I've Got A Name

I didn't know my real name until the second grade.  It wasn't because I was snatched at birth or being hidden from He Who Shall Not Be Named or anything dramatic like that, its just that no one bothered to tell me my real name until second grade.  Up until the well meaning but in retrospect really kind of dumb second grade teacher who spilled the beans, I thought my name was Carrie.

I have love/hate issues with being named Cairn, I love that being Cairn Rodrigues means I will never have to choose an email address with numbers or underscores, etc.  I hate that most people look at my name, automatically decide that the unfamiliar word is way beyond their scope and proceed to mangle my name like an idiot.  Usually in public.

cairn - A heap of stones set up as a landmark, monument or tombstone.

I am well past wondering why my mother gave my older siblings normal names and tagged me with this obscurity, but what's done is done.  Changing my name was never an option, I am what I am and I did not even take Clyde's last name when we married.  I came into this world as Cairn Rodrigues and I am going out the same way.

I have had rocks on the brain for the last few days as the short story gets written.  (Wanderer starts right here on February 1!) Two nights ago, I had a revelation about my name; one of those exciting ideas that I wish I had thought up a decade ago, but oh well, better late than never.  It occurred to me that I was bestowed with a built-in alias, a symbol that clearly states my name to anyone anywhere anytime; well anyone who knows what a cairn is and that there is also a Cairn.

I have embarked on a new side career as a tagger!  What I love about it is that no spray paint is required, no special artistic skill and very little breaking of the law.  Spray paint is expensive, I have no skills in the drawing arts and, despite my anarchist heart, I'm not much of a scofflaw in real life.  So random piles of rocks suit me perfectly, Mom must have been much smarter than I gave her credit for, and if you see one of those piles of rocks in an odd setting, please know this:  CAIRN WAS HERE.

Once my big idea became my life's work (about 4 minutes after I had the idea), I knew exactly where to start my grand tour.  Yesterday Clyde and I cruised over to South Sacramento and tagged my old high school.  Go Titans Class of '82!!!!!!

And one last thing, lest any of you forget how much I love my homages, shout outs and Easter eggs:

Fight the power!