I'm a small shrub
Or Heather. I think I've blogged about this before, but do I look like a Heather? Last night at our meeting, the brother giving the Speech Council talk used the names of people in the audience to demonstrate how you maintain audience contact. He called out the name of the brother from the Couple Too Cool to Name. Then he turned to me. I could see he was struggling to get out a name. I wasn't sure if he was having trouble with my name or the name of the sister sitting next to me. He finally called me Heather [insertmylastnamehere].
In one way that's kinda funny cause my cousin has a daughter named Heather [insertmylastnamehere] who looks absolutely nothing like me, not to mention would never be found at a meeting. But in another way it's just so odd. My whole life people have been calling me Heather. Sometimes they pick a name a little closer to mine, like one that starts with the same letter. But more often than not they pick Heather out of the thin air. Completely unconnected, random people over the last 34 years overwhelmingly use the same wrong name for me. What does that mean?
I tell people it's because I look so much like Heather Locklear. For some reason, people laugh hysterically when I say that. I can't imagine why...
I went to Wikipedia to get a list of people named Heather to see if I could narrow this thing down. Instead, here are the things I learned about Heather:
It is a small shrub growing to 20-50 cm tall (rarely to 1 m), and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on well-drained acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade.
Heather is an important food source for various animals such as sheep and deer, which can graze the tips of the plants when snow covers low growing vegetation.
Heather is a popular ornamental plant in gardens and for landscaping.
The plant was introduced to New Zealand and has become an invasive weed in some areas, notably the Tongariro National Park, overgrowing native plants. Heather Beetles have been released to stop the heather, with preliminary trials successful to date.
The generic name Calluna is derived from a Greek word meaning 'to sweep', as the plant was used to make brooms. The specific name vulgaris is derived from a Latin word for 'common'.
Heather is an ingredient in gruit, a mixture of flavourings used in the brewing of beer during the Middle Ages before the use of hops.
Heather is The national flower of Norway
So, according to Wikipedia, people either think I remind them of a small shrub, a food source, an ornamental plant, an invasive weed, something vulgar or common, imitation beer or a Norwegian flower.
At least Adelwise was sung about by the lovely Christopher Plummer. There are no famous songs about Heather, or my real name for that matter.
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In one way that's kinda funny cause my cousin has a daughter named Heather [insertmylastnamehere] who looks absolutely nothing like me, not to mention would never be found at a meeting. But in another way it's just so odd. My whole life people have been calling me Heather. Sometimes they pick a name a little closer to mine, like one that starts with the same letter. But more often than not they pick Heather out of the thin air. Completely unconnected, random people over the last 34 years overwhelmingly use the same wrong name for me. What does that mean?
I tell people it's because I look so much like Heather Locklear. For some reason, people laugh hysterically when I say that. I can't imagine why...
I went to Wikipedia to get a list of people named Heather to see if I could narrow this thing down. Instead, here are the things I learned about Heather:
It is a small shrub growing to 20-50 cm tall (rarely to 1 m), and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on well-drained acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade.
Heather is an important food source for various animals such as sheep and deer, which can graze the tips of the plants when snow covers low growing vegetation.
Heather is a popular ornamental plant in gardens and for landscaping.
The plant was introduced to New Zealand and has become an invasive weed in some areas, notably the Tongariro National Park, overgrowing native plants. Heather Beetles have been released to stop the heather, with preliminary trials successful to date.
The generic name Calluna is derived from a Greek word meaning 'to sweep', as the plant was used to make brooms. The specific name vulgaris is derived from a Latin word for 'common'.
Heather is an ingredient in gruit, a mixture of flavourings used in the brewing of beer during the Middle Ages before the use of hops.
Heather is The national flower of Norway
Also a female name originated by the Anglo-Saxons.
So, according to Wikipedia, people either think I remind them of a small shrub, a food source, an ornamental plant, an invasive weed, something vulgar or common, imitation beer or a Norwegian flower.
At least Adelwise was sung about by the lovely Christopher Plummer. There are no famous songs about Heather, or my real name for that matter.
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3 Comments:
On a similar vein, people always think I say my name is Kim when I talk to them over the phone. When I was a receptionist, that happened to me Constantly. How they got Kim from my three-syllable name, I have no idea...
Well, there are worse things than Kim or Heather. You could definitely pass for a Heather. We should play the 'what other name could you justifiably have' game, like when we played the 'what famous actor would star as you in your biography' game, but different.
I always get Melissa.
No idea why.
Even stranger for me now that Im married and my husband's sister is a Melisa (sans one s).
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