Two Questions

On every personality quiz I've ever taken, I am an introvert. Years of being "shy" made this no surprise to me. Although I have learned how to cope in extroverted settings, I love being home alone with my books, Suduko and TV. I know all the rules for meeting new people but it is still something I dread. I prefer to observe other people meeting the new person and then take some time to decide if I want to know the new person. One, no two, reasons introductions are hard are the questions.

l. Is that your real name?

My first name is unusual. It is only 4 letters long and is easy but no one gets it the first time. For many years, I used to automatically spell my name after I introduced myself. I don't do that as often and once I tell people it is like oklaHOMA and not Houma, Louisiana, they get it. (Except for the Iranians who know what it is right away but then I have to explain that I'm not of Persian descent) Then they want to know if that is my real name. I've never really figured that out. If I were to pick a nickname, don't you think I'd go for something easy and common and that didn't need a geographical explanation?

2. Where are you from?

After 57 years, I still don't have a good answer for this. I'm not really from anywhere specific. My parents lived in a small northern Kansas town when I was born but I was born in the northern Oklahoma town (and no, I wasn't named after the state) where my parents had lived for the first six months of my mother's pregnancy. I never lived in the town where I was born. My parents moved around quite a bit after my dad stopped teaching and began working in the oil field. Until I was married, the two places where we lived the longest was the Halliburton camp in Venezuela and Hays, Kansas. I've been in Texas over 40 years now and in the DFW area for almost 29 years but I am not now or ever will be a Texan. So most of the time, my answer to this question is "Western Kansas"

By the time I finish with these two questions, I need a rest.