I have 4 boys, two still at home, ages 17 and 12. They live with me every other week. It is important to me that they realize the world is full of caring people, not dangerous strangers as the media would have you believe. They are boys. They are brothers. They can be loud. They fight sometimes. They watch too much tv sometimes. We get up early for school and go to bed early on school nights. If that works for you, welcome!

I stay busy and my house stays loud. Interacting and being an active part of the world around me is essential to my happiness. Whether that's picking up hitch-hikers, talking to strangers at airport bars or just hiking a mountain and meeting new people on the way up. I've never met a person that I couldn't find something to talk about and I get a thrill from the experience of meeting someone who's done something I've never done, been somewhere I've never been, and can tell me a great story.

I've lived in Massachusetts, East Tennessee, Central Texas, Uijeongbu South Korea, and Western Nebraska. I've traveled to almost every state East of the Mississippi and plan to see the rest then....the World! (Said in a Pinky and the Brain voice)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I truly believe service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on this rock. (Muhammad Ali) It's the people you meet that sticks more than the places you go. I can show you what I know in Knoxville and I'm a great sidekick for new places.

Interests

I run, kayak and swim any chance I can and try to remain active in all things. I love to read, talk, meet new people, hear different points of view, learn new things.

• running
• reading
• hiking
• kayaking

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Wham, Bon Jovi, G&R, Poison, Sublime, Beyonce, George Straight, Sam Hunt, Matishayu, Dr. Dre, anything with a beat that I can dance to and words I can bastardize.

Books: Stephen King, any self-help book that will teach me something new, Dick Francis, Harry Potter, anything anyone tells me is a good read. Every job interview I conduct I ask what was the last book you read and why? What a person reads tells me who you are. Not the what so much as the why and what you got from it.

TV: Love, Death and Robots; The Orville; Star Trek

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One? Just one? Everything I do trumps the last thing as amazing because life is as amazing as you make it. Skydived, climbed Mt. Elbert (tallest peak in CO), ran 4 half marathons in 3 states (working on all 50), spent a year living an hour south of the DMZ in South Korea, tubed the Guadalupe river too drunk to put on sunscreen (I don't recommend that one), white water rafted the Ocoee River and the Pigeon.

Teach, Learn, Share

The only thing worth doing in life is helping others and passing that belief on to your kids, your family, your friends and strangers.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm an extrovert (seriously, I talk A LOT...to anyone who makes eye-contact), I'm well-read, open-minded (this means open-minded to open-minded people but also to close-minded people too); one of my favorite things to do is change a person's way of thinking on something or to have mine changed.

Countries I’ve Visited

Mexico

Countries I’ve Lived In

South Korea, United States