What is the story behind your Hive username?
Well, let me tell you a little story. It all began about 15 years ago in a mid-sized town in Germany called Mannheim.
I had just moved there to live with my then-boyfriend, now-hubby. We were are busy worker bees, all day we'd be out and about to only get home late to cook, play a game, watch a film, etc. Anything but cleaning, we both hated cleaning(and still do).
'Whaa...? Cleaning, what's that got to do with anything?'. Glad you asked!
A friend living a couple of blocks away recommended a housekeeper, a cleaning lady who had been helping him for a few months already. Her name was: Mrs. Grumbach.
'I'm still not getting it.' Just be patient, young padawan, and listen.
Hubby, being American, didn't particularly like the 'ch' at the end of her name, it also helped that she didn't appear to be outgoingly friendly, to the uninitiated. Long story short(er), when among ourselves we called her: Mrs. Grumble.
'Right, that doesn't seem to be any closer to OceanBee, honestly.' True, but...
I think I mentioned that we liked to play video games. For every video game you need an IGN, right? Well, at the time I actually wasn't too big on games, heck, I still am not but I do play video games together with my hubby. I am not good at them. Nope. I grumble - a lot! Get it? 'Grumble'.
'Okay, got that but - still not much if any closer to OceanBee.' Hold the thought...
Not too many years later hubby got into playing an MMO with another friend and he introduced me to it. Of course, I needed a new IGN for it. Coming up with a 'good' IGN can be really tough. I mean if you have your brand as a gamer it's a no-brainer but me?
So I sat there staring at the opening screen... grumble grumble grumble ... hubby waiting for me ... grumble grumble grumble Okay, okay I got it! I am going to be a
GrumbleBee!
Grummelbiene - grumpy bee was born. 'Yay, we finally got a 'bee' in there, now we are truly getting closer, but still no OceanBee'.
True. A few years later we moved to the US and guess what? To play the same game on the NA server... I needed to make a new profile i.e. a new IGN. Arrrrgh!!!
To keep it somewhat connected, I created 'OceanGrumble'. Why? Well, of course, because I love the ocean! 99% of our vacations are spent by or on or in the ocean.
Needless to say, people got confused. Hubby got confused. I did not get confused.
Still, I wanted to be helpful, so when I started streaming on Twitch and got my own Discord server I incorporated all my IGNs into one:
OceanGrumbleBee was born!
And fairly quickly it was put down again. The name was too long, who can remember that?!
To be honest, I also didn't like it very much when all the other (mostly male) guild/clan members called me 'Grumble'. Come on, I didn't grumble nearly as often anymore. Really, I didn't. Grrrrh - who hates losing? Not me! cough cough
Then when I joined the legacy chain back in 2019 I again needed a new name. Naturally, I decided on a mix or abbreviation of my IGNs
OceanBee
And there you have it. That's the story behind my username. Nothing to do with bees, although I like them and their honey, and quite a bit to do with the ocean.
To be honest, though, I have been thinking of just using my real name. I am not one for hiding on the interwebs and if you follow any of my social links or such you'll find my real name anyway.
The thing is though, I don't particularly like my first name - sorry, mom, dad. I know you named me after the beautiful Italian 60s, 70s actress Claudia Cardinale buuuut I'm not feeling it. I prefer to be called 'Ocean' or 'Bee' - like the ol' hippie that I am (not).
Hahaha - this got a wee bit out of hand but - I had a ton of fun writing this. Hope you enjoyed reading it. Here are couple a of beautiful ocean pictures from my 'island in the sun' to go along with it.
Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee
p.s. I'm supposed to invite another lady but I don't know very many peeps here (yet). Hey @beeber - I know you're in LOH already but what's the story behind your Hive name?
Unless otherwise noted, copyright for all photos, dividers and gifs ©Oceanbee|ImagesByCW