I put off updating this summary for a long time, because I find it disingenuous to believe that however much summary I write, it can sum up all of my personality or experiences. I suppose this may be slight arrogance on my part, but I do believe that people are complex, generally.

I am recently graduated from school with a degree in law and a degree in social work, as a result of a joint degree program. The two are not at odds, really, although many of my classmates would have you believe they are. I am currently savoring the sudden influx of free time--I have read 12 (not at all law related) books since I took the bar and am very proud of this!

Truthfully, I joined okcupid because I wanted to see how I matched up with people I already knew. I stayed because it was fun to play with (And if you are the kind of person who cringes because I just ended a sentence with a preposition, you have my apologies and my admiration ;^). As these facts reflect, I am not particularly looking for new relationships and I tend to pay closer attention to the profiles of people I know. This is not to say that if you are a stranger, you should stay away, but I do think it only fair to note my biases.

I like tomatoes.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, my significant other and I are polyamorous. I choose to say "seeing someone" rather than "available" in my profile both because I am not actively seeking new partners and because people often find it misleading if my profile claims I am 'available' and they then learn I have a significant other. In the self-same interest of disclosure, I am not interested in random sexual encounters, and truthfully I tend to respond poorly to sexual propositions from strangers. Do with this information what you wish. :-)

Right now, I am enjoying my new job and trying to figure out which hobbies I want to pursue first. Tragically, being a law student is not as ridden with fun and adventure as you might think, and a lot of my favorite avocations atrophied while I was in school ('Avocations atrophied' is fun to say! Try doing it five times fast. :).

Currently I'm trying to teach myself to cook. I also like generic craftsy projects. I try to find outlets for singing where appropriate, and sing with a local a capella group. Recently I have been watching entirely too much Food Network, which is probably related to my desire to learn to cook. I also keep promising myself I am going to teach myself how to make candy. In fact, when I was in school I kept threatening to drop out of law school and major in candy. I was very disappointed when I graduated and realized I had missed my chance!

Eventually, I want to practice mental health law, which is not so much a field of law as a way to apply a bunch of different fields. I'm still debating if I want to take both the bar and the MA social work licensing exam. Sometimes people call me a workaholic or an overachiever, and I just can't understand why. ;)

I also used to spend a lot of time engaging in creative writing, but I became somewhat discouraged when a lot of my work was lost a few years ago. I'm still slowly working on a young adult novel, which badly needs to be edited except for the part where the most recent draft has been lost in the sands of time (See previous statement about losing most of my creative work to multiple dead hard drives). I have also recently started a project which I can only describe as historical fantasy. It involves research. So much research. All the research. But I am greatly enjoying it thusfar. :)

Being a workaholic (see above); randomly bursting into song; listening; being silly; applying legal issues; getting on a soap box; your mom jokes.

(A) Favorite books: So many, it's hard to count. This will be long, bear with me. ;^)

Fiction: I'm currently re-reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley, which is a favorite interpretation of an alternate world where vampires are known and commonplace. I am also incredibly fond of the Sandman series, and I adore Neil Gaiman for his ability to take commonplace concepts and turn them slightly askew. My favorite childhood author remains Madeleine L'Engle, and I was incredibly sad when she passed away. I recently have taken a shine to slightly off-kilter general fiction--some favorite examples are The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (Her last name is fun to say!) and Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, by Gina Barkhordar Nahai, which is an excellent adult fairy tale. I also like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon, because it is a great example of using an unconventional voice. I have been known to read garbage fiction because it is fun from time to time, though perhaps that should go under my "most private thing I am willing to admit here" section. ;^)

Poetry: I really love reading poetry, probably more than I love reading prose. My favorite poets right now are Ezra Pound, Margaret Atwood, Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman, e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, and Langston Hughes (though there are probably more; that is just who springs immediately to mind). I have a general dislike of Frost on principle, although I do confess a certain fondness for Fire and Ice. Which, I suppose, is ironic.

Nonfiction: I tend to mostly read factual information from either newspapers or Wikipedia, but I mostly use Wikipedia to find original sources, so the site takes me all kinds of interesting places. I also really enjoy reading philosophical texts, although I don't get as much time as I would like to read them all. I also have a certain fondness for going to sparknotes.com and reading other people's interpretations of famous texts, because I think this gives me a more nuanced understanding of the original text.

If you are particularly fond of a book or author, I encourage you to ask me if I have read it. I am a voracious reader, even while in law school.

(B) Favorite movies:

Comedies are my favorite genre of movie. I have an undying love for Noises Off, and I like farces in general. I have also been accused of somewhat juvenile humor at times, as I tend to love movies like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. I also enjoy really silly humor, so sometimes I love kids' movies. I recently made a bunch of people sit through Meet the Robinsons and had a fantastic time.

I also love psychological thrillers, and Seven is one of my favorite movies in this category because it's just so well done. However, I pretty much just hate most drama unless there is something which is otherwise very redeeming about the film. My mother made my father and I sit through The English Patient once, which is apparently supposed to be a brilliant film, but my father and I ruined it by asking "Is he dead yet?" every five minutes or so after we hit the two hour mark. My mother never made us sit through an Academy Award Winning Drama again. ;^)

I enjoy a lot of independent and foreign films as well, but am often disappointed by how infrequently I can find the movies I get excited about in local theaters.

I also enjoy heckling really bad movies as a form of humorous entertainment, which causes me to see all kinds of terrible films of various persuasions.

Also, when I watch movies at home, I often turn the subtitles on even though the movie is in English.

(C) Music:

In general, I dislike trite lyrics because they offend my sensibilities, but I can't think of a single genre I uniformly dislike. I have trouble picking out an individual artist as my favorite, let alone individual songs, because I just enjoy music so much. It has been a huge part of my life since I was very small. I do tend to favor music I can sing along to, but I am perfectly happy to sing along to classical music because I have spent too much time in a capella groups and I consider "do do do doooooooooo" to be an acceptable song lyric. ;^)

(D) Food:
I love food, but other people often find my dietary restrictions limiting (I keep a variant of kosher style). I really like figuring out ways to make interesting recipes Whiskers-compatible though. It involves a lot of substituting turkey bacon/pancetta/sausage/etc and vegan chicken stock/margarine/etc. It is an interesting challenge, to say the least!

The nature of humanity; the law in multiple jurisdictions; mental health; music; what makes a good story; how to help my clients without involving DCF; alternate realities; conflicting philosophies; enlightenment through self-betterment and self-actualization. Yeah, I'm kind of weird. =P

I make a to-do list every day. If I don't, I forget to do things. =(

You enjoy musing about things aloud and/or enjoy strange britcoms.