katiedidFounder

An original from November 2000, Katie Onorato arrived on eZabel early and never really left — at least not before leaving her mark as one of the site's warmest, most grounded presences. She's the kind of person who shows up, pays attention, and still has something genuinely useful to say. When Ian posted a news item about operating systems, Katie was the one who quipped back about "the thing that makes the Start button show up" — not to be mean, but because she thought it was funny and she was right. That balance of sharp wit and warmth defines her almost perfectly.

Katie's demeanor on eZabel reads like a woman who had her head on straight from a young age, even when everyone around her was still sorting themselves out. She was deeply in love with rocksupastar (Mike) throughout most of her years on the site — theirs was a genuinely tender relationship, full of inside jokes ("459" = "ILY," devised from the telephone keypad), turtle rings, and Wallace and Grommit pop-up books. She wrote publicly about the nervousness and excitement of marriage with unusual emotional clarity for her mid-twenties: "I cannot predict how I will handle being a wife and dealing with new responsibilities." That kind of honest self-reflection wasn't common, and it made her stand out. Her journal entry the week before her wedding is one of the most thoughtful pieces of personal writing on the site.

Intellectually, Katie was quietly impressive. She calculated hot dog weight in ounces on a lark, explained the economics of wedding venue pricing with startling precision, and argued cogently about JW dating sites with a "a rose is a rose is a rose" argument that landed better than most forum debates. She worked in radio at Centenary College and later in an office where colleagues once sent her a "FIRST CLASS" letter and thought it was a big deal — she laughed about it all day. She liked snowboarding (once), rafting (bruises and all), and ping pong tournaments where she enjoyed "shocking the guys." She was also a vegetarian, an avid cook of spinach-avocado quesadillas, and someone who went through dedicated tea-then-coffee-then-tea phases with zero apology.

Her relationships beyond Mike were just as carefully tended. Diana (web-toedchloe) was her best girlfriend — the one she could tell everything to. Dave Elliott (delliott101) was like a reliable older brother figure in the congregation. She was close with punkprincess (Tina), coordinating sleepovers and matching pajama bottoms with animal-print ear warmers. When she finally got internet access at her work desk after years of sharing, she reported it with the joy of someone who had earned it. She was also deeply annoyed when a coworker swapped out her four-year-old chair over a weekend and expected gratitude.

There's a lovely consistency to Katie: she didn't perform being thoughtful — she just was. She had opinions about paperclip organization (small ridged, small smooth, large ridged, and large smooth all in separate containers), wedding metal choices (platinum scratches, white gold fades), and eBay seller etiquette ("BOO HOO, BOO HOO, BOO HOO"). She was self-aware enough to laugh at her own occasional uptightness. She never came across as a pushover, but she picked her battles carefully and with humor. fivezero once predicted she had a "catty cake face" that could restore office order — and honestly, you believe it.

eZabel Personality Type: ISFJ — warmly practical, quietly principled, deeply loyal, and far funnier than you'd expect from someone so organized. The caretaker who also has a tinted window story and once walked Route 46 in work clothes after her car broke down, called Mike in a panic, and somehow turned it into their love story.