tabitha

So you want to know more about me, eh?

Hm. I live in Kissimmee, Florida (just outside of Orlando). I hate snow and cold weather, hence my settling in the Sunshine State.

I'm 30 years old and have been happily married for 9 years. Yes, I'm old. Deal with it. (Hey, 30 isn't old. For trees.)

I work with kids. For filthy earth monies, I run an after-school program at a local elementary school. On the weekends, I volunteer at Give Kids the World, a resort in Kissimmee where children with terminal or life-threatening illnesses stay while on their Wish trips to visit the local attractions. (Disney, SeaWorld, Universal, the nearby beaches, etc.) I am in the process of becoming an official volunteer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. (I'll post more when I get my training over with) However, I do not have any children of my own, nor am I particularly inclined to have any.

I also volunteer for The Hero Initiative, a charity which helps comic creators in need. I got started in this because of a dear friend, but continue because I believe that comic fans have a responsibility to give back to the men and women who gave us our heroes.

More than anything else, I'm a comic book geek. I'm probably the only person on this board who got into My Chemical Romance because of The Umbrella Academy, rather than getting into The Umbrella Academy because of My Chemical Romance. Go figure, I do everything backwards. If I am wrong and there is someone else drawn into the MCR world because of TUA, please PM me, I would love to chat with you! I freely admit that I have an entire room of my house dedicated to my comic collection -- comic books and comic memorabilia. It kicks ass. I had a blog with the photos, but it got deleted. I have the photos saved though, so if you don't believe me, or just want to see it, PM me and I'll send you a few.

My Favorite Comics: (currently on sub, favorites, and etc, but I read more than just this)

Marvel:
Runaways (Whedon/Vaughn/various),
Astonishing X-Men (Whedon/Cassaday)
Silver Surfer Requiem (Strazynski/Ribic)

DC:
All-Star Superman (Morrison/Quitely)
Brave and the Bold (Waid/Perez, I'm a little biased) (*edit - they just gave this to a new artist, so I stopped reading it. Now I'm reading some of the Final Crisis books, but damn but DC fucked themselves up again. Seriously, how many crises can one universe have? My head has an owie. Knock it off and write good shit again, guys. I know you know how.)
Tiny Titans (Balthazar/Franco) this is adorable, and so are Art and Franco. Seriously. I just want to squish them. They're squishy.

Dark Horse:
Hellboy (Mignola/various)
Hellboy Animated (Mignola/various)
Buffy season 8 (Whedon/Vaughn/Jeanty)
The Umbrella Academy (Way/Ba) If you're on this board, you already know about this. But read it for its own merit. Forget that Gerard wrote it and just enjoy a new, fresh, kick-ass story.
Kickback (Lloyd) do yourself a favor and read this.

Vertigo:
Fables (Willingham/various) You. Must. Read. This. My husband even reads this one, and he hates comics.
Stardust (Gaiman/Vess) is much better than the movie.

Top Shelf:
Owly (Runton, again, I'm biased, but it's really a great book)
Barefoot Serpent (Morse),
Korgi (Slade)
Anything by Craig Thompson (especially Blankets)

Oni:
Courtney Crumrin series (Naifeh)

SLG:
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee! (Vaszquez)
Lenore (Dirge)
Nightmares and Fairy Tales (Valentino/FSC/Scrambly)

Image:
Kabuki (Mack)

Favorite collections: Batman: Arkham Asylum; Batman: Hush; Batman: The Long Halloween; Batman: The Killing Joke; any of the Batman Detective Collections (when they pull out Paul Dini's books and publish them together, this series has several writers, but Dini is my favorite) Superman For All Seasons, and The JLA/Avengers

And last but not least: Watchmen (Moore/Gibbons) is required reading, and there will be a test.

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My favorite things include attending comic book conventions (working them is even better), reading comics, watching good movies, going to the Disney parks, going to the Give Kids the World Village, and listening to music.

