Working for the good guys, for various definitions of the term, and trying to make sure they don't misplace their modifiers. Training to stay in shape for vacations to far-off places, and saving money for same. Trying to fill my passport with stamps. Reading omnivorously. Sampling Dorothy Parker-style drinks, though not in Algonquin Round Table quantities. Studying history to remedy ignoring it in high school, and finding it more fun now that it's not being taught toward a test and censored of its naughty bits. Balancing.

Staying on a horse, and getting back on when I fall off (it happens; wear a helmet); raising one eyebrow at a time; admitting what I'm not good at (cooking without angst; computer programming; speaking French; recovering from jet lag); playing spot the typo; picking up handicrafts; short-term knitting projects; losing the thread of conversation if I've got a smoke-rich single malt in hand; sneaking in a nap; learning enough to be dangerous.

Do you know, I have no idea. The glasses? The raised eyebrow? The huge earrings my friend brought from Uganda?

Books: Gene Wolfe, Patrick O'Brian, Mark Rashid, Alison Weir, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Richard Wilbur, Mary Renault, Jerome Groopman, Oliver Sacks. The Master and Margarita but not Heart of a Dog. There's usually a paperback or a recent New Yorker stashed in my bag. Project Gutenberg is one of the best things we as a society have accomplished.

Movies: My comfort movies are Tampopo, Buckaroo Banzai, Repo Man, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and the Princess Bride; I love Ikiru but will probably never have the guts to watch it again. No zombie movies, and the only horror movie I've ever seen in theaters was the (superlative) Cabin in the Woods.

Music: Tell me a story: Richard Thompson, the Seldom Scene, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Modest Mussorgsky, Abney Park, James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards, the Magnetic Fields, Johnny Cunningham. I can't picture a This Will Destroy You concert--does everyone try to achieve delta wave at once, or what?--but they're the most anti-anxiety thing on the iPod right now.

Food: I'm trying to eat less meat in general, but banh mi, blue steak, Texas barbecue, and pate are among my weaknesses. Random yum: Argentine malbecs, chocolate laced with chili, well-made martinis (olives, please, and very very cold), horchata, roast pork buns, fresh bread, local apricots, cilantro, pesto, Honeycrisp apples, black tea. I try to be culinarily open-minded, although there are limits: I sampled cuy in Ecuador and drank airag in Mongolia but passed on escamoles in Puebla and said no to most of the arthropoda available at Wangfujing Night Market (unfortunately, I learned the hard way that Beijing churros are terrible). I seem to be alone in not liking lobster or cheesecake, but I make up for it by not liking them A LOT.

* Something to read
* Something caffeinated but not carbonated (barring the occasional Mexican Coke)
* Fresh fruit
* Alone time (introverts of the world unite! separately!) and horse time (I will ride until my back gives out)
* Warm socks (I have cold feet)
* A valid passport

What someone in Tudor England would have imagined people wearing in 1900, and how far off our guesses about the future probably are. There is no practical use for this train of thought whatsoever, so it's tremendously satisfying staring-out-the-window fodder.

I'm usually planning to get up early on Saturday to head out for a ride in the park, so occasionally I'll join a friend for comparative martiniology or scotch, or dinner and foible dissection, but it's often a quiet evening with an excellent book and the joy of introversion. If I'm being ambitious, I'll fit in a workout first.

A friend told me I remind her a little of Rachel Maddow. It was one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. (I am much less cool than Rachel Maddow. But still.)

You have a solid life you're enjoying, travel enough to know that sometimes home is best, can spell, and are interested. The usual.

NB: I'm not looking to be part of a romantic poly relationship.