Domestic Partnership?

We decided to do it. I mistakenly stated on twitter (yes, I'm all about it now thank you very much. That's another post later) that we were doing the paper signing and notarizing this weekend, neglecting to tell my "future domestic partner" of my plans. I thought she knew and I thought her parents knew. They all knew but didn't have the same concept of this weekend that I had. So, once again, I'm making plans in my own mind, not sharing with anyone. Dumb ass! Anyway, I got excited when we downloaded the forms and it had a place where you can change your name. What? That's when it's official right? That's when my "fear of commitment" kicks in. Then, everyone knows: a) that your a homo and b) that your a homo with a partner. Hyphenated even. I'm not at all worried about it being known that I'm a homo or that I have a partner. It's just so final. So real. So serious. I haven't been serious ever in my entire life. Even at funerals I crack jokes and make fun of dead people. True sacrilege right? I just feel lucky right now though. Lucky to have such a fantastic person to share my life with, lucky to have two beautiful children that actually like me most of the time, lucky to know my partners family and to feel welcome since the minute they met me (of course why wouldn't they, I'm really fantastic), lucky to even be able to sign forms like these and have our state recognize this partnership and lucky to be free to write and speak about this big gay life I have. It would be great if we could actually get "married" and have the state recognize that but I'm not ready to move to Iowa just yet and my Prop 8 posts are already on here enough. I am excited to sign these papers. We will be able to put Amy on my insurance and both kids. It will make our lives a little easier while acknowledging to both my girlfriend and my kids that we are a true family. We will all have the same last name instead of 3 different names on our wooden sign from Disneyland: Welcome to the Jones, Smith, Gonzales house. Those wood sign making guys are thinking: "friggin multi family tourists'" (do they get paid by the letter?).
So, we are doing it. I will change my name by adding a hyphen and adding her last name to mine and she will put my last name in front of hers with a hyphen. Then, we will pay to change the kids last names too. I never cared about having the same last name because I grew up having a totally different name then my older siblings and my mom so it never really mattered but I think it's important for my children, they have enough to deal with already having homo parents.
We did not go this weekend. Too much going on with Cinderella (I will have an update about that later this week) and all that so, we will do it probably Wednesday, I'll tell the in laws first and depending on my mood, my partner will also be informed.