Apparently I look like someone named Laura. Or at least, that's the only reason I can come up with to explain why multiple people have called me by that name in the past week.
To earn some extra money, I've recently been working a couple of early-morning lifeguarding shifts at the Y. While getting up at 4:15 isn't particularly enjoyable, I do like that I've gotten to know the "regulars," the same people who swim early every morning. We chat, we laugh, a good time is held by all. I know most of their names, and I thought they they all knew mine. (I mean, seriously, it's written on two separate white boards at all times during my shift.)
False.
In the past week or two, I've had two of the regulars call me Laura. At first, I didn't even really notice. I was sitting up on my lifeguard stand when one woman, Amy, calls out and waves goodbye as she leaves the pool deck after her swim. It's pretty hard to hear people from all the way across the pool deck, so I didn't think much of it when I thought she said the name Laura. Maybe I didn't hear her correctly, I thought, or maybe she was actually waving to someone else in the pool named Laura.
But then, the next day, I see Amy again and I distinctly heard her say "Good morning, Laura." Now at this point there are literally no other females on the pool deck, so unless the bald man swimming in lane one is named Laura, I know she must be talking to me. I was just about to go tell her that my name in fact isn't Laura, but she got in the pool and started swimming before I had the chance.
A few days later, or maybe that same day (I'm not sure... these 5am shifts all seem to blur together), I'm chatting with Lucy, a fabulous sassy old woman with white hair and perfectly manicured hot pink fingernails. (I want to be her when I grow up.) When she's done with her workout, Lucy exits the pool, and we say our goodbyes. She glances at the whiteboard with my name written on it as she leaves. "Julie? I thought your name was Laura!"
It doesn't really bother me to be called the wrong name. Growing up, I was lucky when my parents managed to call me JooJoo, instead of Manders, Moose, the dog's name, or some combination thereof. ("Come here ManderMooJooWhateverYourNameIs!" was a common exclamation yelled in our house.) And I understand when someone calls me a variation of my name, like JooJoo-ette or JooJoo-ana. (Maybe I should go by JooJoo-ette, I like the ring of it.) But Laura? That doesn't sound anything like JooJoo. And it doesn't look like JooJoo written down either. So I'm not at all offended that these people keep calling me Laura; I'm just confused.
On the bright side, if I ever needed to run away from home and create a new identity, I know just the name.
