Yes folks, my name is simply Karyl Maree... pronouced just like Carol Marie. It arises from my mother's name, which is Kathryn May. If you subtract the "th" from Kathryn, you are left with Karyn, and with a middle name of Michele, that is my sister's full name. She goes by Michele. Once I came along and I was a girl (had I been a boy, it would have been Kevin Michael, or so I've been told), I was named Karyl Maree. Michele and I shared initials for the first fifteen years of my life, and she is now trying to get me to marry someone with the last name beginning with W, so we can share initials once more. Only I can't marry Kurt, even though he's got the last name beginning with W. Ask Michele... she won't explain it to me. :o) (I'm teasing, Michele!!)
As a result of my oddly spelled name, I have never had personalized pens or pencils or rubber stamps or shoelaces or anything that young kids have of that sort. The one thing I got was an heirloom chest that my grandparents gave me years back that my grandmother stenciled my name upon.
So imagine my surprise back during the Persian Gulf War, when my father was reading the Chicago Tribune one morning and pointed out that this sergeant's name was Karyl. It has been the one and only time I have ever seen my name in print, let alone meet another Karyl.
Until tonight.
My lovely roommate Stina decided that she was going to screw around on Dogpile.com instead of reading the homework she's been swearing to do all night (we're excellent procrastinators, the two of us! Hehehe), and so she put in my name as search criteria. And what did she come up with??
Sites like this one, for Karyl's Pottery.
Or even this one, that describes the wedding of Jim and his bride Karyl Ann. The amusing thing about that was my ex's father almost always called me Karyl Anne, even though he knew my middle name was Maree. My ex didn't come from the most stable of families...
Stina even found this tribute site for the site author's elder sister.
For someone who has never seen her name in print, except when she herself attempted (a really bad) homepage of her own, this was just the most amazing thing. Mind-boggling, even.
My sister sees Michele and/or Karyn every so often in film or tv credits, so she hasn't quite experienced this same phenomenon.
I know it's such a minor thing... Maybe to you folks, but how many of you have a super common name (or it was, back in our parents' generation) that's spelled really weirdly?! I love my name... I love how it's spelled and how unique it is. But sometimes... it gets frustrating when I have to spell it over and over again, or when folks can't remember how it's pronounced.
But that was just way too cool. :o)
The other incredible thing that happened today is I heard from my best friend Sandy. Sandy and I have the most incredible of relationships -- we can lose touch for months or sometimes years at a time, and pick right back up where we left off. I have never felt closer to anyone else...
Sandy and I met way back in tenth grade in our Comparative Religions class with Ms. Niles. She was just the coolest of teachers... she wasn't the type to just let us slack off, but she listened to our suggestions and let us do interesting and fun projects that taught us way more about the religions that just book learning.
We paired up on our photo essay of various houses of worship in our hometown, and we spent a whole Saturday touring around in her mother's Suburban trying to get photos of the Catholic church and the synagogue. That's also when we learned that you can't photograph a synagogue on the Sabbath... :o)
Sandy moved out to California (or should I be hip, and say "Cali"?) after our sophomore year, but we still wrote and kept in touch. After high school, we lapsed a bit, but a good friend of mine in Illinois found her online. And the best 20th birthday present I could have had (considering that my computer decided to crash and lose my hard drive) was finding out Sandy was back home and was eager to see me over spring break.
So it's been a few months... but it's all good. I came home from Kurt's this weekend to see Sandy's screenname logged on, and we were able to chat. We picked right up from where we left off, as we always do.
It's hard to say how and why we get along... We're not too similar, but we just connected on a very deep level all those years ago. And that's just how our relationship works. It's GREAT! :o)
I send you fond thoughts of reunions with best friends, walks along the beach with your significant other, playful puppies and most adorable newborns. :o)