(Just for the record, I made that my subject because I know there's at least one other San Antonian on these boards but I only know her first name & her Ebay account, so I'm hoping she might see this. And of course if anyone else here is in the area, I would love to talk to you too. I really need some pony friends in town!)

So, hi, my name is Alison and I just turned 28 this month. I'm still in mourning over that, because 27 is my favorite number. I'm currently working as a nanny. I went to school to be an elementary teacher assistant/aide but those jobs are hard to come by these days, thanks to public school funding cuts. I'm part-time right now (so really, a babysitter) but I just found out my job's becoming full-time in mid-January. I'm also disabled due to chronic illnesses (fibromyalgia, scoliosis, osteoarthritis, disc degeneration, possible lupus/RA/MS, among other issues) and haven't been able to work full-time in years, so I'm totally freaking out about whether I'll be able to handle it. But hey, I'll have more money for ponies! And, you know, medical tests/treatments. I like the ponies better though.

Speaking of which, onto the more relevant part of my intro! I've been collecting ponies since childhood -- I can't even remember when I got my first one, but if I had to guess I'd say maybe '86-ish? Even as a kid I was obsessive about keeping them clean so most of them are still in nice condition. (If only I'd known what the bathtub & Paradise Estate pool would do to the others, sigh.) I never really grew out of playing with them, I just started calling it a "collection" at some point because it was less embarrassing than admitting that I still watched the cartoon and acted out episodes. In middle/high school, I started trolling flea markets and the internet to add to my collection, and I was semi-active in the online MLP community (what existed of it 10-20 years ago). If I were to Google myself, I could probably even find some awful MLP fanfiction out there... along with a Weird Al fan club membership and a newsgroup where I roleplayed my cat, which makes the thought of a potential employer Googling me slightly depressing. Anyway! Then I moved to NYC for college and stopped actively collecting. A couple years later I got sick, moved home, bought maybe one or two ponies a year for a while, and then last month I was stressing about work and my never-ending Ebay spree began. Every time I say I'm going to stop, I find something else too awesome to pass up. So I'm hoping the Arena will help distract me from looking at Ebay, since I clearly can't just browse there without purchasing. (Oh, I'm ember1899 on there, by the way. The 1899 refers to Newsies -- I love silly guilty pleasures, what can I say?)

I collect G1 primarily; I have a few G2's that I bought just because it was exciting to be able to walk into a store and buy something called My Little Pony again, and I've gotten a few G3's & beyond recently but I'm still so new to them that I don't even know the terminology. I tried to resist collecting them, which worked out only slightly better than resisting Ebay did. Some day I hope to go through my old stuff, clean everything up, trade/sell the duplicates, and make my collection look nice instead of being scattered throughout every room in my house, but I've been saying that for a decade now, so. We'll see!

Sorry this is so excessively long -- I like to ramble. A lot. (I do have genuine, diagnosed-by-doctors Asperger's, but this rambling is more because I suck at editing my writing down. And because I'm thrilled to have people I can talk to about ponies finally!) I guess I'll end this with my favorites: Firefly & Baby Firefly (and anything that remotely resembles Firefly or bears her image in any way -- I would put her on everything I own if I could), North Star & Baby North Star, Wind Whistler, Rose Dust, and Ember. Oh, and Masquerade, Mimic, Paradise, Baby Cuddles, and Baby Lickety Split. Seriously, I can't even keep a favorites list short! I just love 'em all. And I'm far more excited to be here than I probably should be. I can't wait to get involved and meet everybody!

Oh, and Happy New Year! Unless you follow a non-Roman/Julian calendar. In which case, happy whatever day it is where you are! I hope the next year treats you well and brings you all your favorite ponies.

Hullo from Austin! (It's area-ish, and I used to live down your way for a few years.)

Welcome to the Arena; I hope we can keep you away from evilbay, but you might just spend all your time in the for sale -- auction forum and that may not be a lesser evil. Lol.

Wait what!
I live in your city.
Welcome!

Hey, Austin is close enough for me! (I have a lot of family there, actually, although I only manage to get up there once or twice a year because I hate driving.) Thanks for the welcome! I think the sale/auction forum was the entire reason I registered for an account instead of just lurking forever, haha. Hopefully I'll be able to keep myself from spending too much time in there!

Oops, sorry Obsydian, I totally missed your post while I was replying to KiwiSquirtBottle. (Is there a way to make usernames bold or linked or something, by the way? I'm sure there is, I just don't know it -- I'm assuming it's done using BBCode.) But yay, another person in San Antonio! It's comforting to know there are other MLP fans/collectors around me, even if I haven't met them offline. Hey, for all we know, we could be neighbors! Probably not, but it could happen! Thanks for the welcome!

[Edit to condense post, please use the edit button to add to your post, thanks so much and hugs, Diamond Intro Mod]

Welcome to the Arena, your collection sounds neat, do you have any favorites?

Hi alh2027

I enjoyed reading your intro. You sound like a real pony fan! I'm sure you will have lots of fun here

Hello and Welcome

bigmlpfan xx

Thanks for the welcomes, kiwimlp and Diamond! (And Diamond, thanks for condensing my posts - it was driving me crazy having two back to back posts, but I was being pulled away from the computer by family so I didn't have time to figure out how to change it. Now I know for next time!)

Right now the crown jewel of my collection is Mimic, because I finally splurged on her about a week ago when I found out my job was going full-time (although if my credit card bill arrives before my first few paychecks, I'm sure I'll be slightly less thrilled). I think my other favorite item right now - besides all my childhood ponies/playsets for the nostalgia factor - is a bubblegum machine with plastic statuettes of Firefly & Baby Firefly. I love that because it's easy to find Firefly stuff but harder to find things that feature both mom & baby.

I'm also really into the newborns lately, especially the twins. And baby accessories (I am dying to find the Sweet Dreams crib and at least one each of the newborn twins' double strollers & see-saws) and oh, pony wear. I love dressing up my ponies in something other than old-t-shirt-scrap capes I made as a child. I could really go on all day but I'll try to stop myself there!

Greetings and welcome to the Arena, alh2027.

Welcome to the Arena

Nice to have you around here

Hello and welcome to the Arena!

I'm in north Texas and I several friends with Aspergers! You sound like a fun person and great collector!