I just have a lot of feelings.*

The Jennifer Bandit strikes again!!

So here's the dilemma. My name is Jessica. For some reason unknown to me, God decided that in many people's brains there would be a strange crease that leads to people calling the Jessicas of the world Jennifer.

We had this problem in 2008, when one of the claims guys kept calling me Jennifer until another claims guy told him it was Jessica...in reality it took 2-3 months to resolve. Why I just didn't correct the guy is beyond me. He probably wondered the same thing when his coworker corrected him.

In 2009 two separate employees from the same department would randomly call me Jennifer. The good news, they knew my name was Jessica so they quickly apologized right after they said the wrong name. I would just smile and say, "I didn't even notice!" Just to make them feel better.

2010 - we have a new person in our little department. Despite the fact that everyone around me says my name all the time, the name plate on my cubicle that states my name, my e-mail (which he gets to see in his inbox all the time) has my name (WITH a signature at the bottom with, what else? My name), and I think that's it, he has chosen to call me Jennifer. I first realized his blunder when I was helping him with the computer last week. He had to look up the e-mail and it was in the folder "Jennifer". I pretended not to see it.

Yesterday morning was the worst. He came up to my workstation, "Hey Jennifer, can you do blah, blah, blah?" And yes, I heard "blah, blah, blah." Because immediately my mind focused on the 'Hey Jennifer' and how I might go around avoiding an embarrassing moment by saying, "yeah, it's Jessica." Because honestly, I can't focus when I've just directly been called the wrong name...especially Jennifer (because of the history I have with being called that name erroneously all of my life). With the claims guy it didn't matter, I rarely spoke to him (probably why it went on for so long), but this guy is in my department. I have to interact with him on a daily basis. I need to take care of this....but...I prefer to avoid conversations like these. So rather I pretend I don't notice I'm being called the wrong name even though it's all I can think about!

So, I thought I was doing okay yesterday. I thought I had let it go. But each time he e-mailed me asking me for something I got upset. He didn't even say my name in the e-mail, but he had blundered first thing in the morning and for some reason I was subconsciously unwilling to forgive him. Once I realized how irrational I was I got over it.

This morning, I took something to his office, as I am turning to leave he says, "Thanks Jennifer." I halted for a split second, stole a glance at the other woman who was with me but was already in the hallway and didn't hear and then smiled at him and left. Pansy. For a second I almost corrected him. I just feel like he's going to wonder why I didn't do it sooner. How could I let him call me the wrong name for so long? But then, as I was sitting here at my desk thinking about it I started to laugh. Why not just go in and say, "Do you think I'm Jennifer?" but not in a mean way, in fact, it is the most entertaining thing in my day so far. So just laugh about it right? But then I found an e-mail from the beginning of this week where he clearly states my name, Jessica. So now I know he knows my name, but he keeps getting it wrong. I am just one of those people who doesn't correct others.

I am destined to a life plagued by the Jessica/Jennifer conundrum.

On that note: the claims guy who called me Jennifer for months just walked by and said, "Hey Jessica." That just made me laugh.