Now that you know me, "hi!"

[LRB]

I've been reading Steve's blog since he was still with Sixthman, and finally joined the forums sometime in 2010. I didn't start posting, though, until the last six-week challenge. Basically, I dipped a toe in, then my whole foot, and now here I am, in the water up to my collarbone and I still haven't introduced myself.

Hi, I'm Liz.

That picture to the left? That's not me. Well, it is me -- but it's me dressed as Lisbeth Salandar, a/k/a The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, for Halloween. In "real life" (intentionally in quotation marks, because wtf is real life anyway?), I'm currently wearing a strand of pearls with pearl earrings, sensible high-heeled shoes, and a grey pantsuit while sitting at a desk in a large office building where I am an attorney. I live in the suburbs of Boston, have two kids (both girls, ages 9 and 11), a husband, a dog, and a minivan. I am active at our local Unitarian Universalist church (where, among other things, I teach sex ed to 7th and 8th graders!).

But there is a part of me (and always has been a part of me) that is a lot more hard-core than any of that makes it sound. Which is why I chose that picture as my avatar. And it's why my blog for this six-week challenge (link in the signature of this post) is called "Being Charly Baltimore," after the covert-operative character Gina Davis plays in "The Long Kiss Good Night."

Anyway . . . in my journey, I've done Weight Watchers, I've done cardio, I've done swimming, I've done walking (trained for the Avon Walk - a marathon one day, a half-marathon the next), I've done sedentary. All along, I've wanted to be slender, to be shapely, to be accomplished in whatever sport I was doing at the time. I've never really had a goal of being STRONG (physically, that is - I've always been a Strong Woman ). But I have had a long-time girl-crush on Linda Hamilton from the first Terminator movie (yes, I'm dating myself, but I don't care). And now I'm setting out to gain muscle, lose fat, and level up my life in so many ways.

So thanks for being here to share the ride; I look forward to it!

[Loren Wade]

Hey! I've seen you around! Haha.

Welcome!!! Kind of.

[Sco]

Woot Lisbeth Salandar!

And you've for sure been around longer than I have, but we're glad you're here!

[CalvinHobbes]

Love Lisbeth Salander. Creepy but when I saw your picture it was kind of how I pictured her...until I saw the movie (the Swedish one, haven't made it to the American one yet).

[LRB]

This is the movie poster (actually ONE OF THE movie posterS) for the US movie - came out a year after I wore my costume. My kids saw it, and said "that looks like your Halloween costume, Mom!"

[ETFnerd]

what's more hardcore than being an attorney in beantown...? they'll cut your heart out with those scalpels they seem to have for fingernails.. with surgical precision...