No More Dead "About" Button & BIG NEWS!

An Amanda in her natural enviornment

It was brought to my attention recently that my "about" button was a link to Photobucket.  Needless to say, this is not an accurate description of me.  To remedy this fact, I offer this post, which will forever link to my "about" button from this point forward.  So, a little about me and this blog:

 From the beginning:

I'm an army brat.  I've lived in Turkey, the Netherlands, Spain, and all over the continental US, and traveled to most places neighboring wherever I've lived.  My dad was the military one and my mom taught elementary school.  My whole family is from Arkansas, and my paternal grandmother owned an antiques dealership.  I grew up going to many an antique auction and cohabiting with a lot of old stuff.  Contrary to what I swore when younger, I now love old things too - Victorain, 50's, pioneer lunch boxes, you name it, (I'm not so keen on the 80's, actually).  My mom's cancer was found when I was in seventh grade.  I've spent most of my life being in love with a boy named Michael, although the first boy I ever really thought about marrying was Jewish and named Dave.  My family is Presbyterian/Methodist.  My mom died when I was 20.  I was once engaged to a boy named Jason.  I now live in Austin with a boy named Lennon and a slam poet who is kinda sorta really famous - Eirik.  I also have sisters for the first time in my life.

Resume-ish stuff:

I went to the George Washington University on a full naval scholarship but didn't like it, so I dropped out and went to the University of Arkansas.  I got my BA in English literature with near-miss minors in Spanish and religious studies.  I got my MA in teaching/education.  I taught high school for three years and now work with a non-profit in a Title I school.  The real goal is to be a writer.  I've published one article but have been too busy or lazy to do another since.  You can find its information here.  Now I blog, write short articles for online media, have been offered the opportunity to start writing posts for another blog (note to self - get on that!) and every day resolve to start writing a book.  Oh, and I really want to teach again, but preferably university level.  A PhD would also be nice, (and helpful).

Likes/Dislikes...

I like music and live shows.  Maybe love.  I like to read books, although I get annoyed and envious of overly pretentious looking books and covers at the store - I like cover art and I like it to not make me feel too stupid to open the book, in the future I'll find an example.  I like to cook but if I'm in a bad mood I won't do it.  Amazingly, cooking puts me in a good mood, so maybe I should keep that in mind.  It's also important to note that I will have nothing to do with meat unless it's sushi.  Damn sushi.  And salmon fillets.  I love to shop when I have some extra money, and I love wearing skirts and things that sparkle.  I'm also learning guitar.... technically been learning since eleventh grade, shut-up.  Oh, and I like tattoos.  And contrary to current evidence: complex sentences.  I don't have cable, but if I did I'd watch SpongeBob marathons and movies.


Why Dishevelled Stars?

Because Yeats was the man, and I like fairies named Fergus. 


No, really, why the blog?

I started the blog after having two long-lived Live Journals you can find here and here.  I didn't commit to writing in it until this year because teaching and trying to be social occasionally consumed my life.  I've had a paper journal since my mom gave me one as a birthday present in first grade, next to a VHS copy of Peter Pan, still my favorite Disney movie.

Also why I picked blogging back up - a bit of random info:

I used to work in the University of Arkansas fitness center/intramural sports office.  During my time I worked with three girls: Sarah, Jenn, and Ericka.

All three of them have since become amazing writers/bloggers who I admire.  Sarah founded and runs StyleIT, Jenn has an incredibly successful blog called First Comes Love, and Ericka is on her third novel, and writes about being a novelist and a mother at Alabaster Cow.  Clearly there is something in the water at the HPER building main office, and I hope I took a sip of it.

I also like to fannagle my roommates into taking pictures of me so I can do this:

Jeans: Sevens from Buffalo Exchange
T-shirt: Fossil
Sweater: J. Crew
Scarf: from Spain
Locket: "borrowed" from my grandmother
Shoes: Sperry's

Did I mention I also like to cook!  And I love pictures of women from the 50's who are cooking happily!  And I love aprons!  And exclamation points!  And cooking!

Are you still with me? I know, that was a lot.  I'm finished now, but if I missed anything feel free to email me.

Ok, as a reward to sticking that out, here is my BIG NEWS!!

To celebrate having FIFTY readers now (oh boy!!!  I can't tell you how exciting it is to not be shouting in to the void!  And with all these exclamation points, you know I'm shouting!), I'm going to have my very first:

GIVEAWAY! 

No company loves me well enough (or knows I exist) to send me free stuff, so be guaranteed I am buying my giveaway item with my own hard earned dollars because I love everyone who thinks I'm nifty enough to read so so much and I want to say thank you!  Check back soon to find out what the giveaway gift will be and how to win it!  Please!  :)

Addendum: now down to 49, but no one's raining on my parade - or my giveaway!  Or the fact that 14 hours later I'm still using excessive exclamation points!