I'm thoughtful, curious, witty, kind, dorky, snarky and sarcastic. I appreciate an off-beat, quirky sense of humor. I'm not easily offended. I'm a devout atheist Jew (devout re: the atheism), I went to "commie" summer camp, I love to write and I can't stop reading; sometimes I have to read the backs of the shampoo bottles in the shower. I'm a champion people watcher. I like driving and singing along to the radio. I like talking, learning, and analyzing, politics, children, giving advice, reading out loud, and irreverance. Other things I like include: ping pong, wrap-around porches, the Berkshires, brunch, maps, sing-alongs (while other people play guitar), bourbon, sweaters and boots in winter, dresses and sandals in summer, a really spicy bloody mary, swimming, big mugs, Taboo, popcorn, Bedtime for Frances, walking, thunderstorms, bookstores, eye rolling, aquariums and zoos (should I feel badly about this?), cooking, frisbee in the park, cynicism and judgment, and also the absence of cycnicism and judgment. I'm more of a few-close-friends kind of person than a million-acquaintances kind of person. I listen to NPR all the time, especially This American Life, Radiolab, The Leonard Lopate Show, and Wait...Wait...Dont' Tell Me. I'm a good friend. A lot of people think I'm quiet, until they get to know me better, and then they change their minds.

I work in health care policy. Someone once responded to my long-winded explanation of what I do with, "So, you kind of get to be a doctor, a lawyer, and a politician, without being a doctor, a lawyer, or a politician," which is a pretty decent description. I'm happy to be done with grad school (I loved parts of it, but I did once use the phrase "unremitting disappointment" in a course evaluation), and thrilled to have a job that I feel excited to go to most mornings.

Boggle, Scrabble, and crossword puzzles.

Book recommendations.

Chocolate toffee cookies.

Telling stories, sometimes with voices.

Being on time, even when I try to be late.

Organizing the dishwasher (if only I had one...)

Limbo (see below).

I'm short - 5'0''

I have a freakishly good memory.

My two favorite authors are probably Philip Roth and Haruki Murakami. I love Colum McCann, David Foster Wallace, Paul Bowles, Milan Kundera, John Fowles, Wallace Stegner, Saramago, Coetzee, Edward Albee, Jonathan Lethem, E. Annie Proulx, Dave Eggers, Raymond Carver, Sharon Olds, Dan Chaon, Hesse, Amy Hempel, Howard Zinn, Updike, Chabon, Fitzgerald, Tobias Wolff, Anne Fadiman, Marisha Pessl, Kenzaburo Oe, Keri Hulme, Heinlein, Natsuo Kirino, Henry Roth, Naomi Klein, Virginia Woolf, DeLillo, Tom Robbins, John Irving, Jonathan Franzen, Iain Pears, Nabokov, Grace Paley, Yukio Mishima, Pablo Neruda, Alice Munro, Amy Bloom, Umberto Eco, Mary Gaitskill, David Sedaris, and Kurt Vonnegut. I read a WWII international espionage novel by Alan Furst every summer on my family vacation - luckily, he seems to write a new one every year.

I also love Dan Savage. And short stories. And children's books. I used to memorize books my parents read to me before I learned to read, and I still remember my favorites.

New York Times, The New Yorker, Slate, NY Review of Books.

I laughed a lot during Bossypants. A lot.

Some favorite movies: The Graduate, Annie Hall, West Side Story, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, Harold and Maude, Rope, Stranger Than Paradise, Pan's Labyrinth, Breathless, Nine Queens, All About My Mother, The Thin Man, Vertigo, Django Unchained, Arsenic and Old Lace, Rosemary's Baby, Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2, Bananas, The 400 Blows, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, E.T. I'm not generally a fan of scary movies, but I do, rather inexplicably, really like Japanese horror. And heist movies. Recent, unexpected favorite: Silver Linings Playbook.

TV: Seinfeld, Mad Men, Homeland, True Blood, 24, House, 30 Rock, Treme, Bored to Death, Girls, How I Met Your Mother, The Daily Show, Freaks and Geeks, Sesame Street.

Music: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ani DiFranco, The Talking Heads, Regina Spektor, CCR, Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Belle and Sebastian, Leo Kottke, Muddy Waters, Carole King, Pete Seeger, Howlin Wolf, The Police, Bob Dylan,The Allman Brothers, Bob Marley, The Kinks, The Band, Fleet Foxes, The Doors, Tracy Chapman, Jimi Hendrix, The Cars, Led Zeppelin, Bonnie Raitt, Nicole Atkins, The Temptations, Indigo Girls, Suzanne Vega, Lead Belly, Dar Williams, R.E.M., James Taylor, Phil Ochs, Pearl Jam, Paul Simon, Lou Reed, Van Morrison, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin.

Food: Not fish/seafood, because I'm allergic. I especially love Cuban, Indian, Mexican, Thai...burgers, french fries, raspberries, pineapple, seltzer, brussels sprouts, blueberries, milkshakes, pizza, pickles, hot sauce, and salads with everything in them.

Family, friends, fiction
Coffee, Contacts, Claritin, Conversation
The Sunday NY Times (+ Crossword)
Leisurely meals
Music
Something to look forward to

Where I am/Where I'm going.

Words. One of my favorites is "defenestrate." I also think it's fascinating that "poster," "foster," and "roster," are all pronounced differently.

One day living someplace with an entire wall of built-in bookshelves.

Hanging out with my friends. I'm usually happiest with a small group in someone's apartment, but when I go out I get into it and have fun.

I've never dyed my hair or pierced my ears.

I love christmas season in NY, despite being atheist, jewish, and generally disdainful of group enthusiasm.

You're smart, funny, down to earth and honest.