Annabel

Age: 16

Favorite word(s): lyrical, quark, quirky, glorious, yellow, December, droll, snazzy, snippety, phantasmic, vague, tense, malaise, verve, shaken, felicity, Erklӓrung, uplifted, delightful, ballistic, daffodilism, unfathomable, quivering, iridiscent, splendour, charmed

Status: Homeschooler

Who am I?

 I am…

Short and brown-eyed. Sixteen years and a few weeks old. Christian, above anything else. Californian. Homeschooled, and a writer of sorts (or did I need to mention that?). Somewhat paranoid.

Fond of: Yellow umbrellas, circle dances, figs and blueberries, people-watching, shoes, long books, dangle-y earrings, large families, unusual names, unusual eyes, Great Books (the same program that Teal attends, actually), privacy, downtown shopping districts, white chocolate, knee-length dresses, driving on the freeway in the rain at night, watching spontaneous people (from a safe distance),  turquoise (as a stone, as a word, and as a color for blouses and eyes), costumes, red velvet cake, bi-colored roses, faded freckles, four-part harmony, Robert Fagles’ translations of Homer, Simon and Garfunkel, marzipan, respectful debates, cats, grey skies, bridges, the little jolt that comes as an elevator lands, long eyelashes, quirkiness, the smell of fresh marshmallows, wading through the ocean when the water is filled with sunshine and glittering sand, short stories, red licorice, literature anthologies, golden lion tamarins, the German language, subtitles, glass walls, BBC adaptations of period novels, skyscrapers, photography exhibits, cupcakes with sprinkles, central heterochromia, art museums, being Californian, olives, free verse, bright new pennies, Danish pastries, gel pens, long grey hair, the way British people say "fantastic," botanical gardens, glorified hills, castle clouds, and writing.

Adverse to: Talk shows, excessive use of exclamation points, shock value, empty laughter, gushing, sensationalism, phony indignation, being forcibly lifted from my box, "brutal" honesty, false patriotism, swaggering, Pharisaical anti-Pharisees, (nearly all) television, the mockery of others that passes as wit but is really just cruelty, unresolved strife, reality shows, seafood, thinking of titles, hot weather, cold weather, my own failings, trendy things, delusions of superiority, adults trying to be teenagers, teenagers trying to be adults, the smell of alcohol, misplaced modifiers, crying, pain, paper cuts, not knowing what to say until an hour later, being patted on the head, soap opera in any form, boondoggle, humidity, not having more space in the "favorite words" box, very broad generalizations, teen angst, coarseness, apathy, neon green, the utterance and printing of unutterable and unprintable words, soft-boiled eggs, cold feet, sour cream, my occasional inability to express my thoughts, apathy, palm trees planted near hills, condescension, hysteria, public displays of private feeling, and writer’s block.