D to L

i'm changing my name. there: i said it, i posted it, its out in the virtual world so now it must be done. i'm usually pretty good about making decisions. and pretty happy when i've made one. i felt for sure when i got married that i wanted to keep my last name. sure, its difficult to spell and say and its long. but its unique and people love to say it and call me by it (why i don't know b/c if you say it wrong, you aren't my friend) and i do love it. but then i had a  kid. and we're trying to travel and eventually she'll be in school and she'll have to learn how to spell it and explain to people why mommy and daddy's names are diffierent (not that that would really matter much). maybe i was just being lazy and didn't want to go through the process. or i was falling back on my feminist ways where i really wanted to keep my own name and be my own person in our marraige, until i realized (and i'm stealing this from a friend) that being a family is being a team - you need a team name and a team motto and a team shirt. and i'm not really part of the team if i don't have the team name.
the part that i was the most worried about when making this decision was telling my dad. he was so happy i was dr. d. but when i told him, he didn't seem to care much. i don't think he was actually listening. or maybe he really didn't care. at least my diploma will still say it. and he has two sons.
so i'll keep my name as  my middle name (i'll probably keep my middle name too or else there would be no more AND and i love the AND). so you can still call me d. b/c it will still be my name. i'll just have another after that.