Liza Jane explained

Mother of God I'm bored. So I thought I'd tell all ten of you or so who read this blog, even though no one asked, where the Liza Jane thing came from, since it's kinda odd. Therefore, I feel it's fitting that it came from my grandfather, because he's also a little strange. Loveable, but strange. See, he's a retired family doctor, whose main clientele were the Amish. He, my grandma, my four aunts, and my mom lived in Intercouse, PA (no, seriously) for most of their lives, and the main inhabitants are ridiculously large Amish families. And yet, my grandpa is strangely liberal, and has become more so with age. He's also rather argumentative and can be somewhat stuck in his ways, which is part of the reason that I love him. All in all, he's a pretty interesting guy.

Anyway, my grandpa has always had these nicknames for my brother and I. Ever since I can remember, he's called me Little Eliza Jane, and I've always, until recently, hated it. He even had a little song that went along with it, which I assumed he'd made up. I tried refusing to answer to it for a little while, but that didn't really work, and despite my repeated protests he's persisted in calling me this. He had a nickname for my brother too (Germany), which sort of rhymes with his name, but my brother was a little more vehement than I was about his dislike for the name, and so it's sort of faded a little.

So up until this year, I've been a little embarassed by this odd nickname I got, and couldn't really figure out where it came from. Then in January, Max, myself, and one of our friends went to this little dive bar in the Bywater called Vaughn's Lounge to see Kermit Ruffins play like he does every Thursday (awesome musician if you've never heard him). The bar is in a not so great area, and they have to buzz you in through the front door, but beer was only a dollar, and I was promised that the music would be good. It was good, great actually, and imagine my surprise when I heard ole Kermit singing Little Eliza Jane. I never knew it was actually a song before, and figured that my grandpa had just cooked it up out of nowhere. It was a fun song too, really jazzy and upbeat and everyone in the bar was dancing and clapping along with the music. Despite having nothing to do with the creation of my nickname, I suddenly felt rather proud of it. So when I created this blog, rather than hide from it, like I'd been trying to do for 24 years, I decided that I would embrace it. And now, when my grandpa sings my name at me when I go home for Christmas, I might even just sing along.