Hlynna

I'm taking a break from swapping, as my husband has lost his job, and we are being super careful about money. I will check messages at least once a week, and I will miss it while I'm gone!

I got a mystery Christmas Card today from a Swapper in PA. Whoever you are, thanks! :)

I'm going to try and write an incredible profile. Bear with me as I may come back and edit it. Also I tend to type too fast and end up with garbled words. I'll go back and proofread but if I miss something, let me know. :)

Vital Facts: Age 30 Married, no kids, 2 cats. I live in Kansas City, MO. I'm new here and just getting settled into my new place. I've returned to school and just got my grades for my first semester back: 3 A's and a B! I'll have my Associate's Degree in May of 2008. Then I'm off to university to major in math and get a teaching certification. I used to work at Barnes & Noble. Now I'm focusing on school.

Habits, Likes, Dislikes, Stuff

• I like slow mornings spent catching up on my livejournal and eating breakfast. Then I like to watch the previous evening's Daily Show and Colbert Report.
• I tend to fall asleep after reading a bit. That's usually preceded by an episode of a favorite show (like Star Trek: The Next Generation), as my husband and I wind down.
• I have long, thick hair, just past my shoulders. I usually wear it in a ponytail or in braided pigtails. I wear barrettes, but because my hair is really fine, they're the kind that you kind of bend to open and snap closed. They curve to be close to your scalp.
• My favorite colors are rich, like purple and red and blue. I hate pink in almost all cases.
• My clothes are mostly straight legged trousers in dark colors (like black and gray) with rich colored tops that don't need to be tucked in and are forgiving around the waist. I can't resist a cute two-fer top -- tops that imitate the layered look. Unless it's the weekend. Then I wear t-shirts (I like the strange-ish tees from glarkware) and jeans. I love my cop boots and my chucks.
• For jewelry, I like silver as opposed to gold. I love dangling earrings and have quite the collection. I don't wear bracelets every day but I like them. I wear my wedding ring but otherwise don't really like rings. I think I would wear more necklaces (I have a few charms w/o chains) if I could find chains that actually fit and don't feel like they're choking me. My 5 point hangs from black thread.
• I don't do nail polish because my fingernails are always in some state of disrepair. I also don't wear make-up on a regular basis.
• I do try to take care of my face though. I have acne (stress-induced and hormonal). So, I'm careful to use pH-balanced face care products. I don't wear perfume, but I like lightly scented body sprays.
• I couldn't live without Diet Pepsi. I also like Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, sweetened iced tea, water, chocolate milk (we've found a local dairy that makes great chocolate milk), and the occasional grape soda or root beer.
• My favorite dessert is pumpkin pie. I love chocolate as well. My favorite kind is a Three Musketeers bar. I also love Edy's Slow Churned 1/2 the Fat Chocolate Ice Cream.
• I like macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and chicken pot pie. I eat like a little kid. I should eat more veggies (but I rarely do).
• I love my computer. I run Ubuntu (a very user friendly flavor of Linux). I also have a Windows boot because I love to play The Sims 2 (I have ALL the expansion packs). I like that I have a lot of control about what is installed on my machine and what's running in the background.
• All of our music is copied from CD to a huge hard drive. We then queue up playlists in a program and play them over good stereo speakers. I listen to music almost all the time.
• I love to watch home improvement TV. My husband calls it home and garden crack. We got digital cable so I could watch Changing Rooms (the UK inspiration for Trading Spaces).
• I also love geek TV: MythBusters, How It's Made, Extreme Engineering, and Connections, especially.
• I'm (a bit too) involved in fandom. I accomplish this mostly through livejournal communities. I like to read fanfiction and I love to watch episodes of favorite shows with other fans. I'm just getting back into going to conventions. I especially love filk. It's best live, so I get to hear new artists and songs.
• I love to recommend new music or books to people. Especially when they contact me later to say they loved it!
• I like to play Guitar Hero on my PlayStation. It's ironic as my fingers were always a bit too short for a real guitar!
• My spirituality is eclectic pagan. I absolutely respect others' religions and ask that anyone partnering with me do the same. Just as you might not appreciate a pentacle in your item (when the theme is nothing to do with religion), I'm not going to appreciate a crucifix.
• I love to sing. My varied taste in music comes out in what I sing as well. But I'm partial to simple yet powerful melodies, like "The Rainbow Connection."
• My refrigerator door is covered in magnets (but I have room on the side!). There are some but not all letters of the alphabet in varying colors. There's a lighthouse and a little aquarium, and a mini-windchime with a cat on it.
• I like to play board games, like Scrabble and Ticket to Ride. I also like collectible card games like Munchkin, and more traditional card games like cribbage.

Do you think I've left out a category? If so, please let me know!

I have very eclectic tastes and it's easiest to say what I don't like. Dislikes: gangsta rap, really hard metal or punk, industrial, emo, pop crap (like Ashlee Simpson or Hilary Duff), and Il Divo (and their imitators).

science fiction and fantasy

especially: Heinlein, Pratchett, Spider Robinson, and Madeleine L'Engle.

I'm on LibraryThing under the same username, for a more complete list.

Pirates of the Caribbean, Pixar films, pre-Hercules Disney, original Star Wars, Mel Brooks, Lord of the Rings, Steel Magnolias, Bring It On

Some day I'll have cataloged my DVDs like I have my books. It's on my to-do list. :)

Doctor Who, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, House, Scrubs, South Park, Heroes, The Simpsons, NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, Pushing Daisies

I'm good at writing and I make a mean mix CD. I think I might be able to learn to cross stitch. Otherwise, I have very limited hand-eye coordination. But I like to put together neat things, so I hope to make some neat stuff here!