Month: July 2009

Buon Compleanno A Me!

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My 23rd birthday is finally when I feel like an adult. I’ve been a working, bill-paying, independent-living “adult” for a few years now. Even when I got married, I didn’t feel much like a grown-up. I was still in school and my dad was paying for part of my car.

Well now, at 23, I feel like a grown-up…. I’m done with classes. All the bills are on me. I found *several* gray hairs yesterday (no lie!!). I’m spending my birthday cleaning (to impress the family with my house-wifing skills when they visit this weekend).

I think this transition into adulthood makes me feel especially Golden. According to the UW-Madison Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, the term “Golden Birthday” originated in Wisconsin. They define it as, “the day on which your age in years matches the day of the month on which you were born, ie turning 21 on the 21st day of one’s birth month.”

As highly regarded as this university may be, I think they lacked in their research quite a bit. My entire Italy-born family knew what a Golden Birthday was before they immigrated to Milwaukee. Despite being a big fan of Milwaukee (and Italy) I don’t think either can take credit for the term. Sorry, UW-Madison CSUMC- you failed.

For birthday celebrations, today I’m buying pre-sale tickets to my favorite musical group of all time: Hanson! And then tomorrow, my husband is taking me to my favorite restaurant: The Melting Pot. More gushing about the both of those in another post.

As a side note, I do have to say the Wisconsin Englishes project is quite fascinating for anyone interested in regional dialects.

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Officially A Fitz

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It’s official, I no longer use my maiden name. The one place I haven’t changed it on record is at my university because I’m waiting until I get my diploma for my BA. After that, I will use my married name and apply with that for grad school.

Even before I changed important things like my Social Security card and my bank accounts, our mail started being addressed to me as Fitzgerald. I was ok with that.

It was a bit unsettling though, when I changed my name at work. I got a new mailbox file in a new location because I’m no longer in the A’s. Of course, no one told me so I thought maybe someone removed it because I was being fired (not likely but I’m far from being a valued employee). Even after I asked about my mailbox, no one decided to tell me that my log-in information had changed. We sign in using an ID that has part of our last name in it. They changed mine without warning me so I couldn’t log in properly. Maybe it was the lost feeling at work that made me upset, but I really didn’t like the change.

After a week of working with my new mailbox and what not, I was starting getting used to writing my new name over and over for things. It wasn’t until the attendance sheet at school that we have to sign, that I forgot which name to write. I’m still Azzarello at school, and it was a little sad that after today, I won’t get to write that anymore. (Today is my last day of classes.)

A lot of women are excited for their new last name. I would have been if I married into an Italian family but I didn’t so it’s definitely more traumatic than exciting for me. My name tells people where in Italy my family is from. Azzarello isn’t a common last name so that’s special too. If it were a perfect world, sharing last names wouldn’t be the norm and husbands taking their wives last names would be acceptable.

Side notes: I do like what my initials spell now and it was the inspiration for my tattoo. I want another leaf tattoo soon. And my new signature looks cool with the F instead of A.

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Blog-aissance

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As this blog has proved (Exhibit A), one of the traits I’m cursed with is starting projects and never finishing them. I have no good excuse for this.

Exhibit B: 6 months after my January wedding, I finally printed photos and filled the empty frames in my apartment. Said frames also still had the price stickers on them. Again, no good excuse.

Exhibit C: my summer goal list. I have a great excuse for not completing this one – summer school. With 9 credits to finish for my BA, I had to take 3 classes this summer, all staggered over 2 months.

Turns out, school this summer was more work than I thought it would be. Of course, I didn’t hesitate to use my great skipping & BSing skills to get through it.

I *did* read half of the “Comics” book for my pending review. I also squeezed in reading some Michael Crichton because he’s a literary genius.

Most of my free time this summer has been spent playing Word of Warcraft with my husband and spending time with my best friend/sister who is home from college. On Luciana’s list of priorities, the spouse&sis and WoW always come first :D

Summer isn’t over yet, though! Tomorrow is my final day as an undergrad. After that, I’ll work on my grad school application, finding a “grown-up” job and reading poolside. Life is tough.

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