It's been two years since I got married and, as of several days ago, I had yet to change all of my legal documentation from "Spittler" to "Shaffer." I don't know entirely why. Maybe it was a combination of fierce loyalty to the Spittler name that was infused with years of elementary school suffering (just mix anything closely resembling the word spit with any child between the ages of 5-9 and imagine all the possibilities). Maybe it was the sense of identity that came from being one of only two "Amy Spittler's" in the whole world (okay, yes, I googled myself. You may say it's narcissistic but I found out that the only other person in the whole world with my name is a collegiate swimmer in Alaska. Sounds like the beginning to the next Wes Anderson movie, right? We should become friends and go on a Yukon train trip and see all the wacky ways that we... never mind.) Or maybe it's because I'm just lazy and didn't want to hassle with all that annoying paperwork.
Whatever it was, it was working pretty well for me. I pretty much had everything under control, remembering that I was Amy Shaffer at church and the gym and Amy Spittler at the pharmacy and the bank, Amy Spittler on my work email and Amy Shaffer on my gmail. I was actually rather proud of my mental juggling.
Until last Wednesday.
That's the day that I realized that I had booked my plane ticket for our upcoming trip in my married name and that my passport was still in my maiden name. At first, I told myself not to be too worried. But then I called the airline and they said there was no possible way I would be allowed on the plane if my ticket name and passport name didn't match. So, the last few days have been a blur of Social Security office lines and expedited passport forms. And $135 later, I am now officially Amy Elizabeth Shaffer. And I'll have a brand spanking new passport with none of the cool stamps I had accumulated over the last several years (yes, I was the annoying person who still asked for the stamps even though they don't really do that anymore).
No more hedging my bets, Jon. I'm in this for life now.
Major Commitment
Monday, July 7, 2008 by Amy
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10 comments:
It's a big day! I want to hear about he upcoming trip...
You finally did it! And I can't thank you enough for writing a new post...I was getting really grossed out by Dwight every day.
You're inspiring me. Maybe after 4 years of feministic loyalty and/or laziness, I'll hop on the bandwagon, too.
True commitment.
Holly is actually going back to reclaim Bowers as her middle name.
Is it ok if I still refer to you as Spittler? What if I get Jon to sign something ok'ing it? It's not even a protest. Just a habit.
there's no shame. i looked on a website howmanyofme.com and there is one chelsea hertford and 180 chelsea taylors. it didn't exactly motivate me. but i think this summer i have to do it- become one of 500,000 taylors in the u.s.a.
i was forced to do the same thing when i found out greg's dad had booked our new york tickets in my married name. i have yet to change my passport, probably because it's the easiest out of all of the identification changes, and i didn't need to change it for nyc. and so my indolence rears its ugly head.
Either way, you still don't have a name that dumb people intuitively know how to spell. Good thing you didn't have to change your first name to Aymie, or something.
Adam booked a flight for me with my name hyphenated. He forgot I didnt have an id with Paul on it. Somehow I talked my way through. That was for our honeymoon
And what did a google search for "Amy Spittler" get me this week? Oh yeah, my old roommate's blog.
Hi.
I google myself on occasion as well, so upon reading your entry I have to introduce myself as the "other" Amy Spittler. The ex-swimmer from Alaska. I'm in France getting my master's degree currently, so in terms of a Wes Anderson flick I'm attempting to do my part to make the character's background a bit more interesting. All in good fun, I just couldn't resist leaving a note.
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