On becoming Carol

[tg_myths_secret]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here; I’ve been busy working as a glass bevel grinder. When I started the job, in the first week of July, it didn’t take me long to realize that the degree of the tremors I have as a side effect of the medications I’m on is not compatible with hand grinding glass. So far I’ve only ruined a few pieces and I’m the

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[tg_myths_secret]

Gosh yes, the newspaper thing has gotten all fouled up and that put the rest of the plan on hold. I’ve been trying for a week to get proof that the paper placed an ad that I paid way too much for.

CJ? Well I was given the name Craig Alan but I didn’t like it much and secretly thought of myself as Anna Lynn, but nobody ever knew that one. When I came out as transgendered I asked my mom what I would have been named had I been born female. She said she always knew I was male, but she always wanted a daughter named JoEllen. So I began using that name while cross-dressed, but I was thinking of it more as a middle name. One evening in a meeting at the Gender Identity Center of Colorado someone angrily asked, “Who the hell do you think you are?” I replied, “Craig JoEllen (Last name), facilitator for the Friday night meetings, group lead coordinator, and secretary for board of directors; but to keep things simple for you, you can call me CJ.” There were over a dozen people in that meeting and they all began calling me CJ, and it spread from there. One of those people began working at my former place of business and another attended a few meetings of my science fiction club. Everywhere it was used, it stuck, so I was compelled to find a name with the initials CJ that would work for me, and Carol Jean is what I came up with. After a few years I naturally think of myself this way and generally don’t respond to Craig. For a while I continued to try to push the JoEllen bit but people said CJ fit me better. There are a few people who call me Carol now, but I think CJ has been branded onto my forehead.

The CJ stood for different things over the years, but now it has a legal basis. I did test the name by yelling out the back door, “Carol Jean, get in here!” a few times and it yells just fine. If you can’t yell it, don’t stick a child with it.

[tg_myths_secret]

I didn’t I originate this rule for naming kids, but when Moon Unit Zappa was born I took it to heart. I remember my Grandma Tillie telling a pregnant aunt to be sure not to name the baby with something you’d be embarrassed to yell in public.

As always, if there is anything your curious about, just ask.