Post by Mattie Leigh Estraier on Apr 11, 2010 18:50:42 GMT -5
this application is complete
Mattie Leigh Estraier
* tell us a little about yourself.”So you want to know a bit about me, eh? My name’s Mattie-er.. Mattie Estraier, though I’m not sure why you even need my full name. As of April 21st, I will be nineteen, but I’m pretty sure that I could pass for being older, hence why I hadn’t been nabbed sooner by CPS from the streets... but that’s another story, perhaps for another time. I suppose you could tell by the way I talk that I’m from NYC, New York. Born and raised- well I use the term “raised” lightly, you see. After smooching off the government programs for the poor, I used what I had saved up to start college at a small town far away from the streets of New York. At least I wouldn’t really need a vehicle in a small town as there is no way on God’s green earth I would be able to afford one in the first placed. I love the great outdoors anyway. I could do without the lovely smells that large cities tend to carry around with them, but hey, that’s why I chose little, secluded Walton. Besides, people back on the streets used to tell me that I looked like Leigh Lezark. I don’t even know who the hell that is... and it annoyed me that I apparently look like someone else. Perhaps it’ll be the end of me hearing that once I’ve moved. I know it’s a little late for me to be starting college, but I think I’m doing rather good for being on my own... well I should be considering I’ve been on my own for years. On the side, I work odd jobs for a little extra cash.“
* what are some of your positive traits?“Yikes, you want me to start listing off my positive traits? Well, where do I begin? I guess first off, I have a gift for being particularly well groomed and hygienic considering that I’ve spent the majority of my time living without a decent roof over my head. I’m not at all like those crazy girls that put nearly half their day in making their hair, makeup, and everything look perfect. Talk about a wasted life. I suppose though, that a girl must pay some attention to her hair, so I was always careful to make it look the best I could manage with what was offered to me. I don’t know if this is sort of an OCD thing, but I am quite meticulous on keeping everything else clean as well. This come as quite a shock for some individuals who think of homeless people as in a perpetual state of being grimy, smelly, and drunk.
I suppose you could say that I’m a pretty intelligent person, seeing as a girl with nothing was accepted into college. I assume that the institution also had to fill in their “poor” status quo of students as well with individuals that get full rides from the state. I was a by-product of the country’s throw-away children, so I suppose that I can help them with their little “SES diversity” requirements. Glad to be of service. Even living on my own at a young-er age, I adapted quickly to the ways of getting a free meal and even a place to stay for the night. Sometimes I even coerced the younger, cute homeless kids to beg for me. I don’t think it’s at all fair for someone to get things simply handed to them a bit easier just because they are cuter than me. Ah well, I was persuasive enough to some and could easily convince them. I could teach a college-level course in how to be a smooth talker.
Despite my small size and stature, I am not so easy to loose my determination. Though I have to say I don’t consider myself that small... What I lack in size, I try to make up through my talk. I can be quite feisty when it comes to getting what I want... or that could just be our basic human survival kicking in to make sure that we live to see the sun another day. I dunno. Either way, it works for me. I’m usually just looking out for myself, so it can be quite a challenge if I had to see to the needs of others on a daily basis.”
* what are some things that you can improve on?"Mmm, the good part. *rolls eyes* I mean we’re all human, right? Would you like for me to go into greater depth then just saying that I like to drink the milk straight out of the carton? Yea, I thought so. Well, I guess you could say that I’m a bit sarcastic. I suppose that didn’t come as a surprise to you, though. I suppose I have a reputation for dry sarcasm a mile high, whatever that means. I almost can’t help it, things just come out of my mouth without much thought at all. People tell me that my words have an annoying tendency to hurt others’ feelings. I don’t mean it really though. Overall, I really am a good kid at heart. Just a little rough on the edges. Yes, I’m willing to admit to that, but please don’t turn it into headline news.
Moving on, I know that I tend to be more bitter than the average person. However, I feel that this is a little more justifiable than my tendency to use words as a means of hurting others (unintentionally, for the most part.) Bitterness is simply a bi-product of how you grew up... or so I say. Seeing happy families just irks me; it really rubs me the wrong way. The ignorant ones are the worst. I have a hard time understanding the concept of love and how that even exists in this world. Now, I’m not completely discounting it, but I have yet to experience something like that. So... for the meantime, I continue to be healthily doubtful of its truthful existence, especially in families. It’s only reasonable for someone to question something that they’ve never really seen or felt. Please, no pity, by the way. Pity is the worst. I am simply being honest.
I suppose that I am a rather pessimistic individual as well. I see the glass as half empty. No, sometimes even worse as half empty if that’s even possible to conceive. I rarely hope for the best, but usually expect the worst in most scenarios or situations. I feel that this is much more practical in the long run, for it helps you to prepare for these horrible outcomes in order to survive them.”
