For most of my life, I thought of myself as an astronomer in training. When I was 8, I wanted to be the first woman on Mars. When I was 13, I read Carl Sagan's "Contact" and decided that, like its heroine Ellie Arroway, I was going to find and communicate with intelligent aliens. Striving to be Ellie Arroway when I grew up was a major shaping force in my life; it basically defined my self-image and informed a lot of my decisions. I majored in astronomy in college, I worked in labs that studied Martian soil composition and the surface of Europa, I spent bajillions of hours taking data at the undergrad observatory...

So it was a bit of a life-jarring shock when I realized that I found research unbearably boring. I don't know if it was the tedium, or the ratio of data reduction to telescope time, or the stifling fear of knowing that someday I'd be expected to specialize, or what, but I just couldn't do it.

Luckily, I found an alternative: science writing. I can let other people do the tedious research, tell me the shiny results, and I'll write about it! Instead of trying to be Ellie Arroway, I can try to be Carl Sagan himself, and inspire other 13 year old girls to try to be Ellie Arroways. (Of course, Sagan was an accomplished astronomer in his own right, as well as a publicist. Shush.) And this way, I don't have to choose an area of science to specialize in. I can have ALL of them. The world is my candy shop.

I'm pretty excited.

(Forgive me if this sounded like a college admissions essay. I've always defined myself most by what I wanted to do, and I think knowing the evolution of it is important to understanding me.)

Short term: I just finished a one-year graduate program in Science Writing at UC Santa Cruz. Now I'm back east to do an internship in Boston for the summer, writing about space for a kick-ass science magazine. After that, another internship somewhere else. I'm going to be sort of adrift for a while, I think, but that doesn't actually bother me.

Long term: I am in an eternal, committed, open relationship with a wonderful partner, SecantCreature. He's in Seattle pursuing a PhD in psychology. He has something interesting to say about essentially every topic and regularly kicks my ass in Scrabble.

I love to travel, and I want to do more of it. The top of my to-go list right now includes Chile, Japan, Australia, Hungary, Turkey, and the Arctic. In my ideal fantasy world, I'll get paid to travel to cool science-y places (Mars analogs in the Arctic? Arecibo Observatory?) and write about them.

Editors

• SecantCreature

Being a beginner. I pick up new skills surprisingly quickly, and often get comments like "Man, with a little time and practice, you could be amazing at this!" Unfortunately, there's usually no time for practice, and my improvement rate levels off dramatically.

Also music. I can't remember a time when I wasn't in a choir, and I play a bunch of instruments (with varying degrees of expertise: I used to be pretty good at clarinet and piano, though I got rusty in college; I'm decent at the oboe; and I just picked up the hammered dulcimer because it's GORGEOUS and easy to navigate if you know a little music theory).

A lot of people comment on my necklace. I've worn a Star of David with ruby points to the star almost every day since my Bat Mitzvah (I take it off to swim or other times when I'm afraid I'll lose it, but I sleep and shower in it), and apparently it's pretty distinctive.

Books:
Contact, Ender's Game (I feel totally betrayed by Orson Scott Card's later work, but I'm trying really hard not to let that erode my feelings for Ender's Game), Lord of the Rings, Cat's Cradle, The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Laurie R. King), The Dispossessed, His Dark Materials, Arcadia (Tom Stoppard) (actually a play), Sandman (actually a comic),
Transmetropolitan (also actually a comic. If only I could be a journalist like that.)

Movies: Amelie and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I keep trying to add movies to this, but nothing else quite measures up. Take that as a challenge.

TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Veronica Mars, How I Met Your Mother

Music: My musical tastes are totally stuck in the '90s: Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds (though I preferred Ben Folds Five, and am still heartbroken that they broke up), Counting Crows, REM, They Might Be Giants, Moxy Fruvous
Also chick rock and girls with guitars: Ani Difranco, Cheryl Wheeler, Dar Williams, Fiona Apple, Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor.
My favorite major choral work to perform is Verdi's Requiem.

Food: mostly non-European--Japanese, Indian, Thai... I like pretty much all pan-Asian or even pseudo-Asian food. I eat a lot of pasta when I cook for myself, though.
I like salt far more than can possibly be healthy. I often eat salt by itself when I'm waiting in restaurants.
I also love tea.

1. Water. For drinking, but also for looking at, listening to, sitting by, and swimming in.
2. Teh intarwebs. Seriously, how did people survive pre-internet? This whole moving across the country endeavor would have been nigh impossible without it.
3. Music. I really hope my life works out such that I can always be in a choir. I'm not sure what I'll do otherwise.
4. Access to someplace dark enough for stargazing.
5. Books. I always have a book with me, no matter where I go or how unlikely it is that I'll actually end up reading it. Loud rock concert? I have a book. Reunion with a treasured friend whom I haven't seen in months? Yup. Kayaking? In a zip-lock baggie. It's like a security object.
6. Treasured friends.

Science! I read and think a lot about science itself (new discoveries, background info on fields I'm not well-versed in, etc.), but also about its role in society, how to make people less apathetic towards it, women in science, science education, science museums...

Also feminism, deconstructing gender norms, queer issues, pretty girls, what I want to make for dinner...

reading, hanging out with friends, or on a plane to visit SecantCreature.

I'm very uncomfortable with psychotropic drugs, for recreational use and clinical use alike. When I was in high school, someone very close to me had some psychological issues that her doctors suggested she treat with a particular drug. The treatment reacted badly with some other medication she was on for something completely unrelated, and she was terrifyingly unrecognizable for years. I couldn't tell which parts of her behavior were really her, and which were really the messiness of her brain chemistry, and that scared the heck out of me.

I realize that all behaviors are ultimately attributable to messy brain chemistry, but that doesn't really make me feel better about it. Is there anything intrinsic about people? Is there such a thing as a personality? Am I happy or sad or angry or bored or anything at all because I have cause to feel that way, or is it just because certain neurotransmitters happen to be flooding my brain right now? I struggle a lot with questions like this, trying to answer them simultaneously as a scientist and as someone who believes in and values spirituality.

So for a long time, I couldn't stand the idea of taking recreational drugs, or being around my friends while they were on them. I don't disapprove of them morally or anything like that, I have no soapbox, and I even think pot should be legal. But all this brain chemistry stuff is difficult enough to keep track of without introducing more variables.

I've gotten a lot better about it recently--I can have a drink and enjoy it, and be around drunk people and think it's funny rather than scary. The person above has since found a combination of meds that works for her, and we're still really close. But I still get a little squeamish about messing with brain chemistry sometimes.

You think I'd make an interesting friend. Or an interesting more-than-friend, as long as you're not bothered by the fact that I'm in a serious relationship with someone else. Right now I'm only in the market for sexual relationships with women/feminine-identified people, just so you know (not because my partner's more comfortable that way or because we're secretly looking for a Hot Bi Babe or anything like that, just because I prefer women).

You're looking for someone new to go hiking, camping, climbing, biking, boating, [insert your favorite outdoorsy activity here] with. Or go to star parties with. Or make music. Or play board games. Or watch good movies. Or...

Caveat: Please make sure your message includes some effort toward proper grammar, spelling, and capitalization. I had hoped I would never have reason to say this, but I will not respond to messages with the subject "wut up exxy."

Also, tell me something about yourself! Give me something to hang a conversation on.