Welcome to what will become my little corner of the Internet universe. I have other little corners as well. (A myspace corner, a Flickr corner, a goodreads corner, a blogger corner … boy that’s a lot of corners… ) But, inspired by my friend Sus, who has issued pseudonyms for her children and husband, and Catherine Sanderson, whose book Petite Anglaise I am currently eating up, I’m setting out on a slightly new adventure.
I’ve never made much effort at remaining anonymous online. Most of my friends on various social networking sites are actually, in real life, my friends. I keep my myspace page private to keep the library patron stalkers at bay, but that’s about as much cover up as I do. As I read through the pages of Sanderson’s book, I find myself repeatedly thinking that there’s appeal to this whole anonymity thing and that perhaps I should give it a go. I suspect one of two things will happen. I’ll either tire of blogging to no one (I already keep a private journal, so what’s blogging if not an open arena for feedback?) or I’ll love my new little venture so much that I’ll wind up telling all my friends. I doubt it will remain totally anonymous for long, but we’ll see.
First things first. I need to come up with stage names for those important folks in my life. Sus calls her children Frannie & Cal and her husband is, quite simply, B. Petite Anglaise (aka Sanderson) named her daughter Tadpole and Tadpole’s father is, naturally, Mr. Frog. I feel that my key players should have somewhat literary names since I am, after all, a librarian. Here are the first four people I feel compelled to name. If you have any suggestions, please let me know:
the boyfriend: lives with me, doesn’t currently do much around the house, has two daughters who live in a neighboring town that we get every other weekend, likes to play practical jokes on me, and – after working in human services for years – is contemplating a return to school.
boyfriend’s daughter #1: 8 years old, super intelligent, fiercely independent, loves animals, once ran a campaign in my house to get her dad on board with recycling, wants to be the first female president (and for that reason did not want Hillary Clinton to win the primary), becoming a bit mouthier every day (read: talks back a lot), sassy, loves High School Musical and Miley Cyrus, a reader just like me, a shopaholic like her mother – her favorite stores are Limited Too and Libby Lu, compassionate.
boyfriend’s daughter #2: 4 1/2 years old, curly red hair, a bit shy but likes the camera, smart, less girly and more athletic than her sister, gets bored easily, is pretty cranky by the end of the day, suffers – I think – from always being in the shadow of extroverted big sis, loves Scooby Doo like no one you’ve ever known.
my sister: yikes. Maybe we should just name her Sylvia Plath and be done with it. She has 3 kids ages six and under. For all intents and purposes, she’s a single mom – there’s a husband but he’s – usually – an estranged one. She has been going to school full time for as long as I can remember and lives on school loans and public assistance. She is extremely volatile and should be on medication. About 3-4 times a year she freaks out on me and cuts me out of her life and forbids me from ever seeing my beloved niece and nephews ever again only to text message me a few days later, acting as if nothing has happened. My mother and I are perceived as the enemy, allegedly always putting her, her husband, and her parenting skills down. She has borderline personality disorder. Intense and stormy.
I suppose that’s all for now. I’m off to a family funtion tomorrow in another state and won’t return til Wednesday. Hope very sincerely to see some suggestions by then!
3 Comments
July 25, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I’d say boyfriends daughter number two should have the name Scooby Doo.
July 30, 2008 at 3:08 pm
hi. coming out of my funk. thanks for urging me along.
AND this great new page of yours is totally worth coming out of a funk for! so, mr. frog & tadpole are darling names. hm….something literary. will either of the girls fit into: madeleine? anne of green gables? harriet the spy (personal fav)? jo march? laura ingalls? scout from to kill a mockingbird? anne frank? as I go on, I get the feeling you librarian types have thought of all of these. will sit on it, but you won’t get much help from me, who settled for “wiggle rooms” just because i was over thinking about it.
August 2, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Yup, am all for anonymity. I blogged for a year all about my family and friends. I shut that down just 10days ago and started “simply-me”.thanks for commenting on my latest post, always good to meet positive people.