Ellen is not a terribly common name, but there are a good number of us. There’s already a queer Ellen singer-songwriter in Chicagoland (Ellen Rosner, who is really goddamn good), and now, there’s another Ellen in one of my various circles of friends.
She’s dating my friend Sarah, which made for some odd initial conversations about their relationship:
Me: How’s things with Ellen?
Sarah: Oh, they’re fine, Ellen.
For conversations with her, I’ve designated the girlfriend “Other Ellen,” though I think (given a couple of comments I’ve heard) the rest of the group are differentiating us as “Big Ellen” and “Little Ellen.”
Which is fair, since in addition to being a couple inches shorter than me, she’s also about 100 pounds lighter.
I’m getting a glimpse of what my friends who all have such common first names that they must be designated by their last names are going through.
However, nobody can top my friend Jon. His boyfriend’s name? Jon.
Lord help me if I start dating another Ellen…