CURRENT MISSION

To create beauty where there is none. To appreciate challenge. Buy a chicken costume.

ABOUT ME

I am spicy jerk chicken, some prosciutto stuffed-mushrooms in a creamy sunflower and cashew pesto, and a nice liverwurst and cream cheese sandwich - dried cranberries on the side.

I am what you call spontaneously adventurous. I can dive outside of my comfort zone easily, but spend a lot of time traveling similar ruts. Routines can come more easily than sparks of "Oh my god, wouldn't this just be THE SHIT?!" Although the latter always takes me in a much better direction than the former. I'm also no stranger to testing my mental and spiritual limits. I flirt with thousands of ideas and philosophies. Religion is as malleable as a sheet of paper. Reality comes best when served with a nice, red wine and at least the smell of burning sage in the room.

I love to write, to sing, and laugh. I'm a little snarky, a part-time amnesiac, and a friendly kid who asks questions.

If there are new places and things to learn, I'll be there. If there is a stage, I'll be on it. If there's a garden, I'll be in it!

PHILOSOPHY

Reality comes in infinitesimally small slices. Choose your pieces carefully. Create a mosaic.

Phase to a muted grey, hold your breath, let the mystery take hold and pretend you're 5 A.M. Burst to color and song later, but now: wait.

Red wine is essential to happiness.

Nothing is true, Everything is permissible. FNORD.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've spent a bit of couch requests throughout my travels, and I'm excited to finally start getting my space ready for availability.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've hosted CSers before even knowing about this site! It's a rewarding experience to host, and a blessing on the road while traveling.

Interests

I want to hear a song from your mouth.

• fish
• singing
• coloring
• beauty
• dining
• wine
• red wine
• cheese
• gardening
• traveling
• fishing
• rock climbing
• table tennis
• religion

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I'm a huge fan of the singer-songwriter genre, as well as the New Weird America/Freak Folk/Anti-Folk sways. Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent, Devendra Banhart. Performance music and Broadway are super fun. I wish I could be Fanny Brice. The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Misfits, The Used, The Casualties... The Shit!! Mystical sways and operatic poetry, Poe, Delerium, Tool, Dreamtheater, Mogwai...

The ones who deserve their own personal space:
Natalie Cole
John Zorn
Regina Spektor
Nina Simone
Taj Mahal
Bob Dylan
Neil Diamond
Tom Waits
Jason Webley
Amanda Palmer
Muse
Elliot Smith
St. Vincent
X-Ray Spex
Joni Mitchell
Eva Cassidy
Tina Turner
etc.

Books/Authors: EVERYTHING BY BILL BRYSON!! Albert Camus, "The Stranger" and "The Plague". Amy Tan, "The Joy Luck Club". Charles Bukowski, just about all his poetry and his "sad, old man" books. Joan Didion, "The Year of Magical Thinking" and "Play it as it Lays" and "Slouching towards Bethlehem" perhaps the darkest writer I know... love her much. Jaqueline Carey and her Kushiel's Dart Saga. Anne Rice, Stephen King, and Michael Crichton (they're all the same person, I swear!). Wally Lamb, "I know this Much is True". Pablo Neruda, Lorca, Sylvia Plath, Billy Collins, and W.H. Auden are my favorite poets.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've projected my shadow upon a the center of a rainbow bubble while climbing a mountain.

Teach, Learn, Share

I was seven, at the St. Matthew Catholic Church Summer Fair!! tossing ping pong balls into a fishbowl. On my third swing at it, the navy blue-clad nun rewarded me with a goldfish. I named him Jack and I put him in a nice little tank, fed him the fish food my parents bought on the way home, and went to bed. He died sometime in the night, cornoner surmises around 1:30 in the A.M., but possibly as late as 2:15. I shook my head, performed the sign of the cross and prayed for his soul. This was, after all, a Catholic fish.

Surely, I was devastated. No one prepared me for something like this. I asked if there would be a funeral. What should I wear? I imagined something in line with velvet, dark lace, dark translucent stones dotting a veil... eh, I was into Elizabeth Taylor at the time. I knew it would have to be a suit, probably the little black coat I wore to my First Communion. Maybe that over my spiderman shirt. It would be tasteful and comfy.

My dad tried to let me know that fish were just flushed. I didn't hear of it. Only gangsters and soap stars were buried at sea. And only one ever came back.
And usually with amensia. I couldn't have Jack suffer that same fate. I considered a burial, but found out that my family didn't have plots in the right cemetary. Theirs were on the East side, down near Hyde Park (Cincinnati, unfortunately, not New York). Now not to knock my family, but I couldn't just have ANY funeral.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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