What are they going to call you now?

Okay, so I pick up the phone and I hear, "Well, hello J. How's it going over there?"

It took me a full five seconds to realize the person was talking to me. What? Girl are you losing you mind? Yeah, I know. This is probably nothing to you since my sidebar says my name is J, but really it's not. At all. Well, kinda. It starts with a J.

Here's the thing. I have spent most of my life avoiding my real name. I try out different nicknames all the time and sometimes they stick, sometimes they don't. Very rarely am I called by my real name. It's not that I don't like my name. It's unique. Or at least I thought it was until I hit high school and realized that someone else in the school had my name and now on the big bad Blogoshpere there is, once again, a woman with my name. It's a little unnerving to go your whole life thinking that you are the only one of your kind and then realizing that others have your same moniker. Everywhere. There was a woman with my name in front of me in line for coffee at Borders a few weeks ago and they called "our" name to pick up the order and she was like "I didn't order a Chai Tea Latte!" and I was like, "Oh, that must be mine." and the ladies behind the counter were all like "OMG, you have the same name so we got confused!" and then the two of us spent the next five minutes talking about the spelling of "our" name and how there is no one like us.

Ramble much?

My point is that it was a bit odd and threw me for a loop when this man on the phone called me J. No one calls me that, ever. Yes, it's the name on my blog, it's the signature on my text messages, it's even what I occasionally sign my e-mails with. But it's not my nickname, really. Just me being too lazy to type the whole name out (and too obsessed with the symbol (...) for my own good, if you want the total honest answer!).

So, I got to thinking about nicknames and my complete and utter obsession with them. I almost never call someone by the name everyone else uses for them. I must be different. I must have my own nickname for that person because I am completely incapable of being just one of the crowd.

For instance...every little girl around me gets called "Chica" or "Sweetie". There are no exceptions. Names that are normally shortened for convenience sake become the long version when I say them. And names that are normally not shortened, get shortened. It's just how I roll.

I, myself, have had numerous nicknames in my lifetime. My young childhood years were spent with me being called "Sissy" by my little sister and "Nenny" by my nephew. My teenage years, I was "Jay" or "Nellie" unless I was being called "Honey", "Babe", or "Sweetheart" by one of countless boyfriends. I went by "Peperooga" and the shortened version "Peper" when I was a belly dancer. And that's just a few of them! Now, I prefer to just go by my name...and it's weird to hear any of those other names in reference to me.

Well, in my real life anyway! On here, I prefer J... so you can tell the difference between me and the other bloggers with my name!

So what do they call you?