I like exploring, playing make-believe, singing, rocking out, dancing, cooking, reading too much, & dinosaurs. It's among my greatest aspirations to rock the keytar, though I'd probably settle for just holding one & maybe banging out "chopsticks". I take comfort in knowing that I'm still not too old to want to go to basement shows. I like making acapella covers of songs & I'm currently working on "I Woke Up in Love This Morning." People take guesses at my ethnicity on an average of twice a week, strangers & not-so-strangers alike. I love my job, but I still think about what I'll be when I grow up (rockstar, chef, paleontologist, mermaid). I get carded at R-rated movies. I probably shouldn't kiss my mother with this mouth.

I teach high school English in the Bronx, which means I get to pretend to be a grown-up, but I can still get to stay up late all summer & feel like a badass when I go to shows on weeknights.

commanding the attention of 14-year-olds, making ridiculous desserts, stupid voices, nicknaming, being handy, wearing hats (literally and metaphorically)

Probably my hair. People always want to touch it, which is weird for me. It is apparently blacker than anyone can understand.
Next is definitely my awesome rack.

I love books & I have enough to build a functional fort. I read a lot of young adult literature (I use 'being able to keep my students reading' as an excuse), but I like grown up books, too. I read about three books at a time, because too many books look too good.
Favorite books: Another Country, Random Family, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Virgin Suicides, Good Omens, Truth & Beauty, The Neverending Story, 25th Hour, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Wicked, Gifted, Catch-22, Lullaby, MAUS, Bel Canto, Self-Help, Fat Kid Rules the World.
Favorite authors: Sherman Alexie, Ann Patchett, Neil Gaiman, Etgar Keret, Junot Diaz, David Sedaris, Leslie Marmon Silko, Shay Youngblood, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anna Quindlen, Hemingway, Nabokov, Langston Hughes

I can't make it through an hour without music. I never really stop listening to anything once I've started, so I've got the Frankenstein's monster of ipods. I like music that is loud & clangy & pretty & weird & rhythmic & lyrical & ridiculous & sincere & good & terrible. I like anything I can dance to, & I can dance to anything (for real, dare me).
Atmosphere, Rilo Kiley, M.I.A., Blur, David Bowie, Tilly & the Wall, Feist, The Format, Stars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Regina Spektor, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Michael Jackson, Death Cab for Cutie, Notorious BIG, Jimmy Eat World, Harry & the Potters, Neutral Milk Hotel, & I have to stop typing now.

Movies: smart & funny, smart & sad, funny & stupid, stoner humor, musical, animated.
The Princess Bride, The Royal Tenenbaums, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Just Friends, Big Fish, Meet the Robinsons, North by Northwest, Role Models, Shaun of the Dead, Lucky Number Slevin, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Almost Famous, Charade, The Wackness, O Brother Where Art Thou, 28 Days Later, Cat People, Girlfight, Mermaids, Spirited Away, Wet Hot American Summer

Food: I'm not really picky. I like cheese on my pizza & bacon on pretty much everything. & crunchy vegetables. & non-crunchy vegetables. I love cooking, especially fancy, complicated things I never think to order at restaurants. I make my own pie crust. It's awesome.

autumn, spring, high school freshmen, trees, dreams, & diet coke.

the Giant Squid, how to be a better teacher, how to avoid physically harming the man I'm team-teaching with this year, what my pen name could be

at a bar in the South Bronx with my friends, camped in the corner, drinking wine & having too much fun.

I own 4 seasons of Saved by the Bell on DVD.

you can recognize how awesome I am despite this lame profile, or if you want a chance of tasting my pie crust.