Katej

People are always asking me, "Do you prefer to be called Kathy or Kate?"

I don't have a preference, but my family calls me Kathy.

There are some old friends who call me Kay, although I don't think I ever really felt like a "Kay." Kate feels more right, for some reason; more me. (I answer to Madam Editor too, since Alison -- Madam Publisher -- has been calling me that since I started at the newspaper two years ago.)

When I was 19 and embarked on the nine-month KATIMAVIK volunteer project (the little sojourn that somehow got translated, by gossip and rumour around here, into me being part of a "cult" that handed out flowers at the airport; hilarious! i still can't help laughing), there was a group of 30 of us. In that group were three Kathys, and two of us lived in the same household, so to make it easy I took "Kay" as an identifier. (I realize now that it wasn't at all necessary, but then I probably thought "K" would be cool). Among that group of people, I'm still known as Kay by most.

Then when I got connected to the internet for the first time and needed to come up with an email address, naturally I tried for Kathy and KJohnson and KathyJ and so on, but they were all taken and I'd've had to add a number in order to use my own name, which is an overly common one. I didn't want to use a number, so kept trying variations until finally hitting upon one that was free: katej.

And so, in email, I began signing myself as Kate. It only made sense. And now it's what my fingers type out automatically and it's how my online acquaintances know me.

And that is your little bit of Kate-age for today.

Now: last night's supper dishes to do (Emil thoroughly enjoyed that chicken) and I plan to bake bread and get out for a walk and do laundry and change bedding; oh, and must fill those bird feeders again, and not to forget — I've got to work for a couple hours, too, on the NEWS webpage and the archives. When you line it all up like that, it looks like a busy day ahead, doesn't it!