CURRENT MISSION

Banning Nickelback ringtones. NOTHING can ruin my day like they can.

ABOUT ME

Traveling's my passion, even though I'm a late bloomer and didn't study abroad like everyone else in the world. Give me a week off and who knows where I'll end up; last time I found myself with a couple weeks off, I convinced my husband, (it took about 3 hours), to take off and run around Europe, guided by our very first couchsurfer.

I'm in a band, and nothing can beat performing with my best friends. Listening to shit no one's ever heard of gets me mocked quite a bit.

For the moment, I'm marooned in Houston, which accounts for my excessive need for travel.

And yes, yes, I'm 24 AND married. And surprisingly enough, I got married because I like the guy, not because I got knocked up.

PHILOSOPHY

I think it's exhausting to try to live one step beyond everyone else, trying to convince them that you really are something significant... To have to drop something you genuinely connect to merely because it's become accepted by mainstream society. Living in slavery to the idea of being unique keeps you from learning and creating who you really are.

Apparently, I've based my life on Sesame Street: "Every one is special in his or her own way."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Have couch, will travel.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I surfed with some friends during a trip to New Orleans. Fabulous experience!

My very first couchsurfer helped me plan, then accompanied Michael and I on our first trip to Europe. It was wonderful.

Interests

Painting (not skillfully... no bowls of fruit or recognizable forms here), music (apparently, if you've heard of it, I loose), travel (anywhere anytime - driving an hour away can be thrilling with the right attitude), cooking (italian... predictably), wine (pinot noir and shiraz), wife-ing (the only wife-ish thing I'm good at is cooking), and deciding where to venture off to for grad school.

• cooking
• wine
• running
• flowers
• traveling
• painting
• music
• study abroad

Music, Movies, and Books

Amelie, Pulp Fiction, Russian Ark, American Beauty, Wes Anderson films, The Visitor, Dr. Strangelove / Clem Snide, Regina Spektor, Bat for Lashes, Radiohead, Sigur Ross, Bon Iver, Glen Hansard, Band of Horses, Stars, Metric / Anna Karenina, Velvet Elvis, On Chesil Beach, Everything is Illuminated, East of Eden, The Piano Teacher, anything by Dave Eggers or Jhumpta Lahiri

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I stood in the rain, rolling up sod to keep the lower 9th ward from being reclaimed by the city. Local musicians came out to serenade us, and the national guard came out to... well, maybe they wanted to give us flowers... I can’t really judge their motives, you know? Anyway, I felt in that moment that travel isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity to move me beyond the self I think I can be.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States