Contact me: ZandriaM [at] Yahoo [dot] com

My current photos: are at Flickr.

Obligatory facts: I'm 26. Single, no kids, no pets, don't smoke, drink occasionally. I live in the DC metro area (Alexandria, to be exact – which, although it resembles my own name, I swear I didn't do it on purpose). I'm the second of five kids (two sisters and two brothers). I've been blogging since September 2002. College graduate. Voracious reader.

Most recently: I'm a new vegan. No meat, no dairy. I stopped eating beef, chicken, and pork (everything except for seafood) in 2002. Since then I've found out more than I wanted to know about the effect that meat and dairy has on our bodies and its impact on the environment. Too much to ignore.

In the very beginning: I was born at home on June 9, 1980. Yes, by a midwife and everything. It took a few days for my parents to decide on a name.

So, about your name… I didn't like my name when I was little (oh, how I wanted to be an inconspicuously-named "Jennifer"), but I do now. I don't think I stand out very much on my own, so my name sets me apart.

I'm quiet. I had never lived by myself until I moved to northern VA to start a new job, and I love it. I tend not to go out of my way to meet new people. I can write what I feel, but it's hard for me to speak what I feel.

Does this explain my unsociability? I was home-schooled for eight years while I was growing up, except for the first two (kindergarten/first grade) and last two (junior/senior) years of public school. I skipped a grade in-between, so I graduated from high school a few days after my 17th birthday.

My day job. I don't talk here about what I do. Suffice it to say that I like it very much, and I have no complaints. The best part is that I no longer work for a call center, which for too many years was the bane of my existence.

I will repeat: working in a call-center sucks. I answered online-banking questions for over seven years – but I don't like talking on the phone. No wonder I hated my job so much.

I lived in Amsterdam for five months. I did a semester abroad during my senior year of college. I studied at the Vrije Universiteit, which is located just outside of Amsterdam in the municipality of Amstelveen. You can find links to some of my favorite posts written during that time on this post (scroll about halfway down the page; they're under "Dispatches from Amsterdam"). While I was in Europe I visited Geneva, Brussels, Paris, and London, as well as other cities and towns within the Netherlands. I can't wait to go back again one day.

I can be indecisive. I was a Sociology major in college (Virginia Commonwealth University, class of 2005). I graduated magna cum laude, but still? Sociology. I didn't specialize. I didn't know then what I wanted to do with my life, and I still don't know. But I have no regrets.

In other things, I am definitely decisive. When I decided I wanted to study abroad, I looked into it and then I did it. I've lived in California twice in the last four years, and I've driven cross-country by myself four times (from Virginia to California and then back, twice). When I decided I didn't want to be in one place any longer, I left. It's easy to do when you're single.

I'm not brave. Even though I've lived in various places, moving somewhere new doesn't change the person you are inside.

I'm not completely natural. No, I'm not talking about breast implants. I had corrective surgery for scoliosis in July of 2001. I wrote about the experience here. Then later I posted a picture of my back here.

I'm environmentally conscious. I conserve water. I unplug appliances when they're not in use. I drive a small car. I'm conscious about what I put in my body and what impact my food choices have on the planet.

I drive a stick-shift. I've owned four cars, and all of them have had manual transmissions. I bought my current car (a Honda Civic) brand-new when I was 19, but I paid it off a few years later and I'm planning to keep it for a long time. It's nice not having a car payment.

Speaking of phones again. I switched to a prepaid plan with my cell phone. It wasn't economically advantageous for me to pay for a monthly plan, since I hardly ever use it. Going prepaid has saved me a lot of money. (I do have a home phone for my DSL service.)

I get annoyed easily. I don't like being interrupted when I'm in the middle of something. If I don't feel like talking, I won't answer my phone. I wish I could work from home, too.

Semi-rebellious. I had my tongue pierced when I was 18. It stayed in for about a year and a half before I took it out. There are photos and videos that document this period of my life, but the hole in my tongue closed up in just a few days.

I'm weird. Judge for yourself.

I have problems with follow-through. I'd like to learn a foreign language. I'd like to learn sign language. I wish I could paint. I wish I knew how to dance. And yoga might be nice, too.

I don't watch TV at home. I couldn't watch it even if I wanted to, because I don't subscribe to cable. I'd rather read blogs.

I take my coffee black. No cream, no sugar. No fancy Starbucks mixtures. I usually drink 2 cups in the morning, but none in the afternoon.