CURRENT MISSION

To live is to be slowly born." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

ABOUT ME

I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas. -T.S. Eliot

Aside from a brief, early stint in Cleveland, I've lived in Pittsburgh-specifically Mt. Lebanon-for my whole life. While Mt. Lebanon is a swell place to raise kids (and send them to the award-winning schools) the sheltered community that offers little "real-life" experience is no place to be after eighteen. That's why I've moved to the city proper, and why I want to be a part of the Couchsurfing community.

PHILOSOPHY

"Certain languages have problems with nostalgia: the French can only express it by the noun from the Greek root, and have no verb for it; they can say Je m'ennuie de toi (I miss you), but the word s'ennuyer is weak, cold -- anyhow too light for so grave a feeling. The Germans rarely use the Greek-derived term Nostalgie, and tend to say Sehnsucht in speaking of the desire for an absent thing. But Sehnsucht can refer both to something that has existed and to something that has never existed..."

- Milan Kundera

Interests

Writing, literature, art, music, and cinema.
I also kinda like gray and yellow together, the month of April, and the study of human sexuality.

I'm starting on a degree for Social Work.

• arts
• writing
• literature
• movies
• music
• languages
• social work

Music, Movies, and Books

My favorite books. These are kind of in no particular order.
-anything by Milan Kundera
-Grendel by John Gardner (Nihil ex Nihilo)
-Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth by Hermann Hesse
-Traveling Mercies, Bird by Bird by Ann Lammott
-Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (I am actually not Christian, I swear.)
-The Corrections, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
-Lolita by Nabokov
-Madame Bovary by Flaubert
-The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery
-Just Let Me Say This About That by John Bricouth
-Henry Miller's dense Tropics
-Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (duh.)
-The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
-Catcher in the Rye by Salinger (I'm not too cool for it.)
-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
-An American Childhood, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
-Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
-Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa
-Various poetry. Derrick Brown is the best modern poet I've come across, in my very humble opinion.

Music. Also kind of in no particular order.
-Fiona Apple. (Every woman with emotions needs to hear her.)
-Regina Spektor
-Neko Case
-The Cure
-Arcade Fire
-The Decemberists
-Beck
-The Smiths
-The Flaming Lips
-Animal Collective
-Gorillaz
-Portishead
-Bjork
-Tricky
-Massive Attack
-Moby
-The New Pornographers
-Grizzly Bear
-Led Zeppelin (I know, I know.)
-Pink Floyd (Because I have a pulse.)
-The Beatles are okay I guess.
-Wilco
-The Pixies
-Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst
-They Might be Giants
-Fleet Foxes
-Yann Tiersen
-The XX
-Warpaint

On to movies. Extra unorderliness.
-Amelie
-Adventureland
-American Beauty
-Brand Upon the Brain!
-My Winnipeg
-Donnie Darko (Also not too cool for it.)
-Requiem for a Dream
-High Fidelity
-Wonder Boys
-The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
-Spirited Away
-Paprika
-Howl's Moving Castle
-The Station Agent
-Brokeback Mountain
-Magnolia
-Crash
-Punch Drunk Love
-Synecdoche New York
-Adaptation
-The Elephant Man
-Pan's Labyrinth
-Dead Poet's Society
-The Breakfast Club
-The Triplets of Belleville
-I Heart Huckabees
-Being John Malkovich
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Encounters at the End of the World
-Half Nelson
-In America
-The Virgin Suicides
-Antichrist
-Margot at the Wedding
-The Squid and the Whale
-Little Miss Sunshine
-The Science of Sleep
-Eraserhead
-Blue Velvet
-Trainspotting
-Lost in Translation
-Lost and Delirious
-Hard Candy
-Ghost World
-Almost Famous
-Edward Scissorhands
-Memento
-Brick
-Shortbus
-Love Liza
-Winter's Bone
-Exit Through the Giftshop
-Pi

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Once upon a time I hiked to the summit of an Alp in the middle of the night.

Teach, Learn, Share

I have a love-hate relationship with writing and would like to learn from anyone who can push it more to the "love" side.

Countries I’ve Visited

Italy, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States