I am a guy who happens to be a grad student who has worked and adventured and tried enough silly and sometimes spectacular things to have learned that finally choosing a direction is not the same thing as settling and does not even mean you have to do it forever. I love people, though when I get tired I often need some space. I like to make boring things fun and to laugh often, including times when I probably shouldn't. I find great storytellers inspiring. I think that one of the cruelest things you can do to a person is to embarrass them in public, so this is something I try never to do. I am reasonably confident but do not have a commandeering personality. If there's one thing I want that I've never had it would be a puppy, probably a mutt, that would grow to be at least forty pounds. I love love love feeling the wind in my face, and maybe that's why I feel like I could ski or sail or ride my bike forever.

I imagine random things. For example: to be surfing down snow-drenched slopes on the belly of an (obviously friendly) crocodile, descending into a secret crevice that is made of silk and carries us under everything until finally we gush out into an equatorial vineyard where Nataraja dances & swoops & places upon our hips freshly plucked mangoes that were cultivated in fields of honey & Egyptian sumac and whose yellow-green peels slip away like seagull feathers off the bow at dusk.

By day, grad school. By night, as many things that are not grad school as possible.

Schmoozing. And skiing. And playing with kids. And saying random things (hence, I get along with kids). Occasionally, procrastinating. And being passionate. And staying up past my bedtime. And listening.

my funny accent... raised in a NY fam (but not actually in NY) + living in the South + lots of British & Irish buddies + working/studying/traveling for 1 year in the Middle East means that after I open my mouth many people are surprised to find out where I'm actually from.

Food - pupusas, sushi, coffee ice cream
Movies - The Graduate, Pan's Labyrinth, When Harry Met Sally. Kung Fu Panda. Also, just saw Where the Wild Things Are and loved it.
Music - in no particular order... Dylan, Bowie, Led Zeppelin, 2 Pac, Springsteen, Samuel Barber, The Doors, Traditional Irish Folk, Die Winterreise by Schubert, Wilco, Sublime, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, Outkast, Jeff Buckley, Beck. not a full list, but it's representative.
Books/poetry/etc - The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien, The Star Cafe by Mary Caponegro, Experience by RW Emerson, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Derek Walcott. Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Henry IV, The Tempest, Macbeth, King Lear, MND. Everything that Blake ever wrote. Paradise Lost.
TV - Mad Men, The Wire, 30 Rock. Next on queue is Dexter.

friends & family
spicy food
a sense of humor
goals
exercise
pajamas

how hanging out on a Mallorcan beach would more fun than school.

usually hanging out with friends. Best done after a cathartic end-of-the-week swim.

Or... occasionally... nerding out with a mug of Earl Grey in one hand & some scary-looking textbook in the other. Gotta lie in the bed I made, or something like that.

Despite what you may think after reading certain parts of my profile, my life is actually somewhat organized and at the end of the day I really am excited about where school will eventually lead.

I also have to say that my favorite animal is the polar bear. They are rad in too many ways to count.

you... like to explore, have balance in your life, have lots of energy, like trying new foods, dig the outdoors, are playful, like people, take care of your body, can laugh at ridiculous things or times, can be spontaneous, have an idea of the kind of human being you'd like to become, enjoy physical contact, have friends you would trust with your life, are self-reliant, want to travel overseas, are curious, are curious about me.