Brian York's Life

Name changing is a difficult business

Written on June 19, 2008

Well, I’m now at the end of my first couple of weeks of married life. It’s different, but not that different. Actually, the fact that classes start in a few days is far more significant to me right at the moment. Of course, that’s probably partly because I’m starting graduate school, and things are likely to be very different for me once I’m there. But, at least in part, it’s also because school, and more broadly my research, is such an important part of my life.

Fortunately, Morgan understands this completely (and is at least as excited as I am about getting back to school). We’re both really passionate about what we do, and we both consider our education to be really important. We also have goals and dreams, and we aren’t satisfied unless we’re working towards them. That’s actually one of the things that makes me the most optimistic about this marriage — we both have places that we want to go, and we’re both committed to reaching our goals, and then finding new goals afterwards.

This past week has also been memorable for other reasons. I’m finally playing early music again (Morgan’s been involved in the SCA for quite awhile, and she’s managed to get together a group that meets alternate Mondays). So I had fun playing a bunch of pieces I remember from high school (when I was in a consort that met at Carleton University in Ottawa). I enjoyed playing the pieces so much in Ottawa that I was really enthusiastic about starting again here. It was an incredible amount of fun, and I’m looking forward to the next practise. We need a bass recorder though. And crumhorns. Oh well, when we have the money we’ll get them.

To make things complete, we also went to an SCA dance practice on Tuesday. This was actually my first SCA event ever, so I guess that’s a milestone of sorts. It was meeting in a park, which was nice, because we were able to dance on the basketball court (a nice floor surface) while the children (of which there were several) could either join in or go to the massive playground there (most chose the playground). I like the style of dancing, and I “learned” (part-learned, at least) a whole bunch of different dances. I’m told that this group does things differently from almost everywhere else, and is somewhat set in their ways, but that doesn’t really bother me, because I don’t actually know any other steps. I’m already thinking of adapting some of these dances for precision skating.

Speaking of which, I’m probably going to start skating again this fall. Likely only dance, along with precision if I can find a team (I’d like to finish my gold dances, and I really enjoyed precision at Mount Allison). The local CFSA club is meeting in Esquimalt currently (until the (very late) new arena is finished), so it looks like I’ll have to skate with the University (and probably not actually take lessons) for at least the first part of the term (getting out to Esquimalt would be rather difficult). Oh well, I’ll find a way somehow.

Last entry, I talked about my new name. Changing your name (even for a marriage) is difficult. The certificate only arrived very recently (and everyone wanted either a photocopy or the original), and I’ve been going everywhere getting things updated. At least I now have (some) ID in the new name (it doesn’t help that I’m changing my province of residence at the same time, of course), although having one of my credit cards in each name makes things, well, interesting (I keep having to remember which name to sign where). Oh well, it’ll all be over soon (I hope).

I think that’s everything for the moment. I’m incredibly excited about getting back to classes, and I’m really looking forward to this coming year. So, on that note, I’m going to get back to getting ready for school.

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Entry last updated September 4, 2004