I'm new to Oak Park coming from Michigan, but I grew up out here in the 'burbs... shout out to Glendale Heights, Lombard, McHenry, and Romeoville!

I don't have a whole lot of dating experience, but I would love to gain some, in a "good meal and good conversation" way, not a "crazy dance party and one-night stand" way. Just so we're clear.

I'm (still!) looking for employment that actually fits my education level... so far I remain happily unemployed and flexing my frugality muscles.

Random factoids:
I'm afraid of tornadoes, spiders, getting lost, and car accidents. Oh, and jail. I've watched enough Law & Order to know I wouldn't do too well in the clink.

I want to learn to ride horses someday, whenever I have a lot of free time and disposable income. I also want to become fluent in Spanish, because I took classes in college but never really picked it up.

During my K-12 years I sang in choir and took violin and piano lessons (not all at the same time, I'm not crazy), and I taught myself a little guitar, so I consider myself a musical generalist. I crochet scarves, dishtowels and the occasional afghan. I like drawing and painting but I'm just okay. I'm probably going to end up as that old lady who Bedazzles everything she owns, oh man.

I would really love to date someone who's working on a college education, since my own education is really important to me, and I consider myself a caring person and a good, honest communicator, so I'd love to find those qualities in someone else, too!

I'm going to Dominican University for a master's degree in library and information science. Hopefully I'll graduate in two years and find a job that I actually enjoy!

Other than that, I'd like to find a community I can belong to, somewhere I can settle down, mostly so I can stop having to move all of my crap around the Midwest, 'cause that gets old.

listening, knowing a little about a lot, caring too much, being persuaded, organizing my things, improvising with recipes and lack of kitchen space, writing school essays, following routines, being motherly, making casual conversation, doing crafty things, wanting to know more, being lazy.

I'm pretty short, and I have a quiet, little-girl voice, so I've given up on ever being seen as tough or intimidating. In fact, I'm probably the last person you'd want in a bar fight, sorry!

Other than that, I don't think I'm very noticeable - I have short hair, is that still considered odd for a girl? God, I hope not.

Books: anything by Stephen King, Anne Rice (except her newer Christian tales - oh Anne! Come back to the dark side!), Camus, Nicola Griffith, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Chuck Palahniuk, or T. S. Eliot.

My favorite Shakespeare work is Hamlet, because it's so open to interpretation (and c'mon, just tell me you didn't think Hamlet and Horatio were a little gay!). I'm that weird kid who actually liked the reading in my English classes, so in the last few years I've really enjoyed Steppenwolf, Crying of Lot 49, As I Lay Dying, Paul Auster, Borges, and others.

But I also love girly books like Twilight, or murder mysteries, or just fun stuff. I'll read almost anything, even cereal boxes when absolutely necessary.

Movies: Closer, Brokeback Mountain, Garden State, V for Vendetta, Seven, Boondock Saints, The Dark Knight, Fight Club, Sunshine Cleaning, Imagine Me & You, Moulin Rouge, and also various romantic comedies... I love Natalie Portman, Kate Winslet, and Rachel McAdams.

TV: OMG, Glee. I want to live there, even though I can't dance. Also Arrested Development, Kathy Griffin, especially her stand-up, Fringe, The Daily Show, House, Firefly, SG-1, and also educational stuff like the History Channel.

Music: pretty much anything other than hip-hop and scream-based music... My Chemical Romance, The Sounds, Muse, The Kooks, Cobra Starship, Incubus, Linkin Park, The Wooden Sky, The Killers, Death Cab for Cutie, Panic! at the Disco, The Decemberists, The Graduate, Damien Rice, Melissa Etheridge, Fall Out Boy, Tom Petty, Iron & Wine...

Food: all my favorite foods are really bad for me, like pizza, ravioli, cookies, coffee... and pie. Oh, and Portillo's. Great, now I'm hungry.

(I'm leaving out family and friends because those are obvious and don't tell you much except possibly that I'm not a sociopath... which I'm not.)

1. my car, a rusting Grandma-mobile, but I love it
2. my computer
3. my iPod
4. coffee
5. libraries
6. hope for the future

lots of problems that I can't fix, what next semester's classes are going to be like, ideas for stories I'll never write, the nature vs. nurture argument, especially in terms of sexual orientation, homeless people and abandoned animals and how sad they make me...

Plus, why don't they write liberal country music? I mean I like the instrumentation and the vocals of country music, but why can't they cut out the Jesus and pick-up trucks and sing lyrics about, I don't know, things that don't remind me of homophobia and conservativism? It's just a thought.

watching TV, reading, studying, playing the guitar, thinking about all the promises of Saturday.

I'm not the girl who buys all her clothes at thrift stores because it's "in" right now, smokes foreign cigarettes, scoffs at popular music, is vegetarian or vegan, does drugs, sets off across the country for parts unknown... basically I'm a pretty normal girl, I'm not ashamed of that, and if that makes me boring or predictable, well, you've been warned : )

Also, I have a secret crush on Taylor Swift. C'mon, is she adorable or what?!

- you live in the area, especially the 'burbs, because I have a soft spot for them.
- you watch the History Channel (and not just to fall asleep at night, ha!)
- you'd like to make some conversation or have a cup of coffee together : )