Swampwater Debutante

Hi, I’m Lissa.

Lissa at Paris Las Vegas; photo by Joe Pennant, 2009

It’s short for Elisabeth.

I am 32, single, slightly bitter and bitchy, but mostly I think I am sort of nice, and I like to bake cookies a lot.

I’ve been blogging since July 3rd, 2000. But I am terrible at backing things up, so my archives only go back to about 2004 these days. Not that much went on before that. It took a while before I found my bloggity voice.

This is my third domain name. Before that I was on Diaryland under three different names. But I’ve been the Swampwater Debutante since, well, 2004, I guess. It is the name that seems to suit me best. I like it, so it sticks. I picked it because I am from Louisiana, and when I was in high school I had a predilection for etiquette lessons and poofy skirts. There was a reason behind it, I swear, but if you don’t know anything about the various Masonic orders, it won’t mean anything to you.

Notable things about me would be that I consume a largely vegetarian diet, I own three cats, I knit, I hoopdance, I write terrible drinking songs, and I am trying to figure out how to play autoharp. Coincidentally enough, I blog about these things – a LOT. But people seem to like it, probably because I seem to be able to make even talking about dinner sound like an epic adventure most of the time. This involves the judicious use of five dollar words.

(I was a spelling marvel in my home state. Truth! I had lots of medals for it before Grandma and Grandpa’s house burned down)

Hm. It might be prudent for you to know also that I suffer from Clinical Depression. In 2006, I had some slightly suicidal episodes and so now I am in therapy. I also took meds for it. I am sort of better now. I tell you of this because it is mentioned in my archives quite a bit, as I half-assedly try to bring awareness to the problem that is Clinical Depression. It is a very serious disorder that isn’t taken seriously by the general public.

Hoopdance – which I discovered in April 2009, helps with this a lot.

I used to talk about my ex a LOT. He comes up less now than he did, though I remain steadfast in my conviction that he is a sociopathic douchebag.

See how I said I write terrible drinking songs and I am learning autoharp? Here is why:

I am the one in blue. I sing soprano and write songs for the Drunken Damsels, a bawdy wench act. I say I write terrible songs not because they are bad songs, but because they are generally either very naughty, or I have done something awful to a perfectly nice Renaissance ballad, or both. And I get paid for this. Not much, but even so. People seem to like what we do. We’re on hiatus at the moment while we figure out where we are going.

In the meantime, I knit and bake and hoop and cook and blog. I live in Hurst, TX with the aforementioned cats in a very tiny apartment. You can email me, if you like – I use gmail.com, where my primary username is giantpetitfour. You can also catch me on AIM as swampwaterdeb.

I am mostly harmless.