What's in a Name?

I think back on a conversation I had with Corey one time (one day I'll talk about Corey real in depth, but not today). It was about how calling me "ma" was just...woo! Anyways, he said something that I feel rings true to most, at least it should. He said he'd only call me "ma" if he really meant it. Something like that. And he's right. Most nicknames and/or pet names are given to people by their friends or significant others. Which brings me to today's point.

I was visiting at La'Keyia yesterday, I hadn't seen my boo in a few days and just wanted to catch up. She called me and I thought she told me to come around back to get in the house. So I did. The back door was locked, so, being me, I was knocking on the door and calling her at the same time so she could let me in. When she first called me, she was breaking up and what she actually said (or meant to say) was once I got in the house, go to the back, to her room. Fair enough, my mistake. So I walk in and start talking to her from the front of the house like I always do. She yelled at me "You woke her up," to which my response was "Who?"

Her "friend" Esther. Now, I put the word friend in quotes cuz I think it takes a lot to actually BE a friend. I can honestly say, in all my 24 years, I've got about 8 REAL friends, and I'm lucky. The rest are associates I pass the time with. But to be a friend, you've gotta be special. And it takes time. Keyia's known this chick for 3 weeks, if that, and she's already cryin' "friend." Whatever. So I walk in, talking to my cousin and this chick is doing her very best to be cute (for whom, I don't know, but some people are just like that). Then Keyia says, "You woke her up, I told you to come in the front and come back to my room." My immediate response was, "Okay, and...Is she a princess?" I think that was pretty damn funny. Until Keyia said, "She IS a princess, ask her" which kinda caught me off guard. I quickly switch into asshole mode and say to Keyia "I know one goddess and one princess and she isn't either." Again, I thought it was pretty damn funny. The fact that Esther was standing in the room the whole time just added comedic effect for me, so I was laughing my behind off.

Apparently, Esther wasn't as amused by our little exchange. So she paced around the house for a few minutes then came in to tell Keyia she was leaving. When Keyia asked why, she then felt the need to address me. She started babbling some nonsense, but I was on the phone with my dad and told her to hold on to the wild out until I hung up. Once I hung up, she went off on how I didn't know her and I was very disrespectful and bl-bl-bluh. I wasn't really listening cuz I didn't care, but I told her I had met her already and everyone gets the same treatment from me and if she thought she was a princess, that wasn't the case in my book. And that's how I am, hate it or love it. So she knew she wasn't getting an apology and stormed out. She came back to tell Keyia that I was parked behind her, to which I told her she could address me. If she could come at me sideways about me disrespecting her, she could come at me direct about being parked behind her. I was in full attack mode by that time, so of course I had to point out that I didn't know she was driving my cousin's car and had I, I wouldn't have parked behind her. But address me, cuz if you're truly a gangster, you wouldn't care.

Now I've got a lot of nicknames, all given to me by my friends. Kat, The Minx, Trina, Gangster, K-Rat, Hill, Hulk, KitKat, Bitch the list goes on and on. And I give out nicknames to all my friends, it's like a rite of passage for us (Corey's the latest honoree of that and the boy doesn't even know how big that is, but moving on). My point here is that I have NEVER just given myself a nickname. The worst habit I have is referring to myself in the 3rd person. Now if Esther had been given her nickname by my cousin, that'd been fine, but Keyia told me she gave t to herself. That's the wackest move in the world. I don't know why it irritated me so much, but I took to that girl like someone with lactose intolerance takes to ice cream. Needless to say, Esther and I won't be making nice any time soon. Which means I won't be seeing La'Keyia for a while, until ya girl starts to show her true colors. I'm not one of those "me or her" type chicks. I don't do it to guys and I damn sure don't do it to my friends. So I'm gonna have a lot of free time on my hands, what to do, what to do? Maybe tackle all those home projects I've been planning...Or I can shop til drop and max out all my credit cards! Yeah, I'll go with the former, thanks. I'm losin' too much weight to shop right now...

All that drama, all over a damn name, can you believe that? Good thing I didn't get REAL down and dirty with her, cuz I was ready. She'd've had a few more names to add to her self-proclaimed "Princess" title. But whatever, I look at it like most: What's in a name, geez?