On the way home from the airport last night the uncle-taxi-driver called me Maria because he saw my name from my credit card. He was a really sweet man so I responded back by saying, "Uncle, only my Mom calls me by my first name and only when she's mad at me." This made the cab driver laugh and bid me a good night after carrying my luggage up the side-walk (half of the cab drivers here just leave you to lug out your bag from the compartment, they're only nice at the airport).
On the way up to the apartment I realized that there are only three people who dare call me by my first name -- my Mom (when she's mad), Monser (a childhood friend who thinks it annoys me when he calls me by my first name), and Ishi (a colleague who finds it endearing that majority of Filipino women have Maria in their name). Another version my former colleague Charif used to call me with was Mary Aileen.
I go by many different nicknames, but majority of people I know call me Aileen. My original nickname was Maileen which they used when I was a baby, but I probably looked more like an Aileen than a Maileen so that fizzled out. My favorite tita, Tita Olive, calls me Ai and sometimes Aiai. Some Ilonggo friends and colleagues like calling me Leen (especially Mr. Diago from DPC). In high school my seatmate Rica started calling me Apol, so if you call me by that name I know you're from my high school batch. When I was in college my org-mates called me Mamasan (haha, I don't exactly remember why they gave me that nickname).
Different names during different periods of my life and represents different roles that I play too. Nowadays I'm just usually Aileen, Mommy and Sweetie. =)
On the way up to the apartment I realized that there are only three people who dare call me by my first name -- my Mom (when she's mad), Monser (a childhood friend who thinks it annoys me when he calls me by my first name), and Ishi (a colleague who finds it endearing that majority of Filipino women have Maria in their name). Another version my former colleague Charif used to call me with was Mary Aileen.
I go by many different nicknames, but majority of people I know call me Aileen. My original nickname was Maileen which they used when I was a baby, but I probably looked more like an Aileen than a Maileen so that fizzled out. My favorite tita, Tita Olive, calls me Ai and sometimes Aiai. Some Ilonggo friends and colleagues like calling me Leen (especially Mr. Diago from DPC). In high school my seatmate Rica started calling me Apol, so if you call me by that name I know you're from my high school batch. When I was in college my org-mates called me Mamasan (haha, I don't exactly remember why they gave me that nickname).
Different names during different periods of my life and represents different roles that I play too. Nowadays I'm just usually Aileen, Mommy and Sweetie. =)
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