UGH the dreaded self summary. It's not so much that I can't summarize myself but more how to keep it from sounding like a sales pitch..."Not your average full-size chick, with a 5-star rating and a few degrees to boot, 5'3 frame, soft interior with extra trunk space...(insert speed talking fine print here...)"

I'm a creative turned researcher...next stop for me...Clinical PhD. I walked away from a long career in advertising and publishing after a 3 hour meeting about an off color left me thinking that 3 hours of my life were gone and not a single life has been saved or changed for the better...there had to be more to my life than this...so off I went in search of it. Don't get me wrong, I respect the field I just burned out. Really, I love creatives, some of my best friends are creatives...

I like to think I am pretty laid back about most things. I could easily sit on the floor with a beer and a slice of pizza and play video games or watch Anime all day, then get dressed and go to the opera and afterward come home to a glass of burgundy and analyze data using linear regression. Sexy huh?

I am incurably curious about everything and everyone. I can be a bit geeky (or is it nerdy)...in any case, I love to learn and experience new things, and to see the world through perspectives different from my own.

Let's see...Finished the masters and I start a Clinical PhD program this fall, (that pesky thesis is still hanging around.)...Slid off the health kick but I am trying to get back on. The 5K, learning the guitar and a language have all been put on hold until after my move. Right now I am teaching a few college classes and trying to downsize my belongings! It is definitely a busy time but if you think you want to be a part of it drop me a line. xxx K

I am also connecting myself to a few social issues I care about:

Peak Oil
Adjusting my life for the inevitable. Check out the first 5 min of this video (although I chose to watch the whole thing...it is definitely educational!!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBz0PE1QXaU&feature=related

* Making people feel at ease.
* Getting to the heart of the matter.
* Seeing the positives in any sitatution.
* Although I don't do it often, but I have been told I am a pretty good cook. I make a great tomato sauce from scratch which ends up being the basis for my Bolognese and homemade pizza. I also make great rustic pies both savory and sweet.

Recently on a first meeting someone said to me that I haven't any idea how really cool I am...if that was the first thing he noticed that would be pretty cool, however it wasn't apparently the first thing he noticed is that I am, as he put it, "sexy and tiny" (short). All of it made me smile!

My new friend notwithstanding it depends on what they are looking at exactly but usually people comment on my smile, my eyes or my complexion. But I am sure they can't help but also notice I am a pleasant, round, brown girl.

Books: The Alchemist is my favorite book but closely followed by Watership Down, LOTR, The Hobbit, Girl (yes by Kevin Taylor..what? It's a book!), The Alienist, White Teeth, Mount Misery, Submission, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, ...anything by E.E. Cummings, Nikki Giovanni, and Henry David Thoreau...

I don't watch much TV but I love HOUSE, CSI, Bones & Law and Order, Star Trek, Through the Wormhole and Inside the Actor's Studio... I am newly addicted to Being Human, The Big Bang Theory, Sherlock and Downton Abbey.

As far as movies: I loved LOTR, HP, Great Expectations, Waking Life, Watership Down, Matrix, Underworld, The Truth about Cats and Dogs, The Human Stain, Crash, and Eat, Pray, Love, almost anything animated...

Music: I listen to everything from Live to Drake to 3 Doors Down to Vivaldi. I am probably particular to alternative rock and pop alt. I am loving Lake Street Dive, The Fray, The Calling, Leela James and Maxwell lately.

I enjoy theater, opera and ballet

My favorite food is Indian or Middle Eastern followed by Thai, Italian, Caribbean and Southern in no particular order. I'm a pretty good cook but want to take cooking classes someday...maybe a chef's boot camp? Oh and I love Pinkberry!

Some things go without saying (God, friends, family & lotion) so I am picking 6 other things...
1) Lip gloss
2) Kissing & Laughing (they really do go together honest!)
3) Cell (even if I don't answer it lol)
4) Learning
5) A plan with an escape route
6) Something sweet

...I've gone from thinking about where I want to go for my PhD program, to wondering what they will think about my application, to wondering how I am going to move and get ready for classes this fall. This process continues...sigh.

...how to make Intro to Psychology interesting for my students. and how to be an inspiring teacher.

...The how and where of living abroad someday

...My thesis and how I can motivate myself to write more and faster.

...What's next? What I need to do to be the person I want to be. I am always working on myself in one way or another.

Now that I am 18 weeks away from moving. It is all about paring down and going with the bare essentials...feel free to save me from all the logistics...any time!

UPDATE! Apparently this grad student thing does not change after graduation. It must be some kind of affliction because I am still curling up with my journal articles and my data set...WTH! Oh research wherefore art thou never-ending...

If you can see that I visited your profile it is because I am interested in talking to you.

Sometimes I indulge in a little reality TV as a guilty pleasure, which I excuse as a good practice for my career as a psychologist.

Oh yeah and I like Freud. (Is that nerdy or geeky?)

You are open to making new friends or looking for a lease with an option to buy...

I'm KN0W (that's k n zero w) on Words With Friends, come play!