I'm a mom. I'm a reader. I'm a nonsmoker who struggles every day to stay that way.

I like my life, with all its faults and quirkiness. Also, I like to be truthful, which cuts way down on unnecessary drama. This is the year I am facing my remaining fears and moving forward anyway. It's one of the main reasons I'm a worthwhile person to get to know.

I am hoping to get together with people who have an authentic, essential kindness and love for life. Oh, and I'm allergic to religious fanatics and intolerance.

If you are still reading this...some other things I like are swimming, driving, singing, writing, going to the movies, and daydreaming about running away to live in a cabin in the North Carolina mountains.

I like fireworks, avocados, museums, train travel, photography, and aimless wandering. And I like listening to really good lyric driven music with interesting vocal quality.

I'm also starting to appreciate peace and quiet more these days, as a way to become centered and calm.

Editors

• vrimj

Short answer, not enough.

I should be writing more. And singing more. And doing vast amounts of unsaleable but highly satisfying visual art.

Mostly, though, I'm working and trying to muddle through being the stable grownup, which -frankly- is highly frikken overrated.

I'd love to meet some local people who like art museums, interesting movies, or long conversations. Nothing momentous, necessarily...

Editors

• vrimj

My job. Driving fast. Sleeping late. :)

Sometimes, I can be highly perceptive in helping others to work out their problems. My own? Yeah, not so much.

It's not the color of my eyes... except if I've been crying, then they are neon toothpaste blue and hard to miss. Ooh, also I can move both eyes independently like Marty Feldman. Quite attractive!

You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. Anything by David Sedaris. Lots and lots of SF... books, not movies, esp SF by women authors such as Sheri S. Tepper, C.J. Cherryh, Sharon Shinn, Kristine Katheryn Rusch, and Ursula K. Leguin. Oh- and Sue Grafton's detective mysteries. Other authors I like include Gene Wolfe, Neal Stephenson, Raymond Carver, Terry Goodkind, Elizabeth George, Greg Bear. Kim Stanley Robinson, Tad Williams, Robert Silverburg, Dan Simmons, Stephen R. Donaldson, Gregory Maguire and on and on and on. I hate to be caught anywhere without a book- getting stuck waiting without something to read is zero fun.

Also zero fun? Self help books. I loathe them. Nonfiction is great, but preachy I-have-it-all-figured-out-and-you-don't nonfiction isn't.

My top picks include Monk, Psych, House, Iron Chef, Antiques Roadshow, and House Hunters.

The newest show I've started watching is In Plain Sight, which is about a woman who is an agent for the witness protection program. I like the show because the main female protagonist is just about equal parts badass and smartass, and very humanly flawed.

I also record a variety of educational programs to watch with my kid, which beats the heck out of channel surfing.

While I like movies, I don't get to see many. Also, I pick the ones I do see often for the strangest reasons. And I can't abide horror... the background music makes me so edgy I have no fun at all. :( I loved the movie Stranger Than Fiction with Will Farrell. I also got a big kick out of Shaun Of The Dead. I'd see more films if someone would go to the oddball non blockbuster stuff with me, but I'm not an angstridden film buff. Oh, and every year I have to watch Home for the Holidays at least once before the relatives descend on my house for Thanksgiving. It keeps things in perspective.

Honestly, I'm a sucker for happy endings and endless optimism, which pretty much explains why I continue to experiment in the kitchen. Every improvised recipe is an expression of faith: every success a victory for lady luck, every failure a sure sign of the hand of cruel, cruel fate.

Still, you'd probably find a favorite among my dishes.

I'm a big fan of roasted asparagus and red peppers. Mushrooms. Onions. Scallops. Sushi. A perfectly cooked medium rare sirloin. Sweet potatoes.

And chocolate. Chocolate is it's own paragraph, it's own Elizabeth Barrett Browning sonnet. For me, anyway.

As for music, here's a partial list of my favorites: Tom Petty, Regina Spector, The Ditty Bops, Jason Webley, Andru Bemis, Trampled by Turtles, Danielle Howle, The Dresden Dolls, Kimya Dawson, Annie Lennox, Michelle Shocked, Stephen Soundheim, Tom Waits, and Etta James.

I think the common thread is that you can't really dance to most of that music. Or I shouldn't, anyway.

Editors

• vrimj

My daughter. My eyesight. My vocabulary. A sense of wonder. And- god help me- my DVR. Oh, and music... I mean sex. No, music. (sex)

This is so difficult.

Where I want to be and how I'm going to get there.

I used to just lose myself in work for long periods of time, but I don't do that anymore. My priorities are really my friends and family now. I'm good at my job, but it is just a paycheck and the means by which I am able to live a good life.

Working and then maybe going for a late night drive along the beach or staying up until dawn trying to get to the end of the book I'm currently hooked on.

I think most people would like to have more closeness and connectivity in their lives, and I'm like most people. :)

Message me for your own reasons, just be honest about what they are. I'd really love to expand my circle of friends, so if you think we might hit it off, please write.

*note: If you are creepy or meanspirited, try someone else. I'm not 22, naive, or easily initimidated. I'll just block your butt, so why waste the time?