Oh my goodness, it’s Ultimate Blog Party time again! Every year I swear I have a complete mental lapse and completely forget about this amazing event, but like clockwork, my very good friend Jenny reminds me. She’s pretty amazing like that, and she’s also partying so go check her out!

So, if all of this Ultimate Blog Party talk is completely new to you, let me get you up to speed. Every year, the immensely awesome women over at 5 Minutes for Mom put together the Ultimate Blog Party, a blogging event where all sorts of bloggers–thousands of bloggers, in fact– take part by creating a party post, pretty much like the one you are reading right now, and do a whole lot of blog hopping. Laughs are shared, discussions begin, and friendships are formed. It’s a really incredible way of meeting new bloggers and making new friends. I’m a big fan, which is probably why I have been participating in the Ultimate Blog Party since 2008!

So hello there, newcomers! Welcome to Woman Tribune!

My name is Holly and I’m a 24-year-old woman who has dreamed of being a writer since I was in the eighth grade. After dropping out of high school as a senior (because I was an angst-ridden teenager who had just been diagnosed with severe clinical depression that I still live with today), I got my GED less than a year later. With no college degree or any other certification assuring newspapers, magazines, or corporate-owned blogs that I was worthy of being a writer, I created Woman Tribune in January 2008. So I guess you could call me a professional blogger, since I do make my living through blogging, but “professional blogger”, to me, sounds way too cool and professional. Instead, I prefer to be known as simply a woman with a penchant for typing while in pajamas and drinking coffee until the wee hours of the morning. That’s just more me.

Woman Tribune is based off of a very simple concept. It is a blog that regularly features news and information from around the world on just about everything. It’s pretty general and wide open because I really hate the idea of being stifled and enjoy the freedom to write about whatever I find interesting, exciting, or informative. Simply put, it’s a blog that explores everything within our collective lives, regardless of where we happen to be in our life’s journey.

I live in a very small town in Northeast, Pennsylvania, made up of only about 600 people. It’s the almost-country. I live on a street that brings you directly into another small town, but if you take a wrong turn, you’re likely to get lost within the many, many acres of farms.

I live with my partner, Allen, who I refuse to call my boyfriend because it makes me feel like I’m still in Junior High. We have been together for a little over five years. Here’s a picture of us taken last Christmas. Mind you, it is not a particularly great picture, but it’s a picture!

We also have two cats; Devin, who is about four years old and Vincent who is almost a year. If I didn’t have Allen, I would definitely be considered one of those oh, so very cliche “crazy cat ladies.” Then again, I do probably fit the bill.

Woman Tribune isn’t my whole life, just most of it! In addition to pouring myself into this website daily, I also blog on Menstrual Poetry, a blog that can only be described as “the personal is political”. You see, a lot of people think I’m a controversial person, although I really don’t. I think I’m a swell–and often hilarious–person who just so happens to be a feminist. My grandmother sums up everything I do in life, from my decision to work from home to the fact that I am adamantly against using a blow dryer on my hair on the fact that I’m a feminist. Whenever she introduces me to people or I am talking to anyone she knows, she feels the need to immediately interject with ‘…and she’s a feminist!’ as if it is a warning to anyone who comes into contact with me. Kind of like ‘…and she has leprosy! So don’t get too close!’

Also, all those things you’re not really supposed to talk about at parties; things like politics and most social issues… Yeah, I’m not too good about keeping those thoughts to myself, especially at parties and that goes double for family dinners. But I’m also an incredibly open-minded person who really just loves talking about things that you’re not supposed to. That also goes for menstruation. I could talk about it all day long with a side of extra spicy hot wings.

I am also a sporadic web designer and developer. I am completely self-taught and started learning HTML code when I was 12 years old. My dad used to think I wasted all my time on the computer doing nothing. It is because of those years that I can now waste all my time on the computer doing something!

Thanks for visiting my party post and I hope you take a look around Woman Tribune while you’re here! Hopefully I didn’t go on too long and bore you out of your mind or drive you away!

If you’re still with me here, you should go enter a giveaway we have going on right now. We are giving away a copy of the newly-released Wow! Wow! Wubbzy Easter DVD, “Wubbzy’s Egg-Cellent Easter”. This giveaway ends April 7th at 11:59 p.m. ET.

I look forward to connecting with everyone at the Ultimate Blog Party this year! Have fun!