What better way to mark a new chapter in life than by launching a new blog! The name change alone seems occasion enough, my move from San Francisco to Friendsville more occasion-worthy still.
That said, since those two changes together do fairly scream, “Witness Protection” to those of you who know me as “Tara” and might have wondered at my sudden disappearance from the SF/Web 2.0 scene, something tells me I’ve got some explaining to do…
So what’s up with the whole Tara/Tess thing anyway?
Okay, so here’s the deal: for those of you who know me as “Tess,” my given name is actually “Tara.” For those of you who know me as “Tara,” you should know that about a year ago I started going by “Tess” instead. Why in the world did I do that?
Reason #1: George Bush Ruined my Name.
Huh? Now, before you Republican friends of mine go and take offense, this isn’t a political statement on my part. It’s a linguistic one. You see, when George Bush declared his “War on Terror” eight years ago, his flat Texan pronunciation of the word made it sound like he’d declared a war on me. Suddenly I couldn’t turn on the radio or the TV without hearing that “Tara was a grave threat to our nation” and how “We must marshal all our resources to stop Tara.” Worse yet, unlike his widely-mocked pronunciation of the word “nuclear,” his peculiar way of pronouncing “Terror” as “Tara” went mainstream.
You probably think I jest, but trust me, you wouldn’t like it if your name was turned overnight into a homophone of great evil!
Reason #2: “Did you say Pat Anderson?”
As if Reason #1 wasn’t incentive enough for me to draw another name from the hat, there was also the curious and befuddling phenomenon of “Pat”. You see, weird as I know this will sound, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called someone and left a message, only to have them return my call with, “Hi, may I speak with Pat Anderson?” Again you say, “huh?” Tell me about it! “Sara” I could understand, even “Lara” or “Kara,” but “Pat?”
As for why this annoyed me, obviously, it’s not that there’s anything wrong with the name “Pat.” It’s just that, having so many people think that’s what I’d said left me feeling like I was completely unintelligible. So naturally, I reacted as any sane person would: I h-a-t-e-d them:-) All exaggeration aside, this was an awkward way to begin a conversation, and the dread of it hung over me every time I picked up the phone to call anyone but my parents and close friends. Given how much time my work has me on the phone, this was no petty annoyance. It was a vexingly persistent and frequent inconvenience.
Reason #3: The Quilt Monster
“You mean, there’s more?” Well, this one isn’t a reason so much as more fuel to the fire….
As anyone who’s ever googled themselves knows, no matter how unique your name may seem, there are sure to be lots of other people out there with that same name. No problem there. I mean, most of the time it’s immediately apparent who’s who, even though their names are identical. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case on Flickr, which I use, love and adore. And it’s only because everyone I know uses, loves and adores flickr, too, that I was distressed to discover the tag “taraanderson” being affixed to gobs and gobs of photos that had nothing to do with me. Ordinarily, this isn’t an issue, but since the photos in question were of inanimate objects, it would take you a few clicks to find out they weren’t mine….
So what were these photos of exactly that I found so monumentally objectionable? Quilts! I know, I know: you were expecting something more salacious. But no, they were just innocent ‘ole close-ups of fabric and stitching. And the problem with this would be….?
Well, a few quilt photos I could take, but there are literally hundreds of them. Oh great, I’m thinking, now everyone I know is going to think I’m some craft-happy spinster armed with a glue gun who spends far too much time and money at Michael’s when she’s not home minding her nine cats.
I rest my case.
[Psss: should the real “taraanderson” behind those photos ever read this, may I just say that your quilts are lovely and I’m sure your boyfriend is wonderful and your social life perfectly happening…].
Now for the cruel irony:
And so, after much deliberation, when I had the opportunity to start a new job in a new community last year, I picked a name I’d always loved–“Tess”– and, thought, why not?! All went swimmingly those first few months, I, giddy at the prospect of every phone call made as easy-to-understand “Tess,” my new acquaintances none the wiser of the change, and my friends virtually done teasing me about the change when….
Showtime went and announced the debut of a show about a woman with multi-personality disorder called—you guessed it—“The United States of Tara.” Just my luck. I mean, here I go and change my name, and now there’s a show that indirectly makes a mockery of a Tara who wants to go by any other name! Oh well, I’m still sticking by the change. So those who know me as Tess, carry on. And those who know me as Tara (Mom, Dad, Thor, Amy….you know who you are), I still answer to Tara!
What a fun read…and I even learned a few new things ( I didn’t realize there were that many quilt photos posted by the ever industrious taraanderson).
I’m just going to call you “Pookie”
Good luck with your move and I hope you settle in nicely!! It is slightly weird to leave SF/Web2.0 behind and walk into an environment where everybody are not obsesses about the tech stuff. I just moved back to London, UK.
Uhm, I used to say Tara2 not to confuse you with Tara H