An old friend from college recently visited me and noted what a fancy, grown-up, lady I had become. "We all look the same under our costumes," I replied. Because while I can be startlingly professional now, I'm generally the 1st on a dance floor, can swear like a sailor, like to play Twister, collect thrift store ball gowns, take walks late at night, and will sometimes be prone to emo listening moments.

I'm fiercely independent, opinionated but open to debate, loyal, talkative when I'm tired, passionate about lots of things, a list maker, an adventurous pragmatist.

I am intrepid, precocious, and fairly tall

At 36, I no longer stress out about this question. Oh, you couldn't pay me to go back to my 20s. After almost 10 years in arts administration I've recently stepped into my 1st adult career change. I am now a massage therapist and yoga teacher (who dabbles in grant writing to keep my left brain happy and the bills paid). I absolutely love it. It's been a fairly life-changing couple of years for me. But lest you be misled, I'm still a slightly sarcastic, often too intellectualizing, cocktail drinking, east coast Jew.

Lending an opinion. Planning, and sometimes over-planning. Making cocktails. Instigating a dance party. Pretending to be a professional, but staying true to my riot grrl roots.

My curls.

Books: Interpreter of Maladies, Written on the Body, Middlesex, Alice in Wonderland, The Inheritance of Loss, A People's History of the United States, Anna Karenina, whatever I'm reading at the moment.

Movies: Okay, I'm kind of a snob about this. I'm not proud of it though. I've tried to enjoy the romcom that everyone loves, or the laugh until your gut hurts comedy that's killing at the box office. I think I took too many film theory classes in school. I genuinely love French New Wave films, Film Noir, Cassavetes, foreign films and documentaries. I recently fell in love with Beasts of the Southern Wild. But my all time favorites include: Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Wings of Desire, The Thin Man, Singin' in the Rain, Velvet Goldmine, Funny Face, Barbarella. I also have an absurd addiction to costume dramas based on classic literature. It's kind of embarrassing.

Music: Radiohead, MIA, Serge Gainsbourg, White Stripes, The Kills, St. Vincent, Bowie, Lou Reed, Nina Simone, Ana Moura, Pixies, early 90's hip-hop, French music, whatever's on the radio that makes me dance around the kitchen table on a Sunday morning. Also, I'm convinced that Pandora knows too much about my life, as the week after watching two different movies about Joy Division it started playing a lot of them on a channel that really shouldn't.

Food: Indian, Ethiopian/Eritrean, Japanese, fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains... and gin. I'm mostly vegan, but it's so not an issue for me what others eat. Go on, eat your bacon if you really want. It just means we won't get to share.

Theatre, cocktails, yoga, Mexico... ways to combine theatre, cocktails, and yoga trips to Mexico.

Amended to say, I now find myself thinking a lot about muscle groups, anatomy, and somatics at the most random times. Who knew?

Lately it's been at restorative yoga classes. But I realize that makes me sound horribly boring on a dating site. Drinking wine with friends is also a frequent option. I'm really much better with Saturday or Sunday nights though.

I don't really know how to ride a bike, but I'm slowly warming up to the idea of learning again.

Update: I have the cutest blue mixte that I'm learning to ride!

You generally show up to things on time, and you don't take your phone out at the table. Everything else is negotiable.