© 2010 Aaron Atkinson

Double A

Early in my sophomore year at Graceland, my friends started calling me Double A. It had a nice ring to it and since the name Aaron was as common as a line at the cafeteria’s ice cream machine, it suited me nicely. It’s a nickname that has stood the test of time. In fact I recently wore my Double A t-shirt to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the nickname. Yes, that name followed me throughout the rest of my time at University, it made the leap to my MBA classroom, and even now some of my coworkers refer to me as Double A.

But the luster has started to wear off. With a new generation of nickname users (namely my 50-something coworkers) a trio of less than satisfactory trends has surfaced.

1. AAMCO runs a television commercial in which they use the line – Double A, honk, honk, MCO.

I recently came into a meeting and was greeted in quick succession by a trio of men who welcomed me with “Double A” “honk, honk” “MCO”. While I admit that said welcome did take some creativity and coordination, and while it did bring a smile to my face, I’m enough of a traditionalist that I’d prefer that my name not be jingled around like a transmission-repair commercial.

2. Alcoholics Anonymous.

Enough said.

3. Whether they enter me into their cell phone as “Aaron” “Atkinson” or worst of all, “AA” my name usually finds itself somewhere near the top of their alphabetically ordered contact list. And when you’re at the top of their contact list, you’re automatically first on their accidental butt dial list.

Phone rings at 1 am on a Thursday. It’s Kim (name changed to protect the guilty.)

Me: (asleep) Hello? Kim?

Kim’s Butt: (loud bass rhythm, laughter and static.) Crrrrr… shuffle, shuffle, clank… thump, thump, thump, thump.

Me: Kim?

Kim’s Butt: (more of the same.)

I hang up and go back to sleep. She leaves a message with even more of the same. Two minutes later my message alert wakes me up again.

This happens three or four times in succession And it happens weekly.

In an effort to avoid further sleepless nights I’ve recently decided to change my nickname. Henceforth I should be cellularly referred to as “zAA.”

5 Comments

  1. Ginelle
    Posted August 2, 2010 at 6:01 pm | #

    Just to confirm…the Commons’ ice cream machine is still popular as of last week. Nice blog. looking forward to keeping up with you AA. 😉

  2. Peter
    Posted August 2, 2010 at 6:05 pm | #

    I wrote an exceptional article about nicknames in my Tower column my junior year. You should look it up on Microfiche.

  3. BK
    Posted August 3, 2010 at 4:12 am | #

    Better than BK broiler…or broiler for short.

  4. Aaron Atkinson
    Posted August 3, 2010 at 4:09 pm | #

    Ginelle – Whew, good news on the ice cream machine! It makes me happy to know that you’re a reader.
    Peter – Micro what???
    Brenda – That’s a whopper of a nickname.

  5. chels182
    Posted August 6, 2010 at 9:42 pm | #

    Hey Aaron!!! Nice blog! You can see I still always sign in as my nickname. =) Now I know why Laura always refers to you as AAA when you texts me about plans!!

Post a Reply to chels182

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>