"JTB" lives on!

This is going to be a long one! So, grab a beverage and enjoy!

JTB has been my abbreviated nickname for almost 20 years. Before that my full nickname was used - Jenn The Burkett. Come to think of it. I'm not sure why my full nickname was longer than my formal nickname of Jenn? *boggle* When I was in college, I had a roommate named Jen. Born in the 70s, I grew up knowing a lot of other Jens, Jenns, Jennys, and Jennifers. We were all called something aside from our name in school so we'd know if we were being spoken to. NO ONE wants to be "the other Jenn"! I was Jenny B for many years. I was also known as Pokey - I'll write about that another day though! My college roommate was a Baptist. There's a famous guy in the Bibled named John The Baptist so my college roommate was appropriately nicknamed Jen The Baptist. To follow suit, I became Jenn The Burkett.

A few years went by and online call signs were formed and mine of course was JennTheBurkett. In hindsight, it goes against all of the cyber security rules but times were simpler then. :) No one wanted to write out JennTheBurkett each time they wanted to draw my attention to something so JTB was birthed. At first, I thought people were just typing JTB to type but they were actually SAYING JTB when I'd see them. I liked it though. Having been with a very popular name all of my life, there was no confusion in social surroundings "which JTB" people were referring to. :)

A few years after moving to Maryland, I made the leap and took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Course and earned my M-Class endorsement on my driver's license. I'm sure you can see where this is going? JTB now stood for Jenn The Biker! That was a time of AOL instant messenger, Yahoo messenger, and web forums. Cyber security was definitely making an impact by then so Jenn The Biker as a call sign was certainly safer than Jenn The Burkett. At one point, I even had custom racing leathers with my made up racing team name on the back - JTB Racing. They had JTB Racing blue accents of course as blue is my favorite color! (Ever wonder why all of the Rent The Chicken apparel is blue? Well... now you know! haha)

This one time I went to a party where everyone knew me as JTB - Jenn The Biker. One could say it was a biker party but I don't recall many bikes at the party? Safer that way, I suppose!) Most people bring alcoholic beverages to a biker party. Not *this* girl! I baked cookiebars and brought those to share :) It was then that Jenn The Baker was born! No confusion though as the bikers called me JTB so some called me Jenn The Biker and others adapted to Jenn The Biker.

This was status quo for a number of years until Phil came along. That's when I was called JTB - Jenn The Bride! Although of course I was still known as Jenn The Biker and Jenn The Baker. At my bridal shower, there was actually a game for people to name appropriate long forms for JTB. A favorite I recall was Jenn The Broccoli-hater! For those not in the know, I make it a point to not eat anything green. Yes. I know greens are good for me and I know I should eat them. Once we married, I joined new web forums for our new adventures to grow our family and promptly rebranded JTB with Jenn The Babymaker!

Remember reading about my home baking business venture? It was actually appropriately called JTB's Kitchen! Ironically it mainly featured a variety of Cookiebars that debuted at the biker party years prior! Once we moved to Pennsylvania and Rent The Chicken was hatched and Homestead Jenn became my new name, JTB kind of went off of the radar to the new people in my life. I took a poll though to try to figure out a JTB related nickname to be associated with Rent The Chicken. There were a few good ones like Jenn The BroodyHen among others. My favorite that I still refer to is Jenn The Boss! haha Not everyone (particular Homestead Phil) prefers Jenn The Boss. Homestead Phil and I truly are a team and our Affiliates are part of the Rent The Chicken Family. There's no Boss in Team or Family! I think I misquoted that? :)

So now we have this blog. Jenn The Blogger some may say? (My friend Deanna actually DID say it!) I thoroughly enjoyed that people who knew me from many walks of life all knew me as JTB. Still do! So... JTB lives on!