Belle In a Nutshell, The Cliffnotes Edition

Belle In a Nutshell:

1. Like this blogger (who's the inspiration for this post), a recovering Objectivist. But I'm definitely not a libertarian. And I have to live with winning the Ayn Rand "Anthem" essay contest at 14, as well as of being a card-carrying member of the Objectivist society for the two years after that.

2. A Democrat with a big "D." As in, party of Roosevelt, F.D. And L.B.J. I'm not always happy with my party. I'm often unhappy. I'm more of a political pragmatist than idealist. But for better or worse, I'm a registered Democrat, pretty left of center, but not left enough to be anything other than what I am.

3. A product of the sunny suburbs, public school system, and a lot of bad '90s rock and pop.

4. A Feminist with a big "F." Not radical, not Marxist, not any "wave," not "pre" or "post," not "sex-positive" or "negative," not merely "choice" or "critical race," but decidedly a Feminist. Yes, I wear expensive makeup and perfume, and yes, I read Victorian literature. Get over it.

5. A nationalist who's growing to appreciate the roles of the states in our dual federalist system. But I'm still on the outs with anyone who seriously libertarian and anti-government on both levels. But some of my best friends are libertarians. Seriously. Nothing but love.

6. Daughter of post-1975, post-Fall of Saigon Vietnamese immigrant parents. Super strict, super old school, super strange. But loveable in a dysfunctional way. Super Aunt, albeit currently long-distance, to nine wonderful kids. I am The Baby Whisperer.

7. Closeted Romantic who thought she was going to marry high school-to-college sweetheart. Still believes in love, commitment, and romance, just not acting all emo and stupid over it. Believes that being in love and in a good relationship means being yourself, preserving your own identity, which means having some alone time and separate friends, and having the together time be the coming together of two wholes, such that it is neither too much or too little, but just what it is no matter the frequency.

8. Lapsed Critical Race Theorist. Currently into employment discrimination law, federalism, and organizational theory.

9. Growing more centrist on many political issues with age, to surprise and slight horror. But still a commie pinko lefty by most people's standards. Pro: choice, affirmative action, gay marriage, social welfare, liberal immigration policies, ERA, VAWA, Title II, VII and IX, bias crimes laws, environmental regulations, liberal constructions of the commerce clause, equal protection clause, and necessary and proper clause.

10. Occasional poet and frustrated prose writer. Envious of friends in MFA programs, who sometimes end up going to law school anyway. Even more envious of friends in graduate English Lit programs.

11. Interested enough in subjects of torts, contracts, employment discrimination, remedies, and constitutional law enough to put some combination of them on my FAR, surprising many friends who thought I'd be writing a dissertation on Southern modernist fiction by now. I like them as much as I like the fiction of Flannery O'Connor, weirdly enough.

12. 5'2", brunette, quirky and perky, with eclectic tastes in everything. Extremely fast speaker, except publicly. Idiosyncratic fashion sense, somewhere between lawyerly business casual, bitchy city slicker, and 1950s Wellesley girl. Obsessed with polka dots. Currently mad about the color orange. No tolerance whatsoever for styling hair or painful shoes, but extreme fondness for things of useless, decadent beauty that sparkle or feel soft.

13. Tendency to say "awesome," "neato" and "okie dokie," but only to good friends and never in professional circles. Extreme fondness for the term "dude," due in no small part to its original connotation of "dandy," its popular use in my home region, and this linguistic analysis.

14. Not into post-colonial theory and anxiety enough to anachronistically reject out of hand such beautiful art as: the paintings of John Singer Sargent, the poetry of T.S. Eliot, or the novels of Charles Dickens. Yes, I'm trying to learn French.

15. Non-practicing Buddhist and thus non-deist, which is NOT the same as being agnostic or atheist, but thank you for not inviting me to your church social.

16. Book worm, epistolary geek, tea addict, newspaper hound.

17. Infatuated, rather than obsessive personality type. Quickly intrigued and compulsively addicted, but then just as quickly disinterested and forgetful.

18. Non-closeted and unabashed lover of science fiction entertainment: Star Trek (most series), Star Wars, X-Files, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica.

19. Unapologetically into baking, craft-making, country music, and old school R&B, in spite of whatever that does to non-existent hipster street cred.

20. Almost convinced I made the right career choice.