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Major Profile Rewrite coming soon. None of the major (or minor) details of my life have changed, just my perspective on them.

I'm fairly new to Seattle. I arrived from Austin, TX in Sept. '07 under slightly unusual circumstances. I've managed to make a few friends, but I think I'd like a few more. It seems that the social norms here are just different enough to make it easy for me to say exactly the wrong thing. It probably doesn’t help that I’m kind of shy even under the best of circumstances.

I’m a professional artist and crafter. Mostly digital art and drafting, and my hobbies, which occasionally provide supplementary income, tend toward the fiber arts (spin, weave, etc.). Someday, when I have the facilities again, I'll revisit dyeing and woodwork. I’m a bit of a texture whore, so I’m often reaching out and touching anything that looks like it might feel interesting.

I am well aware that I’m a bit overweight, and that it might do me some good to get out more. As long as I can still find my waist, I’m not going to be panicking about it, but it would still be nice to have friends to go out and do active things with. In fact, I'd prefer to have the kind of friends who will storm the house and drag me out into the fresh air. I may be taking up swing dance soon.

On that note, while I like dancing, I hate clubbing, since pressing crowds of strangers tend to give me panic attacks.

I recently took my first baby steps outside the border of the US (a few days in Vancouver, B.C.) and I'd like to take that trip again, as well as venturing further afield. I know I'm a bit late off the mark with starting international travel, but given that I was raised in rural Texas by a functional xenophobe, I think I'm doing fairly well.

I am polyamorous. I have some friends and a couple of lovers, but I am always open to new friendships, and whatever else they become later on down the line. I've finally written down my personal philosophy on relationships here. (Ok, if you absolutely must know, I have a committed roommate and a couple of occasional local lovers. I was carrying on a rather torrid cross-border international affair with a Canadian astrophysicist, but he has since moved to the far coast, which makes carrying on a bit difficult. :( All of these are rather casual and/or sporadic, so I think something a bit more consistent/serious might be nice.)

I should probably mention at this point that I have a fairly strong affinity for geeks (computer, math, and physics types, mostly) and gay men. If you have issues with either of these groups, then you might have difficulty getting along with my current friends. If you belong to either of these groups, chances are we'll get along ok. If you belong to both of these groups, I might be able to set you up with my roommate. :)

If you'd like to make the first move with message or IM, please give some indication that you've actually read this profile. Using the word "weasel" somewhere in your first message will satisfy this requirement handily (bonus points given for creativity). If you skip this step, I disavow all responsibility for any snark that may rain down upon you.

Right now, I primarily provide housewife-ish services to my somewhat unusual household. I occasionally work as a remote commercial artist/designer for the decorative arts company I worked full-time for back in Texas. I spend my spare time futzing around on the internet and exploring various art media, mostly fiber (spinning, weaving, etc.) but it looks like I'm going to start playing around in jewelry again soon.

Looks like small woodwork is back in the picture. I've taken on the restoration & refinishing of a 30-ish-year-old spinning wheel. It will be for sale when I'm done. There may be furniture restoration/manufacture/re-upholstery in my immediate future, as well.

Recently, I got terribly bored and made a test.

update: The spinning wheel project is kicking my ass. This is the last time I work with oil-based stains. And Jewelry=Yes. I seem to be all about pearls at the moment, for reasons unknown. I'm trying to convince myself to refresh on complicated seed bead work next, but my somewhat intractable whims are inclined toward learning precious metal clay, probably because I finally have a gas stove on which to fire the stuff.

Visual puzzles, cooking, thinking in 3-d, passing for normal/vanilla, saying the exactly wrong thing at the exactly wrong time, thereby inadvertently pissing off everybody within hearing distance (oops).

short, brown, poofy, far too smart for my own good, but often still not smart enough to keep up.

tmonk42 says - "She has a sultry voice and confidence in her stride and body language."

Who am I to object to that?

(a)Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (esp. Witches Abroad, 5th Elephant, & Going Postal, though anything with Susan or Tiffany in will do as well), Stardust by Neil Gaiman (The movie was good, but the book had so many wonderful subtleties that couldn't translate)and Good Omens, Charles deLint, Robin McKinley (particularly Beauty and Sunshine), Christopher Moore (Island of the Sequined Love Nun, anyone?), Mercedes Lackey (not so fond of Valdemar, but I Love the Five Hundred Kingdoms books and the historicals (now with added elves!)), other stuff far too numerous to list here. Can you tell I'm a reader? I also recently finally got around to reading Kushiel's Dart, and while the sex wasn't as graphic as I was hoping for (I'm more accustomed to Laurel K. Hamilton), the politics and intrigue more than made up for it. In the non-fiction category, I'll read nearly anything if it's presented reasonably well, but tend towards sociology and anthropology (recent: The Way We Never Were, and Marriage, a History both by Stephanie Coonts. Fantastic books. If I hadn't already wanted to smack the "Family Values" and "Traditional Marriage" folks, I would have after reading these.). I have my own copy of McGee's On Food and Cooking, and Omnivore's Dilemma was awesome and has made me change my food acquisition habits in ways that I'd been meaning to for years. Oh, and I collect childrens' picture books, mostly for the artwork (anyone else remember Grame Base?) Also on the subject of books: Since I've been here, I've made a habit of taking an annual day-trip, sometime in December, down to Portland to spend the whole day at Powell's. I just scanned the entire household's books into LibraryThing in order to better make a shopping list for this last trip, so if you ask nicely enough, I'll send you a link so you can see.

