People who know me well would say that I'm energetic, passionate about an eclectic range of interests, and have a sense of humor leaning to the snarky side. They'd probably also make fun of me for my tendency to dance with joyful abandon to really strange music. True to DC stereotypes, I am a bit of a political junkie/policy wonk and a fairly epic nerd about sort of random things. Interests include playing in music ensembles, cooking, farmers' markets, outdoor adventures, museums, playful debates, failing at sports involving coordination, and interesting conversations with new people.

Also, I'm a Cleveland sports fan. That should give you some important clues into my personality.

I grew up in Ohio, moved to MA for college, and have been here in DC for almost 3 years. Despite nearly 15 years of classical music education, my day job involves working with lots of scientists and engineers at a progressive non-profit.

In the fall I'm headed to Boston for grad school in urban planning.

playing the horn, diplomatically solving problems, and giving massages. I'm a pretty decent swimmer and writer, too.

People always tell me that my eyes light up and I get a big goofy grin on my face when I'm excited about something (which is nearly all the time).

I'm fairly tall, and seem even taller since I still like wearing heels. I also have fairly crazy thick curly hair.

Music: I'm a pretty seriously trained classical musician with a love of contemporary music - Steve Reich, Gyorgy Ligeti, John Adams, David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Steven Mackey, the badass group of composers and artists that make up Bang on a Can... as well as Brazilian music, Dirty Projectors, Beirut, The National, Girl Talk, Bon Iver, Janelle Monae, David Wax Museum, Lake Street Dive, Juanes, and virtually anything else anyone introduces me to. I'm game for just about any cultural event going on, music or no.

Books: Mainly 20th century fiction, including anything by Joyce, Nabokov, J.M Coetzee, Nicholas Mosley, Richard Russo, Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, and Mary Doria Russell, Seamus Heaney's poetry and nonfiction essay collections by fiction writers, including David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen. My "to-read" list grows steadily longer by the day. I could (and sometimes do) spend hours browsing in bookstores. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for feminist YA fiction, including anything by Tamora Pierce.

Movies: definitely a sucker for old movies, having been brainwashed by my father into thinking that The Sting, Gaslight, Witness, North by Northwest and Wait Until Dark are some of the best movies ever made. I enjoy a lot of other movies, but I'm usually slow in getting around to seeing them. I know I will seriously hurt my nerd cred by admitting that it took me 23 years to see the original Star Wars movies. On the TV front, I've probably memorized at least half of the West Wing series, and watched every episode of Firefly and Buffy more than once. I LOVE nature documentaries, but am disappointed when they're not narrated by David Attenborough.

Food: Pretty much anything. I prefer to cook/order vegetarian (or at least pescetarian), but have been known to cheat with especially delicious barbecue ribs and holiday turkey. I'll eat almost anything that involves ginger, garlic, basil, cilantro, and/or cayenne pepper.

1. my instrument, and access to a place where people don't mind/can't hear me practicing
2. a nearby body of water. It doesn't matter if it's the ocean, a large pool, or a pond, if I can swim in it, I'm happy.
3. coffee.
4. lots of bookshelves. my book collection expands to fit the space I have to store them
5. a passport. My list of places to travel is almost as long as my list of books to read.
6. As much as it pains me to realize it, my cell phone.

Systems, and how they can be more effective. This can be anything from the way the government is structured to the way progressives organize themselves, to the way my roommate loads the dishwasher.

Pesky and totally impractical "how" and "why" questions- I never really outgrew that stage of childhood. Recent example: Why did elephants evolve trunks, and not, say, more flexible knees or giraffe-style necks? I'm also the kind of person who enjoys deriving mathematical formulas to see how they work and making excel spreadsheets that calculate things, even when the time it takes to set up the spreadsheet far outweighs its usefulness.

How much I miss playing music every day, and whether I miss it enough to deal with the less fun parts of a musician's life.

I spend more time than I should composing overly long explanations to questions on okcupid- I was always better at extended response than multiple choice tests...

That and how I can best procrastinate whatever I'm supposed to be doing at that moment.

My weekends tend to involve house parties in Columbia Heights/Mt Pleasant, farmer's markets, random concerts, long bike rides, coffee shops, and new recipes I've been dying to try but don't have time to make during the week.

my "anxiety dream" involves being back on my old synchronized swimming team, a week before a major competition, knowing absolutely nothing of the routine I'm supposed to be performing.

You want to know more about me. We have things in common. You've enjoyed listening to anything by Louis Andriessen. You know of music groups in need of a good horn player.