CURRENT MISSION

To seek out beautiful places, wonderful people, and expand my world

ABOUT ME

My best friends would say that I am easily excited, that I care a lot and that I have a good laugh. I can talk about anything. From serious, multi-hour conversations to cracking jokes over drinks, I'm up for all of it. I like my up and down time and prefer a healthy mix of both. I value balance and health but am always ready to throw both to the wind for a great time. My preferred pace is walking because it gives me the time to take it all in, share a great conversation and climb a fence in order to get closer to something beautiful. I love spontaneity but there isn't enough of it in my life. I'm a big nester and love having a home but I think this is the time in my life that I need to play and explore so I'm setting out.

PHILOSOPHY

The more I live the more I see the world in shades of grey. Though I stand behind my convictions, I am hesitant to deny others their own convictions. I strive for understanding and peace, for compromise and shared language.

Interests

I spend a lot of time thinking about living in community and different ways to relate to folks. I care a lot about taking care of people, being a good listener/friend and valuing relationships above most everything else. I am also interested in wider issues of social justice and food security. On a more self-indulgent level, I am really into homestead crafts, like making cheese, canning food and spinning wool. I also love to dance (blues in particular). Otherwise, I love to eat and cook, read/write poetry, take walks and lay in the sun.

• poetry
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• cheese
• walking
• drinking
• crafts
• homesteading
• blues
• camping
• history
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Fiction Authors and Poets:
Richard Brautigan, Raymond Carver, Alice Munro's short stories, Barbara Kingsolver, William Carlos Williams, Mary Oliver, E.E. Cummings, Nikky Finney, Matthew Dickman, Maggie Nelson, Lorrie Moore.

Music: Give me a genre and I probably love something in it
Folk/Country - John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, OCMS, etc
First wave Ska - Toots and the Maytols,
70's punk - The Buzzcocks! The Dammed, etc
80's hardcore - Minor Threat, Negative Approach
Progressive hip hop - Dead Prez, Fugees, etc
Old Soul - Otis Redding, etc
Whatever Mum, Boards of Canada and Do Make Say Think are
Old Blues - Muddy Waters, Nina Simone, etc
Irish Music - Lunasa, The Pouges
Classical - Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel, Shostakovich
Indie Pop - Andrew Bird, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens

The Books, The Clean, The Silver Jews, Yo La Tengo, etc
The list goes on and on

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I was 13, I hiked the extra mile from the meadow my family was staying in to the fire lookout on a peak in the Marble mountains (N.CA) and camped up there by myself. There aren't even really words to describe the sunset. I woke up in the middle of the night to the entire vaulted sky of stars. I could see the curvature of a the earth. I haven't had a camping experience like it since.

In my sophomore year of college, some friends and I drove into the Colombia River Gorge and hiked up to a waterfall in the middle of the night. It was really muddy but we hiked into this cave behind the waterfall and sang songs for hours.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can certainly teach English and a little French. I am a good cook. I can teach you the basics of Blues dancing. I can also teach you about the history of small self-published magazines in America and get you started making your own!

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Mexico

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States