I don't know what all to say here; part of the point of dating and conversing is getting to know a person, and where's the fun if I spill it all before we've even met.

That said, at heart, I think I am an introvert who's trained himself to be an extrovert. Which is to say, I love people and I can talk to anyone, and I think I have a talent at drawing people out, but there are times when I need a quiet night to recharge.

Also: I am a p-town native who recently moved back home after living in Seattle for 6 years. If you want more, read what I've written elsewhere on this profile or, ideally, let's hang out.

I work as full- time para-educator for Portland Public Schools working one- on- one with a kiddo in kindergarten who has autism. He is pretty amazing.

I love my job and I love working with kids, but it is both exhausting and wonderful. Five- and Six- year- olds are equally adorable and gross.

My job is incredibly rewarding and incredibly demanding, both physically and mentally. I have to be "on," and be patient and friendly and engaged with my students all day every day. As I said, I love it, but am ready for the weekend come Friday.

I just got accepted into PSU's Masters of Special Education program and will start this summer.

Can I just list my interests?
Running, photography, hiking, nature, writing, reading

Also:
making terrible, terrible puns. It's kind of a problem. I love language and words, and I love word play.

I'm not sure; do you want physical attributes?
Glasses, blue eyes. Until recently, curly hair, but I semi- accidentally/ semi- intentionally shaved my head in March. It's growing back though. Maybe a beard if I've been lazy about shaving that week.

I also have a bad habit of talking as fast as I think, resulting in my speaking far too quickly. Sorry. I promise I will try and speak slowly and clearly when we first meet, though.

Books:
Holy cow, there's a lot; I read a lot, and like many kinds of books.
So off the top of my head:

Fiction:
The Death of Bees
Book: A Novel
Mink River
Though the Black Spruce
How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe
Tortilla Curtain
Let the Great World Spin
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Lolita
Where the Wild Things Are (by Dave Eggers) and What is the What
Life of Pi
Remainder
Magic for Beginners
Shadow of the Wind
Harry Potter
The Adventures of Kaviler and Clay
The Things They Carried
the curious incident of the dog in the night-time
All in the Timing
Waiting for Godot
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Non-Fiction:
Too many to mention, but:
Wild
Summerhill: A Radical Guide to Child Rearing
An Anthropologist on Mars
Reefer Madness
America: The Book
Peoples' History of the United States
1493
Malcolm Gladwell
Sex at Dawn
The Psychology of Insanity, published 1923

I studied psychology in undergrad, and have worked with mentally- ill adults, and thus have a soft spot for vintage psychology textbooks; I currently have about 4 textbooks and manuals dating from the 1920's to the 1960's.

My dream is to have a proper library.

Movies:
I love movies; cheesy so- bad- its- good, sci-fi, action, whatever.
To that end: The Wrath of Khan, Brick, Donnie Darko, The Russian Ark, The Kings Speech, Once, Aliens, The Fall, The Maltese Falcon. I recently saw "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and it is fantastic.

TV:
my current favorite show is a tie between Community/ Louie.
Also: Star Trek, The Simpsons, Parks and Recreation, Seinfeld, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Music:
Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, the Pixies, Bjork, Berlioz, Debussy, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Ludwig Van, Heliosequence, Halo Benders, the Arcade Fire, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin, New Wave. A little of this, and little of that.

I have pretty diverse tastes.

1. Books
2. And more books
3. Crosswords
4. My camera
5. iPod/ music
6. Glasses (i have terrible vision)

Random shit, really.
Words, friends, family, girls.

My job and my students.

Life: the beauty of it and the pain of it.

Photography.

Whatever song happens to be stuck in my head.

Rehearsing and replaying certain conversations.

Deciding what I think about a certian topic and then trying to determine why and how I came to that conclusion.

I can spend too much time in my head. Only somewhat problematic.

It depends; I just started doing yoga wednesdays and fridays after work, but I also like to meet up with friends for karaoke. I'm a terrible singer, so happy hour is always good too.

But I tend to not be terribly picky; if I have energy to go out after the week, I'm happy doing whatever.

I have done too much embarrassing shit over the years to care. They make for good stories, though; probably the most baffling event ever happened in 7th grade, when I lost my glasses.

Back then, I only wore them to see the blackboard, so it took me a little while to notice they were gone. After a while, I screwed up my courage and told my parents I had lost my glasses. Mom and dad were understanding enough, and bought me a new pair, which were not inexpensive.

Sometime after that, I was brushing my teeth, and happened to look over at the plant on the counter. There, hanging neatly in the vines and leaves, were my lost glasses.

My mind still reels 15 years later.

Oh: last winter, I was making sloppy joes, and accidentally added 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper instead of 1/8 teaspoon and was (and still am) too poor to replace it. Oh man, was that an interesting few dinners.

Also: I accidentally shaved my head last month. Convincing yourself you can cut your own hair with a beard trimmer after watching a few YouTube videos is a bad idea.

Weird shit happens to me.

You've read all this, or at least skimmed most of it and think you would like to get to know me.

You know who you are and what you want out of life.

You're un-pretentious and can hold your own in a proper conversation.