INTRO PROFILE

[sarvalsha]

Appreciate the invitation and it's nice to see all the old names. 

THE OLD CROWD – INTRO

***Name:
Margaret McNie

***Nicknames/IDs:
Marg (family), Maggie/sarvalsha

***Age:
57

***Family:
Most of my family lives in Southern California except for one sister 
in Kansas City; I have 7 nieces and nephews but spend the most time 
with my youngest sister's family which includes a 5 year girl who 
wants to be a baker, a 12 year old girl whose ambition when she was 4 
was to be 5 so she could play little league, and a 15 year old boy 
who is obsessed with lacrosse. I am single and share my home with 
Sarah the weird who appears to be a cross between ragdoll and calico.

***Home
An apartment in Long Beach, California

***Birthday, Place of Birth:
24th February, Detroit, Michigan; but I grew up in San Diego

***Education/Job/Role in Life etc:
I left college after two years and have worked in data processing my 
entire career, first as a keypunch operator, then computer operator, 
and for the past 20 years as a mainframe programmer . . . well until 
last year when I was laid off; since then I've been trying to 
declutter my life while figuring out what to do when I grow up

***Other things we might want to know about you:
I've spent most of my life in Southern California but lived for 3 
years in London (1969-1971). During a career crossroads, I realized I 
had let 2 things disappear from my life that I wanted back: horses 
and books. I now have 3 retired Arabian gentlemen; one lives at an 
animal sanctuary with lots of other horses, a llama who's in love 
with a mare, an emu, geese, cats, dogs, etc. and the other two live 
with their ex-trainer. 

***First contact with Harry Potter:
Spring 1999, Rosie O'Donnell raved about the books on her show, my 
nephew's birthday was coming up, I suggested them to my sister, she 
asked me to read them first because of the subject matter, I did, 
then returned to Borders to get Ryan another copy because the first 
one I'd bought was MINE!

***Favourite Potter things (books, characters, ships, fics, objets
d'Art, general enthusing):
Bookswise: I read books voraciously from an early age into my 20s but 
then stopped. I still read but not books. It wasn't a conscious 
decision but it was a conscious decision to get them back. I started 
out with a non-fiction book about horses, then followed that with The 
Horse Whisperer which was hugely popular at the time and which I 
absolutely hated. I then tried a Nicholas Sparks book which I did not 
finish. Then along came Harry . . .

Book: not even close, PoA by a landslide. Of course it helps that 
Lupin has a big role. 

Characters: Harry and Lupin. I haven't kept up with much Potter stuff 
for some time but I have read the ESE!Lupin nonsense and if it's 
true, I will shred every single book and send the pieces back to Jo 
Rowling. I will do the same thing if she makes Snape into anything 
other than the pond scum he is. I don't want him redeemed OR ESE. I 
want him to continue to be the person who proves that you don't have 
to be good to be right.

No particular ship allegiances and I don't read fanfic. I did read a 
little at one time but couldn't deal with it bleeding into my 
memories of the books. Had the same apprehensions about the movies; I 
didn't think they should make any movies until the story was 
finished. I have seen them all and thought they were generally well-
done but quite naturally only a fraction of the quality and content 
of the books.

***Extent of Potter obsession:
Mild for the moment but my obsessions go in phases. I do get the 
books the day they are released and sit up all night reading; that's 
part of the fun. I also check out the websites after a new book or 
movie and listen to the books on CD when I'm on the computer (OoP is 
playing right now) or a long drive. I have multiple copies of the 
books, the first two movies on tape, a couple of the games. I have 
learned from previous obsessions that I get excessive so tried to 
keep it in check and have been mostly successful.

***Other interests/activities:
My sister introduced me to rubber stamping a couple of years ago and 
craft supplies are now overrunning my home, though lately I've been 
incorporating more drawing and would like to expand into watercolor 
painting.

***Current/recent reading:
I just finished the first 3 books of C.J. Box's Joe Pickett mystery 
series which I liked very much; I also read westerns, romances, a 
little science fiction (Wen Spencer, Lois McMaster Bujold). Ongoing: 
Breaking Clean (Judy Blunt); The Instinct to Heal (David Servan-
Schreiber), The Purpose Driven Life (Rick Warren). Next is The Match, 
Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton (Bruce Schoenfeld)

***Current/recent listening:
"No Regrets, the Best of Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers"; "Now 
That I've Found You" by Alison Krauss; "Exit From Screechville" by 
Brother (Australian brothers with Scottish heritage who dress in 
kilts and play rock using bagpipes and a didgeridoo)

***Current/recent viewing:
For the past 2 weeks, the Olympics; HGTV, Clean Sweep (TLC), NCIS. 
The last movie I saw at the theater was PoA. On DVD, Hidalgo and 
SecondHand Lions (which we all absolutely loved).


Margaret