CURRENT MISSION

I believe that purposefully getting lost can actually lead to finding some of the journey's best secrets.

ABOUT ME

I always feel like this is the most difficult sort of question (who are you?) and the best I can offer is to describe the things I love. I have an extraordinary family and keep my friends--I remember what several of my best ones looked like when they were ten years old. I invest in people, books, and ideas. I'm into stories--ridiculous stories, tragic ones, stories concerning travel or work or food... I have a fairly wry sense of humor (definitely a fan of capitalizing on the amusement that somehow happens over the course of any given day) and am generally and genuinely curious about people and life. I love good beers, despise bad ones (sorry pabst lovers), suffer from a strong bout of wanderlust, derive some pleasure from overthinking life and asking questions, am terrible but enthusiastic about my pool game, and would rather forego sleep and food than end an excellent conversation.

PHILOSOPHY

I don't just want to know what people dream or where they are going (although those stories are fascinating!)--I want to know why they dream and what makes them move. The same is true of my own life... I want to walk through this world and live my days with a strong measure of self-awareness (not just consciousness).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now I'm about to transition back to Oregon from DC for the summer months (grad school!), so my availability to host is limited. While I'm in Astoria for the summer, however, I would love to meet up and play tour guide/show you the secret beaches/best microbreweries/etc!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I'm pretty new to this, but have a few friends that are devoted surfers. I love meeting people when I travel (or who ARE traveling through my home! :) and that has led to some awesome experiences/friendships... so this seems like the perfect platform for continuing in that vein!

Interests

Running. Excellent, black coffee. Microbrews, particularly the darker ales and stouts. Shiraz. Long Sunday mornings spent reading the (print/inky) newspaper. Travel. Meeting people on the metro, at rest stops, tourist traps, coffee shops... and exploring the labyrinth that is the human mind and heart through unlikely conversation. Long debates about things that matter (vague statement, but if you get it, you get it). I also love motorcycle trips, surfing, golden retrievers (three things I left on my oregon coastal home!), cooking essentially great meals, camping, reading and writing poetry... and absolutely and primarily, I am interested in people.

• dogs
• writing
• books
• poetry
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• coffee
• yoga
• running
• clothing
• reading
• traveling
• billiards
• socializing
• investing
• camping
• surfing
• tourism
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

I've never been a big movie person, but the slender (and valuable!) shelf includes: Breakfast at Tiffanys, Casablanca, Wall-E, 50 First Dates, and Coraline. I also believe in the healing powers of PBS (Sherlock Holmes? Downtown Abbey? Yes please!)

I'm currently planning my second trip (driving) across the states and I'm a long distance runner, so music is a fluent heart-category for me. I have to push Blind Pilot right off the bat, both because they are the ONLY band to make it from my hometown to international tour status and because they are folky and fantastic. I'm also love Miles Davis, Lucinda Williams, Etta James, Muddy Waters... keep Dave Matthews, Journey, Counting Crows, Bon Iver, and Josh Radin on circulation... and definitely a little Bob Marley, MGMT, Arcade Fire, and Florence and the Machine. I listen to music according to my mood and across all degrees of passion. I'm pretty equal opportunity about it (besides terrible country and angry rap, which are sort of self-evident statements about genre).

I'm a Literature graduate student currently, but that present reality is secondary to my twenty-odd year love affair with words. So, to start briefly at the beginning, I was a big Maurice Sendek (Where the Wild Things Are) fan from the start. I grew into the Narnia and Anne series. Swept through Victor Hugo and Jane Austen. But I also love the Hunger Games and Harry Potter series, huge fan of Jon Krakaur (Into the Wild), Elizabeth Gilbert, Elizabeth Strout... Richard Russo is also current and prolific. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, especially One Hundred Years of Solitude. House of Leaves was oddly mind blowing. Graphic novels... Maus and the Sandman series by Gaiman. Again, I have eccentric, eclectic, and international tastes in terms of literature. If I haven't read it, I probably want to. :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One amazing thing? I'm going to deconstruct the question in order to cheat.

Seen: August 2010. Twilight motorcycle ride down the 101, the full moon was just exposing itself in the half-light and across the surface of the Columbia River. I had just earned my endorsement and had the best group of friends, lived on the beach--the moon, the twilight, the sense of place (the oregon coast is a powerful place to call home!) all intersected to culminate in a perfect moment.

Done: Packed my clothes and books into my VW and moved across the country from Oregon to DC to attend graduate school. I had no place to live, no family, no friends, no familiarity or connections on the East coast... but I had motivation and an insane sense of curiosity. Amazing what that sort of fuel can do! (And I've been here--with a place to live, friends, connections, and a couple dogs to room with--since August 2011).

I reserve the right to alter the aforementioned references at any moment.

Teach, Learn, Share

Well, I am a big yoga person. I love to cook--since I'm back on the college student budget, this means being really creative and spontaneous (hey, gotta take big risks to achieve big success, right?!). I have mad editing skills (so if you're in school and need to bounce some ideas around/get feedback... that's my entire mojo). I've driven across the country once and spent a year in DC, so I can provide some decent stateside travel advice. What do I want to learn? Well, mostly, what YOU are passionate about. I'm interested in couch surfing because I'm not just interested in traveling for the sake of "seeing" places... I want to know the cities of this world, and the only way to do that is know their people. So teach me about your home!

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Germany, Italy

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States