About me: I'm the intellectual adventurous type. I'm usually quite irreverent but can also be very shy. Although I appreciate creature comforts and design, I would rather have an enriching experience than something to keep in the living room. My friends are very important to me, perhaps more so since I am an only child of a single mother. I'm a romantic but I don't like to admit it. Grew up with hyper-pragmatic people so I can hum a few bars pretty well. I have an Irish scrappiness and foolhardiness that some find charming. I refrain from breaking out into ballads while in fancy restaurants. I find perkiness, especially before 11 am, to be offensive and bad for the environment.

Here is a brief user guide to me and my reaction to various situations:

Happy with:
A stellar library
A rockin' bookstore, like Housing Works in Soho
A funky cafe with great gazpacho and lots of people watching
James River Wetlands (especially shared with equally appreciative party)
A sea or ocean...mebbe the Aegean?
Eating good food in a beautiful place, outside, with even better conversation
At home hanging out with my cat or your dogs/cats/chinchilla named Max
Just crickets at 12:30 am, the early fall, and general stillness

Not so happy:
At a sporting event
Someplace where the music's too loud to be able to hear each other speak
At a chain restaurant, which fortunately rarely happens nowadays

I'm a teacher/writer/editor.

During the school year my schdedule gets crazy. I'm busy most of the time except for some Friday nights and Sat. nights. Have lots of lofty and non-lofty goals but I try to make it a rule to talk as little as possible about them and instead just complete as many as I can.

Making you laugh, keeping you guessing, telling a story, listening, having long winding conversations, surprises, meeting the parents, multitasking, being cozy, being there.

I have no idea really. I would be curious to know.

Some are books and some are authors in general:
Crime and Punishment, Catcher in the Rye (yay for unreliable narrators), Larry Levis' Selected, Shakespeare & Hamlet, Oscar Wilde, Rilke's The Duino Elegies, Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You, Cormac McCarthy's The Road; S.E. Hinton's stuff, Sam Shepard's plays, Carson McCullers, Chris Offutt's nonfiction; let's talk about the rest. (I really hope I didn't spell any of those names wrong. I try not to Google after midnight, so will risk it....)

Movies: Annie Hall, Kurasawa's Dreams; Days of Heaven; When the Cat's Away and anything by Cedric Klapisch; Party Girl (early Parker Posey), tons more....

Music: Neko Case, LCD Soundsystem, Of Montreal, TV On the Radio, Thievery Corporation, Tricky, Moby, Nina Simone, old stuff like The Fall, The Smiths, The Chameleons

Food: Mediterranean, healthy. Edo's Squid, Mezzanine. Ipanema. Wine.

something to read
water
Green & Black's extra dark chocolate
swimming
engaging conversation
coffee

Ideas. Always notions of what's possible. Cultural concepts. (I said I'm nerdy, right?) Lately it's the notions of wickedness and goodness. What's good....?
Newton's been on my mind lately too. What a strange, solitary life.
I think about the natural world. How it all works. How so much is going on around us that's invisible. I think about other people in other parts of the world and what their realities are. I think about where I'm going. I think about my friends and about the people I've known over the years.

Relaxing, having a drink with a friend. Hanging out on my balcony. Making a leisurely dinner. Or going out to eat with a friend in Carytown. I like to leave Friday nights open and keep things spontaneous.

I can do a killer barred owl call. That is really, really dorky, but I will admit it.

You're feeling it.