I’m working, slowly but surely, towards a MA in Library Sciences.

I substitute teach and tutor as a means to pay the bills. I also housesit.

I like to go for walks, or to the gym. I like browsing in book and record stores. Or the library. I love the hiss and pop of vinyl but also the convenience of MP3s. I love reading, listening, sometimes watching. I cry too often, laugh too loud, and I don't know when to shut up. I write and scribble constantly. I can hold a guitar, but I can play the bass. I write with pencils, not the mechanical kind, or those pens that have four different colors in them.

I talk with my hands a lot, try not to say “um” or “uh” when searching for a thought, and tend to veer off into strange tangents about issues connected by the thinnest of threads.

I studied English in college, but I also love biology (especially genetics), music and pedagogy.

I don't drink coffee, though I have been to Starbucks, once, and don't know what to do with the remaining $16.50 on my gift card.

I’m not especially literal-minded, as I’m found of hyperbole, metaphors, simile and other forms of grande expression. I’m also a bit of smart-ass, though almost always at the right time. I believe in first things first, second things second.

I am religious, not judgmental, please don't conflate the two.

I have rituals for watching the Red Sox, but I’m not superstitious, I’m cautious. There is a difference. I think.

I am looking for someone with a strange mixture of compassion, fidelity and cynicism, all with a good sense of humor.

I teach and housesit. Working towards my M.A.

I can write an essay like nobody's business.

I have a really good memory.

I can make my nephew laugh.

I can play eight chords on a guitar. More on a bass.

I know when I need assistance.

I will beat you at Tetris.

Polite. I'm extremely polite. I always say "please" and "thank you."

Books:

"When I think of all the books I have read, and of the wise words I have heard spoken, and of the anxiety I have given to parents and grandparents, and of the hopes that I have had, all life weighed in the scales of my own life seems to me a preparation for something that never happens."
-W.B. Yeats

"We owe a definite homage to the reality around us, and we are obliged, at certain times, to say what things are and give them their right names."
-Thomas Merton

"He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes."
-Job 30:19

"It is not down in any map; true places never are."
-Herman Melville

"Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me."
-Robert Frost

Movies:

Mostly indie directors like John Cassavettes and Richard Linklater.

Though I did enjoy 'The Hangover.'

Music:

Usually, if asked about music, then you should pull up a chair; we're going to be here a while.

But for the sake of brevity, and because compiling a laundry list of musicians I like would take too long, I'll try to sum up as quickly as I can my tastes.

I listen to nearly nothing that's on the radio. Or anything you'll hear in an elevator.

My listening habits are varied and connected only by quality. At least most of the time.

Musicians I would pay to see will more likely play The Marquee Theatre than Glendale Arena. I do like Coldplay though, and the White Stripes.

Right now I'm listening to a lot of Guided By Voices and Art Tatum.

With food I have a simple philosophy: Brown sugar makes everything better. Except when it doesn't, then you add pepper, and lots of it.

The occasional Cherry Coke

Box scores

Music, played at maximum volume

A quiet place to read

Air conditioning

The kindness of strangers

Where I am, where I'm going, and where I'm supposed to be.

I prefer the atyprical.

I changed my name, not on paper, but in person. I can count on one hand the people who call me by the name on my driver's license.