Kady

Kady.

That's how I spell my first name. It wasn't my idea obviously -- my mom came up with it. She and my dad wanted to name me K.D., but when they wrote it down they didn't like how it looked, thank goodness and then they added the A and the Y and that's how it all worked out. As far as I know, I was like the only Kady in the whole universe until Facebook was invented and now there's like a million. Dang facebook. 

ANYWAY, I don't freak out too much about correcting people when they go to spell my name with a T, unless it's important -- like medical stuff or for tax purposes or whatever. 

So the point of my story is that when you say the name Kady out loud, it sounds exactly the same as Katie, in America anyway (British or Irish people will emphasize the 'T' or Spanish speaking people say it differently tambien). Since it's my name, I can hear the difference, but it's SO SUBTLE. When I say my name, since I know how it is spelled, I can tell that it's just a teensy bit different then when I would say the name of a friend named Katie. And I can tell when the person saying my name knows how I spell it. It's my sixth sense.

Isn't this INTERESTING???

Get to the point.

OK so my point is that this morning I stopped into Caribou Coffee (the Midwest's answer to Starbucks) and ordered a dark roast. They always ask your name so they can write it on the side of the cup. I said "Kady" when prompted and the be-acned-teenager behind the counter said, "Is that with a 'D'?"

I swear in 37 years nobody has ever picked up on the subtle pronunciation difference or asked me if my name were spelled with a 'D'. Ever. I was like, "YAH. HOW? HOW DID YOU KNOW?" He said he could hear it in the way that I said it.