Your Name is WHAT? Yeah, I Get That a Lot.

Apparently, writing a blog is the "new, hip" thing to do. By me saying that it is "new and hip" it means that people have been doing it since 1999 and I am just now catching on. I love to read other people's blogs- my friend Betty has one that is really fun which prompted me to read her friends' blogs and their friends' blogs until I realized that I was reading fun stuff about people that I DON'T EVEN KNOW. Friends of mine have been telling me that I need to write a blog. I am not so sure what people find exceptionally exciting about my life (did you just READ the paragraph above? I am an underpaid SCHOOL COUNSELOR for crying out loud, not Angelina Jole (read: homewrecker) or Lauren Conrad (read: my pretend best friend) but I like to write and maybe some people will find my life as interesting as I find so many other strangers' lives in the world. As long as we're getting to know each other, I might as well tell you a little more about me. Mainly because this is my blog and if you're still reading then you must want to know. Here we go.

Yes, my name is "Chrisanne," not "Christine" or "Chrissy." Do you know how hard it is having an "unusual" name? I'm surprised I don't have emotional issues from dealing with it through my childhood. My kindergarten PE teacher tormented me by calling my "Chrissy Annie" EVERY. FREAKING. DAY. Every day I would correct him and he would just look at me like, "You're FIVE. I can READ. Your name is right here on this attendance roster. What do you know?" The sick part of this was that he was also my seventh grade PE teacher and he did the same thing. My frustration at this did not shrink in those 8 years, just like his ability to read did not improve. I got through it, though, along with the fact that my elementary art teacher called me "Candy Anne" just to annoy me and every teacher I ever had would read my name on the first day of school, look at me, and ask "Do you go by Chris?" To which I would politely reply "No, Chrisanne is fine" when I really wanted to say, "Look. Chrisanne is not THAT hard to spell, say, or remember. You don't hear me just calling you "Mr-or-Miss-with-no-last-name", do you?" Fast forward to college and the never-ending quest to find a good guy in the food court/frat house/arboretum/bar/ which always led to the inevitable introduction. Try telling a guy over pounding music and a good beer buzz "Hi, my name is Chrisanne" to which they reply "Huh? Christine?" Every. Time. One guy that I dated went home for spring break and told his dad that he was dating me and his dad asked him if I had all my teeth. Classy. That relationship didn't last long. I won't say why, but I will say that it involved him and a Theta in a compromising position while I wasn't around. At this point in my life, I have learned to embrace the name in a way that people named "Shithead" may never fully be able to do. I appreciate it for the fact that it is unique and that it stems from the names of both my grandma and my grandpa Miller (not Walter, which would have culminated in the name Bo-Ned) so I have learned to go with and will make darn sure that I keep track of all of my teeth for the rest of my life.

Here are some other necessary details: I am a 29 year old guidance counselor currently living in Northwest Indiana. I grew up in a small town called Howe which has three gas stations, one stoplight, and the best friggin' ice cream parlor I have ever been to. Said parlor is named Happiness is Ice Cream which is the lamest name for the most awesome ice cream shop ever created. I remember when the place opened when I was in fourth grade and I thought to myself "What a stupid name. It doesn't even make sense. I'm never eating there." To which the owners of "Happiness is Ice Cream" said, "Well, Chrisanne, joke's on you." The place is amazeballs. Anyways, I have a mother and a father (as most people do at some point in their lives) who are totally awesome and a pretty cool younger brother who is far more successful and funny than I will ever be. My mom's side of the family is Amish which means that we did not have electricity until I was 13 and I rode a horse to school every day. Kidding....but people really do buy that when I tell them- especially these "city folk" I live around now. I moved to Northwest Indiana for my job and had to stay because I met my husband, John, at a Cubs game and we married in 2009. Anyone who knows "Chrisanne and John" personally knows that John is a "character" to say the least and if this blog is updated regularly I am sure that there will be a lot of John included. We currently live in a small house with our two dogs and may or may not be thinking of expanding our family in the next few....weeks? Months? Years? Time will tell.

That's a little about me. For those of you who already know me, this is not new information. I wish I had something more exciting to tell you but, the truth is, this is me and this is my little corner of the blogosphere- visit never or visit often...that choice is totally up to you.