When Life Gives You Liz Lemons…

I am an avid watcher of 30 Rock.  When I say avid I mean, completely obsessed.  I’ve watched every single episode and can recite my very favorites by heart.  On a horrible day, I like to put on my most beloved episodes to unwind.  The show is not only amazingly written, but embodies a fun-loving and hilarious bunch of characters that I love to watch.  One of my favorite characters is of course Liz Lemon, played by the very popular, and absolutely tremendous, Tina Fey.  Liz Lemon personifies some of the great, not-so-great, and off-the-wall stereotypes of the 40-something single, career woman.  She’s a fellow lover of, “sweater weather, Ina Garten, and when Muppets present at award shows” and I find myself not only loving her, but as a 20-something, feeling closer to this 40-something character than to most of my peers. 

Not only do I have a close bond to Liz Lemon, I sometimes (okay, almost all the time) act like her as well.  I find myself criticizing people who write things like, “I’m so much like Liz its ridiculous” and thinking, Liz Lemon would never let an error like that go- so you couldn’t possibly be like Liz Lemon.  It’s not even that I’m immune to common grammatical errors- I somehow find them more upsetting when Liz is mentioned in the sentence.  I agree, the word whom does deserve a defender and shows about cakes are as enthralling as Law & Order: SVU.  I even sound like Liz Lemon.  Upon signing up for a volunteer event I argued that the question, “are you engaged or married” should be replaced with: “are you engaged, married, or in a long-term partnership?”  My roommate responded with, “okay, Liz Lemon….”  I’m constantly battling the idea of whether or not I want to train a cat to dial 911 or attempt another “adult relationship.”  At this point, training the cat seems like the easier option and I have thought about getting a life alert… just in case. 

What I forget is that Liz Lemon is just a character and the woman who plays her is actually amazing, pregnant with her second child, married, and an incredibly successful writer who juggles career, family, and love.  Even though the cynical and hilarious Liz is easy to identify with, who I should really be striving to identify with is Tina Fey.  Tina Fey has an astounding life and even though what she writes has to do with her own experiences, she is still an unbelievably talented individual who has a very positive outlook.  Like me, Tina Fey struggled to find the perfect guy or any guy for that matter, but it happened for her, all while she was working at the Y and getting discovered at Second City.  Even though things may never fall into place for Liz Lemon- they sure have for the person that created her and in ways that are probably even beyond Fey’s imagination.  So I guess when life gives you Liz Lemons you better take a big gulp of that sweet Liz Lemonade and hold on for the ride of your life.