Lean Jean

Like most of us, I've acquired a lot of nicknames in my life, including:

Miss Green Jeans (from the Captain Kangaroo kids' show)

Jeannie Beanie (from the Beanie & Cecil cartoon that was popular when I was a kid)

Jean Jean the Dancing Machine (from Gene Gene the Dancing Machine on the Gong Show)Randy, a guy who works at my health club, knew me when I was obese (we both used to work for the same company), but he didn't recognize me when I first joined the club. Later when he realized who I was, he exclaimed, "You're THAT Jean?!"

For several months now he's been calling me "Mean Jean." He thinks it's funny. It does make me wonder if I have a sour expression on my face every time I walk through the door. Today he said, "It's really Lean Jean now, not Mean Jean, isn't it?"I smiled. "Lean Jean. I like the sound of that."

Though I'm a pretty mean dancing machine, too.