I had a late night tonight for a school day. We had an honor ceremony for scouts tonight and I just got home. This doesn't bode well for a very tired, not feeling well working person who vowed to write every single day on this blog. Knowing I'd be short on energy and mental acuity, I started planning my piece on the car ride home. Feeling grateful for a special person in my son's life, and inspired by a friend who is doing a 30 day tribute on her Facebook page, I was all set to go. But I had trouble loading my Facebook page on the way home (my husband was driving), and there were some posts I was trying to read and they would not load.
So when I came home on got on my computer, before opening up my blog I saw a comment one of my friends made. She had asked those of us in our writing group what our middle names are. She wanted them for a piece she was working on. I'm curious and look forward to seeing what that's all about. Anyway, I had responded earlier with my middle name, and she had since replied that she didn't know that. It got me thinking about my middle name. It's a bit unique and it has stories, mostly related to how I didn't like it as a kid because I thought it was a boy's name. But there's one story, man it sounds like fiction but I swear it's true...
My middle name is Jaye, pronounced just like the letter. It looks pretty in writing, and my mom liked the sound of single-syllable middle names attached to multi-syllable first names. Her name is Donna Lee, and my sister's is Jennifer Sue. Mine, Laurie Jaye. Sounds a little like we grew up in the south, but no sir. Born in New York, and raised there for most of our childhood, we are true South Floridians. That is, we are transplanted from the north, and can hardly be considered southern girls. But Laurie Jaye it is. Once I got over that unique meant weird when you're a kid, I grew to like it. My cousins delightfully called me by both names, but friends just called me Laurie, and my parents sometimes called me LJ. One of my high school friends picked that up at some point too, and still endearingly calls me LJ. She's the only one besides family who does.
But I had one friend in high school who was always a bit outlandish. Okay, I'm being nice. Susan was one of those friends who you loved but other people couldn't understand why. She was eccentric and dramatic, and most definitely marched to the beat of her own drum. Sometimes it was difficult to determine if the drama was real or if she created it all. I remember she campaigned all over school senior year encouraging everyone to vote her most humorous. She was successful. A girl who had no school involvement, put little effort toward school, had somehow convinced the whole student body to vote for her for recognition. She had a brother, one year younger but in the same grade, and they were best buds one minute and hating each other's guts the next. I guess that's not that strange.
When I went off to college I lost touch with Susan. She stayed local to work and I left to live on campus. My best friend remained in contact with Susan all that time. Over a break or during summer, I found out from her that Susan was no longer going by her given name. She had created a new persona, and everyone was now calling her Jaye. Wait, what? Yup, my friend had unofficially changed her name to my middle name. She just decided she liked it and wanted to be known by Jaye. Let me clarify. This was no fleeting whim. She had people in her life who only knew her by this name. At work, she was Jaye. Guys she was dating knew her as Jaye. Calling her Susan in a crowd of her current social circle would have had everyone looking around wondering who you were talking about. Last I heard she was still using it, but I'm not sure.
How freakin' weird is that?
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