Jay & Kai

If you read my post In and up around the letter K— I confessed that I actually dated someone to whom I nick-named "K". Here's the story behind Kai (AKA: K):

At one point in high school I thought it would be pretty cool to date someone with the same name as I. I knew a Kristen all through grade school— but she was one of the popular girls and I never even considered asking her out on a date. By the time I was a senior I was fortunate enough to have my wish come true.

In the second half of my senior year I decided to attend a second youth group at a different church. I was feeling quite typecast at my own church since I grew up there and felt that this would be a great way to see if I could meet people without any history. I did know some people from high school choir who attended the church, so I didn't go in totally cold. I even attended their winter retreat which included several churches at the same time which became a real confidence booster.

One day my friend from choir told me that he had a note from Kristen and handed it to me. I forget what the note was about, but I found it cute that someone wrote me a note. Kristen attended the other school in our town, so this was a complete surprise to me. I spoke to her at the next youth group meeting and soon after that we were a couple.

Because we both had similar sounding names, we both turned whenever anybody said "Chris" or "Kris". This was particularly confusing around friends and/or family who would always use the short version of our names. Fortunately, I had a solution that solved this problem.

My dad was an avid Jazz listener who used to play trombone in school. Because of this, he had many albums by Jay & Kai who are well known Jazz tombonists.

Since her first name begins with the letter K, she was Kai— and since my last name begins with the letter J, I was Jay. Therefore, I called myself Jay after J. J. Johnson— and she was called Kai after Kai Winding. I'm not sure if she got the references, so many times I wound up calling her "K".

But alas… all good things must come to an end. After a few months of being the cute couple, she said that she didn't want to go out any more. I suspected it was because I was going off to college— or perhaps it was the fact that she kept telling me that her mom hated me… until I met her mom and she actually liked me. All the same— Hi Kai, it's Jay… hope you're doing well.

Has anybody else ever dated someone with the same name? Do tell.