A cell phone picture of Jed and me on our first date. Of course my roommates made him karaoke when he brought me home. Of course.
Sarah
Manfriend’s name is Jed.
Jed is short for Jedediah Grant B-something, which is as heroic and 19th-century sounding as any name I know. When Reija first heard I was dating Jed, she said, “Jedediah and Sarah. You sound like pioneers.”
I think this is an analogy we like. Jed is one of the only men I know who’s read the Little House on the Prairie book series. And—here’s the hot kicker—he enjoyed it. He even occasionally alludes to it. “Eating that much food makes me think of Farmer Boy, where all Almanzo does is eat and eat and eat.” Or “that’s pretty much all I know about plowing, and I’m pretty sure I learned it all from Little House.” (Not that plowing comes up much in our conversations. It’s possible I imagined that conversation.)
Topic change. At the beginningish of our fourth date, as Jed was driving us to a schmancy Italian restaurant, he turned to me and said, “So. B. Not the best last initial for you.” It was our fourth date. “Actually,” I said,” “it’s pretty much the worst last initial for me.”
Sarah Louise Olson B-something. S.L.O.B. Or, because four names is really sort of unmanageable, S.O.B.
Not my best last initial.
This is a tension we have not yet resolved.
Jed and I knew that at some point I would reveal his name on the Apron Stage. We were just waiting for the right moment. In the mean time, I kept slipping. Did any of you catch that? I’d write a post about Manfriend, but then half way through I’d say, “Jed bing bong bing,” without realizing I’d done it. One day I wrote about Jed and how much I like him, and that afternoon I asked him what he thought about it. I was hoping he’d say something tender or sweet or, I don’t know, about how much he loved me for writing such nice things about us/him. What he said was this: “In the post you called me Jed. Weren’t you thinking you’d make a bigger deal about it when you revealed it?” He looked disappointedish. I apologized. Then laughed. And I went back and did what I always did—I changed the “Jed” back to “Manfriend.”
(Note/confession: When AS readers who know Jed would comment using his name, I would change those too. But in those cases, I would change the “Jed” to “that guy.” I laughed every single time I did it.)
I’m writing this post about Jed aka Manfriend aka My Little Juice Glass (we are accruing an idiosyncratic and semi-ironic set of pet names for each other; how do people become “babe” and “hon” type people?) because yesterday was Jed’s birthday. And in addition to the other things I gave him—those tickets, that private pilates tutorial, that gmail account (turns out email addresses are a free and totally awesome gift, very 21st century), and that 34-oz steak—I wanted to give back what has always been his: his name.
Manfriend, thy name is Jed. Happy birthday, you two.
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March 29, 2010 at 6:40 am
living in zion
Jed is a great name, especially where I live. I have a ton of Amish and Mennonite clients and Jed ( and Sarah) are very common names in those communities. Good, solid, respectable names.
I also live three hours from Laura and Almanzo Wilders home and farm. You can take a tour of their home and even see the real fiddle Pa played. Any man who read the books and can reference them is amazing.
I am telling ya, Sarah – the more I know about your Manfriend, the more I am thinking ” This is SO completely obvious! What are these two kids waiting for ???” I understand the whole courtship thang, but holy cow, when its meant to be, its meant to be.
Jed and Sarah sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.
First comes love,
then comes marriage……
You know the rest.
March 29, 2010 at 7:42 am
Journey Beyond Survival
Since you are-of course-not myself, you should take the solution right in front of you. Jed Olson. Yeah. Let him wrap his head around it for a while. It works for you.
My maiden name is fabulous, unique and interesting. My married is boring. I wanted to keep mine and have him take mine. Yeah, he never thought I was serious. I should have given him the Social Security forms. Or an ultimatum.
Like those work.
March 29, 2010 at 8:09 am
lisapiorczynski
Look at how fabulous you guys are ON YOUR FIRST DATE!!! I think I was wearing a stained t-shirt on my “is this a date or are we hanging out again?” first date with Tagg. Wow. Seriously, wow. Way to go, Jed and Sarah. And, Jed, Happy Birthday. Anyone who loves our Sarah is a friend of ours.
March 29, 2010 at 8:13 am
living in zion
When I was a kid, we had a family in our ward with the last name of Butts. Yes, that’s right. Brother and Sister Butts and their five little Butts. They homeschooled their kids when that was not fashionable to do and it was obvious why. I would too, just to protect them to adulthood.
