CURRENT MISSION

To sleep with all the dogs. Meeting fun people and doing fun things a huge bonus.

ABOUT ME

23 years old. Write. Explore. Meet new people. MFA student at the Universitiy of Alaska Fairbanks. Ever since the summer of 2009, when I first traveled to the Bristol Bay region in Alaska to work in a salmon plant, I've had the constant urge to keep moving. I know that sometimes I'll have to settle down, at least for a few minutes, and it is at these times that I would love to host travelers after I find a place in Fairbanks. I'm originally from a small town called Kane in northwestern Pennsylvania and have spent most of my life living in the western part of PA. I have, however, spent extensive time traveling, including a six-week tour of the U.S. in August and September of 2012. As should be a requirement for couchsurfing, I love meeting new people and seeing new places.

PHILOSOPHY

We have a limited time to live. We might as well spend it seeing as much awesome stuff and meeting as many awesome people as possible. Life is short. Art is long. Have fun while you're living, but put a lot of work into the things by which people will remember you when you're gone. I'm serious about writing, but everything I write is supposed to be funny and is ridiculous or absurd in some way.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Finding places to stay through all my travels across the country. Once I get settled into a place in Fairbanks, I plan to host other travelers.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am new to the Couchsurfing website myself, but I tagged along with a couple friends in Anchorage a few years ago and a had a great time just hanging out, having drinks, and watching ridiculous movies. Then continued having a blast, hitchhiking around the state with a tent and a backpack. Maybe some granola bars. On a six-week tour of the contiguous U.S. in 2012, I stayed on several couches and floors in every region of the country and made friends with everyone with whom we stayed. The best experience, though, probably involved the cocker spaniel named Blondie we met in Palm Desert in southern California.

Interests

I'm an avid reader and writer who will be starting an MFA program in creative writing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the fall of 2013. Book-talk is always good, but I'm also interested in sports (namely hockey and baseball), the independent music scene (and the travel and friendships built from it), and just about anything else. Whether it's international politics, Arrested Development, or Super Nintendo, I'm comfortable talking about just about anything.

• dogs
• arts
• writing
• books
• dining
• drinking
• gardening
• politics
• movies
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• music
• backpacking
• sports
• baseball
• hockey
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Punk, folk, independent touring musicians. Fugazi, Hot Water Music, Bomb the Music Industry!, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Lawrence Arms. Bob Dylan. I'm just naming artists as they come to me. I'm listening to Sublime right now because it came on shuffle.

I love just about anything by Kurt Vonnegut. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is one of my favorite books, as is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, Richard Brautigan (Trout Fishing in America). Reading and writing is a lot of what I do, so this list could go for paragraphs.

Movies: Man on the Moon, Being John Malkovich, Stranger than Fiction, The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Back to the Future, Forrest Gump. TV: Arrested Development and Breaking Bad. I'll talk to you about Attitude Era WWE wrestling all day if you used to watch it, too. That's not a requirement by any means though.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've seen a lot of amazing things--the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone--and I might have done a couple, too. Just to list one is tough. But, a few weeks ago, I watched people watching fireworks during a lightning storm on Mount Washington in Pittsburgh. That was somehow much more amazing than actually watching the fireworks themselves. Oh, and when I worked in Naknek, Alaska, we would walk down by the water and throw rocks in the mud. It seems such a simple, innocuous act, but there was something about it after a 16-hour day working in a salmon plant that made it one of the most amazing things in all of life.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'd like to get better at growing my own food. I want to become more self-sufficient but don't have any gardening experience. I like eating meat but hate the practices of the meat industry. I don't have the steadiest hands, though, so putting a gun in my hand to hunt might end badly. I hope not.

I would be comfortable helping others learn about the creative process. A lot of people are full of ideas but don't know what to do with them. Helping people to create art is a major goal of mine. I mean, I can't draw or paint worth a darn, but there's a certain focus needed to create anything meaningful to you. I don't know if it can be taught, truly, but I'd like to talk about it and help people to explore their creative side.