CURRENT MISSION
NOW in New Zealand......seeking place to stay in New Plymouth for no more than 3-5 days

ABOUT ME

(please enjoy the recent banter on my references....I'm honored that a negative referral came from a Creeper....check his profile. Never met him, but he tarnished my sweet self, hahahaha)
I'm STILL SWEET and kind....

PHILOSOPHY

Humans are complicated...and that's just fine with me!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

CS'ing is the best world-wide exchange community I have ever had access to.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Not one experience is the same as another. A friend wrote an article in her daily column after she met several couchsurfers staying with us at one time. THIS IS A GREAT CSing WRITE_UP...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11228/1167581-294-0.stm?cmpid=columnists.xml#ixzz1VCVw9sAn

Interests

Healthy, supportive, and unique communities. Sustainable philosophies. Anything new and intriguing.
I'm a Big City & Big Country enthusiast. Both my son and I were Born and Bred in Pgh and have lived in other places. I was raised in the inner city and spent my summers on the family farm. But my son's child-growth years (5-16) were in Athens, OH. I studied musical theatre and studio arts in the 80's, a few years in the independent music industry. Emergency medicine. Anything equine. Yoga.
My son turned out wayyyy smarter than I planned. He's an accomplished self-taught guitar player, skateboarder, snowboarder, a bit of contact juggling, and fire poi. Now a college freshman studying engineering/physics, he had a chance to work as a colleague along side other geniuses on a Mars probe assignment with other international space agencies. METNet is planned to be the next probe to launch, I think. He was listed as a co-author on the sciences journal articles for the project which gives him special admittance to professional conferences, and so many other future opportunities. Apparently, older PhD students have fist-fought for their name on publications. The boy's just too smart.

My vocations have been an assortment of neat stuff. The majority having been a broad range of horse disciplines, and in-depth horse healthcare studies (I went as far as I could without having to put years into veterinary school). The studies were motivated by a desire to be a more independent equine specialist. To be able to provide my own vet care and shoeing, be more knowledgeable of nutrition, have productive relationships with the animals, etc. Every job that we ask a horse to do puts them in their natural vulnerable prey environments and I highly respect each one for that! I've always want to learn more about my passions and I've found that working different jobs is effective hands-on learning when I didn't have the resources to do it alone.

Several years ago I merged medical tech skills with my knowledge of large and small animals and quickly became an energetic member of a veterinary hospital/surgical team as the vet's assistant.

If I don't know how to do something I'm interested in, I can usually dig up enough resources to teach myself!

http://www.athensohiotoday.com/news/frankenstein-fashion/article_4fa014b4-1f4a-5348-bc6b-9947f1dfa7be.html?mode=jqm
(pix in my photos)

• animals
• arts
• writing
• fashion
• yoga
• running
• technology
• news
• juggling
• music
• guitar
• snowboarding
• skateboarding
• engineering
• medicine
• physics

Music, Movies, and Books

ALL music genres if dynamic, edgy, angst, or powerfully relate to me. They get me going in different ways. Same for my son but he also explores the scientific aspect of music. Fusion jazz is just too rough on my ears; I struggle with the vague lyrics in country western so I make up my own words and it's funnier; and christian rock is bizarrely entertaining. I have many years of independent local and touring live music scenes under my belt. Been in a band but I'm far from an exceptional musician, I had a lot of dangerous fun then and I was good at bruising my shins and bar-brawling. I gravitate toward science fiction (books, films, and TV) but not exclusively, and love to marathon TV series on Netflix streaming (HBO's, Showtime's, etc.). That's not wasted couch potato time! It's my imagination work-out! Or brain break.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I guess you could say I've saved lives? At least saving them until my crew (paramedics) could transfer patients to emergency departments. That's pretty cool.

Teach, Learn, Share

can Teach example:
There's nothing more satisfying than the astonished look in a student's face (all ages) when they achieve something positive and relate with a 1100 to 2200 pound, non-judgmental, animal (a horse).

can Learn example:
I became interested in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) and pursued training and certification. EAP's an adjunctive, animal facilitated therapy for people that expedites and enhances positive behavior modification outcomes during mental and behavioral health treatment and stability goals. I then developed an EAP program for therapists and their clients but put it aside in 2010.
http://www.athensohiotoday.com/news/equine-assisted-psychotherapy-helps-break-down-emotional-barriers/article_016b1d1c-bef6-570c-877b-9224e349c12b.html?mode=story
(update 2017) You can still link to my old EAP program website I made! https://sites.google.com/site/eapathens/
ALSO...a mini-documentary from 2009! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa8hSBnhZ5k

can Share example:
I give money to others struggling and give gifts at the times when my car is running on fumes at the end of a pay week. With no regret. I find sharing our different cultures and lives fascinating. I verbally share too much and have been told, in an endearing way, that I need a mouth filter. No, I'm not annoying or interrupting, others tell me I'm funny.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bermuda, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands, British, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States