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October 16, 2005
Flirting with My Name
From Michelle, Reflecting in Rotterdam...
So, I've been away for a bit...
I was in America, yay, and I had a lovely, lovely time hanging with Teenager #1 who has just started college in America, and also I had a lovely, lovely time at the New Jersey Romance Writer's conference last weekend where I got to hang with our Lani and also a lot of other lovely, lovely people I hadn't seen in a while.
It was a complete blast! And, I am relieved to report, I had no trouble whatsoever with trains, planes or my hire car, and even more relieved that this time, my trip did not involve public transport strikes and extortionate cab fares of $150 or being put on flight standby! (But it did involve a few outletting trips and bargains, because I love a good bargain!)
So why am I flirting with my name? I hear you all cry. What's that got to do with the price of Kenneth Cole bargain shoes at the outlets?
Well...
While I was at the conference during which I (a) inelegantly spilled coffee down my new pale green skirt, (b) inelegantly dropped my bread roll on the floor, and (c) inelegantly dipped the sleeve of my new jacket in gravy, I wondered, as I have at other inelegant moments in my life, if changing my name would miraculously make me (a) nonclumsy, (b) suave, and (c) sophisticated.
But rather than change my name to oh, I don't know, Claudia or Naomi or Kate and become an instant supermodel (in my dreams) it occured to me that I could change my name without, you know, actually changing my name. All I have to do is switch it from English to another language!
Here are my options:
1. In France, people call me Meechelle (except with a French accent which sounds much more exotic than in English).
2. In London, cockney people call me Meeshew (with an emphasis on the Mee bit).
3. In Holland, Dutch people call me Michell-le (adding a syllable to the end of my name which sounds like the French "le").
4. In Japan (and I know this not because I have ever been to Japan, but because Teenager #1 is studying Japanese) I am Meesheroo. In Japan, in full, I am Koonar Meesheroo San.
Oh, but I am so in love with option 4 because doesn't that sound like the name of someone elegant and nonclumsy? Also, secretly I've always wanted to be Japanese because all the Japanese women I've met are elegant and poised and definitely do not throw food on their nicest clothes...
Meesheroo, off to cook Sunday lunch (but hopefully in an elegant kind of way).
PS. The skirt and jacket made a full recovery!
Posted by Michelle at 6:14 AM | Comments (5)
Comments
I think we must be related. I'm okay most of the time, but when I wear that white linen blouse with the cutwork embroidery for the first time, it's like the death knell of cool. I spill. I trip. I dip into icky stuff. It's the slippery slope, isn't it?
Posted by: BeeJay at October 16, 2005 6:07 PM
Aw Michelle! You have NO IDEA how many times I have tried to FAKE the whole suave, sophisticate look to be foiled by coffee spillage and the nasty pastry that lands neatly in my lap (only it is covered in icing or a red colored jelly.
But only for me, I'd totally change the name.
Posted by: Bethany at October 16, 2005 7:14 PM
Dear Michelle,
I can sympathise with the name problems - I live in Germany, so Germans think I'm joking when I say I don't speak German - Gluckstein, that's a german name... okay, folks, don't let's go there, grandparents emigrated from Poland, etc; etc... To make matters worse, mother liked the name Naomi... Mary? they say, or Nay-omi, or Now-me... The worse is clever friends who call me Nome - grrr. To tell the truth, I hear something odd, I just say 'yes'...
Posted by: Naomi at October 17, 2005 6:39 AM
Ahhhhhhhhh Meesheroo, every time I take the kids out to dinner (why I love drive throughs and think EVERY resturaunt should have one) I drop something on my chest. Granted it's an over-large target, but still.
Posted by: Cee Cee ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.literarychicks.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 19, 2005 11:44 AM
Cee Cee - LOL!
Naomi (or should I say Mary?), I hear ya! My gradfather, bless him, never could get my name right either, and he was English. He called me Mitchell (like the boy's name) or Mike...strongly suspect he thought I was boy, because he kept buying me fishing rods and fishing reels - just what a fifteen-year-old gal really needs, heh.
Bethany - I love your name! I want your name!
And BeeJay - I try very hard these days not to wear a white shirt - too hard on my nerves worrying about what disaster might befall me...
Posted by: Michelle C at October 21, 2005 10:41 AM
