Wednesday, March 5, 2008

things you should know about tim johnson -

when we met,
(keep in mind i was 22),
i didn't want him to be "tim".

"tim" seemed so not him,
not unique enough, not tall enough, not blue-eyed enough, not blonde enough,
not enough enough,
so i wanted him to change his name.

(remember, again, i was 22. these were the things i thought were normal to ask.)

i thought, hell, i wasn't always "landis",
so surely he can change his name.

so i suggested "gray". think about it: gray johnson.
now THAT is a cool name.
and yes, much of it had to do with the thought of us being called
gray and landis. landis and gray.
it worked for me.

he kind of chuckled, and told me that he had plenty of names to choose from,
that maybe i could use one of his other given names.

so i took the bait and asked,
what are they?

he is, officially, on the birth certificate and all:
timothy michael thaddeus francis johnson.

at that point, i knew he would never be:
mike, tad, thad, fran, frank, deus . . .
or gray.

because he was tim. and that was all he would ever need to be.

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

did you and tim happen to see yet another one of these:

http://fashionista.com/2008/03/so_are_you_like_obsessed.php

Landis said...

did not see, and LOVE seeing.

means all the hard work might have some impact.

(we're not closing down, by the way. far from it.)

Whiskeymarie said...

Damn. I need to get to ON soon, before all of the good stuff is gone.

Oh, and? This was a sweet, sweet post. Loved it.

stacy said...

glorious story!

Alice Olive said...

This is an extremely cute story! I have to say that Landis and Thaddeus sounds pretty good. Try saying very quickly three times. Maybe down a glass of champers first to mix things up alittle.

Gretta said...

What do you mean you weren't always Landis??? TELL!!

Bruce? Thor? Bertrecht? (sorry, I met a really cute boy in Amsterdam named Bertrecht).