CURRENT MISSION

To evolve my mind body and spirit with wickedly wonderful memories and experiences

ABOUT ME

" “I’m bored” is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless, it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say “I’m bored.” "

--Louis CK

I'm a newly graduated Portland native (gasp!), with brains in my head and feet in my shoes, steering myself any direction I choose. There's a whole world out there ripe for the exploring, and often times there's so much to do the best response is to nap about it and try again later.

A silly high functioning social introvert, I live life both carefully and by the seat of my pants. The idea of tossing myself onto a bus, a plane, or a train has just as much appeal as napping under a tree during the summertime. Float down a river for 8 hours? Great! Sitting in a room with someone and just staring at the wall? Bliss. And everything else in between, which might involve me standing barefoot in your garden eating all your tomatoes (but I always remember to ask first!)

I occupy a variety of social circles; a self ascribed Burner, blues dancer, fire spinner, acrobat aspiring dreamer, geek, moderate gamer, and curious conversationalist. If I don't know enough about a topic you and I are having you can be dang sure I'll be listening to you and asking questions and requesting a demonstration in one breath. Did I mention the world is a big place? There's so much to learn, and it always feel like there's so little time to learn it.

I'm an advocate for social justice, a knowledge sponge and activist striving for equality and visibility amongst the LGBTQ community, QPOC/QTPOC (Queer People of Color/Queer Trans People of Color) folks, the rebels and revolutionaries that live on the borders or right in the heart of our towns, defying binaries and bucking systems designed to marginalize and silence necessary voices for progress in a constantly changing world.

My intersecting social/cultural identities inform my decisions and ways of interacting with the world, and when I'm needing reprieve from the conscious work involved in social justice, you can bet I'll be asking for the nearest dance party or highest mountain/hill/ladder/cupboard/pyramid to climb and conquer. And I'll be bringing snacks along the way, because food is the key to anyone's heart.

You can bet your pretty little bonnet that a good home cooked meal is in your future, because a Vietnamese/Sicilian upbringing promises heaps of delicious on a one way trip to a food coma of the best variety.

PHILOSOPHY

"Say what you want to say plainly, and take responsibility for it."
--Ai WeiWei

I'm a communicator, and a doer. Intentions are shown from the way you craft your words to the actions you choose to interact with others. This can be as simple as a smile and wave for "hello", or as grandiose as hopping across town with someone to help them move into a new home. Kindness abounds in the most unexpected of places, and I try to carry compassion and honesty wherever I go.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Since I'm unable to host at this point and time, I'm happy to meet up with other PDX hosts and attend gatherings, play tourguide and/or come along for the ride of giving CSers a good time. Hit me up if you need anything, and in the process of being a tourguide/inner city CSer I'll probably learn more about my city than I could have hoped for.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My first experience was with the fabulous Lewis Thorwaldson and his lady pants Brady Michelle in Brooklyn, NY (correct me if my memory's gone muddy), summer of 2008. More than gracious, I couldn't have been more appreciative of them and their fabulous energy.

Interests

[Physically Active]

- Dance parties
- Partner dancing (blues is what I know best, and I'm happy to learn more!)
- Fire spinning
- Biking
- Burning Man related events/community gatherings
- camping
- hiking
- acro
- flow art (prop manipulation for the win!)

[Other Activities]

- bookstore wandering
- table top gaming
- spoken word
- comics
- video games
- welding
- costuming
- drag performances

• arts
• coloring
• dancing
• dining
• italian food
• cooking
• partying
• gardening
• clothing
• comics
• video games
• blues
• spoken word
• cycling
• hiking
• camping
• cartography

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Hip Hop (90s), R&B, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Blues, Pop, Dubstep, Electronic, Instrumental, DJ sets, Reggae, the list could go on forever.

Books: Oh, The Places You'll Go!, A Home At The End of the World, Exile and Pride, The Visitor, Tales From Outer Suburbia, Not a Box, Ender's Game, Catcher in the Rye, all Haruki Murakami books, Transmetropolitan, Charles Bukowski poetry, Hieu Nguyen poetry, Sarah Kay poetry, Redifining Realness

Movies: A Home At The End of the World, A League of Their Own, All Harry Potter Movies, Serenity, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Well the most amazing thing I've done is survive a car crash that put me in a body cast when I was five. Then I survived another car crash while riding my bike and got to walk out of the hospital at the end of the night. That's pretty keen.

Back in the summer of '08 I went to NY for a week and managed to mostly navigate myself through the city with only the use of my maps and my wanderlust. Never knew I had it in me to be so self sufficient, but there you have it, I suppose. :)

Teach, Learn, Share

What I can teach: light flow prop/fire spinning tricks, how to cook Vietnamese and Italian food, what kind of berries to put in a whiskey ginger, some light blues dancing, what a human sized koala hug looks like.

What I can learn: What do you know? :)

What we can share: prop spinning time, hugs, the smell of campfire in our clothes, good company, picnics, costumes, dance moves, tools for better social justice advocacy, stories, love, laughter.

• 

•