And about that name ....

My name is BetteJo. Think Petticoat Junction. It's not Bet - like Bette Midler pronounces her name, it is not Betty, and it is not Jo. It is BetteJo. Whether I like the name or not is a different story, but it is mine, either way.

Apparently that is very difficult for some people, and I know I have written about this before. How for 25 years I called myself BJ at work in an effort to stop people from making my name something it wasn't. Isn't. Some people call me Beej. That's fine as it combines both components of my first name. 

These days if I call myself BJ, people are way more apt to imply I call myself that after some special talent I have which is - I mean - who would do that?? Probably not a woman of let's say - a certain age. 

So BetteJo it is. 

Or not.

For the last 10 years or so apparently I have become Hispanic. Or Latino. Latina? Or Latinx. Whatever way you want to say it, people have completely changed the ethnicity of my name because of the changing population in the U.S. And it makes me laugh. Every. Single. Time.   

At a doctors office someone will poke their head out the door and look around the waiting room, completely skipping over this totally white bread woman with gray eyes and tentatively say ...           

"Buh-tay-ho?"

                                                                                                              

Yes, really.

I see how they get there, I do put the Bette and the Jo together, and if what they are looking at is all one case without a capital J in there - the J turns into an H (in their minds) and I turn a different ethnicity. 

So if you must screw up my name, and some people just can't seem to help it, please make me Hispanic. It's the only version of my name being messed up that makes me laugh. Always!!