InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Catch a falling star."

Amalia Vargas (amaliavargas) wrote,
@ 2009-09-24 22:13:00

Does that make sense, Nbook?
Because I see it so clearly. No person is alone. Everyone's part of something bigger. Something that came before.
Something that has gathered strength over the years, resulting in the person you are.

basics;

FULL NAME: Amalia Luisa Vargas
NICKNAME: Her parents use various affectionate names in Spanish for her, but nothing she'd really consider a nickname. Her roommate freshman year tried calling her Amy, which she hated.
BIRTHDAY: May 6th, 1987
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus. But like that stuff means anything.
HEIGHT: 5'3
BUILD: Petite with a few curves.
SCARS: One small one on her thumb from slicing it with an X-acto knife in an art class in college. Which was just one of the things that told her she shouldn't do anything in art beyond the drawings in her notebook.
DISTINCT PHYSICAL FEATURES: People are always complimenting her on her hair, how shiny it is, and what an amazing color it is. It's just black, but she feels like there's something special about what shade of black it is.
PERSONAL STYLE: Amalia dresses pretty stylish, but doesn't want to sacrifice comfort for fashion. If the shoes hurt, no matter how cute they are, she's not wearing them. She tends to usually wear jeans and a cute top, and likes bright colors mostly.
ALLERGIES: Mild allergy to cats. She can deal with being around them, even for a long period of time, but isn't going to pick them up and cuddle them. She'd prefer to breathe.
PETS: None. After managing to actually kill a goldfish during sophomore year, she realized she isn't cut out to take care of an animal.
RELIGION: Catholic

depth;

OCCUPATION: Receptionist and office assistant at an investment firm in Manhattan. She has no idea what they actually do there. She just knows how to route phone calls and restock the office kitchen and play lots of computer Solitaire.
RESIDENCE: Downtown 278 #3A
FRIENDS: Lots of them!
ENEMIES: Her ex-boyfriend James Kodalay but he's so history that he probably doesn't even count anymore.
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None at the moment. She's not sure she likes New York guys.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Straight
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND ACTIVITIES: Takes a kickboxing class at a gym near her apartment
CHARACTER CONCEPT: The kind-hearted Latina
FIVE ADJECTIVES TO DESCRIBE YOURSELF: Strong, outgoing, wary, down-to-earth, spunky

personality;

It's hard to find someone who doesn't like Amalia. While she was never one of the super-popular girls, she's always had a lot of friends. When she moved to Palo City at the start of eighth grade, she fit right in despite being the new girl, finding herself a huge group of friends who she stuck with all through high school. She loves her friends more than anything, and will never hesitate to step in and help them when they're going through something. She's always quick to offer a place to crash for the night, a shoulder to cry on, or a funny story to take their mind off of their problems.

One of the most important things to Amalia is her heritage. She's Latina, her family hailing from Mexico, and she loves her hispanic background. She loves the music, the food, the culture, everything there is about it. What she hates is the negative image people have of hispanics. She's seen that surprised look on people's faces when they hear her talking in perfect English, or when they find out that her parents are both in successful professional careers. She tries to turn a blind eye to it but sometimes it's just too obvious for her to ignore, such as when the girls attacked her outside of the movie theatre when she was thirteen. She's luckily never had an incident anywhere near that bad since, but she knows that things like that exist, and she hates it. She wishes there was something she could do to rid the world of all of those bad things, but she knows she can't.

What she can do is be herself, and hope that people will see her as she is, funny, nice, artistic, goofy, and Latina. And that they don't have a problem with any of that.

STRENGTHS: Outgoing, warm, friendly, great sense of humor
WEAKNESSES: A little wary of any relationship when it becomes serious, sometimes doesn't know when not to make a joke, can be a little over-sensitive about things

family;

Alejandro Vargas - Amalia's dad, who she calls Papi. Without batting an eye, she'll say that he's the perfect dad. He's sweet, warm, friendly, and loves his family. He's the son of Mexican immigrants (who immigrated legally, as she's always quick to point out) and he feels proud of what he's been able to give his family in America. He works as a realtor in Anaheim.

Maria Vargas - Amalia's mom, who she calls Mami. Amalia looks up to her so much and hopes that one day, she's even half as happy as her mother is. She's a therapist with a successful practice in Palo City.

Isabel Vargas - Amalia's older sister, who Amalia has called "Saint Isabel" for as long as she can remember. Isabel is 27, works as a math teacher at a private high school in Pasadena, volunteers at a shelter for battered women, is engaged to a doctor named Adam, and is still perfect.

history;

The first thirteen years of Amalia's life were spent in San Diego. Just before eighth grade, the family moved to Palo City, near Los Angeles. She stayed there through high school, then went to college in Santa Barbara. And it was while at college, meeting people from all over the United States and even some from other countries that it hit her. She'd spent her entire life in the bubble of southern California.

And sure, that bubble was full of culture and excitement, so it's not like she's some girl who spent her entire life in some little one-stoplight town in the middle of Nebraska, she was in one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the world. But it was still southern California. It was constantly in the middle of a wildfire or a mudslide or waiting for the next big earthquake, and she was tired of it. And on top of that, she felt like she hadn't done anything. She spent her entire high school career dating Brendan, working at jobs that were easily given to her through the parents of friends, and hanging out with the same group of friends.

