CURRENT MISSION

To explore the human condition, evaluate life's basic truths, and learn as much about myself as possible by taking every opportunity I'm offered.

ABOUT ME

I love to read, hang with my puppies, work outside with my husband of 7 years, and pretend to study. Taking trips to the mountains and coast is always a bonus, but someday I'd like to travel to other places (thus the profile here). Money does not currently allow for such extravagancies as out-of-state travel, but meeting other people from new places is a nice way to live vicariously. I'm currently taking time off from school for health reasons, but I plan on finishing undergrad here this year and continuing into graduate studies here after that. My husband is not currently employed so we spend all of our time together and most of it is dedicated to projects around the house and a variety of other hobbies we have

PHILOSOPHY

To let go and be present. So much of my life was spent in constant stress that felt as though it originated externally, and the constant connectedness of people through the myriad of devices only served to amplify my unrest and frustration. The day I decided to turn off the noise and participate in smaller, but infinitely more rewarding tasks as mundane as gardening and remodeling a room with less money than it would cost to day trip to San Fransisco was the day I realized how important all that I had been ignoring was to my wellbeing, and that very little of what had previously consumed most of my time was actually not at all what truly mattered to me. Sometimes it's only when you lose everything that you can see the value of having nothing.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Oh, I'm not sure that I do. I'm biased so I decline to provide false testimony.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None as of yet. At least not on CS.org
We have hosted a few times and each has been a joy and a blessing. We look back on those experiences with great fondness, regret that our being out of contact with most of the world prevented us from being aware of requests that we would have loved to accept, but look forward to the chances to host in the future anyone so unfortunate to need to stay in Merced on their way to wherever they are headed. I think we can say with confidence that we tend to get more from our guests than they receive from us. Hotels are cheap, but reminders that our sad and backwards city isn't the only place on earth and the chance to learn from other people outside of our natural circles is a gift not enough people can appreciate.

Interests

Good food, good wine, good company and music. Now that we have the house we love and have remodeled and designed for entertaining we look forward to opportunities to provide the place where people can gather, my husband can grill, and the wine can flow well into the night...

• dining
• wine
• working out
• gardening
• traveling
• music
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I'll watch and listen to most anything, and I read a lot of different stuff, but I probably enjoy my trashy mysteries (Jonathan Kellerman, Dan Brown) only slightly more than history, biographies, and social/political non-fiction. My husband and I are movie-philes and are often guilty of speaking solely in movie lines (it's kind of a running joke among our closest friends).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I was published at 15, recently drove cross-country (To south Carolina then up to New York), kayaked all over the state, spent over a decade amassing knowledge through college courses in every discipline, and taken many breaks to work out of necessity that ended up being some of the most valuable learning experiences of my life.

Teach, Learn, Share

I like all of those words.