I'm new to Pittsburgh, have traveled around for the last year for work and am ready to be in one spot for a while. Finished school in Chicago--undergrad in philosophy (which I think was the best major I could have chosen) and grad school for Social work/social policy and got into labor organizing. This is the work I want to be doing and I'm grateful that I found it.

Quick facts about me: I'm goofy, analytical, fairly free-spirited, out going, independent; I tend to ignore arbitrary restrictions. I want to know if I am wrong and I appreciate an learning conversation and especially appreciate when I find people who want to partake. Really dislike snobbishness for the sake of exclusion, but I have real opinions about what is better and worse, especially when it comes to ethical situations; am open minded but not a relativist. I find independent thinking, kindness, and humor extremely attractive. Also!--I need to get outside time on a regular basis and must dance and run. Friends and family have my heart.

Labor organizing, trying to find the right balance for my own self and trying to be thoughtful about how I'm living my life. Doing things that make me short and long-term happy, as much as possible!

I am absolutely ok being part of a fight to make things better than they are, even if we never get quite where we want to get. But it's important that the strategy I am part of have demonstrable merit in its ability to make progress. This is how I see the organizing work I do. <--This is abstract; we can talk further if you like...

Thoughtful analysis
Collecting information
Interacting with animals and with children
Public speaking...though I recently went through a blushing phase!
Reaching a place of compassion
Reading!
Dancing for fun
Working through conflict with people I care about

This probably depends on the person doing the looking.

I ask a lot of questions, pretty high energy, warm.

More intelligent than I think people first assume.

Plato's The Republic, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, Elie Wiesel's 'Dawn', The Year of Magical Thinking, also trashy true crime novels. :)

I don't watch that much TV but I have to be honest, I don't like the stuff that most people think is funny; movies are great when I have time.

Music: Anything that I can dance to, stuff that calms me down, makes me feel.

Food: Not too picky, like to eat pretty healthy but I'm not going to turn down ice cream!

The ability to run and dance
Intermittently taking things for granted/then appreciating
Friends and Family, absolutely
New information/questions
Access to the outdoors
Language
...

What is right/unjust.
Things that make me feel.
What my motivations are for things I do.
The restraints that I (we all) create to my own freedom or happiness.
What to eat and when to run and who to talk to. :)

Totally depends. If I'm working, I'm on the phone with workers or at someone's home, etc.

If I'm not, I tend to be gathering people to go out dancing, have some drinks and enjoy each other or find something new to explore.

Tonight, I will be going on a run and taking a bath.

I am not a very private person. I think that we see a lot more about each other than we realize and hide a lot less than we think we do. We could all do to be a few inches closer...

I know that I haven't admitted anything here but I'm happy to have most conversations about most things.

-You want to say hi and have a conversation
-You want to hang out and go running/grab a drink/jump off a bridge into the river/eat a meal....umm..or something else that isn't creepy!

-If you would be willing to teach me a new skill--like drumming or juggling

-You are not a dick or a meat head. I don't care if you have big muscles :)