i take my endeavors, but never myself, very seriously. i think that sums me up about as well as i ever could in one sentence.

i hate the word "nice", but it bears mention that i'm a nice girl. i'm nice to strangers, children, old people, bus drivers, waiters, neighbors, other girls, and my parents. if i didn't get enough sleep, lost my job, had an air conditioner fall on me while i was minding my own business...i'm still nice.

i try to be virtuous. i try to bring my own bags to the grocery store, and not drink bottled water, and buy used or make my own whenever possible. and back up my hard drive at regular intervals, and send handwritten thank you notes, and write in my journal every night.

i don't floss. i've given up trying to start. and accepted that i'm just not that virtuous.

other aspects of myself that seem relevant to a cursory understanding of who i am as a person: i am an academic ninja, the only girl in my bjj class, an avid reader and traveler, a good listener, a non-preachy vegetarian...and a big, big nerd. this much will be obvious.

right now i'm in the fieldwork year of my phd. i have very specific reasons for pursuing a doctorate; despite my age i'm really not doing it because i couldn't think of anything else to do. i am actually fanatical about my topic. me and this topic are going places together. we're gonna be bigger than guns, bigger than cigarettes. we have matching suitcases and everything. and this year is our "stand back! i'm going to try SCIENCE"* moment.

somewhat related to my schoolwork, i intern at a really bad ass literary/human rights organization. i say "somewhat" because my academic supervisor - who is awesome, but who worries about how little sleep i get - doesn't actually know i'm doing it. please don't tell him.

i also run a business to pay for school, and what i make doesn't even put a dent in my bills, but i work for myself and i love what i do.

and i've taken up martial arts. i started mma and bjj in the early spring to get some self defense skills in place for my fieldwork period...and whoops, i love it. no matter what mood i'm in on the way in, i am smiling on the way out. this has been tested.

i've got about 3 million projects in the works. always.

*xkcd (but you knew that). get out of my head, randall! (no, just kidding. please don't ever get out of my head.)

yes, i just footnoted.

social awkwardness. inadvertently giving myself a data headache. doing the crossword in pen. overthinking *everything*. harvard style referencing. baking you a birthday cake.

also, planning dream trips and then actually taking them. i have a travel shortlist the way most people have a shortlist for reading (which i also have). i like checking stuff off lists and i think i'm pretty okay at it.

i am known in my family as a "champion sleeper".

a generally accepted criterion for being a good friend is not making up fake doctor's appointments when someone needs help moving, and i have an excellent track record in that department. so take from that what you will.

things i'm not good at:
-catching trains
-remembering passwords
-being within five feet of a television playing the real housewives of anywhere
-watching the youtube video you linked me to

that i'm not nearly as pretentious as they expected. (hopefully.)

and that i'm super giggly. this will also be obvious.

instead of listing the most obscure/impressively indie things in my itunes library, i thought i would list some things i can make without a recipe.

lasagna
risotto
tiramisu
ratatouille
baked stuffed brie
macaroni and cheese
eggplant parmesan
peach pie

the thing about not needing a recipe is not meant to impress you, because these are not hard things to make. it is meant to paint you a picture wherein we are in the kitchen working our way through a bottle of red wine and chatting and while i make some comforting hot food happen.

some things i'm still working on:

bread (really can't get the hang of it)
gnocchi
spaeztle and/or passatelli
this potato omelette my mom makes to cheer me up
ice cream

perhaps it has become evident that i -really- like to cook. good food is important to me. i have favorite books and movies and music too but if you do not agree that life is too short to eat parmesan cheese from a shaker, we probably won't eat together very often.

in no particular order:

olive oil (no, seriously).

headphones.

google (i know, how original...but it's true). specifically for finding songs i heard and liked and wrote down lyrics of on a napkin that is now crumpled at the bottom of my bag.

the Oxford comma.

unlimited metrocards.

naps.

what to make for dinner.

why i can't get into or out of bed on time.

why there is always a huge crowd of dudes watching the tvs in the windows of that electronics store in the times square subway station.

on metro north writing eleventy billion pages of fieldnotes.

then i find the superhuman strength to drag myself to martial arts after the longest day of my week.

i'm not saying it's a statistical impossibility, but if you can get me out of the house after all that, i must really like you.

i was in this car accident in Ireland a few years ago, and it probably should have been really upsetting when we hit the guard rail; but Duran Duran's "Notorious" was on the stereo at the time and there is something about that song that makes it hard for me to find fault with this world.

car was still really effed up, though.

u wil not rite lik dis. if you want to be convinced that phd topics can be interesting. if you can teach me gregg shorthand. if your ideal date involves either a) solder b) lying in bed eating popsicles c) the rocks and gems room at the natural history museum.

also, it's important that you like mushrooms. i think i might be done with boys who don't like mushrooms.