Hello, My Name Is ...

Maybe we don't need Dale Carnegie's tips on how to win friends and influence people. Maybe we just need a name. And heck, I got one of those!

I got a notification last weekend that Michelle McKenzie had added me as a friend. No, it wasn't some pseudo-psycho way of learning to love myself. It was from a chick with the same name whom I had never heard of before Saturday. Of course, because I practice safe text, I did ask her first if it was a legitimate friend request or something randomly generated.

Turns out, Michelle McKenzie sent friend requests to seven of the 141 Michelle McKenzies you get if you search Facebook. She said she thought it would be funny to see status updates like "Michelle McKenzie is now friends with Michelle McKenzie, Michelle McKenzie and Michelle McKenzie." I and three others accepted the requests.

It was a little disconcerting at first. I logged on Saturday afternoon and my news feed said "Michelle McKenzie is home after a Mt. Diablo hike and is now zeroing in on the subject of this year's NaNoWriMo novel."

My first thought was, "I am? Did I enjoy it?"

My second thought was, "Rats, the little voices are back and now they're coming out my fingers."

My third thought was, "Oh yeah, it's my new friend in California."

Now it's pretty entertaining to scroll through status updates or live feeds and see "Michelle McKenzie is climbing the PathWords ladder" or "Michelle McKenzie has joined the Word Challenge Club," and catch myself thinking "I am?" Then I think, we'll, maybe I should. (But not PathWords because it drives me crazy to see the message "So and so is improving their vocabulary in PathWords." Argh.)

You can learn a lot about yourself by searching your own name on Facebook, or at least get good background material for making stuff up. It looks like there are MMs in almost every state and several other countries. We are ethnically diverse and span a couple generations, me being at the far end of that spectrum. One of us is apparently a serving wench and another is a pirate. Some of us think we look good in bikinis.

Michelle California and I probably have a little more in common than some of the others. We think Yellowstone is one of the most amazing places on this planet. We both write, have a love of language (even if I refuse to climb the PathWords ladder) and are pretty damn funny, sometimes in a twisted sort of way.

Michelle McKenzie is now friends with Michelle McKenzie. And for the record, there are about 17 Dale Carnegies on Facebook.