Half southern girl and half California girl. There are bagpipes in my blood. I am an urban gypsy. San Francisco is the love of my life. I am homesick wherever I go. I like to write and I used to paint; lately I'm starting to take it up again. I do local theatre whenever I get the chance. I hope to make a living creatively but fear that I lack the self-discipline. I like to take pictures of interesting things and faces. I might like to take pictures of you. I like intellectuals and people with a good sense of humour; mine can be extremely snarky but I'm okay with that. I am neither simple nor easy. I tend to scare people off with my intensity. I expect a lot from people. I like surprising and complicated people who don't scare easily. I do not like careless or lechy messages. I do not waste my time talking to people with whom I have nothing in common.

I have an embarrassing weakness for musicians, artists, and foreign accents. I don't care half as much about capitalization as I ought to. I indiscriminately switch between American and British spellings.

I think I can safely say I am not going to be what you expect.

"I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger than reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, & when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls." ~ Anaïs Nin

I recently completed graduate school, having earned two simultaneous degrees: a Master's of Education in School Library Media, and a Master's of Liberal Arts focusing on the relationship between text and culture, with an emphasis on fairy tales. I am currently under-employed as a substitute teacher and private tutor. I miss my students every day that I'm not working. I am interested in teaching at university English courses, and I also want to write: children's books, novels, poetry, everything.

In 2010 I spent a month in Ireland and Scotland and made new and interesting friends in both places. I fell in love with Glasgow in particular, and could happily have stayed there forever. I travel as much as I can afford to, and will never stop adding to the list of places I need to see, or revisit.

Sometimes I avoid this site entirely for long periods of time in an effort to minimize distractions from my work. Thus far, I always find my way back. So it might take me an inordinately long time to respond, but if you strike a chord with me, I'll respond eventually. Patience is a virtue (one I could stand to develop more, myself).

cooking, drawing, writing, acting, painting, reading, living, gaming, talking, prop building, copy editing, procrastinating, and singing (loudly, badly) in the car.

I am tall, articulate, and self-possessed. This scares the bejeesus out of most people.

I adore sushi above most things but will eat nearly anything.

Books: The Book Thief, Stardust, The City Not Long After, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the perks of being a wallflower, Catch-22, Crime and Punishment, Fahrenheit 451, The Devil in the White City, Not a Box, I Want My Hat Back, Bridget Jones's Diary, folk and fairy tales, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games trilogy, Little House books, Douglas Adams, Madeleine L'Engle, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Tana French, E.L. Konigsburg, Maggie Stiefvater, David Levithan, John Green, Scott Westerfeld, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Neil Gaiman, J.R.R. Tolkein, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, Frank McCourt, T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Parker, Rod McKuen, Anne Sexton, Shakespeare, classics.

Music: Saints of Valory, Glen Phillips, Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers, Carbon Leaf, the Kin, Death Cab for Cutie, the Decemberists, Brandi Carlile, the Freelance Whales, Harper Blynn, Christabel & the Jons, the everybodyfields, Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Duke Special, Tom Waits, the Smiths, Teitur, Neko Case, Matt Nathanson, Jason Mraz, Beth Orton, Madeleine Peyroux, Joshua Radin, Better than Ezra, Jimmy Eat World, Rilo Kiley, Copeland, Snow Patrol, Radiohead, Portishead, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Neutral Milk Hotel, jump little children, Glen Hansard, most anything on the Rock Boat, classic jazz vocals.

Movies: Amelie, The Prestige, Once, Spider-Man, Bridget Jones's Diary, Elizabethtown, Garden State, Love Actually, Down by Law, 28 days later, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Endurance, Vertigo, Roman Holiday, Harry Potter series, Aladdin, Monsoon Wedding, Edward Scissorhands, Moulin Rouge, Triplets of Belleville, Vengo, Funny Face, When Harry Met Sally, Donnie Darko, Shaun of the Dead, Napoleon Dynamite, Metropolis (1927), Play Time (1967), film noir, Tim Burton, Wong Kar Wai, Hitchcock, Miyazaki.

laughter, books, coffee, my cats, music, and trusted friends.

things I should be writing, painting, creating -- but am not.

lately i have been trying to focus on things i should be writing, then writing them, which is exciting and terrifying and i'm doing the best that i can.

i am also trying to paint and draw again, and i am dabbling in sculpture. time will tell if it sticks.

either camped out at home with books, movies and/or my Mac; out talking, laughing, drinking, playing with friends; or treading the boards at the local community theatre.

I'm an e-stalker. But only if you're interesting.

we share interests, and if you are mature, intelligent, honest, and kind.

I'm primarily interested in making new friends and finding new people to talk to -- I can carry an interesting conversation indefinitely -- but I won't rule out the possibility of something else.

my apologies, but you should not expect an answer if you don't bother to say anything about yourself; if you don't say anything that indicates you looked at more than my picture; if you can't be bothered to type out full words; or if you make blatant (careless) spelling and/or grammatical errors. these are things that matter to me, and help to prevent us both wasting our time.