I am a libra and an ox (zodiacally speaking), a sometime student, avid picture-taker (I won't presume to call myself a photographer), a would-be writer, bookworm, movie lover,crafter and procrastinator extraordinaire.

I have a Bachelor's degree in English and a Master of Arts in Teaching.

I have no intention of being a teacher. I don't even really like children. That's not precisely true...I love my nieces and nephews very much. And though I don't plan on having children of my own (at least not anytime in the foreseeable future), it's not the children that are the problem with teaching, it's the bureaucracy. I have no patience for it.

My favorite color is green, and I love all the dark jewel tones. I used to say that I hated pink, and all pastels in general, but I don't think that is precisely true anymore. There have been several instances of me liking things with pink on them in the recent past. Still, I believe that pastels are best used sparingly, as an accent.

I can't pass a bookstore without going in. It's a sickness, but I cope well enough. I have a fondness for Arthurian legends, fairy tales, 19th century British literature, and cheesy vampire novels. I like good vampire novels, too... but they are much more difficult to find. I've read Les Miserables and Beowulf for fun. Some of my favorite authors are: Richard Adams, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Edith Wharton, Anne Rice, Mikhail Bulgakov, Roald Dahl, Wilkie Collins, Stephen King, Vladimir Nabokov, and Peter S. Beagle. Favorite books include: Watership Down, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Master and Marguerita, The Mists of Avalon, The Woman in White, The Stand and Interview with a Vampire each of which I have read between three and ten times (not that I obsess much). Anyone want to guess which book I have read the most? I currently own 147 books which I have not read.

I am an optimist in spite of myself.

I love my cats, even when they are bad...which is most of the time.

I will listen to almost any kind of music, and like to put together CD's for my friends, almost as much as I like them to put together CD's for me. At some point everyone gets a copy of "The Artist" by Hugh Brown Shu, "The Underwear Song" by Barry Louis Polisar, "Ariel" by October Project and "The Baby Song" by Cordelia's Dad. My music library includes 10,000 Maniacs, All, And One, Beborn Beton, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cake, The Crüxshadows, Depeche Mode, Dresden Dolls, Enya, Flogging Molly, Indigo Girls, Jill Scott, King Missile, Loreena McKennitt, Minor Threat, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, October Project, Oingo Boingo, Rachmaninoff, Rufus Wainwright, Seabound, Seven Nations, Social Distortion, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Steve Martin, They Might Be Giants, Tori Amos, Violent Femmes, and VNV Nation.

I cannot own too many pens.

I collect shot glasses from places I have been. I also love bunnies, and this means that people buy me bunny things all the time. I have far too many stuffed animals for a woman my age, but I feel bad getting rid of them.

I spend much of my spare time working on a variety of crafting projects. I've been crocheting and cross stitching for years, and more recently added knitting to my list of obsessions, I mean, hobbies.  I also like to decoupage the crap out of a variety of objects. Beading, jewelry making, sculpting, painting, sewing...you name it, I probably do it (though some of it better than others - I really have no talent at all with polymer clay). I prefer to make and receive objects that are useful in some way, though my definition of useful is pretty expansive.

We have whole bookcases dedicated to holding our crafting supplies.

I have a penchant for movies that are visually interesting, witty, fantastical, creepy, animated, and/or just plain silly...but when it comes right down to it, I'll watch almost anything (romantic comedies that don't feature John Cusack and Napoleon Dynamite are the exception to this rule). Some of my favorites are: Ladyhawke, Watership Down, The Man Who Wasn't There, Braveheart, Fargo, The Hitcher, The Princess Bride, Office Space, Shaun of the Dead, the Indiana Jones movies, the Harry Potter movies and the Evil Dead movies.

The TV is often on at my house, but I am seldom really watching it, as I am usually working on some crafting project when the tv is on. However, some favorite shows (past and present) include: Lost, the X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Quantum Leap, American Gothic, The Closer, Dead Like Me, Six Feet Under, Project Runway, Monarch of the Glen, America's Next Top Model, and Forever Knight.

I carry on conversations with inanimate objects, and the cats. It's a long running joke that in our house, everything talks. So don't be surprised if you come to visit, and your dinner says, very seductively, "Eat me."

I fully intend to complete my New Orleans Travelogue...one of these days.

To learn more about me, you can visit my livejournal, or my crafting journal.