About Me: FINALLY! (Updated '19)

BASIC INFORMATION

NAME: Leah
AGE AND BIRTHDATE: 31; 19 November
LOCATION: Minnesota, United States

INSIGHTS: Yellow - Helping Inspirer (if you really want a good overview on my personality, go here)

HARRY POTTER HOUSE: Slytherin

YOUR LIVEJOURNAL USERNAME MEANING: It's my initials!

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Human Services in Community Violence Prevention and Intervention, with a focus on Family Violence; minor in Psychology (2010)
Master of Arts in Special Education (2017)
Master of Arts in Secondary Montessori Education (2015)

OCCUPATION: As of June 2019, I work at a Big 10 University in Technology Training and I LOVE it. Prior to that I was a Special Education math teacher for Middle School (loved the kids, hated the system).

OCCUPATIONAL HISTORY: Personal Care Assistant (PCA), Adult Mental Health Case Manager, Mental Health Behavior Specialist, Multiple Needs Para, 1:1 Severe-Profound Autism Para, Certified Nursing Assistant (Alzheimer's), Behavior Specialist in Adult Foster Care. Other/side jobs: GameStop Associate, Bath and Body Works Cashier, Skateville Cashier, JCPenney Young Men's Associate, Michael's Frame Shop Associate, Game Operator at Valleyfair! Amusement Park.

I have worked a lot of jobs because I want to experience a lot of things. ^_^

FAMILY
SPOUSE: Steve and I have been dating since May 2009. A long time. A GREAT time. He's the most amazing person I have ever had the pleasure to meet and be with. We click, we're good companions, and share a lot of passion. I am insanely lucky.

PARENTS: My parents knew each other since they were kids and married less than a month after my mom turned 18. They had me when they were 19 and 20. They have been divorced since I was 6, and I was relieved when they got divorced because it was awful when they were together. My mom remarried a man named Paul in 1997. My dad remarried a woman named Pam around the same time; they divorced 14 years later. My dad remarried a woman named Tammy a few years ago who is a much better fit for him.

SIBLINGS:

• Full-blood sister (Bethany) 27 (who has a husband and two kids)


• Half brother (August) from Mom/Paul who is 21


• Half brother (Jack) from Dad/Pam who is 19


• 3 stepbrothers from Pam who, for all intents and purposes are my brothers and have been almost my whole life - James (37), Joe (36), and Adam (29).

PETS: I have two cats - brothers I have had since they were 6 weeks old (2007) and are now 12 years old. Grim is black and Nero (Habanero) is orange.

KIDS: I have no desire to have children. I ESPECIALLY have no desire to carry or bear children; the idea horrifies me to my very core. I don't like babies, generally, either. All my "kid" needs are met by my nieces and nephews, and of course through teaching and basically adopting my students.

IDENTITY AND BELIEFS
SEXUAL ORIENTATION/RELATIONSHIP IDEAS/BELIEFS: I am attracted to people as people, and I'm a nonmonogamous person who is with a monogamous partner. We recently went through two big situations over the course of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 as a result of never really having had any courageous conversations about my orientation, and I had relationships with a few other people long-term, rationalizing my behavior HARD by convincing myself I was in an open relationship without actually talking to Steve about it.

We went to couples and individual therapy, and we have worked REALLY hard on repairing the harm. We also do individual therapy, and now Steve knows everything I have done and with whom, and we're in a much more honest and open place. I feel empowered within my relationship because Steve isn't asking me to say I'm something I'm not, and he gives me the space to learn and grow within my nonmonogamy label without being threatened by it, even after everything we went through.

ABUSE/TRIGGERS: I have triggers of sexual assault and anything sad with animals. I grew up receiving verbal and sometimes physical abuse from my stepdad Paul. I loved him more than anything though until 2008, when I was raped. When I told my parents about it, I was met with blame and more abuse and it ultimately led to a huge falling out. My mom gave me a half-hearted apology in 2015, and Paul gave me a very heartfelt apology in July of 2017. My rapist apologized in 2013.

MENTAL HEALTH: I've been at a pretty good place the last couple of years - my low moods typically don't last longer than a month (yay!). I live in a world with a baseline of constant anxiety, but mostly at this point it's managing ADHD and dealing with my trauma. Mental illness has ravaged my family, with the most common being paranoia (including delusions and psychosis), anxiety (and OCD), depression, and abandonment issues.

POLITICAL LEANING: Human rights forever. I feel very strongly about taking care of people. You won't find any bootstraps bullshit here.

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: Agnostic. My dad and stepdad were raised Catholic and my mom was raised in Scientology - she never practiced it as an adult but her dad did his whole life until he died in 2016, and her mom has tried out everything from crystal healing and tarot to being a Jehovah's Witness. I am afraid of dying in the sense that I'm terrified of losing my amazing life and I don't want to lose my consciousness (I panic about that pretty much every day, literally). I'm very nebulously spiritual - I sense the connectedness in things, I low-key believe in the healing power of rocks, the power of your energy/vibes, if you put out the energy for something, you'll get that energy back, etc.

