CURRENT MISSION

independence from economic system; happiness

ABOUT ME

Update 11/6/2015: well, not really updating this, but this description of housemates is out of date and we're pretty full up with people living here now, so unlikely to be accepting guests (only available sleeping surface is a hammock in backyard)

We are a household of three: 2 female and 1 male; 2 in 20s and 1 in 40s (the guy); 2 straight and 1 gay (one of the women). There are 2 dogs and 1 cat. The animals are the center of attention and quite entertaining and a handful. Any surfer must love animals and accept that ours are not obedient robots. Some or all of us like to hike, go to beach, shoot pool, play games, do arts and crafts (it was like a summer camp here in July and August), play music, garden.

PHILOSOPHY

bit existentialist, bit moralistic (about environment/animal protection/wealth distribution issues), bit hedonistic

anti-consumerism, anti-groupthink, non-violent anarchism

Relate to the character in Milan Kundara's The Joke

Housemates are non-conformist, free spirits that have spent some of their years on road or homeless

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURF

Have couchsurfed a couple times. Have hosted about six people. If any of us are off we like to be social with the surfers but don't mind if a surfer's only looking to avoid paying for a hotel for a night (one less incentive to build yet another Days Inn where there used to be forest or wetland).

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

After college graduation, my partner and I toured New Zealand with a program called Willing Workers on Organic Farms, and got room and board for a night or two in exchange for some work. Most were great. One was an actual organic farm. One was a historic former conscientious objector, then nudist colony, then just kind of pretty, but rundown place, that didn't really have any work to do, but put us up. Another was just somebody's house that had this awful brush they wanted cleared but didn't want to feed us (didn't enjoy that particular one).

As a public interest litigator for environmental groups traveled a lot for cases or temp jobs and often got put up on people's couches or set up with housesitting or spare rooms.

Also lived in a bunch of houseshares with up to as many as 14 people; sometimes in communal (shared food/cooking/chores) arrangements.

Interests

nature, hiking, camping, kayaking, canoeing, music festivals, crossword puzzles, sometimes reading, sometimes movies, haven't done, but interested in: living off grid, growing food, woodworking (hadn't done since h.s., but made a bookshelf out of wood bought at salvage store and making a work bench out of scraps from old redwood deck found on curb). Housemates are interested in music, yoga, art, drawing, jewelry making, spirituality/witchcraft,

• animals
• cats
• dogs
• arts
• music festivals
• festivals
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• yoga
• crafts
• gardening
• movies
• reading
• billiards
• puzzles
• drawing
• woodworking
• music
• guitar
• hiking
• canoeing
• kayaking
• camping
• environmental studies
• law
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Books - Abbey, Kingsolver, Kundara, Stephen J. Gould, biographies of eccentrics, natural histories, ecology

Music - traditional, folk, old school country/bluegrass, late 60s early 70s rock, alt-country, Neko Case, Grateful Dead, CSN, Petty, Woody Guthrie, Dylan, periodic ventures into other genres w/o knowing who's who, small outdoor music festivals

Housemates have much more expansive musical tastes

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

New Zealand, Alaska, grizzlies, northern lights

Teach, Learn, Share

I teach LSAT preparation classes, environmental studies, and am a "retired" environmental lawyer.

Would like to learn/improve Spanish, guitar, woodworking, farming, off-grid living skills

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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