Contact me: ZandriaM [at] Yahoo [dot] com
Twitter: @followzan
Contributing Editor: Since January 2007, I’ve been writing about my experiences as a 20-something single woman, and also fitness, for BlogHer.
Current photos: Flickr
Obligatory facts: I’m 29. No kids, no pets. I live in the DC metro area (Alexandria, to be exact — which, although it’s close to my own name, I swear I didn’t move here on purpose). I’m the second of five kids (two sisters and two brothers). I’ve been blogging since September 2002.
In the very beginning: I was born at home on June 9, 1980. Yes, by a midwife. 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. It sets me apart.
My childhood: 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’m an Executive Assistant for a children’s advocacy nonprofit organization in Washington, DC.
I’m interested in: healthy living. I watch what I eat; I walk a lot; I lift weights 2-3 times a week; I read fitness-related blogs, news articles, magazines, etc.
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 in 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 some day.
I tend to be decisive. When I decided I wanted to study abroad, I looked into it and then I did it. I didn’t ask for anyone else’s opinion; I did it because I wanted to. I’ve also lived in California, for various periods of time, and I’ve driven cross-country by myself four times (from Virginia to California and back…twice).
I’m not completely natural. I had corrective surgery for scoliosis in July 2001. I wrote about the experience here. Then I posted a picture of my back here.
In my past: 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 a few photos that exist, but the hole in my tongue closed up after just a few days.
I drink my coffee black. No cream, no sugar.