DIETARY: Vegetarian for 5 years, considering addng small amounts of meat for nutrients and balance.

BODY IMAGE: I, like many women, have struggled with my body image my whole life. I am short and small as a whole, but I'm made of larger-style parts. One of my friends refers to me as "low-key fat" XD In my friends group I am affectionately known as being made up of traffic cones - narrow end appendages that get thicker close to my body. Think Patrick Star. I attract people all the time, and a few years ago it started to click and I have really made an effort to stop being hard on myself.

TATTOOS: Tattoos are a major part of my life and identity (in my tags: tattoo). I currently have 9 (10 if you include my soot sprites as separate entities even though they were later embedded within my sleeve). Half of my tattoos are actually cartoons.

• Gir from Invader Zim on both my feet


• Furude Rika from Higurashi on my back


• A sleeve dedicated to Studio Ghibli on my left arm


• The koi, Tui and La, from Avatar: The Last Airbender.


• A small scorpion I got when I turned 18 (to represent being a Scorpio)


• A poem for a friend of mine who died by suicide in 2009


• The logo from the middle school I taught at


• Birds and “Love conquers all” on it (from Disney’s Robin Hood).

I am an extremely non-regretful person over tattoos. I never felt sorry that I got that love tattoo when I was with my ex. It’s just a tattoo I have. I love tattoos, and I plan to keep getting them until I physically can’t anymore.

LEISURE AND INTERESTS
HOBBIES:

• Knitting (I'm very good)


• Reading (seriously I could spend my life reading and never talking to anyone again and I would be 100% content)


• Playing A LOT of dance games - think DanceDance Revolution but it's called In The Groove [ITG]


• Playing/watching my friends play video games


• Doing yoga, watching the same shows over and over, cooking.

Really, I can be convinced to like anything if given enough exposure.

RANDOM ENJOYMENTS: Amusement parks, physical comedy, sleeping, watching speedruns on Twitch, sunshine, sending memes to friends, going to farmer's markets

LIVEJOURNAL
HOW WELL DOES YOUR LIVEJOURNAL REPRESENT WHO YOU ACTUALLY ARE?: I think my LJ is generally a good representation of who I am with gaps in time. I might make others look better than they are, but not usually myself. Sometimes I feel like if I write about a thing, it makes it *real*, so I avoid it
.
HOW MUCH ABOUT YOUR LIFE DO YOU POST TO LJ?: Basically everything. I make a few private entries here and there, but I like to share everything, because I like when others do the same. There are times when I just don't think of putting something on LJ, but that's usually an accident.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU REFUSE TO POST ABOUT?: Not really. I don't get political on LJ other than passing comments.

HOW DID YOU COME TO FIND LJ?: My friend Suzi gave me a LiveJournal code back in the days when they were a thing - 2003. Prior to that I had blogged on Blurty (and loved the classic HTML-style of being able to modify the page). Oh the good-old basic HTML days :) I journaled on GreatestJournal during my high school and early college years, and I was in the process of moving my entries over when GJ went off the grid. I lost 2-3 solid years.

WHAT PROPORTION OF YOUR POSTS ARE FRIENDS ONLY?: 98%. Habit from being a teacher. I also make entries about my family friends-only.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU RESPOND TO/READ OTHER PEOPLE'S JOURNALS?: I always read other journals, and I comment when I have something to add or if I want to provide support. I definitely "heart" journals to show that I read them and give support, but I'm not sure what to add.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD SOMETHING MEAN SAID TO YOU OR BEEN STALKED, HARASSED, OR GOT INTO TROUBLE AS A RESULT OF LJ?: When I was in high school, a girl who hated me pored through my GreatestJournal and copy/pasted every mean thing I said about our band director into one huge document and presented it to him, who in turn gave it to the principal, who in turn scheduled a mediation. The band director told me to my face that he was afraid I would murder him and his wife (not only was I 5'2, 110 pounds at the time but I never once threatened his life on my journals, just talked about how much I hated him). The prinicipal told me he thought the information needed to be turned over to the police until I pointed out that the broken sentences weren't a psycho rant, but had been gleaned from YEARS' worth of entries. Then his entire tone changed and he was fine. The director took it very personally though. Thankfully this happened late into my junior year and I did PSEO for my senior year, 3 hours away. Otherwise band would have been incredibly awkward.

IS YOUR SPOUSE ON LJ? DO THEY READ YOURS?: No and sometimes. Steve is interested in my LJ and reads occasionally. He keeps a Backloggery of all of our video games (at the time of this writing we own 3145 games, less than 200 of which are digital) and that's his online persona, along with Twitter (which I don't use).

( Vanity + Cats + Etc. )