CURRENT MISSION

Live, love, learn, pray. I want to let the world reinvent me.

ABOUT ME

I am me. Sometimes quiet and sometimes loud. Usually smiling, and laughing. Sometimes cynical, sarcastic. Usually just joking around, life's too short to be serious all the time. I usually write too much, and I like to talk about everything.

Right now my hands and feet are freezing and I really want some tea.

PHILOSOPHY

Respect begets respect. Love begets love. Humor is God's way of making hard situations easier to cope with. Thats why he invented the platypus and the naked mole rat.

Gravity deserves respect, but it also needs to be challenged and utilized for fun. If it rolls or slides, I'd love to ride it down a hill.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I can open doors for people to experience the beauty of where I come from, and hopefully others will do the same.

Oregon (in terms of American states) seems to be an increasingly open and hospitable place, with some of the nicest people I've met. I'd like to think that I am an active participant in the good energy and hospitality where I come from, and I'd like to broaden my horizons and open myself to a greater possibilities beyond my little northwest corner of the US, and provide the potential for others to do so as well. Oregon is a beautiful place, but it's not the only place I should experience. And if you haven't experienced Oregon, Washington and Northern California... you really should... get ahold of me, we'll talk.

I want so much to learn about everywhere else too... that's why I'm here.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I spent three months living on various gymnasium floors, a couple of times. Touring around the country, playing gigs in all kinds of venues with 130 of my closest friends. Prior to those months, I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with 11 other people. Nastiest bathroom I have ever cleaned, but completely worth it because of the people I was with.

Recently in India I have been confronted by so many very nice people from CS that I have nearly been overwhelmed by the possibility of new acquaintances.

Interests

I love music of all types. I play the trumpet, didgeridoo and percussion instruments. I like to whistle and sing, though I'm not great at singing. As a musician I tend to have my preferences in musical styles, but truly I am open to anything. My friend Emily described music as "Universal Soul Language" and I fully agree. Organic expression of the inner soul through vibrations, music, lifts my heart, warms me, makes me want to move and move... and sometimes cry. It's beautiful.

The Bhagavadgita has a line that says "Yea! let each play his part in all he finds to do, with unyoked soul." I do so agree.

I love art in general. I have done sculpture, carving, ceramics, painting, drawing, weaving, metal work, photography... I love the possibilities that each offer for mind expansion and energetic outlet and I love seeing the expressions of others.

I'm a bit of an adrenaline junky. I have been riding mountain bikes for about 15 years, and I feel very comfortable riding most anything difficult, within reason. I like to push the limits of my ability and equipment, but I always try to do it thoughtfully and with the utmost respect for my body, my abilities, gravity and the environment in which I ride. I feel the same about downhill skiing and skateboarding, though I have done less of both of those, I love them as much.

There's something special about working with momentum and innertia and gravity, mind, body, spirit and passion, bombing down hills at high speeds, carving turns... it speaks to my soul, and it is always beautiful even in the worst weather or riding conditions. I would love to take these passions with me around the world and perform them with soul in the most alien of places. If you're down, let me know.

• arts
• culture
• singing
• performing arts
• photography
• beauty
• environment
• beer
• yoga
• meditation
• pottery
• painting
• drawing
• music
• trumpet
• skiing
• skateboarding
• track and field
• archeology
• rivers
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Music is beautiful. Music makes me laugh, makes me cry, makes me move and makes me think. I love it all. It colors the world, and is colored by the world. It is a human universal in some respect. That the heartbeats of the masses build empires and span cultures and languages, and that everyone has a beat alive inside of them... its the music of life, and it cannot get any live-er if it were amplified by a million watts.

I like reading. Whatever it is. It's usually worth a few minutes, sometimes many hours. Lately it's all been research for travel.

Movies are not my favorite thing in the world. If I'm going to sit on my ass for a couple of hours, I'd usually rather be doing some art or playing music or reading. Sometimes a little mindless or mindful entertainment is good. I dig on action/adventure movies. Who doesn't like a good explosion or two? I like comedy and drama and chick flicks. I'll watch anything once... why the hell not?

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

It's hard to come up with just one amazing thing that I have done or seen in my lifetime. I think the most amazing however, has got to be the World Championship performance and the encore performance I participated in with the Concord Blue Devils in 2003. I have never experienced such an energetic high, with a huge audience that was there to see my friends and me performing.
I did archeology in the great basin of Oregon for a summer. There I tasted 14,000 year old dirt, that hadn't seen the light of day for just that long. We meticulously unearthed tools and cultural remains of long ago. I learned about my soul's connection to the natural world in a way I hadn't experienced before. And last but not least, I got to watch fireworks burst over the desert, but beneath a raging lightning storm while I sat on a cliff listening to nighthawks screech and swoop about me, sipping a beer. Not the nighthawks... me.
I have been to the tops of Cascade peaks just to bomb down them on skis, deep in lava tubes and caverns to see how far they go, hugged gigantic old growth redwood trees, swam and surfed in the powerful and cold Pacific ocean, scaled cliffs in central Oregon, fished the mighty rivers and ridden the plushest single track in the state... but I haven't seen the world yet. I want to take these things across cultures, across borders and also experience what inspires other people in their lives, in their backyards.

Teach, Learn, Share

I really want to learn about India, the artistic and spiritual roots of the diverse and deep culture there. I'm stoked to do yoga and meditate. I'm excited to be bombarded by a sensory overload of culture and sights and smells and sounds. I want to learn about what to do and where to go, what not to do and where not to go. I want to find a job that will allow me to support myself there well enough to explore the richness that the World has to offer. And... I don't want to stop at just India.... I want to start over, there.

Countries I’ve Visited

India, Japan, Mexico

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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