I love the moments when you laugh so hard that you start to cackle and lose your breath. This happens to me a lot - even thinking about The Big Lebowski or Always Sunny can send me into hysterics. My weekends so far this summer have been spent taking trips to exotic locations like Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Cleveland and Buffalo, NY are on the list for later this summer. I'm currently re-learning how to roller skate to fulfill my childhood roller derby dreams.

I love making mixes for all occasions. High Fidelity clearly resonated with me on many levels - maybe because the best job I ever had was working at a record store in college. Free demos from labels, illegal bootlegs, hocking "tobacco" water pipes, and random arguments about whether or not all modern rock can be linked back to this one Muddy Waters album. Glorious. It's amazing to think about how I got here from there.

I love hole-in-the-wall dive bars - the dirtier, the better. Sticky jager residue on the walls, drafts that include micros and PBR, and a jukebox ranging 60 years and I know I've found a gem. I really like the idea of cowboy boots but not the reality of them. I love getting REAL mail and letters - way more than email. I'm dying to go on a hot air balloon ride.

Awesome research (well, I think it's awesome). Molding young minds. Sweet statistical analyses. Reading about the human genome. Meeting new people in Iowa, visiting old friends all over. Filling up my passport with stamps . Learning how to cook without burning down the house. Learning how to roller skate without breaking my face.

Cleaning and organizing. Picking just the right song for just the right moment. Pop-culture trivia. Historical randomness. Robot dancing. Someday - cooking and roller skating, maybe even at the same time.

My laugh. My sarcastic sense of humor. My fabulous eyewear.

Books, music, movies - these things matter! Call me shallow, it's the f**king truth.

Books: Anything written by Chuck Palahniuk, Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut or Douglas Coupland. Awesome YA fiction from the 1970s (Judy Blume knew all the secrets to life). David Sedaris. Amy Sedaris. Biographies.

Music: Too many to list. All time faves include Radiohead, Stars, Arcade Fire, M83, Amanda Palmer/Dresden Dolls, Sufjan Stevens, !!!, Bon Iver, Florence + the Machine, Mates of State, The National, Bloc Party, Magnetic Fields, Belle & Sebastian, Yeasayer, Of Montreal, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cure, Beck, The New Pornographers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bjork, Peter, Bjorn, & John.

Currently spinning new releases from: Bear in Heaven, Hot Chip, Fang Island, Orbital, Fiona Apple, Of Monsters and Men, The Walkmen, Metric, The Antlers, Passion Pit.

I'm not religious but if there is a God and he is male, his name is Bruce Springsteen.

I am also in the midst of exploring jazz and R&B of the early 60s - thank you, Mad Men.

Movies: Fight Club, The Big Lebowski, Almost Famous, The Prestige, Ghostbusters, Back To the Future, High Fidelity, Goodfellas. Pretty much anything made by Burton, Nolan, Fincher, the Cohen Bros, Anderson, Scorcese, and Allen will be movies I love.

Shows: Always Sunny, Arrested Development, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men. Loved Freaks and Geeks. I have the full series of Six Feet Under - my favorite show of all time.

Food: Seafood, Italian, Indian - new things I haven't tried yet.

something that plays music nearby me
walking/running shoes
my family and friends
traveling
my puppy
raspberries - they are the perfect berry.

child psychopathology, genetics, new recipes, college football, my friends, my next mix CD, the crazy reviews I see on Pitchfork, my family, future travels, climate change, math

maybe at happy hour or dinner with friends, sitting outside and enjoying the twilight

I'm scared of clowns. And puppets. Hence, traveling to Prague, while beautiful, involved overcoming some fears.

You want to laugh a lot, find a new dive bar, or cook something that burns down my house.