Elsie was the name of a seven year old girl in a book that I loved when I was nine. I don't remember much about the character, but I remember loving the name, and eventually making it a part of my own identity. Alicia is my given name; Elsie is my chosen name. And I am both.

I am fire and shadow. I am blazing intensity and wisdom, naivety and fearlessness, adventure and romance and insecurity. When you first meet me, you'll think that I'm bubbly and sweet like Gabrielle, and then you'll get to know me a bit better and realize how much that perception frustrates me and how badly I want you to know me for who I am. I am the one who'll shamelessly wear the Vulcan ears all the way through Fry's grocery store to the convention, but who secretly longs to be the one you confide in when you do something you're so ashamed of that you're afraid you have to keep it a secret forever.

I'm an uber-Catholic, and you'll see that very quickly as well. I come from a missionary background, so I guess conversion of the world is on my mind more than most Catholics'. In my heart, I want everyone to come to Jesus -- and yet in my heart, I also respect the awesome diversity of this world and the way that we are all on our own individual journeys. Jehovah God is my best friend and the center of my life...my Beloved, my Father, and my constant companion all at once. And yet...I have a lot more insecurity about my faith than shows on the surface. I'm going to want to tell you all about it, but I'm also going to want to be your friend whether you're ever interested in converting or not, and if you give me a boundary, I'll do my very best to respect it. Tell me who you are, tell me what you want...because just because I want you to know who I am, I want to know who you are, and I want to take this journey together.

My favorite show will always be Xena: Warrior Princess. I saw a warrior who is also a child, full of darkness and pain and shame and potential to be the greatest hero I've ever seen...I saw a child who was wise beyond her years and saw the light she had to offer the world...I saw what I consider to be the greatest love story ever written. I'm Xena-centric, a Romantic Friendshipper (which is neither subber nor shipper, although I have friends who fall into both categories), and my favorite episodes are Ides of March and Locked Up and Tied Down. I will melt into a puddle of goo when I watch One Against an Army or the Ring Trilogy, and I will laugh and cry and think for days when I watch the Quest arc. And The Furies is an especial favorite of mine because it combines that goofy Lucy humor with gut-wrenching angst. I'm a total angst addict.

I don't tend to watch much TV -- I wait until shows are over, then watch the DVDs one at a time while I'm exercising on my Gazelle, because I can't sit still long enough to watch a regular show and not do anything else at the same time. So I don't follow that many shows -- when I fall, I fall hard, and I get obsessed enough to have a particular story on my mind all the time. Besides Xena (and in chronological order), my story obsessions are: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo and Raphael - centric), Star Wars, Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, X-Men, and Rurouni Kenshin. I've been a Trekkie all my life, and I don't count that among my obsessions because it's simply a part of who I am -- but I do have a Vulcan obsession, and my favorite Star Trek pairings are Sarek and Amanda, and Spock and Saavik.

Hobbies other than watching Xena: posting on XOC, writing in my livejournal, and chatting on instant messenger. When I'm not on the computer, I like to talk on the phone, talk at coffee shops, and talk in my apartment while surrounded by teddy bears and drinking cups of tea. When I'm not on the computer and not with anyone else (honestly, a rather rare occasion), I dabble with writing stories and poetry, but usually I'd rather read. I have several "real" books that I'm in the midst of, and several other "real" books that I will gush about because they wrote my life (ask about the Sime~Gen universe if you want to make my day, or Arrows of the Queen), but I also have piles of comics and fanfiction. I prefer beta-reading to writing my own stories, and I've made a lot of my best friends through beta-ing.

That's really about it. My daily life consists of work, reading, writing, and spending way too much time on instant messenger...which I love.