Hey look, I'm posting again! After wasting a ton of time revamping the layout (and even the name) of my blog, I decided to start my month-long blog challenge. Yes, I am aware that the title of this post says Day 2 and not Day 1. I'm bouncing between a couple of different challenges, depending on the topic. One of them did not have anything specific for Day 1 and the other said to introduce yourself. Since this is not the first day of school, I decided to skip the introduction and blast off with Day 2. The more "official" challenge had a very thought-provoking, deep topic, which is much less fun than the other one--nicknames!
Now I do not have a name that easily lends itself to nicknames. With a name like Alanna (pronounced 'Uh-lay-na'), there's not a whole lot that can be done with it. My parents opted for typical cute daughter nicknames (Queenie, Tiny Dancer, Baby Doll, etc.), and my mom actually had a made-up name for me (which is not really a secret but I'm not going to discuss it here). They both often just dropped the first 'A' from my name, which is what a few people here and there still call me. Mostly, though, they just stuck with calling my by both my first and middle names, Alanna Leigh. This combo is pretty much what I think of as my real name (and it's my stage name too!)
In school, there was really nothing else anyone could call me, since so much time was spent just learning how to pronounce and/or spell my name correctly. One time in 3rd grade, my best friend called me "Miscellaneous", which sort of works, but I was so shocked and upset by it that I went home and cried to my mother. I briefly had the nickname "Legs" in high school, but that was only amongst my fellow flag-twirlers in color guard. I also got (and still do) the occasional "Kirby", as do nearly all people with this last name.
I didn't get a real nickname that stuck until college. A guy my best friend was dating started calling me "Laney" for some reason, so the two of them kept that up. Later on when I lived in California, I started using Laney as my bowling name, since you absolutely have to use a nickname of some sort on the scoreboard (it's a rule, look it up). I happened to use "Laney" a few times when bowling with a group from work, so a few people there began calling me that, too.
These days, there are about 4 or 5 people that alternately refer to me as both Alanna and "Laney". The young daughter of the friend that helped create the nickname refers to me almost exclusively as "Aunt Laney". The funny thing is, I have become really protective of the nickname. I rarely tell people about it, and I never introduce myself that way. I actually get very suspicious and annoyed when people who don't know me as Laney start calling me that without authorization (as a number of people from my old job felt compelled to do). I'm not sure that anyone in my family is aware of this nickname at all, so I feel really weird whenever my friends or boyfriend bring it up in front of my parents or siblings.
So there you have it--my first blog challenge entry. Fascinating, no? Just be thankful it wasn't on the serious topic.
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