I laugh often and easily. My sense of humor is sharp, dark, and ever so slightly bitter--like perfect chocolate. I avoid malice when I mock.

I contemplate the lint in my belly button, but despise new age excuses and approaches to meditation.

I am active but not terribly athletic. I do have a history as a wrestler though. I look ridiculous in a singlet.

I am a chatty kathy.

I am not good at asking for help.

I am changing my world view all the time. This is not meant to convince you that I am not opinionated, rather that I learn through the discussions. I am optimistic about the future, though terrified about the steps taken in the interim. I make progress by first projecting the places where problems are likely to crop up, and then work through the problem. Sometimes this approach is misunderstood as negative. Just how my brain is wired to think. I enjoy puzzling through the problems--at least when in a supportive environment.

There are moments after which everything is different. Perhaps we recognize them, but I would like to anticipate them. There is something about that transformation--whether a moment of enlightenment or more likely a slow pathway that serves to change the vantage point that moves me. I changed the way I see mostly through art. My visual vocabulary is quite distinct from many, and the distance between the esoteric and the everyday has got me thinking it isn't the art, but the shifts that came along with learning it that I value.

bringing a side dish that works with your main course.

I will guess my glasses

Books: Cockpit, the Man who Fell in Love with the Moon, Stupidity, the Corrections, Slow Man, How We Decide

Movies: In the Mood for Love, Mysterious Skin, Dogtooth, Match Factory Girl

TV: the Wire, America's Next Top Model, True Blood, Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Nurse Jackie

Music: Beck, Queen, Boomtown Rats, Coco Rosie, Modest Mouse, John Frusciante, Anthony and the Johnsons

Foods: so hard to say. I love food, many many kinds of food. Love cooking, enjoy going to a good market, love going to restaurants. I love Korean-especially the pan-shan. Who doesn't love a good yemisir wat? I have a tendency toward pork tenderloin because chef's know conservative eaters tend to choose the beef. Love a good walleye pike, oyster spiked with kumquat and shallots, lamb masala, and hell, what kind of food don't I like? I am more dedicated to savory food than deserts, am shy about offal and blood though I have tried all of it. Love me an exotic pickle, a spice I never tasted before, and have been known to squeal with delight over a flavor-infused air pillow. I love robust complicated flavor, saucy and spicy, and comfort with flair. I seem to be almost religiously drawn to peasant foods from all over the place. Love the stories that come with the dish.

coffee, good shoes, leafy green veggies, a good argument, a time and place to talk things out with myself, a chance for a do-over

I wonder why people get all caught up in pursuing the purpose of life. I recently had a flash of insight that I could compare my life to a birthday present. Some gifts do have a purpose, but the ones we treasure most are rarely utilitarian. What if the best version of my life doesn't serve a function either. Aren't the best lives a tad messy?

I have a celebrity crush: Jonah Lehrer. I wonder how watching a video of him feels like flirting. I know his recent fall from grace should change this. Honestly--makes me love him more. He has a set of flaws I can deal with. Makes me feel needed.

I wonder a lot about how to make my familiar ingredients exciting and new, and how to get the perfect crumb in a good loaf of sourdough bread. I wonder where the next flavor revelation is going to come from. I wonder why cuisine has so much more success encouraging health than nutritional science.

I think a lot about the difference between teaching that provides access to correct answers and services development toward degrees, and encounter with new approaches to thinking that change direction and change lives. I wonder why we get so bad at learning at a certain point in our lives, and I wonder why we keep repeating things that we know have consistently failed before.

I haunt my share of gallery openings. I am often out for a casual drink.

I am caught between two fears: making myself vulnerable and not making myself vulnerable.

if you value a good conversation with a good meal. If you enjoy social cooking. If you want to check out some great art. If you want to teach me how to garden. If you need quality time with a beautiful rambunctious dog. If you want to argue with me about education.