Endless and obligatory "about me" page.
The basics...
Name: Ruth.
Location: Living in Missouri, missing New England.
Age: Twenty-three.
Zodiac Sign: Taurus Sun, Cancer Rising, Aquarius Moon. Now guess my birthdate.
Blood Type: Type A negative. I'm "a negative" person. I also make poorly executed attempts at humor.
Physical description: See accompanying usericon and photos. Five feet even tall, somewhere between 230-250 pounds depending on what prescription drugs I'm on and whether or not illness allows me to eat. Pale, easily burnt skin. Eyes are somewhere between green and Ring blue (yes, it's a real color). Hair is brown but turns red in bright light or the sun (though you will never see me there). Starting to gray at the temples, about which I am very happy. Wears necessarily (blue-) tinted glasses for terrible eyesight and photosensitivity around the eyes. Prefers feminine styles of dress - dresses, skirts, sweaters, blouses, strappy little tops. I like sandals but I can look pretty in Doc Martens, too. That's about it.
Hover for description, click for larger picture.
Partner in Crime: Michele, a 42 year old Boston native I met seven years ago on the wonderful internet. She had started a group for fans of Thomas Harris books - this was just after Hannibal came out in print - and I joined, having been a fan of his books and the movie The Silence of the Lambs for years. The two of us started out as best friends and then, after a couple of visits I made to Boston to meet her, things progressed from there, however unlikely! (I'm sure that part of it was the fact that when the film adaptation of Hannibal came out we were like two of the very few people there with a clue - i.e. that it sucked... bad.)
So how cool is it that we met in a community devoted to a fictional serial killer? We think it's cool. And we like it that it bugs other people.
Michele and I have been together for seven years now, and engaged almost as long. I moved to Massachusetts in 2002 to live with her and we've been inseparable ever since. So much so, in fact, that in September of 2006 when I became sick and had to move back home to Missouri, Michele left New England - her lifelong home - and came with me. Now the two of us live with my mother and sister. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.
Here is a meme from thefridayfive talking about me and Michie and why we're together, if you needed any more information.
Feed The Childrens: Michele and I have eight cats, two of which actually belong to my sister but we're gonna kidnap someday. Ours are Oswald (4 yr old daddy), Bobby, Wuddles (3 yr old daughters), Little Pal (3 yr old slightly younger son), Circe (2 yr old adopted daughter), and Babette (6 month old adopted daughter - our newest baby). My sister's kittens, with whom we deal on a regular basis, are Kitten (aka Tiny, 1 yr old) and Cheese (aka Beepo or Kiki, 1 yr old), both about three months old. I also have a gray mouse named Drum who reminds me of another mouse I used to have with the same name and features. You can see pictures of most of them here. I love my pets a lot.
~
Stuff you shouldn't discuss with people you like...
(But I thought I'd add anyway.)
I am:
Female or a woman, girl occasionally
Bisexual (often with a strong heterosexual preference)
In a same-sex relationship/marriage
Fat, occasionally curvaceous or voluptuous
Agnostic or witch (or lapsed pagan)
Liberal, Democrat, or progressive (pinko commie liberal is okay too, in jest!)
Disabled or handicapped
I am not:
- A grrl, wimmin, womyn, cuntlovin lady (or somesuch nonsense I read once)
- Lesbian, gay, pansexual, queer
- In a gay, lesbian, or queer relationship/marriage
- Overweight, obese, chubby, chunky, fluffy, "more to love," etc.
- Stupid for not identifying as an atheist already
- Lefty
- Differently-abled or handi-capable
Considering my diagnosis, you may not think I'm a great example of Health At Every Size right now, but besides the all-encompassing MS symptoms I deal with day to day, I'm pretty healthy otherwise. And even if I wasn't, that wouldn't make me less of a human being deserving basic respect. People say that being fat alone will cause all sorts of medical conditions, but being fat doesn't give you MS, and being fat shouldn't make people hate me - or make me hate myself, either. I honestly think I'm very pretty most of the time - even pretty because I'm fat - and thinking it really makes all the difference.
If you want extra information on this, I suggest you check out Kate Harding's excellent piece, "But Don't You Realize Fat Is Unhealthy?" Because it isn't. It also isn't a sin or a sign of personal failure.
Just Western Medicine v. Me: For more medical drama and stuff I probably shouldn't discuss with people I like, go here and here for my completely unrelated experiences with Bell's palsy. (Also not caused by being fat.) Most of the entries linked on the second page are friends only, but the descriptions should suffice. If we're LJ friends, go ahead and read. It's a good laugh or cry, depending on how you feel about it. It's mostly a cry for me.
