CURRENT MISSION

When I travel abroad, I like to imagine what it would be like to move to that place and to see if that would be a possibiliity. I love meeting people, learning about them, and telling stories. This is the perfect forum for all of these important goals!

ABOUT ME

I have a good eye for the eclectic. I love visiting strange museums, biking all over the place (that's how I get around), dancing badly, singing worse, and altogether getting into all sorts of mischief exploring anything there is to explore. I'm really into nature, but I'm a city girl at heart and have lived in them most of my life. Big cities!...and especially Chicago. I don't do anything half way, so when I say I know the city, I'm a certified tour guide, or I can find you someone who is. The house is vegetarian, and I'm pretty strict about that, but aside from the no-meat rule, any food can come in and be prepared in the house...that includes Tofu!!!

PHILOSOPHY

Learn a lot, love a lot, and everything else will fall into place.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

For right now, I'm a host or an ambassador. Welcome to Chicago! I might surf if I get lucky!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've had a lot of great experiences with visitors on couch surfing. I once had 8 people come to stay with me in the same week. They overlapped, and got to know each other, and it was so much fun when we went out as a group. I've been rescued from a stranded train during snowmaggetin in Western West Virginia by a couch surfer who said he never got to host because of his location. I have had such lovely experiences on here...except one who ate my food without replenishing it and interfered in my social life in a negative way. That turned me off from surfing for a little while. Please don't be that person. All of my other surfers were wonderful. There was a couple who made me home made bread for when I came home from work. I have such a warm place in my heart for these people! I've gotten to travel with some of the people I've surfed with and have kept in touch with a bunch of my former surfers and hosts. It's been such a wonderful experience!

Interests

If you like to bike, this is the place for you. I have a rental service I run right out of the apartment. I maintain all vehicles (non-motorized, of course), and have more hook-ups in the critical mass community. That's my mainstay around here. I'm also a professional clog dancer, play a couple of instruments badly, run marathons (what am I thinking?), an amateur painter, a ceramacist, a quilter, and I'm a nurse on the side.

• singing
• dancing
• dining
• vegetarian
• running
• traveling
• cars
• socializing
• cycling
• surfing
• nursing
• tourism
• lakes
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

no sci-fi, yes to British humor.

Nothing that scrapes and makes your bones hurt, yes bluegrass.

No to Pharmacology books - but yet, I must read them and understand them...what torture. Yes to John Irving, Stiff by Mary Roach, historical fiction, lit on community nursing, Lamb by Chris Moore, God of Small Things, goodness, there's a really long list. Dude, I don't have time to sit in front of a computer like this. I've got stuff to read!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've climbed the highest mountains, swum in glacial lakes...without realizing how darn cold they'd be, hiked for days without a bathroom - in the winter, and lived to talk about it.

Teach, Learn, Share

Ask me about nursing. I have a lot of gory stories. They're not for the faint of stomach.

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