A friend once said I’m an introvert who does a good job pretending to be an extrovert. Not quite sure what that means, but I think she was intending it as a complement. I’m getting settled into California after eight of wandering, trying lots of different things and pretty effectively avoiding the 9 – 5 work day. For several years I was a community organizer, then I considered becoming a professional potter and worked as an apprentice. Then I bailed on the US, traveling for a year in South America and living for two years in Paraguay. Now I’m excited to make a place for myself in the US again.

I love tea, books, yoga, furry creatures, wine, biking everywhere, the great outdoors, being south of the equator, laughter, ceramics, salsa dancing, effective progressive politics, thrift stores, being places where you can't hear a single car/airplane/boat/engine-of-any-sort, public radio (especially KEXP), learning things that help me understand the beauty/hurt of our world, thinking strategically, glue sticks, and celebrating the end of eight years of really bad policy. Though I can be focused and serious, I’m also quite good at laughing, relaxing, enjoying life and being silly.

Mostly two masters degrees in three years, Public Policy/International Studies. Trying to figure out how to effectively work towards social change. I mean, what’s it all about if not striving to make the world a little bit more humane…?

Knitting things that are flat; eating strawberries dipped in sour cream dipped in brown sugar; entertaining myself for hours/days/months on end, being happy in my life, being outraged at state of the world, reading fiction and immediately forgetting it, not getting mad when my kittens wake me up at 6:00/5:30/4:00 am, shamelessly making faces at children to elicit laughter, drinking lots of wine without acquiring vocabulary like ‘hints of smoked raspberry with an oaky finish,” explaining microeconomics to undergraduates, being happy with the little things, being comfortable with uncertainty, standing on my head, other stuff too….

Full disclosure: I am very bad at spelling, remembering names, putting up with arrogance/entitlement, paying attention in my "Nonprofit Financial Management" class, trivial pursuit, attention to detail, and writing about myself to a strange, absent audience.

hair and height? my winning smile?

On my shelf now: Hesse, Faulkner, Dostoevsky, Jeanette Winterson, Allende, Bell Hooks, Silverstein, Martin Ames, Steinbeck, Chomsky, John Lewis, E.O. Wilson, Mary Daly, J.K. Rawlings (I know, but at least it’s in Spanish), Wharton, Langston Hughes, Edwardo Galeano, Kingsolver, Sandra Cisneros, Ntozake Shange, Philip Roth, Nabokov, Michael Polon, Augusten Burroughs, Lucille Clifton, Angela Davis.

I’d rather not do without: family, books, breath, hope and chocolate ice cream.

The only car I have ever owned was a 1991 white geo tracker with pastel decals on the outside, turquoise seats and a zip-off roof. Think male cheerleader. My boss at the time said she thought it was a good fit for my personality. We didn’t get along very well after that.