Could this be me?

Soooo, besides getting flipped off by small women driving large SUV's, what else has Cookie been up to.

1. I am back in therapy.  After I got a freaked out about the shrink that I was seeing being married to my physician, I asked a neighbor who is a shrink themselves if they knew of anyone who was taking new patients.  She did not, but she would ask around.

She came back with a name and I love this new shrink.  No, it is not a physical thing, and it is not romantic - I'm not that crazy - BUT in the six sessions with him, he's really brought out a lot of stuff that I have been pushing down, deep, deep down. I look forward to the sessions, but I feel tremendous when they are over.

2. I found out that I have a "whisp" of Asperger's syndrome and a lot of OCD.  The Aspergers is related to my inability to read nuanced reactions in people.  Fair enough.  My introversion, my fixation on automobiles (single topic fixation) and a few other things point in that direction.  So, am I Sheldon?  Not quite.  But we'll work through this and live with it now that we know it has a name.

3. We had our sister in law and her daughter, our 27 year old niece, visit last week and it was nice to get be with them away from the stress of my inlaws.  I introduced them as "our sister in law and our niece" to a friend who is a manager of a restaurant that we frequent.    Sister in law gave me a big hug and thanked me calling her and the niece by those titles.  I guess its a rare occassion when it happens, because they are out in Chicago and the rest of my late brother in law's family is on the east coast.

4. My name change is official and legal, but we have run into a bump.  In the OLD days, if you born and named John Quentin Public, you could choose to either use your full name, or a shortened version of "John Q. Public".  Each was simply accepted.

NOW in the era of hyper security and identity theft, whatever the name is on your birth certificate (or name change order) is your official name that must be used, in FULL for all official purposes.

I didn't know that when I changed my name.  When I changed my name, I took the husband's last name as mine, I kept first name.  I kept my middle name BUT I added my former last name as a second middle name.  That way, I could keep my fingers in that family circle. Besides the first letters of each name rhyme so it gives my full name a cadence that is pleasing to my ear.

I will never be this hot, or a Latino, either.

BUT, what I am finding is that since my FULL, four part name has to be on everything, that people are thinking that I have two surnames, which is incorrect.  So I get a lot of "well Mr. A-B...."  Which makes me have to correct them, "No, its just Mr. B.", and make them want to make a big deal.

None of us saw this problem when I sounded it out with the husband, the attorney, a couple people at a cocktail party, etc.  But when it comes with dealing with the government agencies, Air Lines, Insurance companies and the credit unions, its a hassle.

5.  After all of that, I need a time with Carlos Ponce.  You can enjoy him too.