* what's your biggest secret? we won't tell.”You want my biggest secret? I feel like I’m already telling you more than you’ll ever need to know about me, but if you insist, I guess I’ll throw you a bone to pick at. I... ah... tend to get attached to people more than I’d like to. No matter how detached I may sound or act towards someone that I’ve been with for awhile, I sometimes will grow a certain fondness for them. I really am all talk and no action. I don’t know why I act so irrationally at times, especially when I should only be looking out for myself. I mean, seriously! I don’t even cry whenever I feel them coming on. I hate tears because I believe that they show how weak I really am in those ‘lowest of the low’ times. My memories cannot even tell me the last time I showed that much emotion. You must swear that you won’t tell anyone. Swear it or there’ll be consequences! You don’t believe me, do you? Of course. Ugh...”
* what does your heart want?”Haha, what is this? A dating service? Ah, ok. Well, it would be nice to let a guy take care of me for a change. Not that I’m hoping on this or anything. I’ll probably just be looking out for only me till I’m in my grave. But no worries. I think that I’m pretty happy with where I am right now. BUT if that certain guy were to come around, he’d have to deal with my strong personality and not be afraid to tell me what’s really on his mind. I don’t go for the sissies. He has to be a man. A man that will treat me as a man should treat his girl. So, in that case, I wouldn’t mind older guys. Certainly not someone younger than me... or even the same age for that matter. He cannot annoy me with his stupidity and certainly must not be full of himself. I have an open mind on any other aspect of his personality, though.”
* what do you do in your spare time?”This is a nice topic for me. I don’t like to do too much; nothing too complicated. One of my favorite pastimes include being cozy next to the fireplace (if I had one) and take occasional naps. I’ll admit to the fact that I can be lazy and would like to do nothing that involves too much work. On the streets, I wouldn’t even do that much work in obtaining my meals. I would just make others do it for me. Hey, it’s not my fault that I’m apparently not cute enough for people to give me a morsel of their meal. On the other hand, I love being in the outdoors and doing outdoorsy type of things, as long as it doesn’t involve water and heights. I am terrified of heights and cannot stand being wet for the most part. Even the thought of slushy, wet snow or rain gives me the shivers.”
* so what does your family life look like?”Family? –laughs- I don’t even really get the concept of a family. I don’t know my biological parents. All I know from the orphanage records where I came from was that I was apparently the product of an unwanted pregnancy. Perhaps my mother was too young... perhaps my parents had too many other kids... perhaps they were too poor... I have no clue, really. I was adopted when I was about five to a young couple, apparently being cute enough to be wanted. Five more years passed before they had a little of bundle of joy on their own. I remember for the most part, already starting to fend for myself in simple ways, such as preparing my own meals and getting myself to school. My adopted parents apparently lost interest in me the older I got, almost like I was their little play-thing until I got too old to be their cute little baby anymore. Once they received their own baby, I was virtually ignored. It got to the point where the bills were compiling and were too much for them to handle. Their solution was to move to a much cheaper part of New York and leave me behind. They just up and left in the middle of the night. Being ten at the time, I had very little understanding for why this happened. There’s even a term for children that have been abandoned by their families and eventually taken in by the government – throwaways. That’s what I am. That’s what families look like to me. Eventually I was taken in by the CPS after living on the streets for a number of years, and was placed into a foster home until I moved away from New York to Walton by my own saved up means and government ‘charity’.”
* what are the memorable moments in your life?”I suppose when my family left, that was quite memorable. Just because it was memorable, mind you, does not mean that I like talking about it. I guess that I’ll just tell you since I’ve already spilled so much of my guts to you anyway. I was ten and was sleeping on the floor in one of those camping-sleeping bags. We had been packing and loading the furniture into the moving van, so we had been sleeping that way in our rooms for a few days. That night on the floor didn’t seem so different from the others, so I didn’t pay much attention when I heard the sound of people moving around absurdly early in the morning. When I finally woke from my sleep, I saw that the only things left in the house were myself and the sleeping bag that I had been tangled in on my bedroom floor. It was quite traumatizing for me to wake up that way with no one. I didn’t know where they had gone exactly and I didn’t even really know our neighbors or anyone else close by. I was afraid to tell anyone of my situation, for I thought that I would be taken to a place much worse, like a foster home where kids were mistreated. My fear is what got me to live on the streets for the next six years. I was surprisingly tactful in keeping myself alive and fairly well-off. I would even avoid being taken in by CPS/government agents to be placed in a foster home.
