peas on new stodgy base

I've decided to do something bold tonight.
 
I haven't done it, really, for 5 months.

Shopping, muthafucka. I am going shopping. Tonight.

I've been saving and spending my usual shoe shpandies on things like paper, twine and wedding doondies. And while it's been fun, there's a small matter of my pants.

They're falling down.

And also that I because I have managed to not shop for this long - in a city that was made for clothing capitalists like myself - frankly, I just want to fondle the cloth.

I'm henceforth, the moment the clock strikes six, going to head to Zara (Sensible. Cheap. Not a large branch, so less collateral card damage) and then I might - depending on how bullish I feel - nip into Ted Baker and get myself a new frock.

A frock I'll only get to wear in South Africa and/or a few days of summer when it eventually fucking arrives here.

I also need a break from looking (and buying) wedding knick knacks. Only because I worry when it's over, I'll have absolutely no fucking idea of what to do with all my free time.

The Brit is genuinely worried. I told him I'd open up my own Etsy craft shop and make bags using twine and metres of washi tape.

Or I'll just redecorate our house. With it.

Also made my first hotel reservation using my future name.  Dude. It's quite a big fucking deal.
After months of deliberations, discussions, debates and decisions, the Brit and I have come to a compromise.

I want to keep my maiden name. Mostly. Only because it's been a part of me for 32 years and I feel like it forms a real part of my identity. I also authored a book under that name, I was a writer under that name for the greater part of my career, and I am a girl. As are my cousins. Which means the buck stops here. My surname will never live beyond me.

The Brit is very traditional however. And would like me to take his name on the basis that we are a unit, and I am marrying him and married people need to be a force against the world.

Fair enough on both accounts right?
So the conclusion is, after many nights of tossing and turning: I'll be both.*

I'll be On Toast for all things work and professional-related, and On Freshly Laid Linguine when booking hotels, personal life, driver's licenses, things like that.

In some occasions, I'll be On Toast-Linguine. Just to keep everyone on their toes.

It's really exciting actually - I get to have a new name! And I used it for the first time today on booking a hotel room for us once we are married. I had to write it out and everything.

The thing is, what the dickens do you do about signatures?

*Problem solved. Eight years of paperwork to change my name on very document and card I own shall henceforth take over all my free time.