Post by Annabel Marguerite Collins on Mar 23, 2013 17:46:04 GMT -8
| [atrb=style,width: 420px; background-color: efefef; background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/6jh1H.png); padding: 5px, bTable] ANNABEL M. COLLINS THIRTY-TWO | HETEROSEXUAL | BAKER | TOURIST | KEIRA KNIGHTLEY THE INTERVIEW HELLO. THANKS FOR COMING IN TODAY. SHALL WE START WITH YOUR NAME? Right. So, full name is Annabel Marguerite Collins. Middle name is way girlier than I will ever be, and then the first name always something people try and shorten. I don't really respond to nicknames, never liked them very much. My name is Annabel, not Anna, Belle, or Bella. Just call me Annabel. It's not like it's unbearably long or anything. THAT'S A NICE NAME. WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING? I'm a baker, own a private bakery right here in town after I moved it over from New York. I make bread, cakes, pastries, muffins, that sort of thing. Most of the time I just sell it as fresh as it's made to whoever wants it, but if someone needs a special order done, I can do that too. I have my high school diploma, and I went to community college to get a two year culinary degree, which was... an experience. It was more of a community college thing, because I was going while my daughter, Whitney, was in day care... but I'm sure we'll get to cover that later. INTERESTING. WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN? My job is what I do for fun? That actually sounds really lame. I like to read, the apartment is absolutely crawling with books. I don't really go out as often as I should, to be honest. I'm hoping that'll change now that I am out of that really fast pace of New York City, it was just so tiring. I like watching movies with Whitney, we have scary movie nights every now and then, and they're always pretty fun. I take her shopping when she asks, and I guess that's better than staying in the house, but not by much. I sound like such an old lady right now. [laughs] I smoke like a fire, but that's more of an addiction than a hobby, I guess. I've become such a homebody. Lame. I know. I like nature, it's pretty and calming. Um. I like bubble baths and candles? And that's probably as girly as I get. I don't like cats... or my mother. I don't like people who are super dependent, and I don't like people who whine. I guess I don't like people? I'm kind of introverted. I like tea and sleeping and showers and my daughter. And I dislike traffic and the sounds of car alarms. Um. I don't like big cities, not anymore. And I don't like feeling like I owe anyone anything. WOULD YOU SAY THOSE ACTIVITIES REFLECT WHO YOU ARE? Oh, Lord. Like I said, I'm really such a homebody, I don't leave the house except to go to work. Since we've moved to Brunswick I've gotten better, but I'm still staying in most nights. Let's see... I'm really independent, and I've tried to raise my daughter to be the same way. Since I was about nineteen, I've sort of been on my own. Me and Whit against the world, so to speak, and it's been tough at times. I like to think that I'm really strong, that I've been through enough to make me a rather hardened individual. It takes a lot to upset me, but a surefire way to do that would be to upset my daughter. She's everything to me. I'm a hard worker, because at this point, I've earned everything that I have, and I think I've provided a good life for Whitney, which is more than some people can say for their children. I'm kind of blunt in my humor and about my feelings, and I am really honest- no secrets. Hiding things leads to hurting. I'm kind of bad at showing affection, that counts as a personality trait. I haven't dated in forever... not since Whitney was born, I don't think. Nothing serious. I'm not that great at making friends, either, but I think that's just because I can be really closed off from the world at times. A lot of people don't like how forward I am, either. And... I guess that's it, I can't think of anything else to say about myself. COOL BEANS. THEY SAY YOUR FAMILY SHAPES WHO YOU ARE. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOURS? Oh. Well... Whitney is really my only family, so I will start there and then go on to the others, I guess. My relationship with Whit is weird, not conventional, and a lot of parents don't like it. She calls me by my first name, and I like to think of us as equals. I trust her, and she's very open with me, and I've always tried to make sure she would be alright on her own... for when she moves out. We're very close, and I love her more than anything in the world. I would die for her. That's pretty self explanatory, I think. Uh... my mother and I don't speak at all, and neither does anyone else in my family. I came from a well to-do, influential, very religious, NYC power family. I'm an atheist, personally, and my mom always thought she could "save my soul". After I got pregnant out of wedlock and refused to give up the baby, she disowned me. Cut me off completely, and the whole family stopped talking to me, because I was a blemish on the Collins family name. I took after my dad, though, so I was alright. Kept my chin up, made my own way through life. My dad wouldn't have shut me out, but that doesn't really matter. He died when I was