Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Is there a "Ms. Wolou" in the house?

This has nothing to do with art. Sorry.

I'm really bummed. I got myself excited about voting in California for the first time, I read all the packets they gave, me, filled out my cheat sheet, went to go see where my polling place was, and.....discovered they had misspelled my name. Samantha Emily Wolou. Wolou?! It's five letters. How can anyone screw up five letters? It's such an easy name! My name gets misspelled a lot (Wollov, Wollove, Woluv, Wolor, etc.) and mispronounced a lot (correct: "Wall-of" or "olive" with a "w" in front of it), but I never cared. In fact, it weeded out the idiots. But goddamn it, I want to vote! They may still let me, so I have my fingers crossed.

But in the meantime, get thee to a polling place! Go go go go go!

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Welcome to the craziness of CA voting. When I first moved here the DMV never sent in my voter's registration and I had to petition the court to vote again Arnold. Back when I was living in PA and MA it was so easy; I would just go in a vote pretty much a straight party line, but today I had to bring in a cheat sheet to remember what every proposition and bond measure was and how I was planning on voting (Thanks 'Pissed Off Voter's Guide').

6:33 PM  
Blogger Samantha Wolov said...

maybe it's because i grew up in DC, but i was expecting more of a fuss when i went in to vote and i told them my name was incorrect. they didn't seem to care. i went it, they gave me my ballots, and i voted. i have to re-register, but it wasn't hard.

but i had to bring a cheat sheet, too. i wrote it last night. my boyfriend and i sat in bed for, like, three hours, reading all the packets, checking all the websites, and having mini debates. kinda fun, actually.

this is only the second election i've ever voted in, but neither was an election i was actually recognized in. i'm just some anonymous chick who likes to vote democratic.

6:59 PM  
Blogger vetek said...

Anyway, so how do you pronounce your name? (best to record it and send a link to the sound file :))

If it is of Russian origin, donĀ“t bother, I speak the language so I can imagine the pronounciation.

5:47 PM  
Blogger Samantha Wolov said...

it's russian, but my family came over around 1900, so i'm sure the pronounciation has been bastardized a bit since then. i've always pronounced it "wall-ov" as in, great WALL OF china. how would you pronounce it? also, i've never gotten a straight answer on what it means. i know the WOL part would actually be VOL, and -OV means "son of" (checkov, pavlov, wolov...), but whats a "vol?" i've been told it means boar, wolf, and pig. i have my fingers crossed that it doesnt mean pig. i don't think i could be samantha, son of pig.

7:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

you are in luck! it means "ox"!
and is pronounced 'vOlov'. accent is on first syllable. wolf is "volk", boar is "kaban" and pig is "svinya". it doesn't seem that you any of them. just tells how much people know!

3:19 PM  
Blogger Samantha Wolov said...

hmm, so i'm samantha, son (daughter) of the ox? lovely. couldn't i just say it was "volk" for wolf, but someone got lazy and forgot the "k?"

thanks, actually. i've become increasingly interested in ancestry recently, but it's hard for me to really nail it down. i know i had ancestors who owned a romanian circus (they were also the acrobats), and my mom's maiden name isn't really hers, because my great-great-(great?)-grandfather wasn't allowed to come to the US for some reason, so he stole the identity of a dead soldier and snuck over.

3:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello Samantha !
Two weeks without a post...What happens ? Where are you ?
Is everything ok ?
hope to have you back soon! :)

3:30 AM  

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