Name that blog

What a freakin' pain in the ass.

While trying to name this blog, I learned three very important things about myself.


1. Giving things (and people) names is a debilitating process that leaves me stressed and on the verge of a mental breakdown. (Very unhealthy. Note to self: I must not have more children. I cannot get pet. Otherwise, I will end up in the hospital muttering to self.)
2. I am decidedly uncreative.
3. I really do overthink things to the nth degree.

These things should not have surprised me. . .or anyone who had to deal with me when deciding names for my children. . .at all. Yet, they did. Surprise me. Apparently, I'm a little slow on the uptake. The painful thought-process behind naming this blog went something like this. . .

So what does one name a blog? Should probably be short. Easy. Should represent the blog. What will I be blogging about? My kids mostly. Being a mom. Being a mom in Norway. Play on that? Good start. Mamma in the Arctic? Nah. Polar Mommy? Sounds too much like BI-polar Mommy. A little too close to home, really. Snow. Ice. Stars on Ice. How about Mommy on Ice? Hmmmm. Sounds like Mommy is taking illegal substances. Not the image I want to convey. Let's try a different tack. What about my heritage? My mom is from Okinawa. Churakagi. It means 'beautiful face' in Okinawan. My kids, my mother, my grandmother. They are the beautiful Okinawan faces in my life. Perfect. I love the name. It embodies my children. Pays homage to my ancestry. Done! Wait, no. It's so hard for non-Okinawans to say. To remember. I'll be lost on the Internet! No one will ever find me! "So what did she name her blog again? Chamakagi? Churikuga? Chimichanga? What the hell was it?" Churakagi, out. Now what do I do? I need a cool name. A fun name. One that people will click on if they see it on a list of millions. A name that stands out. I need to be creative. Let's see. Mommytopia. Taken. Mommy Zen, Zen Mommy. Taken and taken. Aha! Momjeans.com Funny AND creative. Brilliant. Taken. #$%^&! Aargh! Some of these pages are blank or have one post on them! What the hell is wrong with people! How dare they hog up the cool names and not even post! This is taking me all flippin' day! Why? Why is this so hard for me?!?! Deep breaths. Poise.

Around and around and around I went. Trying names. Giving up. If they weren't taken, I found something else wrong with them. Too boring. Too long. Too cliche. At this point, everything is cliche. My head swam with all of these crazy names in my head. They all began to sound the same. I couldn't really focus on any of them, or anything else for that matter. I was so intent on finding a name that I was glued to the computer. I stared mindlessly into the void. I refused to leave.

It was turning into my hunt for a wedding dress all over again. I remember casually looking for a dress at first. How hard could it be? I just wanted a simple, white dress. Nothing too frilly or fancy. We were having a very small wedding so the dress should not cost more than the ceremony. Simple. But I just couldn't find The One. At some point, they all began to look the same. I couldn't really tell one from the other. One night I showed a few that I thought might be nice to my husband-to-be. Even he, who was not concerned with the clothes I wore on our wedding day, could see that I was dress blind. After the third or fourth 80's style monstrosity from Ebay, he gently told me to step away from the computer and take a break.

In the end, I had to remind myself that ten people will be checking in here, not ten thousand. Those ten people like me, like my husband, like my kids. They care about what we're up to. They will find me on the big ole internet. Churakagi it is.

Now that was easy.