She wanted out for awhile, so she decided to sign up for a semester abroad for the fall semester of junior year. She picked Spain at first but then at the last minute, changed her mind. If she was going to get out of her bubble, she realized she shouldn't be going to Spain. She wanted a bigger change.

She literally threw a dart at a map. The first time she threw, it landed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The second throw landed on Antarctica, and the third on Sacramento. The fourth throw, which occured after she had actually kissed the dart and told it to be nice, landed on Norway.

So she spent the fall semester of her junior year in Oslo, Norway, reveling at how different everything was there. She had a short but nice relationship with a guy she'd met out at a coffeehouse one night, she cried twice the first day it snowed (the first time was from happiness, the second was after falling on her butt when she stepped on a patch of ice), and she even rode on a dogsled. It was, without a doubt, the best time she'd ever had.

She returned back to school, feeling all worldly, and dove right back into classes. Even though it was now the last half of her junior year, when most people are clamoring for internships or thinking about where they want to work after graduation or looking into grad schools, she wasn't. She was just ready to be done with school and see where life would take her. Plus... she had no idea what she wanted to do. Her time in Norway had been life-changing and amazing, and she just knew that she wanted something like that again, to live in a totally new place and figure it out from there.

After graduation, she packed her bags and headed for New York City. It seemed exotic enough to her to be totally amazing. Plus, well, her mom's cousin lived in Staten Island and said she could stay with them for a few weeks til she found a job, so that made it a lot easier than moving somewhere where she knew nobody. She landed a receptionist job not long after getting there, and got an apartment. Slowly she began meeting people, thanks to Dawn hooking her up with some alumni connections at her high school, and before she knew it, New York was turning into a whole lot of awesomeness. She figures she'll go back to California eventually, maybe once she figures out a little more about who she is and what she really wants to do with her life, but for now, she's just choosing to live life, whatever happens.

COLLEGE ATTENDED: University of California - Santa Barbara
MAJOR/DEGREE: Bachelor's degree in communications
ACTIVITIES AND HONORS: Tried out just about every campus activity at some point during her college career. She mostly stuck with different things going on in the multicultural center.
WORK EXPERIENCE: Managed her friends' band Vanish until they broke up her junior year of high school, worked on a few movie sets for Hayden Blume, cashier at Winslow Books during 11th and 12th grades, various campus jobs all through college, interned at a newspaper office in Santa Barbara during her last semester of college where she mostly learned how to make coffee

incidentals;

FIRST KISS: Danny Cruz, in the seventh grade. He kissed her during a really intense part in a movie when she actually wanted to be paying attention. It was just one of the many annoying things he did on that one and only date.
FIRST SEXUAL ENCOUNTER: Brendan, in the tenth grade
FIRST SEXUAL INTERCOURSE: Brendan, at a back-to-school party right before senior year started.

FAVORITE BOOK: Twilight. Shut up, it's a good book!
FAVORITE MUSIC: Rock, r&b, pop, the typical stuff that just about everyone likes. She also loves Latin music, mostly just when it's being performed live, she can take it or leave it on the radio. And she has this soft spot for boys who sing in coffeeshops with just an acoustic guitar. Or the boys on the radio who sound like they're singing in a coffeeshop.
FAVORITE MOVIE: 500 Days Of Summer, Juno, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Clueless, Can't Hardly Wait, Monsters Inc, and any disaster movie where various world landmarks are destroyed.
FAVORITE COLOR: Green
FAVORITE FLAVOR: Chocolate
FAVORITE FOOD: Mexican
FAVORITE PLACE: Washington Square Park

DISLIKED BOOK: The DaVinci Code. Seriously, why was that so popular?
DISLIKED MUSIC: She mostly likes all kinds of music, she guesses what she'd dislike is the really twangy whiny kind of country.
DISLIKED MOVIE: Titanic. She kept muttering "sink already, god!"
DISLIKED COLOR: None.
DISLIKED FLAVOR: All these weird flavors that they're doing lately for potato chips. What happened to just normal potato chips?
DISLIKED FOOD: Lobster. It just freaks her out to see the actual lobster there on the plate.
DISLIKED PLACE: Stuck in traffic anywhere in LA.

LIKES: Sitting in the park and drawing the various people around her, bagels, her zebra-stripe Snuggie, socks that have fun prints on them, fondue restaurants, and Sharpies of any kind but especially the keychain ones
DISLIKES: Racism, the lack of good Mexican food in New York, public transportation, trashy reality tv, high heels, cold weather
PHOBIAS: Snakes

soundtrack;

Hey, Down There - Vanish (written by Maggie Blume)
Open up
Unlock the gate
You're young enough
To control your fate
Do it now
Before it's too late
Hey
Down there
I love you

You Get Me - Michelle Branch
So, I'm a little left of center
I'm a little out of tune
Some say I'm paranormal
So I just bend their spoon
Who wants to be ordinary
In a crazy, mixed-up world?

I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Listen to the music of the moment
People, dance and sing
We're just one big family
And it's our god-forsaken right
To be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved

I guess what I be saying
Is there ain't no better reason
To rid yourself of vanities
And just go with the seasons
It's what we aim to do
Our name is our virtue

Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks
She traveled this road as a child
Wide-eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test