*needs no excuse to use her Jason Sudeikis icon*

[queer_theory]

Stolen from everyone I know (including myself). I haven't done this meme in ages and there are people who haven't been on my flist for very long, so what the hell... I've enjoyed reading these from other people. I try to pay attention to what is going on with everyone, even if I don't comment enough.

You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.

first name Heather

age 27

location I'm currently a resident of Springfield, Missouri. For 26 years, I was loyal to the great state of Cahlifohnia, and while I miss it, I don't plan on returning to live there. Ever. I also don't plan on staying here forever, though there's no immediate plan for going somewhere else.

occupation I was having trouble finding and keeping a job after moving here, which made this the perfect time for me to return to school. So I'm a student. I'm not currently looking for any work, save for the occasional application to a video store. If I could get a part time video store job again (I have over 5 years experience), I would work.

partner I don't really have one. And I don't intend to. The closest thing I have to a partner is my sister nivcharayahel. We plan to live and eventually retire as old cat ladies together.


kids Never.

brothers/sisters I have three siblings.

I've already mentioned my half sister nivcharayahel. She's closest to me in age (but OLDER). We share a mother and were raised in different homes in different states. Her father is Kansas (inside joke). Little background on us: We started talking when she had started college and I was in junior high. It was all by mail then... Later, we started talking by phone. And internets. She's actually the reason I got an LJ in the first place. She came to my high school graduation, which wasn't the first time we'd met, but was the first time I remember, because the last time had been when I was a baby. I moved out here to live with her. She's my favorite person in the world. It's incredible how alike we are. I'm not sure how that happened. :P

My step-brother Chris is 40 years old. Umm... Retired Navy. We don't talk much, though I used to talk with his wife all the time. They're distancing themselves from family right now. We don't know each other very well. He was 18 when our parents got married, so I lived with him for a short period of time. He was a high school basketball player and not a very good student. The military was perfect for him because he's smart, but not terribly disciplined. He learned to be responsible in the Navy. He's been married twice, has two step-sons. We've always gotten along. He's a good guy, for the most part.

And I have a step-sister named Shannon. She's in her mid-40s. She and I REALLY don't know each other that well, partly because she was an adult when our parents got married and partly because my mother complained to her about every fight she and I had when I was growing up, which gave Shannon a negative impression of me. She has a son from her first marriage, and two step-sons and a daughter from her current one. She does nails for a living... and she and her husband live/work on a windmill farm. She has mellowed a lot over the last few years and we've actually started getting along.

In case you weren't keeping count, btw... That's five nephews and a niece. I'm an aunt many times.

pets We've got two cats in this house: Frank and Katrina.

Frank is pretty stupid. We're not sure if he was dumb from birth or if it has something to do with the accident that fucked up his back, but he's not very bright. He makes up for it by being the most loving cat ever, so loving that he's often in the way. I say mean things, but I adore him.

And there's Katrina. She was nivcharayahel's cat, but she has attached herself to my grandfather. She pretends not to care about people (and he pretends not to care about her), but they're a total match. She's bitchy and does everything on her own terms, but she can be really loving when she wants to be. She's fiercely independent and incredibly expressive. God, I love her. I just took a photo of her for the display on my new phone:



Look at that face! That's a face that says, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

list the 3 biggest things going on in your life
1. School - This is pretty much THE thing that is going on in my life.
2. My health - I'm without insurance and chock full of mental and physical issues that need dealing with, so this is a constant thing for me.
3. Family stuff - And lots of it. That I rarely talk about.

parents This is a three-part answer.

My dad - My dad is... an interesting dude. He's 54 years old; fairly conservative, but not stupid about it most of the time; into motorcycles, fixing things, video games, and hunting. He was raised by moderately wealthy parents and went to college to study what his father did, when what he really wanted to do was build furniture for a living. This ended in tears of course, with my father dropping out and rebelling against becoming his father (which is totally who he is, btw). He and Wendy (more later) got married, had me after some years, and got divorced. And he got custody of me, so I grew up with him. Our relationship is complicated. For awhile, it was just the two of us. And then I was taken away from him because he was accused of molesting me (which he hadn't done). This has made him a very cautious person. He's incredibly concerned with how things look to other people. He's also a bit paranoid about how safe things are. He works at a prison, which doesn't help. And growing up... He taught me to be questioning and to make my own way, I think because of his struggle with his father when he was younger. At the same time, he wanted me to be like him... But I'm a liberal and a feminist and GAY to boot. The thing is... all of that aside... I'm just like him. We're both questioning and stubborn. We just question differently, I suppose. My struggle with him has been about his desire to protect me (and shape me in his image) and my need to become an independent adult. Which is fun, but we're getting there. Moving helped quite a bit.

My step-mother - She grew up in a lower middle class family in a small farming town on the edge of Bakersfield, CA. My father is her fourth husband, the first being someone she married too young, and the second and third being abusive motherfuckers. She went to beauty school and did hair for a living for awhile. Then she became a prison guard and now she works as a business officer at a prison. She and I fought a lot when I was growing up. It was probably all of the usual "You're not taking my dad away" bullshit, although some of it also came from our totally different personalities. She's one of those women whose hair and makeup and nails are just so. It's very Sarah Palin - that sort of beauty queen/popular cheerleader thing. She's that. And I'm Daria Morgandorfer. She's also overly concerned with how things look to other people, an attitude that made me the neurotic I am today, I'm sure. And she's not very smart. I'll just say it. She's not the brightest bulb. And she's a bit racist. There's this commercial that airs in California for the IRS - It's about getting a job with them. And it features a black man singing "Got a job?" in a really deep voice. He's got an afro, which prompted my mother to say, "He looks like he should be shaking a stick in Africa." That's not actually the most appalling thing she has ever said, but that will always stick out in my mind as the first time I realized how completely racist she is.

Wendy - My birth mother. I don't have much to say about her, as things have been happening lately to stir up a lot of old negative feelings about her and they aren't things I'm ready to explore. She left nivcharayahel to be adopted by our grandparents and then gave up custody of me (as previously mentioned). She's an addict. I don't know if she's currently using... She probably isn't. She found Jesus in the 90s in one of two ways: Either she ODed and her jackass of a husband swore to God that they'd stop using if He let her live. Or they went to a tent revival where a snake told her that God wanted her to stop using, so she did. The first is more likely true. We always say that in a lot of ways, our mother is Jerri Blank.


closest friends nivcharayahel is the person I'm closest to, but we aren't friends. I don't really do close friends. I tend to have a lot of people I know moderately well. I trust quickly and don't ever have any one person that I confide everything in. wampum_prayer is a former roommate and someone I've know since junior high. He's one of the closest friends I've ever had. I think chelsea_doll knows me pretty well... Better than a lot of people. David and Mark are two friends from back home who I enjoyed spending a lot of time with. And there are some people I used to know in high school: Marcelo, Chase, Tiffany - We were close at the time and they hold a special place for me now. Anytime I get to talk with them, it feels really good. I've gotten really close with alivemagdolene over the last year or so, which has been wonderful. There are a number of people here on LJ who I'd consider good friends of mine, though I don't know how they feel about me. :P