That has become my new standard of impossible last names. I wouldn’t worry a whit about S.L.O.B. No one uses monograms anymore (too dangerous with identify theft, etc) and at least its not Butts.
March 29, 2010 at 8:18 am
a hypothetical potential future sister-in-law
Sarah,
Of the two B-something sons who are married, neither has a wife who changed her name. You don’t have to necessarily (hypothetically, of course) break the trend. Just saying. 🙂
Fondly,
SC
March 29, 2010 at 8:33 am
Sarah
living in zion, I’m glad you’re a fan of Jed. I am too. Also–your life is increasingly mysterious to me. You have the best job in the world and you live with the Amish, some of whom are your clients, and you can make rockin’ wedding cakes but you don’t ever except the once (meaning you’re not a baker of some kind). What’s going on with you?
JBS, Jed Olson. It’s a good name. I like it. The problem is this: My father is super into genealogy. It has persuaded me not to do anything that would confuse my future posterity who might be working so hard to try to figure out who I was and when I lived and to whom I was married. History is a mess, turns out. How is we can lose track of things, like grandparents?
lisapiorczynski, thanks, Lis. Let’s be honest–I totally thought about that before I put the picture up. If I’d been wearing a stained t-shirt, almost no way I’d be making that public. Also: Did I mention how our first date was to a Constitution Day celebration? That’s right. Our dating anniversary is Constitution Day. Now If I could remember what date that is, that would be a really handy mnemonic.
my hypothetical potential future sister-in-law, don’t think that hasn’t come up. 🙂 I’m glad you and G. pushed the envelope so whatever I do will be fine. (Jed says whatever I do will be fine. In this hypothetical, I mean.) Except maybe the last-name mixing thing. Bolson. Olton. Takes a bold couple to do something topsy-turvy like that. Turns out, I’m sort of traditional. Ha. I guess that makes me not actually a pioneer.
March 29, 2010 at 9:12 am
gamma
Sarah, I am a huge fan of getting to the deciding-on-names part of the relationship, and glad you and Jed are there. I am also a huge fan of you and Jed. Happy birthday, Jed, although I think going public with your name was a gift to the rest of us.
As for initials, I think in this case you could use “S.L.B.” Louise is a great name; some of my favorite people own it and use it. If you do, take charge of your personal brand and tell people it means “salubrious.”
March 29, 2010 at 9:23 am
gamma
I should really wake up before I start commenting. Amend the above to “take charge of your personal brand and tell people that “S.L.B.” means “salubrious.”
March 29, 2010 at 10:32 am
Sharon
Happy Birthday, Jed!
I’ve been wanting to reread the whole Little House series for a long time now. I’m inspired—maybe this summer is it!
March 29, 2010 at 11:29 am
nakiru
The name discussion is obviously wise. In college, when girls broke up with someone, I, ever the encourager, would say “Well, you didn’t want that last name anyway. Too vowelly.”
Also, I bought a whole new outfit for my first date with my significant other (on the first go round), which I’m sure he didn’t notice at all, but I’m positive we did not look as decked out as you do in that photo. Also, I think our fourth date was tepid Perkins food around midnight after he got off work and I finished my homework. That was probably dates 5-10 as well. And then I got mono, so dates were more like me falling asleep during movies, drives, walks along the lake….
I also have to second the pet names. I refer to my significant person by his last name, which started as a weird joke and just stuck. It gets awkward when we’re hanging with his two brothers and I holler out “Nice moves, G–!” and all three of them jump.
I hope you can find a solution to this sticky issue. Actually, I’m sure you can.
March 29, 2010 at 11:31 am
AnnaBeth
Happy birthday, Jed!
Sarah, you totally stole my idea…and then didn’t like: Combining last names. Someday we hope to have a ranch-like home we can call Karpenwood (because it sounds way better than Kirkenter).
Nonetheless, I hope it is a problem that comes to fruition!
March 29, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Stephanie
I can’t believe the Wafle House Surprise didn’t make the list of birthday celebrations.
March 29, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Melissa
We started calling each other “babe” as a joke, because we knew we were so not the sort of people who would call each other babe.
But now we’re the sort of people who call each other babe, so I guess the joke’s on us.
