Mr. P and I are preparing for our civil ceremony next week. The real marriage ceremonies aren’t until September and October 2008, so we will be saving our sentiment until then. The civil ceremony will be just us sighing impatiently while the Justice of the Peace signs the marriage license so that Mr. P can apply for his Green Card… which, as I’ve been telling him all along, is the card that you get when you marry a Green.
Of course, after next week, I’ll no longer be a Green. I considered briefly keeping my name – Green is actually a terrific last name – but there were no other compelling reasons to keep it. Many women fear that they will lose their identity, but I got this here web site to keep me rooted. That’s right, I may give up my name, but I’m keeping my domain! Other women want to carry on their heritage. Well, I’m very fond of my last name, but I’m hardly the last Green out there. And some women have professional reasons for keeping their name. Well, I’m just not that successful.
Hyphenating my name was never an option, for a very good reason that I will explain with help of an antecdote:
In Middle School, I had a history teacher named Mr. Todd who was fond of taking roll every day by rapidly reading our last names from an alphabetical list. We had 3 seconds to yelp “Here!” lest Mr. Todd be forced to repeat the name while raising his eyes to confirm the absence of the student in question.
Yes, it was very Ferris Bueller?… Bueller?… except Mr. Todd had a lot more piss and vinegar. It was like Fitzgerald! (here) Grady! (here) Green! (here) Grosser! (here) And one day, Mr. Todd stopped the roll call – an unprecedented occurrence – and said “Green Grosser, har, har, har. You two should get married, har har har. Then you could be Meredith Green-Grosser.”
For a seventh-grade girl who suffered public mortification on a daily basis, it was as if he had very suddenly pulled down my pants. Everyone laughed except for me and the unfortunate Grosser boy who had already suffered undue hardship due to his name.
And I decided right then and there never to hyphenate my name. Because then, Green becomes an adjective.
