AW Chain.

It is officially round two of the AW Chain, however, this is my first post--as I jumped on late. I'm a tad nervous. This whole blogging thing is very new to me still. I hope my green-ness doesn't show to much...

Wendy (Flying Shoes) was right before me and spoke about her unusual (and very beautiful) name. Wendelynn. To me it sounds magical like a young girl who could hold tight to Peter Pan's hand and fly through dreams.

I'm thrilled the subject came to this because I have had no less than three conversations about names in the past week.

First, I'm a Thersa. Yes. One "e" seems to be missing. The story goes that my mother wanted to name me Georgette and my father, upon hearing that, ran top speed from the hospital room and named me himself. In his hurry and utter shock at the moniker I so narrowly attained--or maybe he was just breathing too hard to notice--he forgot an "e". It's always been pronounced "Ter ree sa". Not "Ther sa". But you can't tell the bank clerk that.

But Georgette. Yep. I'm sure there are a lot of Georettes out there who are outstanding people. But I just cannot see myself as one. I find though that people who have known me for a short time all agree it would be a right fantastic name for me. They say I'm bubbly and smile a lot.

Anyone who has known me a tad longer...laugh. One long-term friend just last Monday explained to a new friend about my dark side. How I go through stages.
Once I was into snipers and read every book I could get on the subject. I went through my Vlad Tepes (Dracula and his minions) stage and exhausted that field. But one of my favorite 'my booms' (as they are called in Japan) was my female-writers-who-commit-suicide stage. I have dozens of novels, poetry, biographies and letters by Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Virginia Wolf. And then there are the endings to almost all of my short stories. Pyscho Georgette, maybe. I'm trying to be brighter, I really am.

Maybe we become the kind of person our name suggests. In Japan they believe so. I remember once when I was asked what my name meant or what someone's name meant and I didn't know. The asker couldn't comprehend this. Why you'd name a child by sounds, not meaning. Then again, back in the old days children here were named first, second, third...on down until you didn't want anymore and you'd name that child "the end" or "stop".

I wonder if that missing "e" has affected my life more than I could have ever guessed.

BTW, my middle name is Anastasia and I've always loved it. Once I was good friends with a German exchange student and he said, "Oh, you're a Russian Princess!" That made my heart soar. I wonder what kind of person I'd have become if I had gone by Anastasia all these years... you know I do have a crush on Putin.

Next up on the chain is Andrea with her absolutely gorgeous blog! Go look!