randoms
Mel C. just had a baby with her long-term boyfriend. Quel surprise. I totally thought she was a lesbian.
Speaking of lesbians...
I thought to look up one of my old college acquaintances on FB. Did a search by name and among lots of incorrect results was the profile of a person named Will. Though I wasn't 100% sure this was the person I was looking for, I decided to friend Will anyway because of the striking physical resemblance and because we had about 15 FB friends in common. When he responded to my friend request and then sent me a private message, then I was sure. Even though the message only said "hey, how's it going?" well, that's more than I'd write to someone if I had no idea who they were. (Plus, my name's pretty unusual. I don't think people tend to mistake me for anyone else.)
[This is where the writing of this post becomes tricky for me. I was dinged pretty memorably once for incorrect pronouns, or some such language gaffe, and haven't revisited the topic since.]
Will's the second of my school acquaintances, that I know of, who's transitioned. (This is about like after I graduated from high school and half my friends came out of the closet. Maybe that's not so unexpected when you hang out with the drama geeks, though. I'm more surprised by the woman who became an upper-middle class Republican housewife.) I'm surprised but not shocked (especially when I [jokingly] consider that one of my fave memories of Will involves a Boy Scout uniform). I used to be more weirded out by the concept of transition, but that may have been because I was thinking in terms of dating a trans person (and the wonderings that attend such a notion) rather than just knowing one.
I feel I learned two important lessons from Will during my college years.
1) The 'don't be a rube' lesson.
Will (then Lani) was a member of my house freshman year, but was pretty much never around, always hanging out with a sophomore named Kate. One day I said, "It's so cool how Lani and Kate are such good friends that they have sleep-overs all the time." To which someone replied, "You know they're dating, right?" Me: Oh. Really? That... makes sense.
2) The pronunciation lesson.
One day, Lani came back to the house upset. I wondered what the matter was, so Lani asked, "How would you pronounce my last name?" It turned out that the President of the college had mispronounced Lani's surname during an introduction. I mispronounced Lani's surname, too, but I guess my version was more forgivable than the Prez's. In any case, that evening I learned the correct pronunciation. Not Eye-A-Covelli, as I'd been saying it in my head all that time, but Ya-Covelli. (Hopefully the Prez found the time to learn this before graduation.)
Beautiful name; I loved it then and I love it still.
I can understand changing one's first name. I'm a bit puzzled as to why he changed his last one.* The completely different ancestry of the new name, in combination with the fact that Will's profile photo shows him in fake beard and mustache made me wonder initially if the profile was not serious. But then I read Will's wall and his contribution to the "25 Things" meme and that misconception was cleared right up. (And there's yet another reason why I will defend that meme tooth and nail. Or, more accurately, tongue and brain.)
Anyway...
I guess that's all I had to say about that.
The other day I finally got around to sending another one of my old college friends an email detailing some of my favorite memories of her. I guess I just wanted her to know (as if she doesn't already) that she exists fondly in my memory, even though I'm crap about keeping in contact.
This happens occasionally that I'll want to write someone out of the blue and say "Here's the effect you've had on my life." I don't always get around to sending these communications, but I'm usually happier for having done so.
People are such weird creatures.
~~~~~~
(* I discovered Will's blog so now have a better understanding of this.)
Speaking of lesbians...
I thought to look up one of my old college acquaintances on FB. Did a search by name and among lots of incorrect results was the profile of a person named Will. Though I wasn't 100% sure this was the person I was looking for, I decided to friend Will anyway because of the striking physical resemblance and because we had about 15 FB friends in common. When he responded to my friend request and then sent me a private message, then I was sure. Even though the message only said "hey, how's it going?" well, that's more than I'd write to someone if I had no idea who they were. (Plus, my name's pretty unusual. I don't think people tend to mistake me for anyone else.)
[This is where the writing of this post becomes tricky for me. I was dinged pretty memorably once for incorrect pronouns, or some such language gaffe, and haven't revisited the topic since.]
Will's the second of my school acquaintances, that I know of, who's transitioned. (This is about like after I graduated from high school and half my friends came out of the closet. Maybe that's not so unexpected when you hang out with the drama geeks, though. I'm more surprised by the woman who became an upper-middle class Republican housewife.) I'm surprised but not shocked (especially when I [jokingly] consider that one of my fave memories of Will involves a Boy Scout uniform). I used to be more weirded out by the concept of transition, but that may have been because I was thinking in terms of dating a trans person (and the wonderings that attend such a notion) rather than just knowing one.
I feel I learned two important lessons from Will during my college years.
1) The 'don't be a rube' lesson.
Will (then Lani) was a member of my house freshman year, but was pretty much never around, always hanging out with a sophomore named Kate. One day I said, "It's so cool how Lani and Kate are such good friends that they have sleep-overs all the time." To which someone replied, "You know they're dating, right?" Me: Oh. Really? That... makes sense.
2) The pronunciation lesson.
One day, Lani came back to the house upset. I wondered what the matter was, so Lani asked, "How would you pronounce my last name?" It turned out that the President of the college had mispronounced Lani's surname during an introduction. I mispronounced Lani's surname, too, but I guess my version was more forgivable than the Prez's. In any case, that evening I learned the correct pronunciation. Not Eye-A-Covelli, as I'd been saying it in my head all that time, but Ya-Covelli. (Hopefully the Prez found the time to learn this before graduation.)
Beautiful name; I loved it then and I love it still.
I can understand changing one's first name. I'm a bit puzzled as to why he changed his last one.* The completely different ancestry of the new name, in combination with the fact that Will's profile photo shows him in fake beard and mustache made me wonder initially if the profile was not serious. But then I read Will's wall and his contribution to the "25 Things" meme and that misconception was cleared right up. (And there's yet another reason why I will defend that meme tooth and nail. Or, more accurately, tongue and brain.)
Anyway...
I guess that's all I had to say about that.
The other day I finally got around to sending another one of my old college friends an email detailing some of my favorite memories of her. I guess I just wanted her to know (as if she doesn't already) that she exists fondly in my memory, even though I'm crap about keeping in contact.
This happens occasionally that I'll want to write someone out of the blue and say "Here's the effect you've had on my life." I don't always get around to sending these communications, but I'm usually happier for having done so.
People are such weird creatures.
~~~~~~
(* I discovered Will's blog so now have a better understanding of this.)