I am an entrepreneur, world traveler, and day dreamer. I am passionate for learning about and experimenting with new ways of living and working in community. My current focus in this domain revolves around organizing locally owned businesses to nourish community strength, and ecovillages as a sustainable model for community-based living.

*rolls eyes* That sounds so cheesy and serious. True as it is, keep reading for more interesting and playful stuff.

I'm busy, driven to accomplish things, and love connecting with cool people. I can be conversational, but my conversations are rarely surface-level. I think a lot about almost everything, and talk a lot about what I'm thinking. I don't know what else to say about this, except that you've been forewarned. Current topics of conversation include: the nature of consciousness and how to evolve it; what love and intimacy really are and how to be open to it; what really is community and how do we nurture it; local food, local economies, and building the systems to support them.

I love growing, preparing and sharing food with people I love. I support local farms and markets, and this season I'm blogging about my experience as a CSA member.

I've had a lot of different jobs (including driving a school bus, teaching kindergarten, and dancing on a beer tub) and don't think my tendencies to keep my plate full will change any time soon. My response to whatever I feel (which is a lot), is to act upon those feelings. You know those folks who are paralyzed by overanalyzing everything? I am so not one of those people.

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And just for the fun of it, here are a few things I adore:

I love rainshowers, especially thunderstorms with dark rolling clouds. I love girls who wear glasses. I love a good pair of jeans. I love long hot baths with a good book and sarah mclachlan. (her music, I've never been able to bathe with her) I love wearing dangly earrings. I love rainbows, and those fluffy clouds that look like cotton balls. I love bowling balls. I love wearing swishy skirts. I love babies. I love laughter. I love hardwood floors, and soft warm rugs to rub your feet on. I love drafty old churches with lots of burning candles. I love the spark that occurs when you look someone in the eye. I love talking to strangers, even when it makes me blush. I love public transportation. I love city lights. I love enough darkness to see the stars. I love wheat fields. I love lying in grass. I love hearing "I love you." I love my eyebrows. I love hippie boys with beards. I love the smell of books. I love my crazy cat. I love the feel of trees - the texture of the bark, the strength of the giant from the tips to the roots. I love digging in the earth to find big fat juicy earthworms. I love new fragile plants as they erupt from their seeds.

I love wearing sandals, the flicker of candlelight, and Audrey Hepburn movies. I love the spark of life that we all share, that is in the bees and the trees and the breathing of the wind.

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Sexual Orientation
I know I am listed as bisexual, which is pretty much true...but I am mostly interested in relationships with men. Don't get me wrong...women are *lovely,* but I am sort of crazy enough for one relationship, and crave the grounded surety that masculinity seems to provide for me.

Also, when I say crazy, it's in the fun-to-be-with crazy; distinguished from *psycho.* I know a lot about who I am and what I need and am better than most at communicating such things.

The most important thing to take away from my stated orientation is that I cannot be in a relationship with anyone who is staunchly against homosexuality, and if you're even slightly homophobic, you'll probably find yourself uncomfortable around me or my community.

Editors

• John5280

working, learning, dreaming, growing, building, laughing, traveling, loving

Also - doing my best to learn the lessons life has to offer, without becoming one of those people who are bitter and cynical and closed to magical experiences.

I want to be one of those beautiful old ladies with lots of close friends who knows how to care for people and when to let go; whose heart has only expanded from life and love and loss; who knows enough about who she is and what she has to provide. Who gives good hugs and smells nice and is always baking something delicious. Is it weird to know what kind of old lady I want to be?

Coming across more seriously than I think I am. Jumping right in and not looking back. Translating grand schemes into reality. Cracking myself up with random and obscure jokes/references that most people wouldn't understand. Falling completely in love the first time I'm with someone. Infectious smiles. Tetris. Blueberry pancakes. Growing tomatoes and random kitchen herbs. Starting projects and not finishing them. Giggling. Being inspired by almost anything, and spending my waking hours on half a dozen projects meant to change the world. Seriously.

my smile. that I'm short. my laughter. (it's loud, it's bold, it's hard to ignore)

books: the ones that make me reconsider ideas, learn something new, or cry my heart out.

I'll read anything by Paulo Coehlo, Kahlil Gibran, Barbara Kingsolver, Marge Piercy, Czeslaw Milosz & Tom Robbins, and had a childhood love affair with Tolstoy, Twain and Bronte.

