For some reason, nicknames came to my mind today. At work, I seem to have about twenty nicknames. Prod Rod, Hulk Smash, Arturito, Arms, Arthur, about ten versions of Dusty and others that don't come to mind right now. It seems like everyone in my department has a nickname, but I am a man of many names. One guy at work goes by Jethro. He is kind of white trash, hang out in the ally kind of guy. Another guy got the nickname of LGB, which stands for Little Gang Banger. He got that nickname for the kind of music he listens to and his attire. One guy I call Extreme, because he works out with the P90X. Every time he does something physically strenuous I start yelling out "Extreme!" and "X is for Extreme!". Giving him a hard time for his "Extreme" working out he does. There is one guy who has the name Chompers, because his face is nothing but teeth. Not literally, but you get the idea. Another guy named Ron we call Moron, because you can always use a little Mo Ron in your life. One person has the nickname of Nacho, as in Nacho Libre because his middle name is Ignacio. Another guy just goes by The Brother. One particular guy is named Shan and we have so many creative ways of using his name. Shanksgiving. Shanta Claus. Shanuary. Shanoween. He is from Shanta Ana and at times he visits Shanta Barbara. We try to come up with something new every month. This month is Shant Patricks Day. Then, there are the lucky few who have nicknames and don't even know it, because we only call them their nicknames without their knowledge. It works well when you don't know their names. When in doubt, make one up. Some of those include Thor, Juggernaut and Francis. I will let you guess on those, because I don't want those people finding out.
I have gone through many many nicknames, even from my previous job at LA Fitness. Big D, Mac Daddy D, D Money. I worked in Long Beach if that helps explain why those nicknames are the way they are. The names I got at my current job all have a story behind them. Hulk Smash because when something took an extreme amount of strength, the guys at work said it was like an inner hulk came out. Something along those lines. One guy in particular would yell it out as often as I yelled "X is for Extreme!" at him. My middle name is Arturo, which is basically Spanish for Arthur and Arturito is another play on the middle name. The best story for a nickname has to come for Dusty. It is a little embarrassing, but I get over things quickly. We were working a job that required some concrete cutting. The concrete cutting leaves behind a fine powdered dust. I happened to sit in the dust, getting it all over my pants. I was crouching down talking to one of my co workers when I let out a fart. The guy on the other side of the street claims he actually saw a cloud of dust puff out of my rear. Hence the name Dusty. I just leave a cloud of dust in my wake wherever I go.
Nicknames are a part of life. You can't make up your own nickname. Hopefully you like the one bestowed upon yourself. Everyone has had one at sometime or another. My brother in law, Brandon, went by ODB for a little bit. Old Dirty Brandon. He was into rap music so it fit. Nicknames are a part of life, we just have to embrace them and make the best of them.
This Day In History: 1836
In the Texas war for independence, Mexican troops over run the Alamo in San Antonio after besieging the fiercely defended outpost for 13 days. Nearly all of the 184 Texan defenders were killed, but they inflicted heavy causalities on the Mexicans and bought time for Sam Houston to defend the rest of Texas.
Born This Day: 1475
Michelangelo Buonarroti - Italian painter and sculptor
"Let no one till his death be called unhappy. Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done."
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Here is ODB at his bachelor party
And then I found this shirt two months too late
No comments:
Post a Comment