Yesterday, while Andrew was in school, Lily, Mike, and I traipsed down to Smith's Play Place again. We picked up one of Lily's classmates and her mother to come with us. It was a glorious day...60-ish, sunny, breezy. The park wasn't crowded even though there was a large daycare center visiting.
And then something happened. That has never happened to me in 33 years of life.
I was standing at the bottom of the large wooden slide, attempting to get a picture of my friend and her daughter coming down. Lily and Michael were happily eating popcorn in the stroller. And suddenly I hear a stranger yell from behind me,
"GISELLE! STOP! STOP RIGHT NOW!"
My head whipped around so fast I think I hurt my neck. I quickly realized that I was being yelled at by a day care teacher. And that she was yelling at her line leader, little Giselle.
The teacher was looking at me strangely. I explained that I am Giselle and not used to hearing my name. She laughed and told me I looked like I'd seen a ghost or something.
I have never met someone else with my name. I've met people who have met other people named Giselle. But I have never been in the presence of another. And here was this adorable little 3 year old...my name buddy.
And, MAN, was it annoying. Little Giselle is apparently a trouble-maker, because all day I kept hearing, "Giselle! Get back here!" and "Giselle! Giselle! Where did you go?" etc etc. I don't know how you people with more common names can even STAND it. I am of course not conditioned to ignore my name, so there was so much head-whipping going on, I can't even tell you.
I thought about getting a picture with Little G, but I thought the day care would frown on a strange white lady wanting to pose with their little mischievous cutie.
And my mother also pointed out that she probably spells her name "Jyzal". Whatev'. I'm not a purist.
This experience does make me feel bad about giving my kids some of the most common names out there. Seriously most annoying park day in my life. :)
5 comments:
ha! I have had this experience too, since my name is uncommon. A few months ago I was at the dermatologist's office and the nurse called out my name and a young boy stood up too. It was odd and slightly funny - since I don't often meet another Devan. Although, all the ones I've met HAVE been boys. ha.
Too funny!
But I have to ask whether you do this whenever some kid yells, "Mom!" or some kid starts crying/screaming. Cause I feel like I am always craning my neck trying to figure out if I am the mom being needed.
That's funny! I took Kylie to the doctor when she was 2 months old. The nurse came out and called for Kylie and FOUR of us stood up!
Now there's a Kylie, a Kaylee and a Kayla on our street. I get tongue-tied and can't keep them straight even though one of them is my own daughter!
too funny! It is annoying to hear your own name and start responding... but more embarrassing is when you respond to a similar name! I'm so used to being called "AN"-drea that I respond to Andrew... which compared to "ON"drea isn't that similar. In class when a teacher would call on Andrew and I would respond, that was would always make my cheeks a little more red.
I'm so used to being around other people named Sara that I don't even respond to my own name most of the time :)
In class a few weeks ago a teacher was reading out first names of people who had turned something in on time. I actually checked with her to make sure I was the only Sara in the class. :)
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