Laughing. Almost. Too. Hard. To. Type.

[truepenny]

So, I'm a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

So is my mom.

Many years ago, Phi Beta Kappa, as an organization, decided that my mom and I are the same person (I think something went squirrelly when I informed them of my name change upon getting married, but I've never been sure). I called to explain that, no, we were two different people, thank you (There was a pause, and then the customer service woman said, in tones of deepest disapprobation, "That's just a stupid mistake," which may be the best response I have ever gotten from someone who has to answer phones for a living.), and there for a while we were, in fact, two different people. But then Mercury went into retrograde or something, and we became one person again. I decided life is too short to bother with nonsense like this, especially as neither Mom nor I is what you might call an active member of the organization, so I let it slide. Mom doesn't care, I don't care, Phi Beta Kappa is confused.

I just went and got the mail, and found the inevitable culmination of this state of affairs: a certificate congratulating me on my fiftieth anniversary of membership in Phi Beta Kappa.

This would ordinarily just be mildly annoying, but the fact that Phi Beta Kappa is a honors organization with an exceptionally lofty and self-congratulatory self-image makes it so funny that I may never stop smirking.

Also? Dear Phi Beta Kappa, what's with this "Mrs." nonsense? That's DOCTOR Monette to you.

---

Congratulations, Mom.

Comments

[slimequeen.livejournal.com]

I have my mom's middle name as my first name. When I was 16, I discovered that my hometown hospital had me listed in their computer as being married to my dad. The clerk had the funniest look on her face when I told her about the error, but my expression probably wasn't any better.

The Department of Motor Vehicles did that to me once.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I went in to register my very first car, and handed all the paperwork to the clerk behind the counter. She said, "You owe taxes on this car from last year."

"But I've never owned a car before!"

"Listen, sister (or words to that effect), it says right here that you do!"

I finally asked to see the screen, and it showed my mother's name, not mine. "Ma'am, that says "Catherine", not "Christine". She still didn't believe me. Finally, her supervisor came over, read my driver's license, read my paperwork, read the screen, and confirmed to her I wasn't the same person as my mother. She didn't even apologize.

[(Anonymous)]

My mother had to be firm with Phi Beta Kappa a couple of times. I don't know if she was their first female-type member or what (she landed that honor about the time women got the vote), but they kept addressing her as Mr. Dadname. _She_ was the member, not him.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Both my mom and I are members, too. She passed her fiftieth anniversary awhile ago.

[ckd]

hr_macgirl is named after her grandmother. One year, we wanted to take Gran to Ireland, so we had to buy plane tickets.

The airline found it hard to sell two tickets for the same name on the same record locator. This is not completely silly. The solution was simple, though; list Gran as "Mrs" and hr_macgirl as "Ms". Disambiguation complete!

[nymeria87.livejournal.com]

Heh, my our health insurance was utterly convinced that me and my husband must be the same people - and for some reason like to switch genders once in a while. The problem was a) the similarity of our names Stephanie and Stephen (pronounced 'Stephan') and b) the fact that at the time we signed up for it I didn't have a social security number yet. Ergo the reasoning of the insurance company: 2 incredibly similar names + 1 social = one and the same person. Logical? Suuuure.

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

I think I'll smirk with you, a bit, if you don't mind.

*smirks*

[libskrat]

Huh. Phi Beta Kappa lost track of me when I moved to Fairfax. Last I checked, I guess, it was such a PITA to update my address with them that I hadn't bothered.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure they know my married name. Oh well.

[pianodan.livejournal.com]

When I was informed that I had gotten into PBK at CWRU, the dean didn't realize I had two years left to run, but by the time she figured it out, it was too late. I actually went to the initiation ceremony at University of Maryland, because I was home for the summer. That was odd. Case's PBK chapter inducts like ten people a year. U of M's ceremony was in a ballroom.

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

I birthed Puppy on my birthday.

This leads to No End Of Trouble with various official people, who simply cannot fathom it could be true. "No, that's really his birthday." "No, I didn't make a mistake filling out the form." "Seriously, could we please move him In to the triage now? Because his birthday is Right There. If it makes you feel better, you can pretend mine is a different day."