August 27th, 2018

It's something that happens to me far more often than I really care to admit.  A case of mistaken identity, I suppose.  An simple honest error.

Yesterday, Tim and I went to see some very high end model homes. Lovely homes.  It was the sort of place that was not only gated, but you had to to inside the visitor's center to "check in" and get a pass.  I waited patiently while Tim talked with the lady behind the counter.  Tim must have mentioned that he was with his wife, because I saw him gesture toward me.  The lady behind the counter turned her head to say hello to me and instead, her eyes opened very wide, she stepped back a half step and her smile turned into a thousand watt beam as she said,  (here it comes),  "You look just like Barbra Streisand".  Because I knew she meant that as a compliment and because I've heard this far too many times before, I smiled back and just said, "Thank you".

Really?  Do I really?  I don't see it.

Is it the nose?  Is that the entirety of the similarity?  Just the proboscis?   Well, I suppose our hair is nearly the same colour and is cut in vaguely the same style.  Is that the basis of the comparison?   It's a mystery to me.

I have to say that if it was just that one occasion, that one woman yesterday, I probably wouldn't give it another thought, but it just keeps happening.  I don't have nay idea how poor Ms. Streisand feels about the comparison.

At a party at a neighbor's house  not long ago, I met quite a number of people I did not know.  All of them were very nice people and I had a lovely time.  But just before I left, I was saying my good-byes to the hostess when the dearest little old lady came up to me and took my hands.  She looked so very sincerely into my eyes as she said, "I just had to come over and tell you that you look just like Barbra Streisand."  It was intended to very  kindly, I could tell.  But, but, but...I don't!  Do I?

This is not intended as a shot at Ms. Streisand.  She is an amazing talent.  Her voice is a national treasure.  To have that gift would be amazing.  I can carry a tune in a bucket.  When I sing, I generally hit the note I'm aiming at, but compared to her, I sound like a bullfrog croaking.  I don't know her personally of course, but I will go ahead and assume that she is a nice lady. I'm a nice lady.   She has a son, I have three sons.  And that's about as far as I can go with similarities.  Like I said, I just don't see it.

But oddly, she is not the only famous person I have been compared to.  A physician I once had told me that I looked 'just like' Mayim Bialik. Really?  That was a surprise to me.    But I've heard it many times since.   In fact, in one restaurant in Colorado, a very sweet little girl, around 8 or 9 years old, followed me into the ladies room clutching a piece of paper and a pen and nervously requesting my, or rather, her autograph. 

I asked her who exactly it was that she thought she was talking to.  When she told me Mayim Bialik I said that I was sorry, but I wasn't that person.  She just stood there, blinking back little tiny tears, her smile trembling and held out the paper and pen.  "Honey, honest, I wish I was her because then I would be very happy to sign your paper. But I'm just not her!"  Then I washed my hands and left the restroom.  I felt so bad for that little girl. I don't know if she thinks that I really was Ms. Bialik and that I was lying to her to get out of signing an autograph? Or what?

But again, I just do not see that I look like this woman at all!

The only thing that we have in common, as far as I can tell is we are both female and we both have sons.  She is not only an actress, which I am so very not, but she is also a smarty pants scientist.  She has an advanced degree in NeuroScience, for heaven's sakes.  We are nothing alike!  Not that I don't admire her, I do.  Just I don't see that we look the same.

Of course even that is not the end of it.  I am frequently mistaken for total strangers.  Just regular people.  I am told, nearly everytime I meet someone new that I remind them so much of...or I look just like... their sister, their dental hygienist, their neighbor.....  And on more than one occasion a sad drunk will demand that I forgive them for something because they think that I am, Gloria or Rebecca or whoever they did wrong..  I have no idea of course what Gloria or Rebecca or the sister, hygienist or neighbor actually looks like so I cannot tell you how accurate these other people are in their declaration of how much we "look exactly alike".  But I'm going to assume that I don't because so far, I never have. 

And since I apparently "look just like' so very  many other people, I can only conclude that I must be the most average looking person on the planet!  I must look like every 3rd woman in America!  Or I am a human chameleon.  It's got to be one or the other because I cannot imagine that all of these people are  delusional.

Then of course, there is the very first person that I looked "just like".  My sister.  Pretty much from the day she was born, we were told that we looked like twins.  We don't see it.  I mean, we are both women.  Close in age.  With similar colouring.  Nearly the same height.  But that's it.  Still we are told this all of the time.  "You must be twins!"  My sister used to deny not only being twins, but even being related!   She cracks me up.

So here is the other person that apparently I look just like (I'm the one on the left). 

Nope, we just don't see it at all.  I asked Tim and he agreed that we do not look like twins. At least not identical twins.  But then, he is a very smart man and we've been married a long time.  After awhile, you know the correct answer to any question asked.

I leave it to you, my readers.  Do I really look like any of these other people?  Do you know Gloria or Rebecca?  Do I look like them?