No one calls me Missy!

I have a few friends who knit and blog and we've decided to embark on a blog project that has nothing to do with knitting. We're going to take turns coming up with a topic every Thursday and we each have to blog about it by the end of that day and post links to each others' blogs so that people can see our different perspectives on the same topic.

Check out the backstory about how the project was conceived and how we all came together.

Here are the other blogs:
Froggie Knits Like Crazy
Charmingly Random
Desperate Madness

This week, Froggie gave us just one word for the topic: Nicknames!

I first have to point out that I never have been and never will be called Missy. The name doesn't fit me at all. I know people named Melissa that have proudly gone by Missy but later changed it back. I just can't bring myself to be called Missy. In college, this one guy who worked in the kitchen of the dining center with me called me Missy and found it funny when I said "No one calls me Missy!" I must have sounded like I meant business. There are other guys who have tried to call me Missy and I just shoot a name they don't like right back at them. So yes, I do mean business!

However, there are names I have gone by or will still allow people to use:

Nicole: When I was a freshman in high school, a friend thought my name was Nicole. It took me a while to figure out that she thought this and couldn't figure out why she kept saying Nicole and looking at me. I actually didn't mind and felt like it was an inside joke and a way of being accepted. Years later, she apologized for the name mix-up but I told her that it never bothered me and I felt special by her giving me a nickname of sorts.

Mel: Very few friends call me Mel. Froggie is one such friend. I have another friend who lives in Nebraska and is allowed to use the name too. I also had a friend from Hebrew school who took to calling me Mel and I didn't mind then either. It fits me better than Missy.

Melly: Only two friends are allowed to call me Melly. We have these nicknames for each other that only make sense to us. Melly is probably the most simplistic of the three names, but it's all in good fun. I even sign my e-mails to them with that name.

Magenta: I got this from my Rocky Horror days, when I played Magenta in stage shows all because I had the hair. :) I went with that nickname throughout college and let my friends use it. A friend's mother even called me Magenta. I just didn't like when people I wasn't close with used it because they heard my friends doing it. It just felt wrong. I used the name for my first website, some e-mail addresses, and in chat rooms.

Eema: Sure, my kids call me that, but so do their friends. I feel more connected to their friends that way. It's kind of like how my friends called my grandma Mama Mollie, just like I did. It all started when one of Eitan's friends in NJ thought Eema was my name and kept calling me that. People thought I was her mom. Then our next door neighbor's daughter caught on and also started calling my husband Eeba (instead of Abba).

And finally, I'm now known as Merryland Girl in our blog project circle. :)