Here’s the deal. Clearly my last name raises some eyebrows. Frankly, I’ve never shied away from a little controversy so when I was first introduced to my now husband, hearing his last name only intrigued me more. My maiden name was good. It was Goldrick. A strong Irish name. But there’s something about being a Seeman that makes you a little more memorable, and I like that. I distinctly recall the first time I posted something on Facebook where I referred to my boyfriend – now husband – by his first and last name. One of my oldest and dearest friends quickly commented underneath the post: “Of all the times I’ve heard you mention your boyfriend’s name, you’ve failed to mention his last name. Only you, Goldrick, only you…” And that was that – I was destined to be a Seeman.
Ironically, the Seeman family is close friends with the Hooker family – also memorable and equally as fitting. The only thing more fitting would have been if my maiden name was Hooker and I was marrying a Seeman. “The Hooker Seeman Wedding” the headlines would read. That would for sure get picked up by Buzzfeed. Just like our birth announcement for our first born did. True story. We earned the coveted number 1 spot on the list of 22 Cringeworthy Ways to Tell The World You’re Pregnant. In our defense, I think they were listed in reverse order but because we were number one our picture was the clickable image to the link, so there’s that. I got a message on Facebook from a girl I went to high school with that said: “thought you might want to see this…” and then a link to the article. It looked a bit suspect so I was hesitant to click on it assuming it was a virus. That was until I looked close enough at the thumbnail and recognized the photo. Lo and behold, there we were with our faces blacked out! It would appear someone swiped that bad boy right from my Facebook page and put me on blast. Why you gotta hate, Playa?
Eventually the post made its way to Prego’s Facebook page and they ended up reaching out and asking if they could use our image. Fast forward several months later and a good friend of ours who was a buyer for a major retailer, was in a meeting with Prego and our picture had made their slide deck as they were talking about ways they could expand their brand. Special thanks to the anonymous “friend” who originally submitted our photo to Buzzfeed. “I made that bitch famous!” Kiss, kiss.
Speaking of children, picking a first name that paired well with the last name Seeman was always a bit tricky. Especially when thinking of a girl’s name before we knew we were having two boys. Kids are cruel and also pretty creative. Samora Seeman? An obvious no. Ada Seeman? Definitely not. Isla Seeman? Probably shouldn’t because they would have turned it into “I luv Seeman”. Then you have to think about Sex Ed class once they get to Junior high. If the nicknames haven’t started before then, you can guarantee they will after.
As a Goldrick, I had a few standard nicknames: G-Money, Goldilocks, Goldstein…he couldn’t remember my last name but thought I was Jewish and knew it had gold in it. It stuck. Now that I’m a Seeman though, there’s really no need for one. All you dirty birds just want to be able to yell down the halls of your office building: “WHAT UP, SEEMAN!” and totally get away with it. My department is big on nicknames so most of my co-workers have at least 1, if not 2 or 3. It can be confusing as a new person trying to acclimate themselves with who is who. One of the new guys was making the rounds at a happy hour and when he got to me he said, “so what’s your nickname?” Without skipping a beat I told him most people call me Seeman. The co-worker to my right had been listening in and quickly broke the awkward silence by shouting, “oh no, no, her last name is Seeman!” Before I even realized what had happened the new guy followed it up with: “I was trying to decide if it was appropriate to ask how you earned that nickname at work…”
I wanted memorable; I got memorable.
