CURRENT MISSION

Get from desert sunshine to Boston snow, on purpose. And meet some cool folks along the way.

ABOUT ME

Cat with 9 lives. And if reincarnation is true, this ride is exponential. Oh yah, and I'm friendly and folks generally come to me when they need someone they can trust. Cause with all our foibles, I still think being human is pretty cute and while I notice a lot, I don't hold much against anyone.

PHILOSOPHY

Learn. Listen. Stretch into things you thought you weren't just to feel yourself in new skin, just to surprise yourself about what you can do and who you can be. I thought about joining CrossFit for this reason. I'm active, but Olympic weight-training is perfectly not up my alley. I'm not saying be a bodybuilding poser. It's important to share your deepest gifts. But don't forget there's as much undiscovered terrain inside you as out. Oh, and enjoy dessert. Being vulnerable must have an evolutionary advantage or we wouldn't be able to bliss out on flourless chocolate cake and not worry about a jaguar at the jugular.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Newbie just getting started. First thing is to be a rockstar guest on my way to Boston. Then to be a rockstar host once I've created a new home there.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Having friends stay from far-off lands has always been sweet. Like when Sari & Ville came from Finland and we gave them an Oregon tour in two weeks: outdoor concert, ocean cabin, Shakespeare Festival, hot springs, Oregon Country Fair, Crater Lake. Whew! I enjoy hostessing when I have the time.

But more often, my CouchSurfing experience has come from friends i love who are in transition and need a place to stay for a month or so. In which case, I'm carrying on with my days as usual and gettin' shit done (while having more interesting conversations than I'd have there by myself!)

Oh, and I suppose hosting students of a Buddhist teacher counts, so they could come train with him while he was in town.

There was no CouchSurfing.com when I traveled Europe, so that was a hostel thing.

But friends have often shared their homes on my road trip vacations. Nice to be able to have a home-like base to sleep well and make some food while I explore for a day or two. I love solo road trips because I get so much quality time alone. Sometimes staying with someone along the way is the perfect balance of solitude and connection.

Interests

Digital Filmmaking, Music, Guitar, Chinese astrology, Shiatsu, Thinking, Swinging on Swings, Songwriting, Teaching, Other People's Idiosyncrasies, Yummy Food, Detecting Bullshit, Loving People Anyway, Train Windows, High Ceilings, Insight, the anti-epiphane, Music, Film, Taoism, Asian Medicine, Hiking, Old Woodwork, Graffiti, Mythology, Dance, Integrity, Travel, Neuroscience, Dessert, Technology and Art, Culturing Vegetables, Cinematography, Dream analysis, Taiji,

• cats
• arts
• film making
• concerts
• festivals
• dancing
• dining
• chocolate
• beer
• bodybuilding
• meditation
• crossfit
• technology
• traveling
• woodworking
• music
• guitar
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• skydiving
• teaching
• history
• medicine
• neuroscience
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC
The National, Heartless Bastards, R. L. Burnside, Au Revoir Simone, Sufjan Stevens, Dirty Three, Henry Mancini, Cocteau Twins, Marissa Nadler, The Knife, Nico, Beirut, The Sundays, Muzsikas, Steve Reich, Beats Antique, Young Mothers, The Portland Cello Project, Arvo Pärt, Bonobo, Ali Farke Toure, Bright Light Quartet, 3 Leg Torso, Bela Fleck, Europa String Choir, Animal Collective, The Hot Club of San Francisco, Sibylle Baier, Brandi Carlile, UNA, Jose Gonzales, The Missing Parts, Sean Hayes, Leonard Cohen, Porto Franco Records, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Cracow Klezmer Band, Arovane, Talking Heads, Dead Can Dance, Junior Kimbrough, Tabla Beat Science, Massive Attack, Grizzly Bear, Do Make Say Think, Mazzy Star, John Lee Hooker, Carlo Gesualdo, Be Good Tanyas, Mark Sandman, John Zorn, Nick Drake, Menomena, Theivery corporation, Gotan Project, Chris Whitley, Astor Piazzolla, DeVotchKa, FC Kahuna, Everything but the Girl, Angélique Kidjo, Bang on a Can, Bebel Gilberto, Joan Baez, Glenn Gould, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Modest Mouse, Calexico, Portishead, Aimee Mann, Morcheeba, Radiohead, Death Cab for Cutie, DJ Shadow, Ray Lamontagne, Zap Mama, Pinback, Bebo Y Cigala, Cat Power, Vashti Bunyan, Jeff Buckley, Boo Kay Jack, Yo La Tengo, M. Ward, Mose Allison, Bon Iver, Feist, Nate Jasensky, Howe Gelb, Alec Ounsworth, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Mark Growden
MOVIES
My Dinner with Andre, City Of Lost Children, Kung Fu Hustle, Blue, The Fall, The Rage in Placid Lake, La strada, Amelie, Wings of Desire, Metropolis, Death by Design, Science of Sleep, Vertical Ray of the Sun, Touch the Sound a Sound Journey With Evelyn Glennie, Waking Life, Baraka, I Am a Promise, Rear Window, It Happened One Night, Stranger than Fiction, Vanishing of the Bees, The Seventh Seal, After the Wedding, Lost in Translation, Aimee & Jaguar, Young Frankenstein
BOOKS
t zero, Italo Calvino, The Green Hero, Homer's Odyssey, Denis Johnson, Sexing the Cherry, Taoist Body, The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, Defamiliarization, June Jordan, The Prophet, Khalil Gibran, Don't Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine, Tao Te Ching, James and the Giant Peach, Jeanette Winterson, Sudden Fiction, Film Textbooks, Passionate Marriage by David Schnarch, Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn, Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert, Malcom Gladwell, The Tipping Point, Essential Rumi, Coyote Was Going There

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Caught a baby as she was being born (the doctor and nurses didn't get there in time!). Rafting the Grand Canyon with Pierce Brosnan through Lava Falls in a dory on my birthday (as he high-sided chanting Gaelic war cries) was pretty amazing, too. I'd say skydiving was serene compared to that. I know this comparison from direct experience.

Teach, Learn, Share

Maybe Chinese medicine, Chinese astrology, Vipassana meditation...? Been a long time since I've done any welding : ) Want to learn more about music and world history and a million other things. Anyone know how to microbrew gluten-free beer?

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, United States

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