My Name is Lucky.

No, sadly I did not find or recover my lost wallet. But I am a winner! On Wednesday, a blog I read frequently, Ali Edwards, had a giveaway and so I made a comment and guess what? There were six winners out of 1,898 comments posted and I won something! It wasn't my stunning comment, I'm sure she uses a random number generator but I am so so grateful! Imagine my delight when I opened up Ali's blog and saw my name and my comment as the first winner! I almost spit out my coffee! I saw it first thing in the morning so it really started my day off right. You'll see I posted it using one of my many alias'. These days I am often Mel, Mela, or Marie and sometimes I take really big risk and just use my real 7 letter name! You have to catch me on a really good day for that one though!

Growing up, I did have a hard time with my name, but I never liked the obvious nicknames, like the ones I use now. I did like the quirky ones that my friends came up with, though some were really silly. The first day of school was dreadful when the time came for the teacher to call roll. I waited for the D's and cringed in horror when my name was butchered, which it always was. I can't remember any teacher ever getting the pronunciation correct. I don't blame them though, it's a tough one, I know. The cruel irony was also that my last name was one of the most common in the English language-what a combo!

Now, it's usually a store clerk peeping at me as they hold up my credit card asking how to pronounce my name. The answer in my head is what does it matter, just let me pay for my stuff and leave me alone already. But the answer that comes out of my mouth is a polite pronunciation which is always followed by a compliment of my name. I have never had anyone say what a freaky name you have or dear Lord what is that all about? And then, about 50% of the time, I will get the dreaded where did it come from? Most people with unusual names can probably trace it to a beloved family member or something else endearing.

With some people, I can get by with saying, oh, it's from a movie, with the conversation ending there. But sometimes I have to go all the way and give them the full story. Hmmm, now that I am thinking about this, I don't know why I don't just tell people that it's an old family name and be done with it. That may be my new strategy!

Since I have gone this far, I may as well go all the way and share the fact that I did in fact find my movie on VHS about 15 years ago. It's a strange piece of work an obscure 60's horror film called Blood and Roses that is based on a book published in 1872 called Carmilla. It was directed by a guy named Roger Vadim, who was once married to Jane Fonda and before that to Brigitte Bardot. The movie is complicated but the name that inspired my name is actually spelled Millarca, the actress plays sort of a dual role also as the main character, Carmilla. The name must have made such an impact on my Father and Mother after they watched the drive-in movie that they just had to make it theirs. As the story goes, my Aunt Teri invented the spelling for them and the rest is history.

So it goes, I have learned to live with it and all it's compliments and complications. Sometimes I wonder what my name would have been had my parents seen another movie that night, but knowing my Dad, it would have been some other horror film! My sister Renee was named after a pretty little song.

Gosh, I wholly sidetracked myself with this one, I just wanted to tell you that my name was Lucky but I'm throwing out so much more than I intended to share today, and probably more than you wanted to know as well! Serves me right for using my alias' so freely! Blame it on my good luck!

By the way, I love the prize I won! I have been wanting to try my hand at making a mini-album, now this super cutie along with some valentine goodies will be hitting my mailbox! It's made by Eve Johnson and her store is called Evalicious! How perfectly lucky is that?