who, what, where, when, why

i am nearly thirty-something, middle-class, caucasian with pansexual tendencies and a fluid gender identity.  i don’t fit into the normal classifications of gay or straight, man or woman, rich or poor, democrat or republican, christian or, well, not.  i’m just as comfortable in a five-star restaurant as in the local dive bar; a roman catholic mass or a wiccan fire ritual.  one day i’ll sport a jacket and tie, the next i could be dressed to the nines in a little black dress and sassy red heels or found in grubby jeans covered with axle grease and engine parts.  i have friends worth millions and friends on welfare.  i have taken orders from executive vice presidents of a global corporation, organizing their calendars, preparing their itineraries and balancing their books.  in the very same day, i have taken orders from families of four, organizing their silverware, preparing their drinks and balancing their dinners (on a tray, of course).  i didn’t bother to graduate from high school, have never held a ‘regular’ position within a company, can’t seem to stay in one place long enough to call it home and have yet to decide what i want to be when i grow up.

i keep a notebook in my bag and my passport at my side.  i prefer to work for myself or a temp agency so as not to be tied down to one place or one schedule.  i am a writer, an artist, a designer, a businesswoman, a lover, a sister, a daughter and friend.  i am passionate, creative, complicated and a little jaded but tirelessly optimistic.  i walk between worlds and make my own way.  not bogged down to convention, i am often inventive in the way in which i live my life.  not particularly fond of capitalization nor too worried about proper punctuation, i am creative with my articulation.

people fascinate me; they inspire, influence, captivate and motivate me.  i am often swayed to stray from my course upon encountering an interesting person along the way.  i am known to be late for everything, i am likely to enter into a philosophical discussion with the bagger at the grocery store or the young girl preparing my coffee.  i want to know everything about everyone and will get so excited about the things going on with the people around me that i am apt to drop whatever it is that i am doing in order to watch them for a while because it’s just so interesting.

last night, in fact, i did just that.  i had it all planned out: i was going to eat some breakfast, settle into my office and write my column (my first column! squee!).  instead, i spent the day with my family, first going to a movie with my sister and her two beautiful girls, then preparing dinner for two long-lost cousins who happened to drop in on their way through town.  i stayed up chatting with them until eleven o’clock, catching up on ten years of life.  before i could blink, it was past midnight, past my bedtime, and past my self-imposed deadline.  now, another day has passed me by as i was absorbed in the people around me.

i just couldn’t bring myself to break away from the conversation, even though i’ve been looking forward to writing this very sentence for a very, very long time: my name is Liesl Geneva and i am here to blur the lines and Queer your Mind.