Jodi

As some of you may know, I am a little neurotic about my name. Perhaps we all are to some extent. A name is so much more than a label or some silly word your parents picked out to call you. Really, a name is a huge chunk of your identity, at least it is of mine. Just as, when I hear the name Nick, certain qualities of my 9th grade boyfriend pop into my head and the name Evelyn makes me think of someone who is deeply kind and cheerful like my 5th grade teacher, all names are really heavily loaded with meaning. Sometimes, I meet someone with the same name as a friend and I find myself thinking, "Wow, this guy really doesn't seem like a Josh at all."

When I got married, I agonized over what to do about my last name, even though it is less important than my first name, I still couldn't let it go and ended up with an 11-letter monstrosity of a hyphenated last name. I actually wrote a 20-some page essay about my last name dilemma for graduate school. It was a big deal.

Throughout my life I have had two problems with my first name: Jodi. First, nobody ever spells it right. People always assume it's Jody or Jodie. Perhaps one out of every 30 people who write my name spell it correctly. Even family members spell it wrong on occasion, as do long-time friends. And when my name is spelled wrong, it's just not my name at all.

The second problem with my name is that nobody else has it. When I was little, I had one pre-school teacher named Jodi and that was thrilling. There was also a children's chapter book with a main character named Jody (a boy). And there is an older cousin named Jodi who lives across the country and I have seen five times. Otherwise, I have not ever met another Jodi. But then, I discovered a blog written by someone else named Jodi who is close to my age and likes similar things. Finding her blog made me smile for the rest of the day. I'm not sure why knowing another Jodi is so important to me, but I always wished for a friend named Jodi when I was little. There would be two or three Sarahs or Saras in my elementary school class and I'd think, "Why isn't there another Jodi." Anyways, this new Jodi that I found is a great writer. Check out her blog.

The Longest Week

I think this has, quite possibly, been the longest week ever. Each day at work was so busy and stressful that it felt like three days. On Tuesday I found myself thinking, "Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday," only it wasn't Friday at all.

Needless to say, now that it is 5 on Friday afternoon (the real Friday) I am quite nearly brain dead. Thank goodness I am having a massage at 6:30 tonight. I can't wait to get out of the office!