About Me

My name is Mary Frances. I go by Mary Frances not because I am Catholic, but because I am Southern. I promise, there is a big difference. I was born, raised, and went to college in Virginia, so by the time I moved away to Pennsylvania at age twenty-two, I was ready. I still firmly believe that Virginia is for lovers, that the Blue Ridge mountains are some of the loveliest on earth, and that "y'all" should be a part of everyone's vocabulary (it's so economic!), but Pennsylvania has really grown on me.

I live with my husband, Preston, and our two dogs outside of Philadelphia. I am a graduate student in Classics, and am working to complete my master's thesis on Latin imperial poetry. Eventually, I'd like to teach middle or high-school Latin & Greek. Preston is also a Classicist by training, and now works as a Latin and History teacher. We will have very nerdy children. Preston and I started dating when I was a senior in high school and he was a sophomore in college, which is an easier way of saying that we went through a whole lot of awkward together. We got married in Richmond, Virginia on May 24, 2008. It was lovely, and best of all, now I never have to plan another wedding.

We adopted our six year-old dog Callie, a black lab mix, in October 2007, and our two-year old dog Ness, a yellow lab, in September 2008. The amount of dog hair in our apartment has now reached a staggering level, and Preston and I have both become masters at completely ignoring it. We do vacuum for guests, I promise.

I started blogging in February 2008 at Erat Hora, and made the switch to Mary Frances Writes on my 25th birthday in June 2010.

In my free time, I love to cook, train for road races, reorganize anything and everything, host parties, goof around with our dogs, and take photos. I also love dangly earrings, dark beer, crossword puzzles, oatmeal, ballet flats, TV on DVD, intertextuality, Latin poetry, rereading I Capture the Castle on a regular basis, hot tea, and strong coffee.