The birth of me

[susandennis]

I got the papers today to initiate my IBM pension (I should have done this 18 months ago. I have already left a wad o' cash on the table, dagnabit!) and they need my birth certificate.

I have purged so much paper in this house that there are precious few places to even look for shit like that. I found it in place number 2. And for the first time in my life, I actually looked at the details. Thanks to Google, I could even get details on the details!!



(Yes, I totally get the risk of exposure here. I have given it thoughtful consideration and decided I can live with any consequences.)

I love that while my father's job details are duly noted, there are not even slots to slug in my mom's.

I never went to 110 Clinton Ave. when I was in New York but Google's Street view makes it look lovely! And it looks like a tree grows in Brooklyn, indeed. My folks used to describe their apartment in this house as a walk in closet. The refrigerator was in the living room because the kitchen was too small for it.








The three of us only lived there about a year. Before my sister was born, we split for New Jersey.  

I also found two social security cards - the original that I got when I was a teenager and the replacement that I got in my 30's when I got married and changed my name.  As I recall the replacement arrived about a month after the marriage ended.  I had contemplated changing my name again to separate it from my husband's but going through the hassle was just too much trouble and that was back when it was easy!

Comments

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Yay, you were born!

[kyrielle]

Hee. I saw the birth certificate, thought "I'd better comment--no, wait, this is Susan, she thought this through" and then read your note below to that effect.

I can learn!

And that is a pretty street view.

[susandennis]

hehe!! You can learn indeed!!! I'm impressed.

[legalmoose]

The SocSec Card, et al., is exactly why my no-delay-in-answering answer to his tentative name change question was "I'm not changing my name." Period, end of story, no discussion entertained. Which *really* set him back, but I'm not budging. Too. Much. Paperwork.

And that's before you get into the whole emotional mess of my name having a roman numeral (which it shouldn't, since I'm named after Dad, but my Suthun relatives didn't want me to be "Junior" for the rest of my life - a decision I thank them for on a regular basis). And the fact that my last name is a nice, easy to spell WASPy thing (Grant), versus his french two word name that doesn't quite fit on standard forms (Le Brasseur). And the idea of hyphenating them? Ugh.

So, yeah, no. Not changing it. :)

So I totally agree, if you've done it once, never do it again. Too. Much. Paperwork.

[susandennis]

SMART!

I hated my maiden name - everyone always mispronounced it and misspelled it - so I grabbed my husband's name without thinking.

Once my name became Susan Dennis, everyone started calling me Sandy.

i love that my birth certificate looks like that

[henare.livejournal.com]

however, if you have reason to go get a new one it's a crummy computer-printed thing (with a dot-matrix printer!) ... they only go and copy the original if you have a special need for that (like if you need the details on parents).

[howeird]

Almost fell out of my chair when I saw that. It's the same form as mine (which I posted a few weeks ago, when I was running for president). I thought you were born in NorLina, how come they have the same certificate as NYC?

And then I read The Rest of the Story.

Small world.

[jawnbc]

Mine's the same too! But I too was born in NYC (Manhattan, ahem).

[howeird]

I was born in Hell's Kitchen, but only half-baked.