One of my mother's friends this weekend said I am a combination of my two parents, which is TOTALLY TRUE, and I don't understand why people say I look just like my mother. Actually, I understand why they say it, but they are still wrong.

I look just like me mam, with the physique of mah dad. I dunno about my sister. Some weird shit.

People tell me I look like my mom, but that's usually only if we're together. I don't see it at all -- I've looked exactly like my dad forever.

People constantly confuse Cass and me for sisters. Which, okay, we're brain twins, but I don't think we look anything like each other.

I wish my parents had spelled my first name the way it is pronounced, even though it would have caused confusions. It is pronounced like there is a double s in the middle...Sussan. Or even more phonetically, Sussanne.

Instead of fussing over pronunciation, I just go with Suzi. Yes, I get a myriad of spellings, but it is easy to say. Made more of a difference when I had my 14 letter, 2 hyphen maiden name that was a bear to pronounce.

When I got divorced a few crazy people asked if I was going back to my maiden name. Uhhh, no. I like my last name as is and I've had it for most of my life, so I'm keeping it.

Emmett looks like an exact mix of his mom and me.

Matilda doesn't look particularly like JZ or I.

But Matilda and Emmett look like siblings.

I knew a girl named Susan who, for all of fifth grade, would alternate between spelling her nickname as Suzi and Susie every two weeks. I never understood her rationale for this, and she'd get very annoyed if one of us wrote her name the wrong way for that particular week. After a year of this, she settled on being Susie.

My SIL looks more like my brother than I do. But my brother is very clearly from both sides of the family, though in discrete parts. I'm a weird mix of both sides that doesn't obviously resemble either because almost all of the main identifying features are muddled. Mom & Dad's noses averaged out to a very nice nose. Paternal jawline, maternal cheekbones. Mouth from who knows where. No one else has green eyes. Paternal shoulders and ribcage (damned barrel), maternal hips. I have my dad's legs from the knee down. Feet are SO my father's. My skin alternates between maternal freckling and dark swede tan.

I mean, this is me with my family and my paternal grandmother and aunt in 1991 or so: [link] and SIL and brother when Dominic was born [link]

It is pronounced like there is a double s in the middle...Sussan. Or even more phonetically, Sussanne.

Is that different from Suzanne?

A friend tried to assure me I both spelt and pronounced my middle name wrong. She wasn't really good at understanding when she was just 100% on the wrong path. My middle name isn't Susan. So I'm under no responsibility to either spell or pronounce it that way. She did that shit a lot.

And tried to sleep with your boyfriend, but I don't think that was related.