First Name, Middle Name, Last (Family) Name, Suffix, Prefix...

For someone who's tired of being in a box, I sure like filling them out. With checkboxes, there's something thereapeutic about the way everything has its place. Every letter is perfectly spaced, you can only check one box, and there's that nice long line at the end to throw in your best signature (maybe my favorite part).

So yes I'm not actually spending time writing letters in boxes - I'm filling out applications. Well, just THE application tonight, the one that matters even more than all the others. Maybe I like this box part because it's easy - once I hit form 3 it's time to fit my whole existence into three short essays. I know that form 3 is the both the easiest and hardest for that reason - I know my existence but I have no idea how to express it so succinctly.

Form 3 is for another day - I got some free therapy from forms 1 and 1A , kind of as a warm-up. Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, Father's name, profession, employer... it doesn't really get old. I could fill out those boxes a thousand times, using that neat little printing of all capital letters. It's the only form of writing that works for those checkboxes, and I've done it enough to have developed a handwriting out of it. You know what I mean? You can write a certain way but not really have a handwriting of it, but if you do it enough you can do it with your eyes closed. Kind of like the way I always used to change my a's in middle school when I got bored - if I wrote them differently for a week or so, suddenly I'd have new a's in my handwriting. Then maybe a month later I'd get bored of that and switch them back again. I did that with my 8's too, but I always came back to what I'd first been taught. And I could definitely overanalyze that last sentence, but I'm not really in the mood.

Point is, I like the way the checkboxes are so clean and definite. I am in no way saying that I wish my life was full of checkboxes (do you know me?), but it's just nice to have only one right answer sometimes. The only bad thing about them is that they're so quick to fill out and suddenly you're on to essays. They're for tomorrow, or another day when I feel the need for anything BUT checkboxes...