About Me The Basics: I'm Mandy, a 28-year-old dreamer and idealist. Home: I live in Dallas, Texas with my fiance Victor. We have a loft downtown. We moved here in July 2004 from Austin, Texas. Originally from: Northwest Arkansas. My family lives in the country on a farm. I went to school in Rogers, and I went to college in Fayetteville. I lived in both places for a while post-college until I moved to Texas. What I do: By day, I work as a corporate trainer for an outsourcing company. I train customer service agents how to do their jobs. I'm pretty damn good at it. By night, I'm a lot more interesting than that. A little bit more: I'm an Aquarius. I was a big nerd in school. I listen to NPR. I'm pretty worldly while managing to remain fairly gullible and naive. I'm not too political, but I do like to know what's going on in the world. I'm pretty loyal, and I give people second (and third, forth, fifth) chances if they've let me down. I get mad when people put down Arkansas too much, unless they're from there... then it's ok. I love my friends. Likes: General: Making crafty things. Lazy days spent drinking tea and listening to records. Playing soccer or board games with my friends. Beer and ale. Watching pretentious films and teen comedies. Cooking and baking. The internet. Celebrity gossip. Shoes. Skirts and dresses. Music: I'm kind of a music junkie (read: obsessive). I like mostly indie stuff and Britpop. Some favorites include Super Furry Animals, Belle and Sebastian, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Pulp, Morrissey, the Smiths, The Decemberists, The Arcade FireSigur Ros, The Cure, Radiohead, Hefner, Erasure, Death Cab for Cutie, Badly Drawn Boy, the Flaming Lips, Idlewild, Gavin Friday, Mull Historical Society , and the White Stripes. I love going to shows, having Belle and Sebastian singalongs with my friends, and scouring the web and magazines for gossip about bands I love. I flew to England once for a music festival, and I once baked cookies for Super Furry Animals. Books: I'm crazy about reading. I read a lot of classics and old books, but I throw in something contemporary now and then. Favorite authors include Samuel Beckett, Daphne DuMaurier, Thomas Hardy, A.J. Cronin, Oscar Wilde, Donna Tartt, J.D. Salinger, and David Sedaris. And I can't control myself around Harry Potter books. Theatre: I have a degree in Drama. Eventually I would like to do something with it. I really enjoy directing, and I think I am best at it. I also like doing pretty much everything else involved with theatre. I'm not that good of an actress, but I have a lot of fun doing it. I've even taken a turn as script supervisor and extra for my friend's film, so I guess I'm not a theatre purist anymore. Travel: I love travelling. I studied in Ireland for a year at Trinity College Dublin, and I later went back to work for a summer at a restaurant called Nude. I've been all over the British Isles and much of Western Europe, and I recently spent six-and-a-half months in India for work (three separate trips). In the past year or so, Victor and I have been to Argentina, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, and all over the states.