"I wanna be Kate"

What's in a name? I've known Mr. Bad Apologies since the second grade when we were both in the Plains Indian project group at Belmont Elementary. Since I've had the privilege to know Mr. BA for 20 years, I call him by his first name -- the same name he had way back in 1986 when we boarded his parent's VW van to the public library, the same name he had when he borrowed my Madonna tape on a Wyoming trip in 8th grade. (That should have been my first clue that he was secretly one of The Gays.)

Once Mr. BA got to college, he soon adopted a new version of his name -- a name that everyone calls him save for his high school friends. When I was out with Mr. BA and one of his college friends the weekend before last, he seemed keen for me to start calling him by his v 2.0 name. I find this hard since I've been calling him by his first name for 20 YEARS. (I can't believe that I've known anyone for that long save my parents.)

My point is that I'm having a bit of an identity crisis. Apropos of nothing, I starting signing emails as Rouge instead of Rougie (not literally, but you get the idea). Even though there are people that call me Rouge already -- my family and my roommate -- this is the first time that I've been calling myself that.

What does this sudden missing letter i mean?