CURRENT MISSION

grow roots, grow wings

ABOUT ME

Let's see. I'm a poet, a quiet type, warm, highly sensitive. Contradictory, I suppose. A long-ago roommate in France once called me "high-spirited and down to earth", and I suppose that's about right.

I love all the simple domestic skills, cooking, canning, mending, cleaning, making things beautiful (translation: if I stay at your place, I will make my bed, and probably some little edible or readable thank-you). And I love radically new sights: opening a window onto some unfamiliar city street, climbing up to the top of the ridge, wandering my way through the souk, leaning over the rails of the ferry.

As a guest, I won't be looking for nightlife tips--a cup of tea and conversation is more my speed, ideas about where to ramble the next day.

PHILOSOPHY

My highest value (how simple this sounds) is probably paying attention. Or giving it, since it is a gift. I believe in the transformative power of listening, for the listener and for the person or place or thing being listened to.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I can't host at the moment--my place barely has room for me. But I'd be glad to meet travelers coming through Fort Collins, especially any Francophones qui veulent causer un brin. And I'm really excited about getting to meet other Surfers as a guest.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've slept on many a couch, back home in Cali and during a few years traveling and working in Europe. And when I had a couch, in Oakland and in Fort Collins, it often had a friend (or a friend of a friend) sleeping on it.

Interests

... bikes
self-sufficiency
dreamlife
wildlife
etymology (that's words, not insects)
feminism
blues ...
(I really can be interested by just about anything, come to think of it...)

• wildlife
• insects
• arts
• dancing
• womens rights
• cooking
• chocolate
• sauna
• nightlife
• partying
• reading
• traveling
• billiards
• blues
• rock climbing
• swimming
• etymology
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Tarkovsky, Malick, Claire Denis, Nick Park

Music: Gillian Welch, Townes Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Greg Brown, Patti Smith, Mississippi John Hurt

Books: Anne Carson, Keats, Proust, Woolf, George Oppen, Ursula Le Guin, Annie Dillard, Gaston Bachelard, Patience Grey

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have kind of a thing for swimming or soaking wherever I travel. One highlight: floating in the circular cool pool underneath the glass dome of the bathhouse in Almaty, Kazakhstan, after steaming myself to pieces in the sauna (and getting the full venik treatment from a kind babushka).

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: breadmaking, jam-making, scansion

Learn: new words, weird science, botany, birding, art, foraging, constellations

Share: whatever I'm reading, chocolate, dorky kitchen dance parties

Countries I’ve Visited

Germany, Kazakhstan, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States