I'm going to show vs. tell, cause I'm an English teacher and I've gotta represent!

At Christmas when I was little, I used to open my sister's stocking for her and shriek at absolutely anything I pulled out. Example: A HAIRBRUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have home movies to prove this.

Also when I was little, when my parents went on date nights I would clean the whole friggin house - organize drawers, make beds, arrange sofa cushions - just to surprise them when they came home.

When I first moved to Oregon, I quit my $10/hr office job with benefits, overtime pay, and paid vacations to work at a mom and pop coffee shop for minimum wage. It wasn't just the right decision - it was the ONLY decision.

My favorite students at my host school are the rowdy, disobedient, and checked-out ones. I can't wait to be their teacher.

I'm 5'10" and I still can't win at wrestling spoons. It's just not fair.

I dance around my room for probably 20 minutes a day.

That test that says I'm "the Intern" has absolutely no idea what it's talking about. And I hate yes or no questions since my answer is almost always maybe. Booyah.

I'm in a brand new teacher in the teacher ed master's program at UO built to respond to protests from the community that UO grads were unfit to teach cultural difference to a diverse student population. How cool is that? I'm finally out in the field at a wee rural school in a dying lumber town where the kids are slowly dying from overexposure to sheer, unadulterated CRAP, but I love them with every fiber of my being. Lots of them support themselves or have family childcare responsibilities at 15, 16 years old. I get to bask in the presence of that kind of greatness 100 times over in one day. L-U-C-K-Y.

I'm also living at a Co-op iwith 9 housemates. We cook for each other, have a thriving organic garden, compost and recycle everything, and meet once a week as a consensus household. We are crazy and wonderful and bold and conflicted and trying and failing and a very bright light.

Getting excited (that's what she said!)
Self-motivating
Argentine Tango
Writing
Questioning my assumptions
Skipping the stupid stuff (jealousy, revenge, pride, anger)
Scrabble
Seeing the upside without turning a blind eye to the down
Admitting when I'm wrong
Random skills (i.e. cracking an egg with one hand)

I'm really NOT good at: listening to venting or bitching, small talk, caring about my finances, yelling or expressing anger, resisting cookies

Physically: hmm.....
Socially: I've had a couple people tell me they first noticed my eye contact and...emotive?...approach to people. And I have a great laugh.

Books: Ishmael (Daniel Quinn - read it if you haven't), Brave New World, The Giver, Ecotopia, The Ecology of Commerce, the Ender's Game series, HP's, 1984, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, You Gotta BE the Book

Movies: Fight Club, City of God, Finding Nemo, teacher movies (think Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers), anything Pixar, dystopia movies (V for Vendetta, Equilibrium, The Matrix), superhero movies (The Dark Knight esp.)

Music: eclectic. I get music from people and nowhere else. Right now the favorites are Ani DiFranco, Atmosphere, Yeasayer, TV on the Radio, the Shins, and on and on...

Food: everything except stuff with inconsistent textures. Orange juice with pulp + a jelly donut = my worst nightmare.

1. Like-minded companions
2. Some conception of family
3. Something to write with and on
4. Sunshine
5. A grand scheme to devote my life to (see also: passion)
6. Meaningful physical contact (human and animal)

How to better serve my students
How other people feel and got to be the way they are
The people I love
The next time I get to eat

A) Doing a colossal load of homework, b) home with the roomies for ice cream and movies, or c) in Corvallis making jokes and dinner with my best friend.

I l-o-v-e that song by Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA? Don't even act like you aren't rocking out to it when no one's looking!

you're looking for a redheaded friend who is also awesome. What am I talking about? The two go hand in hand.

AND

you are, at minimum, not racist, homophobic, misogynist, classist, or an oil tycoon, and are generally open for discussion.

PS: Please don't chat at me if we haven't been in contact before. I usually come on here with an agenda I rarely deviate from.