Sexual Orientation: I'm a bisexual woman with a strong heterosexual preference who manages, quite easily, to remain monogamously engaged to yet another bisexual woman. See, I spend all my time thinking about men yet I am madly in love and lust with a woman (who is my first and only partner), but just because I'm with a woman and have never been with a man does not make me gay. And I can't really be called straight either, even though I feel straight most of the time. I just never expected to fall in love with a girl. Hence "bisexual," until someone comes up with a better label for me. Michele is similarly-oriented, though she, being twice my age and having had other relationships, has had much more time to just not care about labels.
Religion: I was raised agnostically and really never thought about this much until I was a teenager. I grew up in the Bible belt and came to think of religion - Christianity, anyway - as ugly and intolerant. Then I left home for the Northeast and felt like I was missing out on something, since religion there seemed largely more accepting. I was an eclectic solitary witch for many years and liked it a lot, but I lapsed out of laziness even though I felt really strongly about it. Then I found out my mom's people used to be Jewish and tried my hand at Judaism, but I didn't feel quite the same about it as I did being a witch - I'm not a fan of organization of religion in any faith. Right now I just don't think I have the patience to focus on religion or spirituality for myself - it's a lot of hard work, so for myriad reasons I'm counting myself agnostic again. Or maybe it's not that I don't have the patience to focus on religion - I just can't stand all the politics and meddling. I've actually started identifying publicly as an atheist IRL just to shut people up. (Even though, honestly, I still think maybe being a witch is really the way to go.)
Politics: I'm liberal and vote Democrat. My positions on today's most talked about issues are uniformly "left." In short, I am pro-abortion, pro-stem cell research, pro-social security, pro-universal health care, anti-death penalty, in favor of the completely separation of church and state, and certainly approve of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. I also support the legalization of prostitution and recreational drugs, and I consider myself a feminist and that's okay because it doesn't mean any one thing about me except that I think sexual equality is a fairly good idea. I'm not an activist in any way, but I do support candidates and measures vocally on the web, and encourage others to learn about issues that are important to me. Computer-chair activism, I guess is what it's called.
... Okay, that was long and pointless. Let's move onto fun things!
~
Favorite things and other stuff...
Journal Etymology: Here.
Favorite Color: Blue. Particularly cerulean and navy. And Ring blue. It's an actual color! Well, not really.
Favorite Subjects in School: English composition, literature, drawing and sketching, history, government, psychology. I need to go to college already.
Hobbies: Drawing portraits, writing fanfiction, watching movies, reading too little, tinkering with astrology and palmistry, reading tarot, listening to music, the internet, messing with my six cats.
Favorite Artists: Hieronymus Bosch, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Millais, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Peter Paul Rubens.
Favorite Non-fiction: (alph by author) Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould by Kevin Bazzana, Nothing's Sacred by Lewis Black, Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot And Other Observations and Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken, and Ruby Ridge by Jess Walter.
Favorite Fiction: (alph by author) Damnation Game by Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Hannibal by Thomas Harris, Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, From a Buick 8 by Stephen King, Pet Sematary by Stephen King, The Boys From Brazil by Ira Levin, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts, Spiral by Koji Suzuki.
Favorite Short Stories: (alph by author) "In the Hills, the Cities" by Clive Barker, "New Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Clive Barker, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, "A Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner, "Home Delivery" by Stephen King, "1408" by Stephen King, Cask of Amontillado by Edgar A. Poe.
Magazines I Read: Blade, TIME (before the merger), Cosmopolitan and Glamour (for kicks).
Favorite Movies: (a lot, alph by title) 1776, 28 Days Later, 3 Women, Alien, Aliens, Alien: Resurrection, Amadeus, Battle Royale, Being There, Blade, Blade II, The Boys From Brazil, Candyman, Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh, A Case of Libel (1983), La Cité Des Enfants Perdus, Citizen X, Club Dread, Damien: Omen II, Daniel, The Da Vinci Code, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, The Devil's Rejects, Dick, Dolores Claiborne, Dr. Strangelove, Elf, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Exorcist, F For Fake, The Fly (1986), Ghost Story, The Great Gatsby (1974), Hellboy, Helter Skelter (1976), House of 1000 Corpses, In the Line of Fire, Jane Eyre (1944), Jane Eyre (1996), JFK, Jeepers Creepers, Jurassic Park, Labyrinth, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Leon, L.I.E., The Man Who Would Be King, Mary Reilly, Masters of Horror: The Fair Haired Child, Masters of Horror: Sick Girl, Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills, Night of the Living Dead, Nixon, Nuremberg (2000 mini), The Omen, Pan's Labyrinth, Parenthood, Pet Sematary, The Proposition, Psycho (1960), Quills, Ravenous, Rebecca (1940), The Ring (2002 American remake), Rosemary's Baby, Saw II, The Silence of the Lambs, Silver City, Sister My Sister, Sleepy Hollow (1999), Sleuth, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Storm of the Century (1999 mini), The Stranger, Super Troopers, Theater of Blood, Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, V for Vendetta, The Wicker Man (1973), Lucky McKee's The Woods.
