THE OLD CROWD - INTRO

[Ebony]

THE OLD CROWD – INTRO

***Name:
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

***Nicknames/IDs:
AngieJ (fanfiction), angiej (livejournal), selah_1977 (Yahoo)

***Age:
25

***Family:
Mother living, father-who-raised-me deceased.  Two younger sisters, 
one of whom is engaged and 41 1/2 weeks pregnant--Jalen Christopher 
Larry Johnson will be here anytime before Monday, when they will 
induce labor.  Also close to maternal grandmother and her kids, and 
last October met my birth father's older kids, who are all in their 
late 40s to mid 50s.  So I've also got three older half-sisters and 
a half-brother, who are very distressed over my birth father as he 
has Parkinson's disease.  So now I'm dealing with the prospect of 
losing a parent all over again.

Am single.  Perpetually, hopelessly single in the pitiable Helen 
Fielding *Bridget Jones* sense of the word, not the diva-like Carrie 
Bushnell *Sex in the City* sense.  


***Home
Fifth floor of a newish university-owned apartment building, Midtown 
Detroit, Michigan, USA.

***Birthday, Place of Birth:
August 11, 1977--Hutzel Hospital in Detroit.

***Education/Job/Role in Life etc:
B.A., English Education, Florida A&M University (1999), magna cum 
laude.  M.A., English Literature, Wayne State University (2003), 
summa cum laude.  Thesis:  "Girls on the Edge:  Transatlantic 
Translations in Austen, Alcott, and Montgomery."  Admitted to Ph.D. 
program as a Victorian specialist at Wayne State; will apply to the 
Ph.D. Joint Program in English and Education to study children's and 
young adult literature at The University of Michigan -- Ann Arbor in 
November 2003. 

Detroit Public Schools teacher for going on five years this autumn.  
Taught grades 5-8 year-round for two years--language arts, 
mathematics, social studies, study skills, and drama.  Have taught 
grades 9-12 for the past two years--eleventh grade AP English 
Language and Comp, ninth and tenth grade English, and creative 
writing.  Also teach remedial English on Saturdays and during the 
summer.  Also a certified SAT and ACT proctor... must proctor SAT 
tomorrow morning.

Was recently hired by the WSU college of education to teach 
children's literature as an adjunct starting this September, am 
contemplating turning position down, as was recently hired as a 
resident advisor and manager in my building and as a result will 
have free rent, cable, and telephone.  (Knowing me, I won't.  I'll 
just half-kill myself from stress trying to juggle everything.)

At any given time, I'm working at least 2-3 different jobs.  :-D  Is 
it any wonder why none of the guys I've dated have morphed 
into "boyfriend" or more?
  

***Other things we might want to know about you:
Inconsistent in political leanings.  Was right of center five years 
ago, now left of center and growing more socialist by the day.  In 
my other life, was active in the "Right to Life" movement and am a 
trained anti-abortion counselor.  (Did not bomb clinics or parade 
around with graphic pictures even then.)  Personally pretty 
conservative and traditional.


***First contact with Harry Potter:
Sometime in January 2000--one of my students left a copy of CoS in 
the classroom.  I was curious.  That was all she wrote, folks.


***Favourite Potter things (books, characters, ships, fics, objets 
d'Art, general enthusing):
BOOK--PoA.  Everyone's perennial favorite.
CHARACTERS--Harry, Hermione, Hagrid, Dumbledore and Sirius.  Also 
rather like Percy and McGonagall.  
SHIPS--Harry/Hermione to the core, forever and always, of course.  
It's my OTP, and there's no changing that.  In fanon, I like 
redeemed!Draco/feisty!Ginny, but I've got more sense than to hold 
any hope for it canonwise.  After that, I'll take just about any 
ship, although I expect to see Fred/Angelina and Percy/Penelope.
FICS--Lori Summers' *Harry Potter and the Paradigm of Uncertainty*.  
I have issues with her sequels, but PoU will always be special for 
me.  After her, I love about a hundred other authors (including 
Penny and Carole!), so I'll refrain.
FANARTISTS--Starling's an old favorite of mine, but recently I've 
fallen for the drawings of Shley and Gwendy and others.  A lot of 
the newer folks in fandom have brought a lot of talent with them.
MERCH--I love my Harry and Hermione bookends, my snowglobe, and 
especially the Harry mug that my now-pregnant sister and her fiance 
bought for my last birthday.


***Extent of Potter obsession:
Bordering on the verge of a substance-abuse problem, quite 
honestly.  After Nimbus, I plan to cut way back from everything.  I 
will not work on the 2004 conference.  The only HP stuff I plan to 
do post-August are to finish up my current fanfiction and to 
maintain my new H/H site, PumpkinPie.org.  I *have* to get my RL 
back in order.


***Other interests/activities:
Am getting active in the new civil rights movement.  Helping the 
students at my school launch a newsmagazine.  In the research and 
development phases of planning a small business 
(coffeehouse/newsstand/boutique) with my two sisters, mother, and 
cousin for a potential August 2005 opening.  Am considering graduate 
candidacy for a particular social and service sorority for African-
American women.  Also planning to begin a rewrite of my original 
series, so that I can try for publication again.


***Current/recent reading:
*The Nanny Diaries*, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus.  *The Debt:  
What America Owes to Blacks*, Randall Robinson.  *What's So Great 
About America?*, Dinesh D'Souza.


***Current/recent listening:
My current faves that are played on the radio are R. 
Kelly's "Ignition" and Lil' Kim's "The Jump Off".  Sometimes a 
current rap or R&B song will catch my attention while I'm in the 
car.  Most of my listening, though, is classic soul from the 60s and 
70s.  I recently downloaded Earth, Wind and Fire's "Serpentine Fire" 
(because that's the tentative name of the family-owned store we're 
working on) and Mavis Staples' "Let's Do It Again".  

My absolute favorite radio show in the universe is 102.7 FM's all 
day Saturday mix.  Those guys know everything about soul and R&B 
from the past 60 or so years... and they dig up stuff I've only ever 
heard on LPs... and then they tell you all the insider trivia 
surrounding it.  It's *great*--almost like an audio soul version of 
VH-1's Pop Up Video.  And listening to that stuff reminds me of when 
my dad was alive and singing.

I'm also a classical and standards junkie.  My other favorite 
station is CBC's Radio One, 89.9 FM out of Windsor, Ontario.  It's 
the only classical station we have here.  My favorite composers are 
Dvorak, Chopin, Bach, and Vivaldi.  My favorite instruments to hear 
are the flute (I was a flautist from age 10-22), the piano, the solo 
violin, and the double reeds (I'm also a bassoonist).  They, like 
102.7, are into educating their listeners, so they also do daily 
afternoon operas, where they explain the composition, history, and 
then give a synopsis of what's going on.  They and NPR (which 
broadcasts out of my building) also play standards, which I just 
*love*.

***Current/recent viewing:

I don't watch TV much, except for in the dead of winter, when 
everyone in Michigan hibernates out of necessity.  I don't have time 
and the #1 bill I'm liable to let go or cancel service for is the 
cable one.  (Because of the radio station in my building, I can't 
get regular TV reception.)  When I do watch it, it's usually in the 
winter as I've said, and something stupid like Joe Millionaire.  
Fox, HBO/Cinemax, MSNBC and CNN are generally the stations I watch 
the most when I do turn on the boob tube, followed by the Food 
Network and BBC-America.  Although my mom and sister are trying to 
get me hooked on HGTV.

Okay, great.  Done with this, have a lunch meeting, and then it'll 
be time to check on the sis again...

--Eb