...This is a little story about a girl who happens to be me.

Four days before the arrival of George Orwell's prophesied dystopian year of the future, a girl was born in Camarillo, CA. She had a full childhood, complete with trips to the park for kite-flying and a menagerie of pets (including guinea pigs, hamsters, fish and parakeets) and summer library reading programs. Legend has it that she taught herself how to read at the age of three for the sole purpose of mastering the T.V. Guide, and also that her parents potty-trained her in one day by bribing her with bubble gum. More than anything in the world, the little girl wanted to be a mermaid.

Almost 12 years after her birth, that girl's parents would move to Henderson, NV (generally, albeit incorrectly, referred to as Las Vegas due to their intersecting city borders) and take her with them. There, she would complete junior high and high school before taking off for the University of San Diego, where she enrolled as a bio/pre-med major, decided she loathed chemistry in every possible way, and graduated with a B.A. in English. She had learned a long time ago that no amount of hard work or intelligence or even money would allow her to achieve her dream of becoming a mermaid, and though the anguished heartache of the revelation never quite left her fully, she had since moved on to more feasible goals. Goals like getting her Master's at Columbia or Northwestern in journalism and earning the position of editor-in-chief for "Vanity Fair".

In 2006, however, two years following her graduation from USD, she had had enough of working in liberal arts fields and opted to return to school for a degree in Computer Engineering. She enrolled at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and began her coursework in the College of Engineering in the Spring semester of 2007. She soon realized she actually rather enjoyed chemistry, then further realized that she *really* loved physics and switched her major to Civil Engineering. The Spring semester of 2008 revealed to her that she also really loved geology. She hopes to graduate by 2010 and give back to her city by finding ways to ameliorate the desert's water struggles.

This is her fourth online journal of sorts (her first was started in 2001 and was 100% self-maintained and self-designed) and has been in existence since late 2004.

...I am a girl who still yearns, sometimes, to be a mermaid.

It's easier to come up with things I don't like and things that don't interest me. I don't like buttered popcorn Jelly Bellies and most bugs, and hunting does not interest me.

I don't have a favorite anything because I can't fathom how to possibly choose just one. I say, "I don't know, it depends", all the time. I tend to put my commas and periods on the outside of an end quotation mark thanks to my short-lived stint as a Computer Engineering major. I like to dance a lot of different kinds of dances, but mostly these days I just swing dance. I used to be heavy into photography until I realized I was happier just living in a moment instead of trying to capture it from behind a lens. If we are ever in a grocery store at one in the morning, I will probably very spontaneously pretend to be a velociraptor or an allosaurus and chase you down the frozen-foods aisles. While wearing heels and a dress.

I have lived with at least one cat in my household since I was born and have never had a problem with them, and then shortly after I turned 24, my doctor's office called to give me some recent blood test results and informed me I was allergic to cats. (And olive trees.) I now use this to give my cat a guilt trip whenever she tries to make me feel bad for never being home.

...Coast to coast, New York to Chicago, East L.A.

I exist on the Internet in a variety of iterations.

I write here, obviously, and tuck away slightly more personal rambly bits in the Annex. I used to write letters to people and every once in a blue moon, continue to do so. I also use Flickr and Twitter. I have Myspace and Facebook accounts, too, but there's really no point in trying to link to those profiles due to the privacy settings I've applied to them. Though, if you find me on Facebook, I will probably add you if you send me a request.

I have more e-mail addresses than I can remember off the top of my head. I primarily use Gmail. I don't care much for spam, but I do love a genuine e-mail message in my inbox! So if you feel like writing to me and the subject does not involve Viagra or how you think I am a crappy person, I think you should go ahead and do it! My Gmail account looks forward to hearing from you.

...This used to be my playground.

In case you had any interest, you can still check out what this About Page looked like when I was 22 and when I was 23.