There was a debate that Nick Hornby put forth in his book High Fidelity about whether it was more important to know what someone was like, or what they did like, in order to know the person.

I have no clue what the right answer is, but I've been called most of the following at one point or another: sensitive, passionate, intense, neurotic, loyal, artistic, impatient, closet-introvert (ok, that one I call myself), fierce, complicated, work in progress.

I just started a job as a Faculty Assistant at Univ of Chicago, which I have been doing in various forms for most of the last 10 years, at Stanford and a few other universities. I'm good at it, and I love being involved with a higher ed environment.

My real interests, though, are in teaching and acting, and specifically teaching acting. (This does not pay the bills yet, nor does it provide health insurance, hence the care-and-feeding-of-faculty work). I have been acting on stage off-and-on for about 20 years, but only started to do it seriously about 8 years ago, 3 of which were spent getting my MFA in Acting.

I also do improv, although not nearly as well as I do Shakespeare. Improv is an incredible art form--it's all about saying "yes" to whatever is given to you, and accepting and building on the offers of your partners. I just moved to Chicago from Austin, Tx, and I fiercely miss my friends and improv community there.

I'm also becoming interested in activism, although due to my spare time being taken up with theatre I shamefully haven't put my money (or hours) where my mouth is up to this point, and I have so many causes that pique my interest that I'm still looking for where exactly my heart lies.

I'm an Air Force brat, and spent most of my life wandering around the world and the US. It's been a while since I've indulged my wanderlust internationally, but my Dad was stationed in Germany for 5 years, so I got a chance to see much of Western Europe at an early age. And I've seen most of the US on my own as an adult, usually on a highway driving someplace.

To Mr. Hornby's second part of the question: I love to read. And go see plays. And listen to live blues. And talk. Conversation over coffee is probably my favorite thing to do with another person, (although ironically I don't drink coffee at all, but "conversation over tea" makes me feel like I'm a character from a Jane Austen novel). I like to play card games, and go for walks alone, and I am terrible at Ultimate, but I'm learning to play because a friend of mine gave me a beautiful disk and it's fun to throw it around. I love to dance, and am learning blues dancing, and occasionally shock the youngsters by showing up at one of of their clubs. I love teaching.

My favorite place to be in the world is the hot tubs at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. They're natural hot springs with an incredible facility built around them, right on the edge of a cliff heading down to the Pacific Ocean. On a clear night you can sit in 104 degree water and watch the stars above and hear the waves below. And if you're lucky, the pink jasmine will be in bloom, and the air smells like heaven.

Settling into living in Chicago, learning the in-and-outs of my new day job, and investigating the teaching and performing opportunities here. And unpacking boxes.

Seeing what needs to be fixed. Picking up on subtle emotions. Showing affection. Spelling. British dialects. Reading between the lines. Loyalty to my friends. I'm a really good acting teacher. I also bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Speed reading: I've been known to put aside a 450 page book in a day. I'm usually the first one responding to a crisis and someone who will take over planning and organizing when it's needed (oldest child of a military officer: leadership's in my blood), although I prefer not to be the one in charge if there is someone else competent who wants to do it. And I can parallel park like a fiend.

I'm not quite sure how to phrase it, but I seem to have this aura of either dignity or authority or something that comes across as aloofness upon first impression. I've has scores of people tell me, "I was really intimidated by you when I first met you, but then I got to know you and realized you were really sweet/a doof/a nice person/fairly normal/fill-in-the-blank." I have no idea what they're picking up on, because I usually feel like a 13-year-old dork when I meet someone new.

Honorable mentions: my hair, my height, my glasses.

Music: Darrell Scott, Joshua Radin, Susan Werner, Mumford and Sons, Matt Nathanson, Nick Drake, Muddy Waters, Joanna Connor, Peter Gabriel, Alison Krauss, Ella Fitzgerald, Iron & Wine,, Mika, Pitbull, Nina Simone. I love live Chicago blues and folk/bluegrass music.

Books: Stranger in a Strange Land, Calvin and Hobbes, Anna Karenina, East of Eden, Gone with the Wind, Ender's Game, The Thornbirds, High Fidelity, The Winds of War. (There are too many to actually list in this category; these are some representative samples.)

Authors/Poets/Playwrights: Mary Oliver, Shakespeare, Rainer Maria Rilke, Anton Chekhov, Tolstoy, John Steinbeck, Allan Ginsberg, Andre Dubus, Nick Hornby, Wallace Shawn, Samuel Beckett, Richard Ford, Tom Stoppard, Tom Robbins, George Bernard Shaw, Henrik Ibsen, John Patrick Shanley, Euripedes, Charles Mee, Phillip Barry, Herman Wouk, Melody Beattie, Pat Conroy.

Movies: In the Bedroom, Before Sunrise/Sunset, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Last Tango in Paris, The Philadelphia Story, Streetcar Named Desire, Brokeback Mountain, LA Story, Becket, A Fish Called Wanda, Lion in Winter, His Girl Friday, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Say Anything, Dead Poets Society, Finding Nemo, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Beauty and the Beast, Talk to Her, Wall-E, Sense and Sensibility, Bull Durham, The Incredibles, Wallace and Gromit, Love Actually, Yentl, The Watchmen, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

TV Shows: Firefly, Sports Night, Burn Notice, Mad About You, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show, PBS, Buffy, The West Wing, Grey's Anatomy, Mythbusters, Once and Again, House, Dexter, Glee, Cash Cab, Jeopardy, Angel, Pushing Daisies, Deadwood, Match Game.

I will watch anything that Joss Whedon, Pixar Animation, or Aaron Sorkin writes (even if its bad). Its killing me that I don't have cable because I can't watch The Newsroom. I can't get along with xkcd. And I love Richard Dawson, Marlon Brando, and Leslie Howard.

A Blue Pilot Precise V Fine Point pen with a good leather journal; quiet time to myself; being in, near, or on the water; amazing theatre artists (like the Rude Mechs of Austin, TX); my books (I own over 1000, and they are my babies).

Family, friends, sushi, decent lighting are also important.

At the moment, what kind of life I want to build for myself here in Chicago.

Random things: how to adapt improvisational teaching techniques into traditional acting techniques, how to develop improv as a force of change within the 12-Step anonymous world as well as the prison population, Zumba, the affairs of Central Africa, how I'd like to learn how to cook, how bizarrely ridiculous the battle over gay marriage is in our country, whether I would like India. I think about getting a Masters in Social Work, primarily to do research. I think about the fact that I'm an education junkie. I try to understand why there are those in the world that hate Obama so much. Whether the Arab Spring is a good idea or just a delaying tactic on the road to chaos.

I also spend time thinking about what I'd like to do in the next few years, and what steps I need to take to get there. I really would like to start a family, and I really would like to start my own acting studio.

When I lived in Austin, my Fridays were in any one of a dozen places. Sometimes at a rehearsal, sometimes watching or performing at an improv show, sometimes at a party, sometimes crashed on my bed, sometimes curled up at home watching a movie alone or reading. Sometimes out with a friend, talking over gin and tonics.

Occasionally I'd just go out for a walk at some odd hour and climb a fence to see what's on the other side. I found myself a few months ago at 3am outside a private condo pool in a neighborhood adjacent to my own. Scaled the fence, went skinny dipping, and went home.

Every celebrity crush I've ever had eventually comes out of the closet. Neil Patrick Harris, David Hyde Pierce, Ricky Martin, Jonathan Knight, Sean Maher, Richard Chamberlain. I'm thinking of leasing myself out to Perez Hilton.

If you have things you like to talk about. Or if you like the idea of showing a newbie some cool places in Chicago.