Memory Well: The Times I Was Beside Myself

http://howmanyofme.com/search/

There's a thing going around Facebook today that examines your name and tells you "approximately" how many people in the US are named the same as you are.  Oddly enough, there aren't a lot of Deci Reynolds out there (1 or fewer, it says), although if I go with Denise Reynolds, there are 308 of us.  But today's post is about my name prior to Roger - Denise Humphries.  Distinctly more uncommon, in fact, there are (supposedly) only 28 of us.  And yet, I've had run-ins (of a sort) with two of them.

First one - back in the 80s, I was in Job Corps in Astoria (for non-Americans, it's a sort of live-in occupational training type thing).  I had gone home to Springfield for a week for home leave, and when I got back to the base, I was getting funny looks from the guards when I checked back in.  When I finally tackled one by himself and asked what was up, he showed me a newspaper article from the Eugene Register-Guard that mentioned that a Denise Humphries had been arrested during a bank robbery, and was being charged with assault for pistol-whipping one of the tellers.  I, of course, said "Come on - can you really imagine me pistol-whipping a teller?"  I was secretly a little gratified when he said yep.  He could.  Fortunately, it turns out that the Denise in the article was also 35 years old, so I was in the clear.

A couple of years later, I was in Fairfax, VA, working for a Government contractor in a mixed use complex called Circle Towers (offices in the front, apartments in the back.)  I kept getting personal mail (electric bills, phone bills, etc...) addressed to Denise Humphries at work for accounts I'd never signed up for.  Turns out that there was a Denise J Humphries who lived in the apartments in back of us - very nice woman.  We went out for drinks a couple of times after I tracked her down and dropped off her mail.

Once Google took off, I tried googling my name a couple of times - turns out there's also a dog trainer in Australia.  So, two out of the three other Denise Humphries seem to be a good sort - but I think I'll stick to using Deci outside of work.