divine angst

Psuedo-inspired by Soup, I am trying to come up with a new AIM moniker.

My current screen name is, basically, my maiden name. That’s fine for using with the people who know me in person, but not so good for using with people who DON’T know me in person. Likewise, I do have some variation of “divine angst” but I never use it—and I probably won’t. What if I want to message folks I know in person who I also don’t want to know I have a blog?

What I’d like is a screen name I can give to all the people who know me in person as well as all the people who read my blog, that won’t reference either my real identity or the blog. Yes? Make sense?

Any suggestions are welcome and, in fact, encouraged. Help out a girl. Give her a new AIM screen name.

Update: What’s the opinion on LawofKristine? I kind of like it. It’s fun. It’s catchy. It suggests that I rule the world.

Update 2: dancinKristine?

With Mr. Angst’s good news of yesterday, we are in exactly the position I feared we’d be in: we are both accepted to schools in both of our target cities. And now we have to decide where to move.

Part of me had been hoping all along that the decision would be made for us by some admissions committee somewhere. It certainly would make things easier if that had been the case. Instead, though, we have to be grownups and choose between our options ourselves.

So we’re composing lists of pros and cons. Which I do a lot of, but hate. In this case, I particularly dislike the pro-con method of decision making, because my pros and cons are so very even for both locations. Essentially, I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I would love to go law school in that cold, windy city. But I don’t want to go if it means I’d never see my husband, who would be in class at night. I know he would love to be a student in our nation’s capital, but I am still ambivalent about the law school I’d be going to there. If only we could fold time and space and put the two cities together. The best of both worlds!

I feel like I’ve been trying to prepare for this moment for weeks now, only to realize that I’m not prepared at all! I feel completely adrift. What do I want? What does Mr. Angst want? Where will we be happy? Where will we be successful? Who makes the bigger sacrifice?

Expect more of this kind of musing in the days to come.

1. Who is an author whose work you’ve never read, but want to?

I’m not sure I can think of any authors like this; usually if I want to read something, I read it. I will admit that part of me wishes I could say I’ve read Ulysses, just because it’s such a bear of a book, and I think that will impress people. But the Joyce I’ve read doesn’t make me really want to read it, I just think it will impress people.

But I’ll pick someone. Today, I’d say Chuck Palahniuk, because my friend Emily constantly raves about how great his stuff is. Even Mr. Angst liked Fight Club (although he said he thought the movie was better). If not Palahniuk, then Kerouac. I know, it’s awful, I’ve never even read On the Road. (Sorry, SG.)

2. Can men and women be friends?

I used to think so until my two best guy friends from high school stopped calling me. In both cases, I suspect their girlfriends had a little something to do with it, but I can’t say that with 100% confidence. It may be that they, having girlfriends, decided they couldn’t be friends with me on their own. I honestly always thought I’d be friends with those two guys forever. Now I can’t even find them on Google.

I do think men and women can be friends, but I think the situations where that can comfortably occur are not common. It is true that the sex thing does get in the way, so it’s probably easiest to be friends with a member of the opposite sex if you’re both involved with someone else—seriously involved, like married. I think that makes it easier. Which isn’t to say that two unattached people of the opposite sex can’t be friends, but it’s probably harder to maintain. And then, if either of them does meet someone, the new significant other will invariably have a hard time understanding the friendship. And then you get my two best guy friends ditching me after a decade and a half of friendship.

So, maybe.

3. If you could choose to live in a different time period, would you? If so, when would live and why?

I’m not sure I’d want to live in a different era. I think I fit into this time period pretty well. I think life in Victorian England would be interesting to experience, but I seriously doubt I’d want to stay there. Ditto for the American West in the late 19th century—interesting, but not a place I think I’d want to live forever and ever. At least in the latter, I’d have some freedoms as a woman, freedoms I could just forget about in the former time period.

4. Have you ever sold anything, bought anything, or processed anything as a career? Have you ever sold anything bought or processed, or bought anything sold or processed, or repaired anything sold, bought, or processed, as a career?

Probably.

5. They’re going to make a movie about your life. What’s the theme song?

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Stones. It’s the rest of the chorus that keeps replaying in my mind lately: “But if you try, sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.” Yeah. That’s my life right now. I am trying to get what I need, despite all the things I want.

Thanks for the questions, Fitz-Hume and Milbarge!