All right, then. First things first. The name is "Ado" and it rhymes with "potato". When you're born with the name Adrian, nicknames are not readily available. You walk confidently out of the womb into the world, you throw open the doors on the cupboard marked "Monikers" and.....nothing. Nada, zip, zilch. What the.....? It's not like being "Chuck" if you're Charles or "Jack" if you're John. When your name is Adrian your nickname can be anything that someone feels like plastering on you that day. They come flying out of nowhere like big, malicious industrial strength spit wads and "splat"! There's a new one for you! For the first five years of my life I thought my name was "Jocko". My dad gave me that one. He always told me it was French for "monkey". Then he'd laugh. Thanks, dad. When I started kindergarten my parents, being the brilliant life tacticians that they were, thought it would be a good idea to actually teach me my REAL name. Now there's a thought for you, huh? Anyway, it took me weeks to learn to answer to Adrian. Then the attempts at shortening my name into some catchy shorthand form began in earnest. School was fun for that because, as we all know, kids are so kind to one another. For a few years it was "Adro". I hated that one. It reminded me too much of George Jetson's dog. There were many crueler, more bizarre, more unrecognizably profane and scatological attempts to "name" me along the way (a couple of which can still get you punched in the mouth), but nothing ever really appealed to my high self esteem. Then, one fateful day, two little girls in the neighborhood were tormenting a kid named Eddie by chanting sing-song fashion, "Eddie Spaghetti, your meatballs are ready!". I idiotically wandered into the target zone just in time to get hit with "Ado Potato......" followed by a long pause and then bratty little girl laughter. They couldn't think of any words to finish their rhyme, but a nickname was born. I think I threw a rock or something at them as a way of saying thanks. So, Ado Potato it was. Through the years it got shortened to the first three letters in the title of this blog. Ado.
The name of the blog is AdoAfield because I'm going to be using it to chronicle my peregrinations around this country and other parts of the globe for the foreseeable future. I'm new at this blogging/traveling thing, so bear with me. I'll be attempting to entertain while I share my experiences and I hope you enjoy my efforts. For the last 30 years I've been busy raising kids and working, and now it's time for me to have some fun before I shuffle off this mortal coil. I want to see the world. I've seen a lot of this country already, but there is a lot I've yet to see. I have two trips planned inside the USA for later this year and the first big trip of my life is coming up in the Spring.
In March I will be traveling to Turkey. It will be my first time traveling outside the continent of North America. My brother lives over there and it will be my first time seeing him in five and a half years (he still calls me Ado Potato). I will also be meeting my niece for the first time ever. There is much to see and do there, and I will do my best to share the experiences, sights and sounds as vividly as I can. I will be posting as frequently as I can (reasonably) and providing photographs and narratives of the experiences of a novice traveler to a far away land. If you're reading this you obviously found me, or you're a friend or family member. In any case, I hope you enjoy reading about and seeing the pictures of my first trip.
Stay tuned...