I suppose that brings me into my next big memory. I was finally caught when I was sixteen. It was a long and tiresome process where I had no hopes of escape. The family that I was placed in for the next two and a half years were nice enough to where they enrolled me into government programs that tried to help kids such as myself at having a normal life. I was able to get a part-time job while working towards my GED. I would have run away had I not been introduced to these. I eventually saved enough money by the time I had turned 19 (my foster family was gracious enough to let me stay another year) to move. I was able to get a free ride to Walton University in North Carolina. I honestly wanted to get away from the big city.
My next most memorable memory was when I first arrived in Walton. I was pleasantly surprised by the generally quiet atmosphere and ‘small-town’ feel of it all. At least, it felt a lot safer than the big city. I have my own small place and will be starting classes at Walton. I still sometimes think of all those kids that were either still somewhere in the streets of the big city or still waiting to be allocated a place to stay among the numerous foster homes. I feel that I had been lucky to have stayed in the state of New York whereas others were shipped off to God knows where in the country. I used numerous bus systems to get here and was feeling particularly tired by the time I arrived. I know that I must have confused a number of people that heard the short-n-sweet version of my story and where I was going to be staying on my way here. Nonetheless, when I arrived, I had a feeling that staying here was going to be a helluva lot nicer than cramped, dirty New York City."
* so we've heard that you're a lot like Mittens
name: Well, Mattie sounds like Mittens in a way, plus it’s a more normal-sounding name. Leigh is the first name of the PB that looks a lot like her. Estraier sort of has the name ‘stray’ in it, which is what Mittens is. :]
play by: I think that she looks a lot like Mittens, with the shiny black hair and green eyes. She’s also relatively pale, which reflects the black and white colors on Mitten’s fur. She’s also fairly thin, which is also comparative to Mitten’s small frame.
positive traits: Mittens, being a cat, always seemed to be well groomed despite her circumstances of being an alley cat. In the same way, Mattie tries to keep herself looking the best she can by trying to keep her hair untangled and trying to hide the shabby state of her clothing. Now that she’s on her own with some money, she can be more successful at this, but still carries the same principles with her that she received from the streets. Mittens was also smart (particularly street smart) in the way that she could talk her way into getting the pigeons to give her food in exchange for protection. She, of course, cannot talk her way out of just anything though, as was seen with the crazy white dog. ;] Mattie in the same way coerced the younger, cuter beggars into giving her a portion of their earnings. She taught Bolt how to properly beg using is natural ‘cuteness’ factor. Mittens was also a stubborn little cat when it came to achieving her goal in the same way that Mattie was determined to achieve her own (e.g. getting out of the state, going to college...)
negative traits: Mittens was also extremely sarcastic in the way that she spoke and the things that she would say throughout the movie, sometimes even causing offense or figuratively stepping on someone’s feelings. She was quite bitter, especially when it came to the concept of families and love. She tried to convince Bolt in the movie that there was no way that his Penny could hold genuine love for him. It was something that she had to witness in order to believe, which is also shown in the movie when Mittens later tries to convince Bolt that she had been wrong about Penny. Mittens is pessimistic with their circumstances and would envision the worst outcome for every single major issue and problem that arose. She will only be convinced of a happy ending if it actually happens.
orientation: This obviously wasn’t addressed in the movie... so I’m just guessing that she swings towards men.
turn ons: I can’t imagine someone of Mitten’s personality being with someone that is weak-willed and generally sissified. He would have to put up with her idiosyncrasies.
turn offs: Again, I can’t imagine someone of Mitten’s personally having a weak personality, something that can be overpowered by her own. Mittens seemed to be really annoyed with stupidity within the movie, especially jumping onto moving trains and such. :]
spare time: Mittens is an ally cat that did not like to do much until she was forced into a crazy run across the nation with two delusional, insane individuals. Like a cat, I’m sure she preferred naps and warm fireplaces to doing really crazy stunts. Living some of her life in the great outdoors, I believe that they wouldn’t have minded being outside most of their spare time.
family life: Mittens and Mattie were both abandoned by their families and left to fend for themselves without any real means of defense. (Mittens had been declawed.) They don’t think much of families in general and most likely don’t even know the real meaning of the concept.
memorable moments: I’m guessing that most of the memorable moments of both Mittens and Mattie would have been the times that they were moving around or when their lives took drastic turns. Obviously when they were abandoned by their families and when they were ‘captured’. (Mittens: the animal pound, Mattie: the CPS) Despite the craziness of moving around to new locations within the movie, Mittens seemed to genuinely get into some of the areas that they visited. For Mattie, I allowed one of her more ‘memorable’ memories to include actually moving to Walton for a fresh start.this application was written by Lizzi, who also plays no one else.