Favorite Musical Artists/Groups: (alph by artist) Kate Bush, Dead Can Dance, Enya, Glenn Gould, Billy Joel, Norah Jones, Loreena McKennitt, Mediaeval Baebes, Pet Shop Boys, Rasputina, Silence 4, The Smiths, Tom Waits.
Favorite Composers: (alph by composer) Bach, Beethoven, Philip Glass, Mozart, Hans Zimmer.
Favorite Albums: (alph by artist, composer) Rubber Soul by The Beatles, Aion and Within the Realm of a Dying Sun by Dead Can Dance, Songs From The Trilogy and Solo Piano by Philip Glass, Goldberg Variations (both versions) by Glenn Gould, Come Away With Me by Norah Jones, The Mask and Mirror by Loreena McKennitt, Discography, Behavior, and Very by Pet Shop Boys, Thanks for the Ether by Rasputina, The Queen is Dead and Louder Than Bombs by The Smiths, Bone Machine and Mule Variations by Tom Waits, Heavenly Voices ethereal/darkwave compilation released by Cleopatra Records.
Favorite Film Scores: (alph by composer) The Wicker Man by Paul Giovanni, Candyman by Philip Glass, Ravenous by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, JFK by John Williams, Raise the Red Lantern by Zhao Jiping, The Ring by Hans Zimmer.
Favorite Stage Plays/Musicals: (alph by title) A Case of Libel, Chess, The Crucible, Hamlet, Little Shop of Horrors, 1776, Sweeney Todd.
Favorite TV Shows: (alph by title) Autopsy, Blackadder (I-IV), Deadwood, Frasier, Golden Girls, I Love Lucy, The Jeffersons, Lateline, The Magnificent Seven, M*A*S*H, Mythbusters, The Nanny, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, Whose Line is it Anyway? and Will & Grace.
Favorite Scents: Patchouli, rose, jasmine, wood and earth notes. Yankee Candle's "Harvest" and "Clean Linen." BPAL's Jolly Roger, Maiden, Depraved, and Greed. Bath & Body Works' Moonlight Path. Calvin Klein's Euphoria, Anaïs Anaïs, Pierre Cardin, and Geo F. Trumper Bay Rum.
Foods I Like: Indian food (chicken curry especially), rare ribeye steak, pototoes of any kind except orange ones, citrus fruits, spinach, rice, Stouffer's vegetable lasagna, boxed casseroles like Hamburger or Tuna Helper, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese and tomato soup, fettucine alfredo, and spaghetti. Actually, just drop me off at Protein and Carbohydrate Land and I'll be happy.
Favorite Beverages: Coke, Earl Grey tea, coffee with too much cream, V8, Dr. Brown's black cherry soda, apple cider, fruit punch Gatorade, lemon-flavored Propel Water.
Favorite Alcoholic Beverages: Lagavulin, Glenfiddich, Jameson's Irish whiskey, Old Bushmills, Hennessey VS Cognac, Martini & Rossi Asti, Sam Adams Boston Lager, V8 Bloody Marys with Grey Goose.
Knives I Own: Spyderco: Kiwi, titanium ATR. Buck: Alpha Hunter and limited edition folder with a mother of pearl and abalone handle. Laguiole with horn handle. Loveless City Knife. Five Berti horn handle folders.
Sea Stuff: I love lighthouses, seashells, boats, close-knit island communities (real and fictional), Billy Joel's "The Downeaster 'Alexa'," and taking day trips to Cape Cod and Rockport, Massachusetts (when I lived in New England). The first time I saw the ocean was in January 2004 at Nauset Beach, which is also where I also saw my first lighthouse. I grew up landlocked so all things ocean are very fascinating to me. Now that I'm back in the Midwest it breaks my heart that I can't just drive to the ocean when I feel like it anymore.
~
And the most important part of my profile:
Men I Want to Sleep With
(Honesty is the best policy, and honestly, this is all I usually talk about here anyway. I am slowly updating this with photos, so you can click the hotlinks for pictures where available if you want to see how weird everyone thinks my taste is.)
