Welcome.

So here I am! Moving into my new home here at blogger.com. There won't be an overwhelming amount of personal information or idle commentary on irrelivancies from here on; but as this is my first post, I might as well use it to introduce my readers to yours truly, The Author, and, for the sake of historical record, make note of a few circumstantial irrelivancies (which may or may not prove relevant at a later time).

My name is Ven. That was not the name given to me at birth, but it is the name I was given at the point in my life when I became more or less who I am now, and formed the foundation of who I will be for the rest of it. I am 24 years old. I live at home with my parents and two younger siblings (when they came home), and two cats -- our own resident fluffball of 7 years, Bilbo Baggins, and Merlin, a communal cat who has adopted us and lives primarily at our house despite belonging to a neighbor. Also included in the group of people I consider immediate family are my soulmate-friend Tenne-Mouse and her daughter Sarah Rose.

I shall set the stage: It's winter here in Washington DC, much colder than it's been this time of year since I was a child. The air has ice-teeth and there's a wind that wants to devour you. I love it. If you were to look at myself and my siblings standing together, it would be clear which of us got one sid or the other of our ancestral blood more strongly. My sister was born Italian, after my mother -- she has darker skin than I, and fine, Roman features, green eyes and thin hair and that passion of soul that you so often find in Mediterranians. My brother, also, has more of the Italian blood than I, with his thick, dark curls, tall, thin stature, and a personality that calls out to people, to family -- he is loyal to a fault. I, however, am a child of my father's Russian gypsy blood -- hazel-eyed and introverted and intellectual with a solid frame and a fondness for occasionally drinking a bit more than I ought to, and oh, how I love the cold and the darkness of winter.

And what is going on in my life right now? I got my driver's license finally last week. I am learning to speak Russian with Rosetta Stone. I have a book of verse in progress, very close to a state I would feel confident in showing a publisher. I have a job working for my parents, though I have no intention of keeping it any longer than I have to. I'll be taking out a loan from them soon to help pay for a car so I can get to a job that suits me better.

And what kind of job? Well, I don't know just yet. I write poetry and prose, I have extensive experience and training in voice and stage performance, I served an apprenticeship for about a year with one of the last true classic art Masters in the world, I have certain business skills unavoidably acquired from my parents' business, I can cook, grow a garden... the world is my oyster.

And I have a lot to say. But that's what this blog is for.

Welcome, everyone.