I've never really cared for the name "Amanda". It's a very pretty, femanine name, which is good. The bad thing is that it was also the most popular name for girls for the years 1977-1984 (I was born in '79 for those of you who were wondering...well, even if you weren't, now you know). Because everyone who had a girl during those years decided that they wanted to name her "Amanda", I was NEVER the ONLY Amanda in ANY class growing up. There were literally always (at least) three Amandas in any given class.

Because of the whole Amanda thing, I've always gone by "Mandi" (note the spelling....that's caused a bit of controversy at times).

Tonight, I was driving to the theatre to check movie times and one of the stations had the song "Mandy" by Barry Manalo (you know it....rather you know that you know it..."Oh, Mandy, You came and you gave without taking, but I sent you away, Oh, Mandy..."). Because this was the song that was playing when I got out of the car, I was of course singing it when I went to check the show times. I have a habit of actually singing aloud (even though I cannot carry a tune to save my life). I realized that if anyone I actually knew had come across me standing there, scanning the showtimes and singing "Mandy", they would think that I was on a total ego trip! Darn my name and darn stongs that get stuck in my head!