What's In A Title?

Saturday morning, I awoke - before sunrise - by the ringing of Alexander's work phone. I can faintly hear the voice on the other end asking if his wife is there. I can't hear who it is but I hear Alexander's reply, "Is everything ok? I will see if she is available."

Ummm, "I will see if she is available" must mean me (right?) and I'm thinking, I'm right here, where else would your wife be at 5:30 on a Saturday morning?!?!? What, do you need to search through the bevy of women in your bed to see if your wife is available? Helllooo, I'm right here and despite whatever fantasy you may have, I am the only woman in the bed (and will be as long as he wants to live).

I take the phone and on the other end is a co-worker of Alexander's who needed assistance on how to be nice to a person - you remember, I get paid to be nice to people....anyway, I walk through the scenario with him and tell him I will see him at the office shortly for further assistance. All is good, right? Wrong!

On my night stand sits my blackberry, silent. You see, Alexander and I work for the same organization but at different branches, 70 miles apart. I have worked there for 7 years and was always known by my name, my work capabilities and my title (a title I will admit, i am quite proud of as it reflects my 14 years of on the job experience and 6 years of education and hard work that earned me this title within this organization) but the day I married Alexander, I became, Alexander's wife. Co-workers introduce me as, Andrew's wife. I will ask a question and the answer will be told to Alexander to relay to me. I send an email, Alexander gets the reply.

So I'm pacing around the room complaining about the loss of my identity to the very man I'm feeling I lost my identity to. His response, "sorry you keep getting identified as my wife. that must be a bummer, you worked really hard to get where you are. Sorry."

That's when it hit me...I waited 30 plus years to find the ideal mate so that I could change my Miss title to Mrs. and here I am complaining to the man that has made me happier than I can imagine and he's apologizing for me being known as his wife. Am I crazy?!?! There's no other title I could wish for.