Recent adored titles (fiction and non) include: Deep Economy, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Time Traveler's Wife, the Ender series, Dune series, Woman on the Edge of Time, A Door Into Ocean, Harry Potter, Songlines, Ecotopia, the Songmaster, Life of Pi, Story of B, and other random obscure science fiction. (the good kind; I leave Star Trek and Star Wars to TV and movies)

movies: I love action films like no other. and the occasional film that touches on something sacred, divine or part of the universal human experience.

Specific favorite films: The Princess Bride, Office Space, Fight Club, many of Hitchcock's works, Harold & Maude, Kill Bill, Snatch, Serenity, The Matrix, Elizabeth, Little Miss Sunshine, Monty Python and pretty much any action movie ever made.

music: folk, blues, and 70's psychedelic rock. anything I can dance to. i enjoy almost every kind of music if i'm experiencing it first-hand. I have a (not-so) secret love of bluegrass.

Currently playing: Devotchka, Bela Karoli, Leonard Coehn, The Decemberists, Feist, Iron and Wine, Grand Archives, and my new favoritist local artist is Danielle Ate the Sandwich. I listen a lot to Colorado artists Jen Korte and the Loss, John Common and Matt Morris. All good peeps.

food: I'm a vegetarian and love Indian, Thai and Ethiopian food. I'm a mean cook and love to prepare food to share with friends. I favor lattes from local coffee houses and spend a fair amount of time drinking Colorado beers. I still can't figure out how to enjoy cabbage, although this year I tackled my distaste for kale in a serious way.

radio/TV: I've recently become addicted to NPR and can't go back to standard commercial radio. I LOVE This American Life, Car Talk, Radio Lab, Science Fridays and A Prairie Home Companion. I am a fan of a few TV series (although I hate most TV and esp. the commercials): Heroes, West Wing, The Simpsons, Northern Exposure, South Park, Firefly, Pushing Daisies and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

friends. pajamas. wikipedia. eggplant. music. babies.

Alright, so I feel I should say more:

Friends: What is life without people we love to share it with?

Pajamas: The only reason to wear clothes. I like dressing up on occasion, but I love pajamas more.

Wikipedia: I'm a geek and really like geeks. But this is more than just appreciation for a cool web site; what I really couldn't live without is access to learning, to knowing about something I'm curious about.

Eggplant: Like the fact that Breakfast at Tiffany's has always been my favorite movie, this one is impossible to explain. It's just that way.

Music: I'm not an artist, so I must have them (and their work) around.

Babies: I adore children. I'm still struggling with whether I want to be a mother in this lifetime - so one thing is certain: I will always have children in my life, and they bring me endless joy.

my work, my house, traveling, goats, the future

how do we alter the american culture of entitlement? will i have enough time to do all the things i want to? what actions matter the most and how do we build communities that are healthy and sustainable? how is it possible for any one person to burn so much? will i be a mother in this life, or do we have too many people as it is? where did i leave that book? when will i write that book? how the heck can we get from here to there in the most graceful way possible? will i ever be graceful?

And yes, I think a lot about goats, really.

Dinner with friends, dinner at home, some business social event, or an event my organization is hosting. I love good Colorado beer on a patio in the summer or a local music show at one of the dozens of lovely venues popping up all over the city.

Despite all of my brash, aggressive, bold audaciousness, I am most afraid of being unloved.

We really aren't all that different.

You know what you're passionate about and capable of and not afraid to pursue those things. If you love conversations about life, the universe and everything. If you can stand on your own two feet and face the uncertainties of life without crumbling under the pressure of the unknown. If the fact that life is uncertain is in the least bit exciting to you.

If you like to disrupt the normal everydayness of most of life. (I freaking love that)

My housemate has advised me to be more specific in this section. So...

You should message me if...

- you can hold your own in a conversation and aren't easily intimidated by strong personalities (that's me)
- you can relate to my "books, movies and music" selections
- you have a solid handle on your passions and interests and like sharing them with others
- you're comfortable creating relationships that don't fit the traditional (fear-based, marriage-driven) models
- you want to drag me out of my house for fun, adventure or other play

You should NOT message me if:

- we're less than a 70% match. I've answered a lot of questions and answered them that way for a reason
- you're just looking to add a woman for your threesome. I really need to know you first.
- you consider yourself jealous or are threatened by the idea of an open relationship
- you know you want to get married
- you smoke cigarettes. They gross me out and I'll be totally judgmental about it.
- you think people who think things need to change in the world are crazy. You wouldn't like me.

Editors

• Artemystic