CURRENT MISSION

My mission in life is to enjoy the time I have allotted. I want to experience as many different things as I can while in this body. I especially wish to experience various things that were only daydreams before. I need to break down those inhibitions.

ABOUT ME

I think the most important things to know about me are that I like being active, love eating (I'm a foodie), prefer to spend time out in nature, enjoy taking photographs, have a lust for travel, and value learning. I continually seek to upgrade my knowledge by various means. My favorite subject areas are psychology, science and technology (astronomy, physics, computers/internet, etc), and the humanities.

Places I've been: Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug (lol), the Badlands, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone National Park (twice), San Francisco, Yosemite NP, Sequoia National Forest, Mono Lake, Washington, D.C., the Bahamas (Nassau, Grand Bahama, and Eleuthera), and places in MN like the North Shore of MN and various state parks. My most memorable vacation (after the Bahamas) was taken in Dec. of 2011. It was an adventure all around Florida. We flew into Orlando, drove to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, drove farther down through Naples and over to the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area, down to the Keys, then back up through Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral and over to Orlando to fly back out. It was fun but exhausting.

Places I want to go: Hawaii, Alaska, Seattle and the Inner Passage, Canada, Crater Lake, OR, back to Arizona to hike into the Grand Canyon, New Zealand, Japan, wherever else my life takes me . . . .

PHILOSOPHY

I have a fetish for quotations, so I think these sum me up pretty well:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."€ ~Robert Frost

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."€ ~Douglas Adams

"You may delay, but time will not." ~Benjamin Franklin

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." ~Confucius (A contradiction to Franklin's quote above, but still applicable in many situations.)

"Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it." ~Confucius

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."€ ~Aristotle

"Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must."€ ~Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've mainly couch surfed. The more people I stay with and meet, the more I am realizing that I truly prefer to travel this way. I am sick of the "touristy" things. I want to get to the nitty-gritty, the essence of a place. I want to meet new people. I want to see how people truly live in the cities I visit. I want to have experiences NO OTHER has had. Nothing is permanent, everything is always in flux, and I hope to be at the right place and time to have a moment of a lifetime that no one else but me could ever have. Call it celestial alignment, the equation balancing out, my atoms interacting with other atoms the only way they possibly could, or perhaps destiny.... There are many symbols and names for the concept, but it all ends up at the same conclusion.

Anyhow, I am utterly amazed at how open, compassionate, caring, and giving CS hosts can be. I'd like to make that leap myself for other travelers, but I am not at that point in my life yet, I guess. That being said, I hope to someday soon, once circumstances allow.

One thing I should note is that I've noticed some surfers/hosts prefer to really get to know people and some are just kind of like, "Hi, nice to meet you, here's a place to crash, lock the door when you leave in the morning." Either style is fine to me, whatever goes. It's just kind of awkward when you're expecting one thing and it's totally opposite. (You know what I'm talking about if you've surfed a bit.)

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've stayed with six different CouchSurfing families/people so far (and hung out with another three). My first experience in Hollywood, FL, was wonderful. Truly exceptional hosts.

Interests

I think I've covered this elsewhere.

• animals
• humanities
• beauty
• perfumes
• flying
• technology
• traveling
• hiking
• astronomy
• physics
• psychology
• science
• volunteering
• beaches
• parks
• mountains

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Florida was amazing when we went, but the Bahamas were even better. Nothing's greater than just scrapping plans, flying in, renting a car, and traveling around a place. And couchsurfing. So basically, any time the above criteria were met, we did amazing things.

Teach, Learn, Share

Get me on the subject of something science-y and I have quite a bit of insight. Enjoy a meal with me and my foodie-ism might poke its head out. And talk about nature (national parks, animals, experiences out in the wild) and I am sure I will have something to say.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Hopefully stimulating conversation, especially about travel experiences, nature, nutrition, and science. I love hearing about other peoples' experiences traveling, good and bad.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas