Names, or a Rose by any Other Name

I think that Shakespeare may have been wrong, when he had Romeo say that a rose by another name would smell as sweet. Okay only partially wrong, it would smell as sweet, but with the wrong name would we even bend down to smell it? Names and words are important.

I'm back from my trip and want to write about the many adventures we had, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a name for my friend. Screen names or blog names are unique, and reflect the individuality of the person. I had no problem with my screen name, or my husband's screen name, or the screen "identifiers" of the students I write about. Heck, I even came up with two screen names for my friend's husband; but for this special friend it has been so hard!

I tried anagrams of her name, and they were not flattering! One thing about this friend is that she is ALWAYS RIGHT (except on rare occasions, when she is not) so I tried to have that phrase translated into Latin, because Latin is a classic language, but it just didn't fit, somehow semper rectus, did not bring up the best picture. We both have undergraduate degrees in English, so words mean a lot to us. I tried the anagram of always right and the two that were "possible" Gail Tsar Way and Galaway Shirt, weren't right either.

So we tried her favorite gem, Garnet, but that didn't fit, although we pondered Argent an anagram of garnet, and did some research on the word,but that wasn't it either. She liked the concept, Argenta wasn't too bad, and we felt we were closer, but still not there. We've chatted on the phone, and looked up a gazillion things that she fancies, but still we weren't quite on target.

I've been thinking about her screen name and it important to me for her to have a good screen because she has been such a good friend. We met because our children became friends. We both have sons, only sons. We did cub scouts together, helped each other raise the boys, stood by each other through a variety of life's challenges. We've been through so much together that to try and list it, would fill the Internet.

Our relationship has grown over the years to be more like sisters, and since neither one of us have sisters, only brothers, we've formed a "club". We are the founding charter members of "The Sisterhood of the Cheese Breadsticks".

We would go shopping or run errands and need to talk, but there wasn't a place to sit and talk in the grocery store or wherever, so we would go to a local pizza parlor, order cheese breadsticks and a coke, and could sit and talk. It became a tradition. Now that our sons are married we have extended the membership to include our daughters-in-law.

The initiation is simple, it takes two of us, we take the daughter-in-law out for cheese breadsticks, at any pizza parlor. We each hold up a cheese breadstick and one of us recites our ritual, "To the men who brought us together". After that we eat the cheese breadsticks. We also share the sum of our wisdom about marriage. That can be stated in two sentences. First, it takes two people to make a marriage work and second, one cannot choose the mother-in-law they will have, only the mother-in-law they will be. We've also added a third piece of advice and that is that short women should not wear strappy sandals.

I haven't quite resolved the name issue, but I'm leaning toward Margarita Prairie Rose. It has meaning and I think fits her.

Let me know what ya think. How did y'all pick some of your screen names? By the way Margarita Prairie Rose is also an educator. By the way cheese fries can be substituted for the cheese breadsicks.