fourteen, and... yeah. He never judged me, always accepted me. And now he's gone. And... I miss him a lot. Every day. [coughs, wipes under her eyes] Can we move on? I don't want to talk about this anymore. AND YOUR LIFE? TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PAST. I'M EAGER TO HEAR. Like I said, I was born in a high profile family, and I was sort of the black sheep, you could say. Not at all a proper lady like my mother wanted, atheist, antisocial. I was a terrible socialite. Even when I was little, I hated parties, and would hide under a piano or behind the curtains to avoid people. My father and I would always go out and eat strawberries on the porch after a few hours, and my mother would get so mad because I would get the juice all over my dresses. [smiles] I grew up, and the rift grew as I figured out more and more about myself. Telling my mother I didn't want to go to church was awful, and after that, I think that our relationship was just so screwed over. There really wasn't a chance. When my father died, things got worse, and we would get into fights. I would act out. I started smoking when I was sixteen, and that was mostly to piss her off. I would wear trashy clothing and have little affairs with the sons of the families that she didn't like. Everything I did until I was eighteen was motivated purely by a desire to piss her off, and maybe a little depression from the death of my father. She thought I was being a spoiled brat, and told me once that I was possessed, actually. I'd forgotten about that. Anyways, from seventeen to eighteen, she made me go to therapy, and I would make up the worst stories about my feelings. The therapist hated me. It was weird, being sort of quiet and shut out, but also causing so much trouble. [laughs] And then when I was nineteen, I slept with a guy who went by Cash. It wasn't something I usually did, hardly any of my hook ups went that far. He was my... third? Yeah, I think so. Anyways, we had a really short fling, and i wound up pregnant. When my mother found out, she actually encouraged me to abort it, because it was so shameful, and when I wouldn't, pushed me to give it up for adoption. I wouldn't do that either. So she just disowned me and kicked me out. I stopped talking to Cash, he never even knew I was pregnant. I've never wanted to be a charity case, and that was what I would become from him. I didn't want that, to have to depend on the guy like that. So I just sort of dropped him. My family stopped talking to me, I moved out, and no one really knew what happened to me. My mother didn't want anyone to know I was pregnant, and I didn't have that many friends. I was alone. I found the shittiest little apartment, it was really awful. The landlord was this creepy man, I didn't like or trust him at all. It was quite the change from what I was used to, but I managed. I worked odd jobs for a while, started working on my culinary degree. After nine months, I gave birth to the most beautiful little baby girl, named her Whitney Angelie Collins. We stayed in that little apartment for a while, and I would still work whenever I could; our neighbor Mrs. Ramirez was a sweet old widow, and she would watch Whit for me until she was old enough for day care. I got my degree, opened up a bakery, and worked hard for a couple of years. Finally, when Whit was about four or five, we moved out of that shithole and into a nicer apartment. It still wasn't anything special, not terribly big, but it had a lot of windows, enough bedrooms, and it with the right decorations, it was cozy. Whit and I grew up, together, I learned how to be a parent- still am. You never stop learning. Recently, I made the decision to move over to Brunswick. Business would be better, and the hustle and bustle fast pace of the city is just so draining. [sighs] And now... here we are. Just going day to day and trying to move forward in life. We have a house, which I'm so excited about- we've never had a whole house before, it was the best gift I've given her. What about a secret? Everyone has a secret. [this is in third person because she would never tell a soul this] Annabel has Huntington's disease. That's what killed her father. The possibility of having it made her so self destructive, but she was always too afraid to get tested and find out the results. When she got pregnant, though, she had to know, because she could pass it on to her daughter. While Whitney did not possess the gene, Annabel did. She saw her father basically disintegrate, and she knows that isn't what she wants. She plans to kill herself before HD makes it so that she can't take care of herself. She has yet to tell Whitney- no one besides her doctor knows of the disease. The symptoms have already started, although they're hard to notice. But she notices them. ALRIGHT. TIME'S ALMOST UP. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DREAMS. QUICK! [smiles sadly] I dream of things that seem impossible, I guess. And I don't really like talking about it. What I'd really like is to just grow old, get to see my daughter be happy. Meet my grandchildren. Simple things. AND THAT'S A WRAP. IT WAS NICE GETTING TO KNOW YOU. So we're done? Great. Bye. BEHIND THE MASK ADDIE | SPOOKY | EASTERN | CHAR IS MY LOVER | SAVANNAH JO KENNEDY nyet |
