Lizzie , Liz, Elizabeth

A reflection on reflections

Hi.

Here I am.

Left to Right/Top to Bottom/28-40 years old: Lockers (listening to my graduate orchestral piece being being rehearsed); Long Hair Laughing (dinner at cousin Georgia’s); Elbow on Table (whiskey with Aunt Val); Tiny Violin (fixing 19 kids’ violins for an after-school music program); Headshot (first selfie in Kentucky after moving from Los Angeles); Music Room (taken a few months after the death of my second-born, trying to find normal); Photobooth (me and my dude at Steph and Eryk’s wedding in New Orleans)

I’ve had a lot of different hair¹.

I’ve had a lot of wild experiences, which I sometimes enjoy dropping into conversations².

And I’ve met so very many people, strangers and friends, over the past four decades. All of us getting into shenanigans, rest assured³.

Here’s how they’ve perceived me:

When I went to college, there was a rumor that I was actually a 14 year-old child-genius⁴.

There, I was also referred to by the LGBTQ community as “the femme who walks like a dyke⁵.”

A few years later I overheard a childhood acquaintance say about me, “Well, you can take the girl out of the trailer park, but…”

At that time I was working The Home Depot⁶, where the rumor was that I was a trust-fund baby, only there to observe The People.

Meanwhile, bumping into me there, a friend said it was like “hanging the Mona Lisa in a motel.”

Strangers in the south correctly assume I’m a Northerner. People from New York City think I’m a podunk upstater, while people from most other places think I’m a fancy New Yorker. Except folks in Los Angeles, who asked if I was mid-western⁷. And folks in Spain, who tended to think I was French⁸ (although I was also asked if I was Polish once).

No one ever presumes I’m anything but female and white (both true), although I’ve been asked if I was Jewish numerous times⁹.

It's also regularly assumed that I am a vegetarian¹⁰ and that I have tattoos¹¹.

I’ve been compared to both Jodi Foster and young Betty White (looks), Ellen DeGeneres (when I had short hair) and Amy Sedaris (both for humor), and Kim Gordon (rock n’ roll).

My most recent feedback was, “You give off a single mom vibe,” which I’ll parse another time. But I’ve also been referred to as a M.I.L.F. so that’s pretty great!

Currently, I’m most often compared to Ms. Frizzle. And, judging by my own life, I think the Friz has it right:

“Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”

All my love,

Lizzie, Liz, Elizabeth

1. Generally blonds and reds

2. eg “That reminds me of the time I learned to swing on a trapeze at a carnival on a pier…” and “oh, Florence is lovely in the spring! Did I ever tell you about the chamber opera I composed there?”

3. Did I ever tell you about that 200 miles bike-ride/camping triu

4. To be fair, I did wear a retainer until I was in my twenties

5. Their words, verbatim. My dad also once told me I walked like a confident lesbian gym teacher…

6. Which I referred to as “The Tool House; Tools Selling Tools to Tools”

7. It was at this time I kept a blog with my writings of things strangers said to me. The only conceit was that they initiated the conversation

8. That was trés cool!

9. Which I take to be an honor!

10. Only briefly in/after college

11. Nope