about it.
p.s. I had both mom and dad walk me down the aisle. It meant a lot to me, though mom kept coaching me as we walked the million miles, and I was ssssooo nervous, and kept saying "shut the fuck UP, MOM!" (ok, so maybe I edited that for her ears) so the actual event wasn't really that meaningful.
Gretchen Cranky. Hmm. Yeah...I'll be careful how I say that one. Anyway, misspellings. We decided not to find out Asher's gender before he was born, and so there was a lady who teaches with Jason who wanted to get us a gift for the baby. She made this fabulously cool two-sided fleecy blanket...huge thing, like 6 feet square probably...one of those where you get two fleece fabrics and fringe them and tie knots all around the edges. So she made this blanket and then took it to the embroidery shop...you can all see this coming, right? She had them embroider our last name on the corner of the blanket since we obviously didn't know his first name. And she left out the C!!!!! So we have this lovely blanket that says "Malashak" on it. She realized her mistake when she saw the nameplate on Jason's classroom door AS she was bringing in the gift. She was quite apologetic, and of course we both raved about the blanket and I don't care one bit. I felt sorry for the woman! So it all turned out fine, of course.
I don't even try to get people to spell my first name right. There are a thousand ways to do it, not just two or three, and so I have given up. Not to mention the fact that my parents felt the need to complicate things with an extra capital letter. The only thing that really annoys me about my first name is when people treat it like 2 names and put in a space. Lee. ARGH.
Pecas is freckles...did you take spanish?
Anyway, all the permutations of my name are better than Gringa.
When were you in Venezuela, Gretch?
Canelazo? They have that here. I haven´t tried it. Actually, there´s a lot of stuff I need to try before I go home. And a lot of stuff I never need to sample again, like blood sausage and guinea pig.
It gets really cold here...I forget I´m on the equator sometimes. But we had a week of hard frosts at night recently, which was really bad for the crops.
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