Today I want to start out by saying I had an almost perfect week  – a day trip to NYC, two Buffalo Tom shows,  good times with friends, a bunch of playdates with Jack, two date nights with Cailin, and dinner in Atlantic City with my parents. It was an action-packed, beer-soaked, raucous, and tiring few days of pretending like I was 22 years old all over again. Life is good in Marty Digs Land. And to top it all off, Osama Bin Laden is at his final resting place along with the Roswell Aliens, Tupac, and McDonald’s recipe for secret sauce.

When I was about six or seven, I hated my name. I don’t know why. Being teased and called Marty Farty never really bothered me, but for some odd reason I just wanted a name like everyone else. Much of my displeasure with my name came from never being able to find any personalized novelty items with Marty. In gift shops, I’d always see Mark, and Matt, but never Marty. I have countless Pats, Matts, Seans, and Johns in my phone contacts- and for me being one to go against the grain, I don’t know why I was against my name. I should be proud of my name – I am named after my dad and he is named after his mother’s maiden name. However, I am not a “Jr.” because I was born on March 19, the Feast of Saint Joseph. So my Irish Catholic parents gave me the middle name of Joseph, instead of my dad’s middle name of Thomas. In the bitterest of ironies, St. Joseph Day is traditionally celebrated by Italian Catholics.

 My parents told me when I was 18, I could change it. Probably just to shut me up about huffing and puffing about it. I was 6 at the time with a head full of steam and announced that I would indeed be changing my name. And at the time, (it was 1982) I planned to change my name to Elliott, because that’s what the kid in E.T. was named. I just had to wait until March 19, 1994 to do so.  

But then in 1985, everything changed about the way I felt about my name. This was the year Back to the Future came out. And the title character of course, is Marty McFly. All of a sudden, it was a cool name (at least to me) to have. I had already loved Michael J. Fox’s work as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties, and his role as skateboarding, time-traveling, mad-scientist befriending Marty McFly basically changed my life. I was, is, and always will be obsessed with Back to the Future. To me, it’s a perfect movie – it’s funny, it’s touching, it’s inspirational, it’s exciting and no pun intended – it’s timeless. I can’t wait to show my son this movie in a few years. I remember begging my mom and promising to do undesirable chores, forgo all other birthday gifts, and be good to my sisters and brother if I could have a denim jacket just like the one he wore in the movie. She did buy it for me, and it was one of the most cherished items I ever owned. And of course, my life’s dream is to someday own a DeLorean. (These people already beat me to it)

There have been jokesters who have referred to me as “McFly” over the years. Let me tell you this, no insult taken whatsoever, in fact, I welcome it! And a friend of mine once told me every time she watches Back to the Future, she is reminded of me. That was a true honor in my book.

But poor Michael J. Fox – when I see him being interviewed now, it’s honestly almost as jarring as seeing someone close to me ill. I don’t find any jokes about his affliction with Parkinson’s funny at all, and while I could always take a Christopher Reeve joke of poor taste in stride, I don’t tolerate any MJF jokes. It infuriates and saddens to me that this could happen to such a nice person. He defies all the cliché’s of a Hollywood actor. He has been married to the same woman for over 20 years. Meanwhile, Charlie Sheen is riddled with herpes, the plague, and yet to be discovered STD’s and has slept with, married, and beat porn stars, bad actresses, and hookers. Life is truly not fair- Michael J. Fox is suffering, and the cast of TMZ are all at a clean bill of health other than being the most vile, soulless, awful human beings alive. Granted, his movies later on got worse, like when he was a very unconvincing coke head in Bright Lights, Big City. But I overlooked it – as Alex P. Keaton, Marty McFly, and Scott Howard in Teen Wolf, he gets a lifetime pass from me.

As time went on, I came to appreciate my name even more. Being one of very few people named Marty I ever met I am almost like Sting, Madonna, or at the very least 90’s comedian Sinbad. You really only have to say my name. No need to use my last name. Second, sharing the same name as Martin Lawrence and his show Martin has helped me make new friends at some of my past jobs. I have achieved instant credibility and affinity from many of my African American co-workers who have lovingly and comically referred to me as Marty-Marr. And it was always a crowd pleasure when I’d exclaim “Damn, Gina!” the catch phrase from that show. However, the best use of my name came when a boyfriend of a friend of mine told me that Marty meant, “half-man, half-party”. The second I heard that, I was hooked. Fits me perfectly and I have been using that since.    

My last name though, which I have certainly always been proud of, could have always caused me some trouble but somehow never did. Believe it or not, I was never once called or referred to as “Sinead”. Somehow, that all slipped under the radar. However, it has come to my attention that the Paul Walker character in the Fast And Furious series is named Brian O’Connor. To me, this is the most damaging occurrence to the O’Connor family name since the Irish Potato Famine.  

As usual, I think that it could always be worse. My parents could have named me Yanni, Spencer, Heidi, Osama, Skip, Kip, Adolph, or The Situation. It’s too late for that now – unless I get that DeLorean!

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