When I was little I wanted to live on a beach and weave mats for tourists. I was one of those child prodigies (started kindergarten at 4, skipped a grade, would have graduated a year early if they'd let me take Government and Econ as a junior, but no, so my senior year was Government, Econ, Spanish, English, and 5 art classes) but never had any lofty goals for myself, unless you count wanting to marry Billy Corgan (sorry Lycia) when I was 15. Now that I'm grown up, (on the outside, anyway) make a buttload of money playing kickball with a group of elementary kids every day, spend my weekends in a blue wig and cupcake dress, and realize that pasty skin + hours in the sun = 3rd degree sunburn, I go to the beach about once a month or so, slather myself in baby 80 spf, daydream now and again about what life would have been like as Mrs. Corgan, and weave (indoors) when the muse strikes me to do so.

A few fun and odd facts about me:

My birthfather is 6'8" and my birthmother is 5'7", but I am barely 5'3". It sucks and I hate it. I hate buying pants because I am in the dead zone. They're either too long and I step on them and they get all nasty along the ankles because they drag on the ground, or they're too short and I look like a dumbass with highwater pants. *Le sigh.* It sucks to be me, as they say, and I have the tee-shirt to prove it. You can probably tell by the nomenclature that I am adopted, which is true. I was 9 when I was adopted. Yeah, that was a nice mindfuck.

I *love* Neil Diamond and Simon & Garfunkel. It's a throwback to when I was a little kid. No matter what my musical tastes may be, I will listen to just about anything they do. It takes me back to the good times.

My current dirtiest little secret is that, after watching "Saved!" and putting it as #2 favorite high school movie ("Heathers" is and always will be #1) I actually like Mandy Moore. I think this is more because I work with kids and would rather those kids listen to her rather than, say, Britney Spears, and watch her movies rather than, say, Lindsay Lohan. She's a good role model. I admire that. However: not that this has anything to do with Ms. Moore, but while we're on the subject of the vapid shit that today's kids like: I hate High School Musical with the fire of a thousand suns, even though the kids adore it. (vapid, vapid little shits!) If the damn movie is called HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, you should know by the end of it who gets the damn part. I want that two hours of my life back. And if you could stuff the blood back into my ears from where they were bleeding, that would be nice. Thank you.

I am a closet Parrothead. Yeah, shaddup. I'm 30, I live in Florida, and hit Margaritaville as often as possible. And I most certainly sing along to Margaritaville and scream SALT SALT SALT loud and proud. Usually because I've got a few raspberry margaritas in me, so I'm a little on the amenable side by that point. I also sing along to Volcano and have been known to get teary-eyed listening to Delaney Talks To Statues. But then again, I have dad issues.

I actually like pretty much any kind of music. MCR very quickly became my favorite band, but I also love showtunes, (I could listen to The Boy From Oz all day, I *love* Hugh Jackman's voice) Josh Groban, (his voice is just pure heaven) Tchaikovsky's ballets, (having performed in a few) and I already admitted to Jimmy Buffett, Neil Diamond, and Simon & Garfunkel, so I'm obviously not afraid to make an ass out of myself for others' amusement. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? Ahem. Sorry. Moving on. As long as it isn't rap, latin, or country, I'll give it a try and probably like it. I hate rap music, I'm tired of hearing latin music blaring out of my neighbors' porches at all hours and out of every car on the street, and I got burned out on country in high school, not that I ever liked it to begin with, but when girls go to their prom in formal dresses and cowboy boots -- hand to God -- and then have the nerve make fun of my date and I because we rented costumes? (and looked pretty bad-ass, I must say. He was a keeper. I married him 4 years later.) Piss off, shit-kicker.

If I could break any of my bad habits, it would be cursing. I say fuck a lot. I also crack my knuckles, but would rather stop cursing than stop cracking.

Oh, and I love cheese. Seriously. If you cut me, I would probably ooze Velveeta. I put cheese on almost everything. I think I'm addicted, seriously. I should look into some kind of cheese intervention.

This is me, with one of my best friends. He kinda stands in as my dad:


Here's a fun photo of me doing my volunteer work at Give Kids the World:


Anything else, just ask. My life is an open book.