Getting To Know You, Getting To Know All About You

[serenadust]

Thanks for the kind welcome ::waves to Ali::

I've really enjoyed everyone else's bio, so I guess it's my turn.
Here goes:
 
> >Real name:
  Joann Mears

>  
> >Also known as:
Jo Serenadust
MOM!!!

>  >Age/Sex:

40something/F

> >Birthplace/Livingplace:

Pittsburgh,PA until age 5, moved to Orlando, Fl (before it became a 
theme-park) and lived there until age 18. For the past 22 years, 
I've been in Mongomery Co. MD (Washington DC suburb), except for a 
two-year period when we lived in Hampshire in the UK.

> >Family Life:

Married 20 years, 1 14 year-old daughter and 1 13 year-old son.  Two 
half-Siamese cats; one male, one female

> >Personality:

Good grief...I don't know.  Let's say I'm the sort of woman who 
feels very proud and smug to have purchased all the Christmas gifts 
for her children's teachers at bargain prices in July, only to be 
tearing the house apart in December because she can't remember where 
she carefully put them away.

> >Words friends have used to describe you:

Let's see.  Smart, disorganized, can't remember anything else.  Oh, 
my dad once called me an anarchist because as a child I apparently 
had a gift for starting off family arguments, and sitting back to 
watch the fun.
> 
>  >Words you have used to describe you:

Sleep-deprived, messy, lazy about things that don't interest me, 
relentless about things I really want.

 
>  >Things you do when not staring at the computer:

I drive children from place to place for several hours each day 
beginning at 6:50 am and ending at 6:30 pm (except for the days when 
it's 8:30 pm). I'm also an avid antique junkie specializing in 19th 
century blue & white china, commonly called flow blue.  We've had to 
build in bookshelves to house the overload.
  
> >Comfort foods:

Pizza, crabcakes, chocolate, marzipan, red wine, and pistachios 
(sorry, Abigail)


> >Education/Work:

BA in Political Science with minor in Journalism
MBA, Finance

First job was working at Disney on college breaks (like every other 
kid in Orlando).  Worked for the state as a case worker 
administering the AFDC and Food Stamp programs, then completed my 
MBA and went to work in Finance for a large, multi-national 
corporation. I left that job to go and live in England, and haven't 
gotten around to finding another one yet.

> >Language skills

American English, a fair amount of British English, and a sadly 
limited amount of the Spanish I used to be so good at in school.


> >Technical know-how:

Put it this way; I'm still trying to master "cut and paste"
 
> >Favourite HP book:

Goblet of Fire which I fully expect to be replaced by OoP
 
> >Favourite HP character(s):

It's all about Harry for me, followed by Ron, Hermione, the 
remaining Weasleys, Lupin & Black.
 
>  >Favourite HP line

"The air was soon thick with flying gnomes."
(That line amuses me every time I read it)
> 
>  >Watching/Avoiding the HP movies?:

Watching and wishing that they were better than they are, while 
realizing they're not as bad as they could be.  I do think they've 
done a good job on the "look" and atmosphere, but I think they've 
screwed up the characterizations of the trio.  I'm hopeful about PoA 
under Cuaron, and just wish they'd get a new screenwriter, too.


> 
> >Into HP fanfiction?

Not anymore.
> 
>  >Books you'd recommend to just about anyone:

Too many to list them all.

Nonfiction:  Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
             Personal History, Katherine Graham
             The Moral Intelligence of Children, Robert Coles

Fiction:     All of Jane Austen, most of Joanna Trollope, the Mapp 
and Lucia books by E.F Benson, both Ya-Ya books by Rebecca Wells, 
and most of Eudora Welty 

> 
>  >Favorite TV shows?

No time to watch much.  I've loved the Simpsons for more than a 
decade, and I try not to miss Law & Order.  I can never remember 
when anything else is on.


> >Favorite movies:

I liked Chicago, Sense & Sensability, The Commitments, and can watch 
Groundhog Day over and over, and still think it's funny.
 
> >One thing about your life you'd change if you could – you may
not 
> >say "lose weight."

Ok then, I wish I'd learned to *like* exercising at an early age.

> >One thing about your life you wouldn't change even for an advance 
> >copy of Book 7:

Apart from my immediate family, I'd have to say having lived in the 
UK for two years.  Even though I went kicking and screaming and wept 
daily for months after getting there, it turned out to have been an 
invaluable life experience.


>  >Philosophy for an easy life:

::Snorts, derisively:: I don't suppose a lobotomy qualifies as a 
philosophy, so I'd have to say: Don't sweat the small stuff.
> 
>  
> >How you found HPfGU:

Like so many others, I was looking for information on when book 5 
would be out in 2001 (I actually expected it to be that year!).  Up 
till that point, my only internet experience was bidding on Ebay.

> 
> >Active at other HP sites:

Nope.

>  >Your most rock solid OoP prediction:

Hermione's capture of Rita Skeeter is going to have some highly 
unpleasant consequenses.

> 
>  >Members of the fandom you have personally met:

None at all, but I'm hoping that will change soon.

>  
> What do you think will happen at the end of Book 7? 

I think that I will burst into wild tears at the thought that there 
will never be another HP book to anticipate.  Then I will re-read 
all of them in order.

Jo Serenadust