About Me

Sometimes I have the sense that I've spent most of the last decade trying to get to or from the west coast.   I'm a transplant from New York City by way of college in Los Angeles, academic stints in D.C. and Paris, and graduate school in Boston. This means I walk and talk far too quickly for Seattle (and I'm still waiting to get ticketed for jaywalking) but don't mind the winters too much.   Having grown up in the middle of Manhattan, I'm taking full advantage of the northwest to pay off my nature deficit. I was an avid cyclist for a while (I got into into cycling while bicycle touring with a friend in Norway and have done the STP out here twice), although I'm riding a little bit less these days. I have sort of a thing for mountains and backpack, hike or ski when I can. I'm also trying to get back into running while nursing shin splints.   Besides the outdoors, I like working with my hands. I built a tandem bicycle as a thesis-avoidance project while in grad school (and am still looking for someone to ride it with -- maybe you?), and have a '70s SLR that I enjoy trying to shoot slide film with (although realistically, everything I've liked well enough to print has been digital). I'm halfway competent with a sewing machine, although the insulated backpacking hat that I was trying to make is only an unpleasant memory.   Finally, I started studying French when I was about ten years old, spent a semester in Paris as an undergraduate, and then went back for a year after college, so France and French remain an important part of my life. I try to go to a conversation group each week, and I think something like half of my friends in Seattle are French speakers.