Emma/Eliza

As with the rest of you, my name is fairly common, and I've always had the urge to change my name to be a little more set apart - particularly in junior high when I was super quiet and several popular girls were named Rachel, so often times when I'd hear my name and look over it would be followed by "oh, sorry, I meant the other Rachel" which stung a lot. As an adult, when I worked in an unfortunately over-dramatic job environment, hearing my name said in a mean or condescending tone over and over made me hate it (I swear it was actually spoken differently, with the "Ra" part being over emphasized and blunt, the "chel" becoming slurred like "chullll", to create a rather unfortunate sound. Who wants that for their name? Ick)

I mention this because I think it's funny, but when I was about 7 or 8, I used to think a lot in pictures; all the days of the week had their own pictures (Thursday was the logo of Star Trek, since we watched it on those nights), and for some reason I got it into my head that the name Nicole was associated with a popsicle. Don't ask me how that happened, I have no idea, but it made me want to change my name to that (hey, I was like 7!). But then I ended up getting bullied by a girl with that name later, which ended that.

And really, that's the problem with a lot of names. Particularly since I've worked in a lot of classrooms, I have a lot of name associations, so it's hard to find one that isn't either too uncommon or has an association with someone else. I have two names I'd have a hard time choosing between; the first is Emma. It's easy to say, (I have one kid who still calls me "Range-ul" because she can't pronounce the "ch"), has a simple nickname of Em, but still sounds nice in its full form. The other is Elizabeth, since I love the name Eliza (and, if I decide I don't like it, I have all sorts of names I could revert to: Beth, Liz, Liza, Ellie).

Yes Sarah, I kinda stole yours. Hey, great minds think alike!

So what are we thinking for next week's theme? I really like what are 5 things you could live without and how do you go about getting rid of them/5 things you do want in your life and how do you get them, as well as something you'd like to try.

What do you guys think?