CURRENT MISSION

to experience more of the world and the people within it so I can become a better writer and human being.

ABOUT ME

I am a writer splitting time between freelance marketing work and creative fiction, looking to travel around the US and world, and in whatever small way, help others do the same.

I am on my first big trip away from the U.S., and I'm hoping to connect with people, learn more about the places they live, and have experiences I'll never forget.

PHILOSOPHY

People say there are two sides to every story. This is frustrating and untrue. There are so many more! At least seven, for even the most simple subjects.

I'm interested in talking to people to learn as many sides as possible. I like to ask questions.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I welcome my home to friends and strangers, and I travel when I can.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am pretty new to the CouchSurfing website, but I have always been a hospitable person to friends and strangers. I'll definitely be doing some formal CS hosting once I get back.

Interests

writing, reading, independent film and music, documentaries, languages, computers and technology, museums, cooking outdoors, bicycling, anthropology, guerilla publishing, forests, water, air, sharks, cats as pets, jogging, the Dunning-Kruger effect

• pets
• cats
• chickens
• writing
• documentaries
• cooking
• technology
• reading
• traveling
• music
• outdoor activities
• anthropology
• freelancing
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

These are some of my serious passions.

Books:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love or just about anything by Raymond Carver, Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Emperor of the Air by Ethan Canin, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, Self-Help by Lorrie Moore, The Year of Magical Thinking or any nonfiction by Joan Didion, How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer, Airships or just about anything by Barry Hannah, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again or any nonfiction by David Foster Wallace, Rock Springs by Richard Ford, The Point by Charles D'Ambrosio, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Garbage by A.R. Ammons, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July, What Is the What by Dave Eggers, The Watch by Rick Bass, "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" by John Ashbery, Garner's Modern American Usage, The Oxford English Dictionary (I will buy the unabridged hardbacks someday!)

Movies:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sweet and Lowdown, City of God, The Thin Blue Line, The Graduate, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sketches of Frank Gehry, Wristcutters: A Love Story, Talk to Her, Me and You and Everyone We Know,The Puffy Chair, The Foot Fist Way, No Country for Old Men, Broken Embraces, Amelie, Adaptation, Annie Hall, Babel, Grizzly Man, anything Tarantino, anything Wes Anderson, anything P.T. Anderson

Music:
The Olivia Tremor Control, Jim O'Rourke, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Pavement, Charles Mingus, Fela Kuti, Guided by Voices, Dr. Dog, Ryan Adams, Radiohead, Django Reinhardt, Pablo Casals, Elliott Smith, Philip Glass, DJ Shadow, Neil Young, Mississippi John Hurt, The Replacements, Royksopp, Bud Powell, Yo La Tengo, Notorious B.I.G., Dinosaur Jr., Joni Mitchell, Uncle Tupelo, Sonic Youth, The Kinks, Cat Power, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Nina Simone, Blue States, Four Tet, Caetano Veloso

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I worked on a farm with 3,000 chickens when I was ten years old. Since my family had just moved from California, it gave me an intense introduction to rural life in the American South.

Teach, Learn, Share

I like to write short stories, and I'd be happy to talk about writing or exchange work with anyone.

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