March 29, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Amanda
My husband’s last name is thirteen letters long. My maiden name was four. I did the very practical thing and hyphenated them.
It didn’t take long for me to stop signing my full name.
March 29, 2010 at 3:17 pm
sarahlolson
gamma, Louise IS a great name. SLB. That’s only loosely reminiscent of slob, right?
Sharon, my family is apparently reading it out loud these days. Little House. Totally hot right now.
nakiru, “too vowelly.” You are awesome. Re calling your man by his last name: Add the salutation and you’re very Austen. (But I’d recommend not too. Because, no one should be TOO Austen.)
AnnaBeth, Karpenwood is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. Also, deducing what your real last names from the two fakes ones is a fun game. (Wait–you’re both Ks? This means you didn’t have to change your initials or anything, yes?)
Stephanie, the Wafle House Surprise was a gift we all gave to him. Not just me. As a matter of fact, it was a gift we all gave to all of us. What a good morning that was, despite your nervous energy/unwillingness to live in the moment.
Melissa, wait. I love this story. How long did it feel weird for? Because maybe I could do that, if I knew how long I’d feel like a middle schooler at dance. Exposed and terribly, terribly silly.
Amanda, a seventeen-letter-plus-punctuation last name is quite, quite a commitment. Bless you and your dominant hand.
March 29, 2010 at 6:12 pm
AnnaBeth
Sarah, No. His name/our last name starts with a C. Gave me the funnest initials I always wanted: ABC. He insisted on the K for our blended name. He rocks.
March 29, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Rebecca
Jed and Sarah, Plain and Tall. Who is plain? Who is tall? Or are both of you both?
Happy Birthday Jed.
March 29, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Tiffany Gee Lewis
Sarah: Jed and my little son Asher share a birthday. I knew this guy was perfect.
March 29, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Micaela
1)Just all around happy for you. 2)fun to know manfriend’s name 3) Phil didn’t call me by my name till after we were married when I panicked that my children would call me Drape instead of Mom and made him stop. My in-laws still call me Sister Draper or Drape. We now say babe, hon, love, and in front of the kids I’ll catch myself calling him dad or daddy. 4)Love that he referenced Almanzo, very cool. 5)love the first date photo
March 30, 2010 at 8:09 am
Christina
Sarah, I am not sure how I managed to not follow this blog (seeing as I regularly read blogs belonging to people I don’t even know. Don’t judge me, you painted your sock drawer shut.) but Joseph posted a link to it on Facebook today and here I am, reading pages and pages of awesomeness and feeling that my life is a little more complete.
Some thoughts on your post:
You look beautiful and happy and that makes me happy.
I love you and Jed together and I am sad that I missed you when you visited New York. Hopefully we will catch each other next time.
Ryan and I refer to each other as “Shmoopy” because of that one Seinfeld episode. We did it as a joke and it just sort of stuck. We also use “babe” but never “baby”. Whichever pet name you choose, I would keep it to one word.
March 30, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Anna L.
S.O.B. Hahahahaha! S.L.O.B. Hahahahaha! Here is my dream for you: You both change your last name to Morning Owl. Seriously Sarah, remember when you told your us that you heard that last name called over the speaker in the airport and were sure you were destined to marry a man with the last name Morning Owl? I really believed you.
Also, I have started eating and loving salads. I guess I am just a little slow.
March 31, 2010 at 2:20 am
Louise Plummer
I think we should celebrate knowing “Jed.” But I’m going to miss “Manfriend” I loved “Manfriend.”
I actually do know a guy who chose to take his wife’s name. He just thought it was a better name than his own. It was all about aesthetics.
April 1, 2010 at 10:55 am
Cissy
So funny! Good for both of you for being so happy and unique and charming. I’ll kind of miss the “Manfriend”–my brain often translated it to Manfred, which I thought was quirky. “Jed” is a bit quirky, too, though. Also, another sign of a winner: a man who likes Anne of Green Gables, and I’m willing to bet Jed does.
A remember dating my now-husband and telling my roommates I could not marry him because of the potential married name: I sound like a stuttering snake when I say “Cissy Rasmussen”.
April 6, 2010 at 12:12 am
Tracy
The name Jed reminds me of Jed Bartlett from of The West Wing. That Jed is pretty awesome so I’m assuming Manfriend Jed is as well. Happy late birthday!