I'm a 43-year-old guy that is rebuilding his life after getting out of a bad marriage, so things are pretty amazingly great for me right now! I'm starting a sweet new job as a toxics reduction consulting engineer, partly based out of the Yakima, WA area. I can't just up and move there though, because I have to be in Spokane WA quite a bit to split parenting time for my youngest child. I get along with all kinds of people, and I fastidiously cleanup after myself (and, let's be honest, others). I love getting to know people. I'm quite handy, and happy to help out with work that needs to be done. I grew up in Woodinville, Washington, and I've lived in New Orleans, Seattle, Pullman, Wenatchee, and Spokane. I'm an avid snow-skier, food-cooker, and trombone-honker. (Don't worry, I don't need to practice trombone at your house.)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Thanks for considering hosting me. I'm just starting a great new job that is partly based out of the Yakima area. I split parenting time with my (pending) ex for our youngest child in Spokane. Since it's going to be a while before I could afford a place in the Yakima area, I am looking for friendly harbors until I can get my own setup there. I used couch surfing 12 years ago after I graduated from college and was jobsearching in a bunch of cities in northwestern US. It was a big help to me then. Right now, I'm in the midst of a legal separation with my wife; unfortunately, it is very much not amicable. Any person that stays at my place with any kind of record whatsoever could potentially be used as ammunition against parenting time I get with my son, so I'm not really free to offer my place up atm. Which is a bummer, because I have this great place with lots of room in a super pedestrian friendly Garland District of Spokane.

Interests

I play trombone. Science is maybe the single biggest player in my world view. I'm frugal, and enjoy making super tasty food on the cheap. I grew up skiing, and I teach ski lessons at Mount Spokane. I bought a fixer-upper house in the awesome Garland District of Spokane, and I'm fixer-uppering it. I have two kids from a previous marriage. My eldest, I just moved to Seattle to go to UW. My youngest (15) stays with me part-time in Spokane. I just got a new job as a toxics reduction consulting engineer with Washington State Department of Ecology, based out of the Union Gap office. Since it's going to be a while before I could afford a second place in Yakima, I'm pursuing a mixed strategy of converting my Honda CR-V into a camper, talking to friends that live in the area, and looking into other possible places to crash via this very website.

• music
• skiing
• engineering
• science
• exploring
• cooking and baking
• brass bands

Music, Movies, and Books

Like old roots rap/hiphop, reggae, ska, funk, synthpop, punk, old old R and B, grunge, some older country music
I watch movies at the discount theater if they look good, or on Netflix
I haven't read a book in about three months, because my life is super busy and dynamic atm. Before that I would read maybe one book every 2 weeks or so. I'd just go to the library and pick out whatever caught my fancy.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

This one is kind of stale, but whatever. I was the "point person for mobilization" at the University of Washington for the WTO minesterial protests in Seattle in 1999. The WTO minesterials were closed door meetings between the agents of huge corporations to decide how international law - superceding national laws of signatories like the US- could be written to be benefit them (think multilateral trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP). Our protest was highly successful on disrupting the days long meeting, and has been described by some serious historians as a fulcrum on which political opinion, even in the most powerful countries, really pivoted away from the narrative that neoliberal directed globalization is always good for everybody, to it's current position of being highly questioned. Good times.

Teach, Learn, Share

Sure, sounds good

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook, clean, and fix stuff. Or we could just talk. That's always good.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, India, Mexico

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States