My friends call me Rod. You can call me Rodney.
I had a conversation today with Rod Bliss. His name is also Rodney. We’ve never spoken. But, we are both working for the same company. Me as a contractor, him as a fulltime employee, what we used to call a “blue badge” when I worked for Microsoft.
But, this isn’t Microsoft.
Rod got my mail. Well, he got a meeting invite that was intended for me. It’s hard to blame him for being confused. The invitation was addressed to Rodney Bliss. He reached out to the meeting organizer via Microsoft Teams.
Why do you want me in that meeting.
Sorry, that meeting invite was for Rodney Bliss
Well, that’s ME!
It’s weird to talk to someone with your same name. I reached out to Rod and let him know that I was new to the project and my name appears as a contractor RBLISS-C in the address book. Rod called me.
Hello, this is Rodney.
Hello, this is Rod Bliss. How are you?
It feels like a weird version of talking to a verbal mirror.
Yeah, tell me about it!
What do you say to someone that shares your name? Of course, we talked about our family background. My Bliss’s come from Montana, his from Nebraska by way of Seattle. Which is the area I grew up in. But, despite our best efforts, we couldn’t find any near common ancestors. But, all the Bliss’s in America descended from a couple of brothers who fought in the Revolutionary war. He’d heard the same stories. I sent him a link to the blog post I wrote about Capt Abdeil Bliss Hero of theRevolution, But Was He A Captain?
I also asked if he had a brother named Richard. He does not, but I do. And my brother can never pass a background check. There’s another Richard Bliss (no relation to either of us that we can tell) who was arrested for being a spy in Russia.
Bliss is not a common name. And Rodney is not a common first name. There aren’t that many of us. I do know of one other, a Rodney A Bliss that used to sell real estate in Maryland. In fact, the website for this blog is staging.rodneymbliss.com (notice the “m”) because Rodney Bliss already had rodneybliss.com. I used to get his email from prospective buyers. Unlike Rod and I, I never spoke to Rodney.
I don’t imagine we will interact much. Rod works in a completely different part of the company than I’m involved with. But, we both appear in the address book, so it was worthwhile to at least say hi.
How about you? Ever met yourself?
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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