Name: Ally
Birthday/Age: April 1st (23)
Location: New York, United States
Zodiac: Aries
Religion: Pagan
Status: Engaged [ as of 6.29.09 ]
Pets: 1 orange kitty, Romeo
Education: High School Graduate, Class of ‘04
Occupation: Freelance Web Developer and writer, Graphic Designer, and Blogger
Dream Job: ASL Translator and Speech Therapist for deaf and autistic children
Modifications: 00g ear, 12g tongue and 16g lip piercings
Vices: Milk Duds, Camel 99 Lights, Marijuana
Hobbies: Painting, knitting, playing video games, etc.

I still don’t get it. Who are you?!

You can call me Ally. No, it’s not short for anything. I’m twenty-three years old and I’ve been told I’m your typical Aries, whatever that means. I’m pretty bad at describing myself, but I’ll give it a shot…

I currently live in in Upstate, New York and make a living by doing freelance web development, graphic design, writing, and advertisement. I graduated from High School in 2004 and one of my biggest goals is to go back to school to major in Communication Disorders to eventually become an ASL translator and Speech Therapist for deaf and autistic children.

In my spare time, I like to be as creative as possible. I love to paint, make beaded jewelry and little figurines out of modeling clay; I recently taught myself to knit, and I love to read and watch movies. I also love to play video games and spend time with friends. I love a lot of things.

I’ve got an amazing boyfriendfiancée who I try to spend as much time with as possible. We have been dating, on and off, for the past eight years and our relationship now is stronger than ever. We’ve both done a lot of growing and changing, and are even more perfect for each other than either of us, or anyone else, could ever imagine. He is my entire life and universe. He asked me to marry him on June 21st, 2009 and, although I never imagined myself getting married, I honestly cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with this man… I, of course, said yes! I want to grow old and have a family with him; I made him promise that we’d be married for at least 80 years to make sure that happens.

I was raised without religion, but developed my own beliefs over the last several years. About five years ago, I found Paganism and Wicca and for the first time and felt like I had found a belief system that exactly coincides with my own. It’s been an amazing journey, reading and learning as much as I can. I’m what you’d call a ’solitary practitioner’ or ’solitary witch’, but certainly not your typical witch portrayed in the media – I’m not going to turn you into a frog or melt when you splash me with water. I don’t really do rituals or anything like that, but I am a very spiritual person and I like to keep in touch with nature as much as possible.

I’m very opinionated, yet very open-minded. I know, it’s like oil and water, but I like to think I balance it quite well. I’m very quirky and honest – Sometimes too honest – and it has gotten me in a bit of trouble. I don’t mind it, though, because it’s the complete opposite of how I used to be… I was always extremely shy and meek. I was mistaken for a mute on several occasions because I was so quiet. I was too nice; I’d do anything for anyone and often let everyone walk all over me.

I finally learned, after getting hurt way too many times, that it’s not a healthy way to live. I’ve now changed my attitude completely, and try to think about myself more. I don’t take shit from anybody, and I always speak my mind. I stand up for myself a lot more, and I don’t let people take advantage of me anymore. It’s, unfortunately, caused me to lose quite a few “friends”, but my life has been much better without them, honestly. I’ve learned that I have to be true to myself and that my own happiness and sanity have to be my first priority. I’m not Super Woman and I can’t make everyone happy all the time.

I’ve also changed a lot physically over the past couple of years. I used to be extremely overweight: Almost 300 pounds and a size 26/28. Since 2007, I’ve lost over 100 pounds (I’m now down to a size 14) and, though I’d still like to lose another 30 pounds or so, I am a hell of a lot more comfortable in my skin now. My hair went from always being long and dyed black to being dyed bright red and quite a bit shorter. Instead of always wearing black clothes that were huge on me, I now wear colorful clothes that are form-fitting and figure-defining. I feel like a real girl now, which is completely new to me. It hasn’t been easy by any means, but it is a wonderful change and I’m really proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished. I’m a lot more confident than I used to be, and I believe that it shows in the way I present myself. I’m very happy with the way things have been going, and I can only hope that they continue to fall into place and go well…

What is this place?

Take Me Nowhere was purchased in late February, 2008. It is a personal blog which serves as my creative outlet and bitching post. I’ve been blogging for several years now; it’s possible, but very unlikely, that you remember me from somewhere else. (demonic-angel.net, oh-darla.net, poison-apple.org, etc.) It is more likely, however, that you know me from my marijuana law reform blog, Sweet Leaf Tribune.

This site is run entirely on WordPress, with the help of some pretty neat plugins. The graphics are made, by me, in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and all coding is done, by hand, between Notepad and Macromedia Dreamweaver. This theme is based off of Prebuilt by Astereostudio & Devlounge. The cute little smileys, can be found here.

Why ‘Take Me Nowhere’?

Besides the fact that it’s one of my favorite songs by Medeski Martin & Wood, I’ve always had a thing for oxymorons, and I thought it would be fun to have one for a domain name. It wasn’t my first choice, but everything else I tried was already taken. I’ve thought about changing it a few times, but I’ve grown to love it over the past few years and have a feeling it’ll be around for quite a while (If for no other reason than my own laziness — I don’t feel like starting another domain from scratch).