Actors I love, and a couple of things I loved them in:
F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, Thirteen Ghosts)
Edward Asner ("Mary Tyler Moore," A Case of Libel, Roots)
Brian Blessed (Blackadder I)
Mark Boone Junior (The Legend of Lucy Keyes," 30 Days of Night, Sons of Anarchy)
Michael Caine (Quills, Deathtrap, Sleuth)
Bruce Campbell (Lucky McKee's The Woods)
Brian Cox (The Ring, L.I.E., Nuremberg, Super Troopers)
Howard Da Silva (1776, Mommie Dearest)
William Daniels (1776, "Boy Meets World")
Daniel Davis ("The Nanny")
Bruce Davison (X-Men, "Kingdom Hospital")
Jeffrey DeMunn (Storm of the Century, Citizen X)
Robert De Niro (Hide and Seek, Analyze This)
Michael Douglas (Falling Down, The Game)
Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Phantom of the Opera)
Colm Feore (Storm of the Century, Nuremberg, Highwaymen)
Brendan Gleeson (28 Days Later, Cold Mountain)
Jeff Goldblum (The Fly)
Fred Gwynne (Pet Sematary, My Cousin Vinny)
Sid Haig (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects)
Edward Herrmann (Eleanor and Franklin, The Lost Boys)
Ciaran Hinds (Jane Eyre, The Phantom of the Opera)
Hal Holbrook (The Fog, Creepshow)
Ian Holm (Alien, From Hell)
John Houseman (Ghost Story, The Fog)
John Hurt (I, Claudius, Hellboy)
Danny Huston (Birth, The Constant Gardener, The Proposition, Silver City)
Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius, Dead Again)
Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth)
Jeffrey Jones (Ravenous, The Devil's Advocate, Sleepy Hollow)
Raul Julia (The Addams Family, Street Fighter, Compromising Positions)
Tchéky Karyo (The Gravedancers)
Takeshi Kitano (Battle Royale, Battle Royale: Requiem)
Christopher Lee (The Wicker Man, The House That Dripped Blood)
Richard Liberty (Day of the Dead, The Crazies)
John Malkovich (Mary Reilly, In the Line of Fire, Con Air)
Ian McKellen (Apt Pupil, The Da Vinci Code)
Ian McShane ("Deadwood")
Leonard Nimoy ("Star Trek," Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Boys from Brazil)
Anthony Perkins (Psycho and its sequels)
Ron Perlman (Alien Resurrection, Hellboy, "The Magnificent Seven")
Donald Pleasance (Halloween, Phenomena)
Vincent Price (Twice Told Tales, Theatre of Blood)
Jason Robards (Parenthood, Something Wicked This Way Comes)
Saul Rubinek (The Bonfire of the Vanities, Dick)
Geoffrey Rush (House on Haunted Hill, Frida)
Jay O. Sanders (JFK, The Day After Tomorrow)
Peter Sellers (Dr. Strangelove, Being There, The Pink Panther series)
Paul Sorvino (Nixon, Goodfellas)
Donald Sutherland (JFK, Salem's Lot)
David Ogden Stiers ("M*A*S*H," "The Dead Zone")
Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist, Needful Things)
Tony Todd (Night of the Living Dead, Candyman)
Topol (Fiddler on the Roof)
Daniel J. Travanti (A Case of Libel)
Jack Warden (And Justice For All, The Verdict)
David Warner (Time After Time, The Necronomicon)
Fritz Weaver (Creepshow, The Legend of Lizzie Borden)
Other men I love who are not primarily actors, and what they do:
Dr. Michael Baden (medical examiner, host of HBO's Autopsy)
Lewis Black (comedian, playwright, actor)
Stephen Colbert (host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report)
David Cronenberg (film director)
Al Franken (comedian, writer, actor and co-creator of Lateline, future Minnesota senator)
Dr. Benjamin Franklin (statesman, inventor, writer, Renaissance man)
Glenn Gould (classical pianist)
Philip Glass (classical composer)
Spalding Gray (monologist, writer, actor)
Dr. Henry Kissinger (former Secretary of State, Machiavellian diplomat who seduced me against my will)
Colin Mochrie (comedian, star of Whose Line is it Anyway?)
Keith Olbermann (news anchor, host of MSNBC's Countdown)
Greg Proops (comedian, star of Whose Line is it Anyway?)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States)
Jerry Springer (television and radio show host, former mayor of Cincinatti)
Teller (the strangely compelling silent half of Penn & Teller and co-host of Bullshit!)
Orson Welles (filmmaker - I'd put him with the movie ppl, but he's Orson Welles)
And, just to prove to myself that I am probably indeed bisexual, I made this list (with pictures!) of a few ladies in film, music, and TV who I find very attractive.
~
Favorite quotes...
"Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt -
"I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time."
- Orson Welles -
"Wish not so much to live long as to live well."
- Benjamin Franklin -
"We can only learn so much and live."
- Thomas Harris, Hannibal -
"Hell is repetition. I think in our hearts, most of us know that."
- Andre Linoge, Stephen King's Storm of the Century -
"We're all lesbians when the right guy's not around."
- Karen Walker, "Will & Grace" (to a lesbian) -
"There is no shame in watching any movie
as long as there is a hot male in it somewhere."
- lianeviolet -
"I wish I could forget the names of the people I hate...
Actually, no, then I wouldn't be able to hate
properly anymore, and I'd die."
- haubitze -
~
Egg buddies!
... Now aren't you glad I didn't put all of that on my info page?