The other night I laid in bed awake, completely unable to sleep. Wonderman and I had just had a discussion that I found deeply troubling. He, on the other hand, was beginning to softly snore.
Randomly and for no particular reason, we had been talking about names for our future children. Don't get excited, the babies are still just twinkles in our eyes, nothing cooking anywhere else. However, it is kind of a fun future-planning, castles-in-the-air kind of activity. At all the names I suggested, Wonderman laughed a little. I, of course, cannot give examples here because, like every self-respecting woman, I am certain that my names are the best ever and I can't have anyone stealing my ideas. Still, for purposes of general description, I will simply say that I find old-fashioned and unique names appealing. I'm not quite as uniqueness-bound as
TAMN, but I definitely don't want my kids to have to be known by First Name Last Name, because there are three others with that First Name. That is kind of lame. They should be alone in their classes, as far as names go. He told me it sounded like I wanted to set my kids up for a lifetime of teasing. I tried to explain the generation of made-up ridiculous names they would be born into, but he didn't seem to comprehend that. Sigh.
Wonderman did not offer any of his own suggestions. I guess he hasn't been planning all the details of child-raising for most of his life, quite like I have. (PS, this is secret, ok? I usually try to maintain the persona of that woman who is super cool and super intelligent and has all kinds of mad goals connected to education and career who will probably eventually have children, but is in no way basing any part of her life on it or planning around it. Ok? Pinkie swear? Good.)
Anyways (wink), I realized as we talked that Wonderman and I are driven by completely opposite incentives. Where I find value in standing out and being different, he generally just wants to blend in. I am mostly aware of this in how we dress. It really hit home when I bought him a purple dress shirt last year for Christmas, and with his bright blues eyes I
knew it would make him look HOT. I think he wore it once, just to make me happy. I, on the other hand, wear all kinds of things that are not . . . shall we say, entirely conventional. I consider it major progress that I no longer consider it a threat to my individuality to shop somewhere like Old Navy.
I promise, this connects to baby names. I don't think Wonderman would mind if our children share their names with half their classmates. Perhaps it's because his name is not wildly unique and he turned out great. I don't even have any idea when these kids will show up, but I'm already concerned about the rounds we'll be going before we can fill out the birth certificates.
Conclusion: Opposites attracting is a romantic notion, but it definitely has it's pitfalls. But maybe if he can sleep on it, it means that I will eventually win this fight. I'm going to count on that.
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