randomstoic

I love reading and talking about books and ideas. I am rather laid back, quite tolerant, idiosyncratic, extroverted, and sometimes too academic, other times too quirky, and strive to communicate openly about my perceptions and feelings. I like to stay active, so I walk and run (5x time a week) frequently. There is a dissertation on history in my past and it makes an excellent paperweight now.

I must confess that I share a dreadful number of traits with the English Border Collie. I can be quite brilliant, motivated, and energetic as well as faithful and doggedly determined. Unfortunately, if you leave me untended, you can neither count on me to remain reasonably potted nor can you expect me to grow productively like kudzu. Like our four-legged friend, I might tear up your slippers or lend new dimensions to your carpet. So if I do not have some odd project, I tend to be easily and deconstructively distracted. So, indeed, I adore any distraction that leaves me so discombobulated that I cannot remember myself. If to thine own self one must be true, then in my case it might be best to shoot for the hills instead of the mirror.

I have a weakness for reading several books simultaneously and wandering into bookstores and compiling lists of what I would like to read. Naturally, my room seems more like a book closet than an actual resting-place. I prefer thoughtful film to thoughtless explosions, but I do harbor a weakness for historical films, fantasy epics, and reall cool sci-fi. And, as you may gather, I have been a huge Natalie Merchant fan for over a decade. Live music is one of the most wonderful things in the world. I prefer physical activity taking me someplace (jogging, hiking, cross-country skiing, and rafting) to vicarious risk-taking (really high cliff climbing and bat guano collecting in foreboding caverns).

I teach history. My daughter is eleven years old and spends the summer/holidays with me. A good friend referred to me as an "odd duck" in the best sense of the word. But whether I am the wrong duck for someone or the right swan really depends on the other person.

ironic.

beggarly puns.