Names and places

A classmate of mine is getting married this summer and has gone back and forth between taking her fiance’s last name and keeping her own (and, of course, all the possible combinations of the two).  Watching her go through this, I was glad I didn’t have to do all that again.  Although I really like my maiden name, Erin Birdsong Penner just sounded too heavy to me (and I always use my full name), so I guess I’ll save it for something else.  Taking Sydney’s name is, I’ve always thought, simply easier.

Well!  A couple of days ago I went to the library to check out some books and spend some time in my carrel.  Some other person’s books and papers were there!  He even had pictures up–he’d moved in!  I raced down to the library office to figure out why I’d been dropped from their records, and there I was told that I had requested a change of location.  News to me!  But when she insisted she remembered my name from the petitions for changed carrel locations, four floors up, I suddenly said, “Oh!  You’ve confused my husband and me!”  Yes, I know, tact was lacking in my initial response.  But we figured out that she had seen Sydney’s petition for a changed carrel and, by mistake, changed me instead.  He’s actually been living in his new carrel all semester long, but I had had no home for several months.  I’ve been spending most of my time on north campus because that’s where I’m teaching this year, but I’d been counting on carrel space when my department office got too busy with four or five graduate students holding student conferences at the same time.  In the end, I got a nicer carrel than the one I’d had, all the way at the back of the floor (less likely to be used by undergrads) and with a bit more space and light.  Woohoo!  Now, I just have to make sure they don’t drop me in future renewal sessions!

Erin