CURRENT MISSION

To never grow too old to crash on someone's couch.

ABOUT ME

"Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly." ~Franz Kafka

We are a happily married middle-aged couple with three grown kids. Dave is a middle school counselor and football/basketball coach. Dave loves music, poker, sports, and travel. Deb has retired early from teaching elementary special education. She loves reading, writing, gardening, yoga, and travel. We have three dogs and one cat. We know very little of other languages besides English but that doesn't stop us from venturing into new places. There isn't one piece of the world or one person in it that we aren't interested in.

The best way to describe us? That we've been lucky in love.

PHILOSOPHY

We have a keen interest in tolerance and social justice, stemming from our experiences as educators and our experiences as the parents of a gay son & a disabled daughter. We believe strongly in human differences and human dignity. We are politically liberal but have fairly conservative personal values. We no longer have religious roots but we do have strong spiritual values that include, above all, respecting religious differences. We think that wars are a horrible way to resolve conflicts between groups of people.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We are brand-new to this but one of our adult sons has had a wonderful time meeting up with CS-ers during his travels throughout South America. Deb prefers to Couchsurf when she's traveling alone, because she has found that it can make the experience safer and more meaningful.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We couchsurfed our way through Nicaragua in December of 2010 and just couldn´t imagine travelling any other way! Deb surfed alone in Prague, Czech Republic, in March of 2011 and had another incredible experience. Other locales in the U.S. (St. Louis, Kansas City, New York) have been explored through surfing, too.

Interests

We each have very different interests but we do find each other interesting still, even 30 years after having met. Something that we enjoy doing together is tent-camping, which we do for extended periods of time during the summer. The part that we love the most about camping is the solitude and the chance to see the stars in places without light pollution. We grow our own vegetables at home and compost our leftovers. We always drive compact cars and it's important to us to recycle whatever items we have that can be recycled. We are able to live in thrifty and simple ways that, we believe, increases our enjoyment of life. We enjoy live comedy and live music. Deb just recently started snowshoeing. We love to smile, tease, and laugh . . . perhaps even with you!

• cats
• dogs
• writing
• fashion
• education
• yoga
• coach
• gardening
• reading
• traveling
• cars
• magic
• poker
• music
• live music
• camping
• surfing
• snowshoeing
• sports
• basketball
• soccer
• teaching
• languages
• law
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

We love silly movies of all kinds and have very different tastes in books. Deb likes to read realistic fiction and Dave enjoys espionage/crime books. Deb reads The New Yorker faithfully and subscribes to Harper's and Smithsonian. We enjoy all types of music but lean toward the classic rock 'n roll of our youth. We love live blues music and Chicago still has a thriving blues music scene. Dave used to play bass guitar in a band but please don't ask Deb to make any music or you'll be sorry!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Several years ago we circumnavigated the earth and spent time in Southeast Asia. It was an amazing experience for us. Deb has gone twice to Spain in order to volunteer speaking conversational English and in 2013 she returned to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago, from St. Jean, France, to Santiago, Spain. We both think you haven't really lived until you've shared an old bus with live poultry in Central America.

Teach, Learn, Share

According to the Dalai Lama, "Sharing knowledge is a way to achieve immortality." Teaching comes naturally to us and seems like such a great way to leave pieces of ourselves wherever we travel. Deb could teach you to make scrumptious homemade bread and fruit pies. Dave can't show you how to do his card tricks because they're magic! If you beg us, we'll bring a DVD of the worst movie ever made and watch it with you ("Reptilicus," it's so bad that it's good). We love to listen and learn. We'd be all too happy to have you teach us something new. There's so much that we don't yet know!

What I Can Share with Hosts

We've been known to bring laughter and warmth into complete strangers' homes. We deliver :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, England, France, Haiti, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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