CURRENT MISSION

Drop-thumbing on my banjo and bicycle commuting

ABOUT ME

Usually I am outgoing, enthusiastic, playful and easygoing. Sometimes, I am shy and quiet, but not so often :D I love to listen to people's stories as well as share my own.

PHILOSOPHY

"We need not think alike to love alike." Francis David

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I surfed with some lovely people when I was in Ireland and now that I am home, I have had the opportunity to host some lovely people traveling through my town

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

When I moved out of my house to go travel a couple couple years ago, I had many lovely people adopt me and offer me their hospitality, old friends and new. I got to surf in Northern Ireland for a few days for my first formal CS experience and then in a very lively house in the free state on my way to London. I have been really enjoying hosting people this summer at my house and look forward to having more people come to stay!

I love to host people at my home, drink tea, eat French toast and share stories, and I am delighted to have so many people who have shared so much with me. People have so much hospitality and generosity to offer each other everywhere I go. What a blessing!

Interests

Ah, where to begin... I love music and dancing and could probably not survive a day without singing. I like to cook, especially when I have only bizarre ingredients in the house and can throw them together and it still tastes good. I love people, talking to people, laughing with them, playing music with them, having potlucks with them... I like to swim and feel altogether out of place when I have been away from water for a long time. I lived on an island in the Pacific Northwest for a while, and I loved sitting on the beach, looking at the rocks, swimming, rowing out to check crab traps, eating salmon that my friend John had just barbequed and my friend Molly's salal berry pie (wildcrafted and delicious! Very much like blueberries, but native and wild) and playing music under the stars in a place without a single street light. That is pretty much my idea of paradise.
I love to climb trees and play with kids. Children usually have the most amazing zest for life and I find it contagious and wonderful.

I love Compassionate Communication/NVC and want to study conflict mediation more. I like to garden and work on farms because food seems so much more satisfying and gratifying when I have had the chance to meet it when it was growing.

I recently completed my doula training at the Seattle Midwifery School, and I am very interested in women's birth stories. I got to be my sister's doula, and I found it one of the most awesome things I have ever witnessed. It was such an honor to have her ask me to be there for such a momentous occasion in her life.

I also work with adults who have developmental disabilities, and my work frequently reminds me how important it is to treat everyone with respect and dignity. Far too many people in the world are systematically oppressed in their societies, and I am very interested in doing my part to change that.

• singing
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• drinking
• gardening
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• swimming
• rowing
• languages
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

One of my favorite books ever is by Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. It really changed my life and has helped me in my quest for health and connection in this world... I finally read several of the Jeeves books by PG Wodehouse when I was living in London, and All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot when I got home. I love reading and it's one of the best things about having graduated from college (it was hard to indulge myself before). I am currently reading Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos, very funny and timely.

I love to sing and play instrments, on my own and with others, particularly when we can harmonize vocally. I play banjo, guitar, harmonica, a little bit of bodhran... I like to write songs and I love to listen or dance to many kinds music, jazz and oldtime and bluegrass and blues and ragtime and opera and classic rock and acoustic folk and hip hop and funk, and sometimes, I really enjoy 1980's butt rock... :) Patty Griffin, the Indigo Girls, David Francey, Uncle Earl, Gillian Welch, Dolly Parton, Lyle Lovett, Diana Kral, Ella Ftzgerald, Billie Holiday, Tre Hardson...

I like to watch movies, especially if they are independent films (or musicals! or Barbara Stanwyk!), but I abhor horror movies and never watch them. I do enjoy mysteries sometimes, though, and I confess to enjoying chick flicks and other ridiculous Hollywood or Baliwood fluff sometimes. :) I really liked this movie called You, Me and Everyone We Know, and watching ridiculous John Travolta films with red wine and swim suits and three other people in my friend's tiny bathroom is one of the silliest, yet most fun, movie experiences

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I climbed a 1500 year old cedar tree in Clayoquot Sound in Canada several years ago... and I moved out of my house to go wander for several months without any particular plans... I found myself stranded in Harlem in the middle of the night after some major plane delays and sorting that out in about twenty minutes felt quite amazing

Teach, Learn, Share

Well, I play the guitar, banjo, bodhran and harmonica, I tap dance and do Scottish Country Dancing and more recently, I do Appalachian flatfoot clogging. I love to cook. I am usually delighted to teach people the same if I can. I enjoy talking about music theory... I really enjoy learning new languages (like starting to learn Hebrew, not what I expected in Ireland...)

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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