Don't Be a Fool, Stryker!

I'm not really what you'd call a SNAG, actually (that's Sensitive New Age Guy, for those not in the know). But I do feel some empathy for Mike Buday of Los Angeles who has enlisted the aid of the ACLU to sue the state of California to make it easier for him to take his wife's last name.

Now, Emily and I are NOT OFFICIALLY ENGAGED. This is a very important detail to remember. NOT OFFICIALLY ENGAGED. NOT NOT NOT. But we discuss such matters with increasing frequency. So we're maybe Planning to Be Engaged at Some Nearish Future Date. Amongst our discussions, we've come to the conclusion that neither of us has any particular attachment to our surnames. I don't have any particular problem with mine, but I feel no driving need to keep/perpetuate it, either. Em is not really a huge fan of her last name, either, so she's more than willing to change it.

So, progressive, cutting-edge types that we are, we're probably both going to change to something entirely new when the time comes. The front-runner so far is Stryker, which combines most of the letters of our current surnames, and is a totally kickass name, to boot. Plus, if we were to have kids--that's IF, mind you, not when but IF (Hi, Mom!)--we could give them cool names like Ace and Duke. Seriously, who's going to mess with Duke Stryker? Duke Stryker is probably packing heat, and probably knows 17 ways to kill a man unarmed. And they'll probably grow up to be something cool, like superspies or glamorous international jewel thieves.

Anyway, when we discussed such things, I always just assumed that it would be a simple matter of going down to the County office, filling out a couple of forms and paying a $50 fee. Not nearly so simple, as it turns out. You have to fill out a ton of forms, undergo a criminal background check (not too surprising, when you think about it), appear before a judge or magistrate, publish intent to change your name in the newspaper at least three times over 21 days...yeesh.