(b)This list has the potential to be endless. In general, I tend to like things with humor that makes you think and/or a really dark hero and/or a really good/sexy/charismatic villain, and I have a soft spot for "heist" films (Italian Job, etc.). I'm also a great fan of Pixar, Tim Burton, and anything with Jim Henson's personal fingerprints on it.
Recently seen: I thought "Secretary" and "But I'm a Cheerleader" were incredibly sweet romances, and I firmly believe "Happy Feet" is a work of utter brilliance, cleverly disguised as a bucket of mindless drivel (I am willing to concede, though, that the brilliance may have been completely inadvertent.)

(c)I'm mostly a blues & rock 'n roll kind of girl with a soft spot for 80's/early 90's (reminds me of my carefree youth). I'm ok with most Classical as well (as long as it's not Baroque. The whole time period, in music, fashion, and furniture is far too fussy for my tastes), but really good classical guitar in particular makes me go all melty inside. It actually turns out that I can enjoy any given genre (even stuff classified as hip-hop or country) as long as there's something interesting or intelligent about the song in question (unique rhythms/melodies/sounds, lyrics that actually say something). Random sampling of artists from my highest-play-count songs in iTunes: Depeche Mode, Catherine Wheel, Bush, Buckcherry, George Thorogood, School of Fish, Nine Inch Nails, Gravity Kills, Cake, OK Go, The Bravery. I also like Wierd Al Yankovic and Todd Snider. They are made of awesome.

(d) dark chocolate, bacon, mint chocolate chip ice cream, fresh mozzarella, steak, raspberries, shrimp, peaches (in season). I love sushi, and dearly miss decent Tex-Mex. Ultimately, I will at least try anything short of bugs or those drinks you see native tribes make on the Discovery Channel that are fermented with other people's spit, and bugs are negotiable.

I like cooking, but I’m not passionate about it the way I am about texture. I learned to cook because I love good food, and paying others to make it all the time just hasn’t been practical. I'm not terribly good with vegetarian/vegan cooking, but I can see how that particular skill set could come in handy, so I would welcome a good and patient teacher. (I have no intentions of personally giving up meat, ever, but I respect the decision of those who have made that choice and try to accommodate them as well as I can when entertaining. "each to his own" and all.)

This is a weird question, so I'm going to answer it weirdly (and I don't consider my friends to be "things").

6 things that, If I were to walk away from my current life to go travel the world or start over fresh somewhere, I'd like to have with me: My laptop, internet to connect it to, the Wacom tablet, spinning wheel, kitchen knives, the small loom.

6 things that make my life, as it currently stands, quite a nice place to be: weekly sushi, Trader Joe's, my neighborhood (where nearly everything I need is within walking, or a short bus ride away), Zipcar (for those few things that are out of walking distance), easy access to yarn and spinning fiber (at least, easy in comparison to TX), my cookware (Scanpan is awesome).

6 things that I get twitchy if I'm made to do without for too long: coffee, dark chocolate, sunshine, books, music, some sort of paper or screen on which to think**.

**this used to read "my sketchpad", but I find myself doing an awful lot of thinking in Excel, Photoshop, and Illustrator these days.

texture, color and shape (and flavor), how much people (self included) don't think, Why when I do think, I think way too much, how I can get across the interesting/unusual/scary things about myself in quickmatch now that it no longer includes the self-summary (or whether I should continue to save the scary things for those who explore further).

Trying to figure out how to maintain a social life and still be able to hit up the U-district farmers market early enough on Saturday morning that my favorite vendors haven't yet sold out of my favorite things.

(the answer seems to be "learn to shop the market effectively on 4 hrs of sleep, and then take a nap upon return home.")

There is a city police department in Texas that has openly accused me of being a cult leader.

I think other people's drama is a fantastic spectator sport.

Also, while I take a lot of care to be a good person, I often fail (sometimes spectacularly) at being nice.

I have a personal policy of honesty, so if you ask, I'll either tell you, or tell you why I'm not telling you.

You have read all the way through this profile, and taken a few minutes, at least, to consider what you have read. Bonus points given for being reasonably intelligent, open-minded, able (and willing) to hold up your end of a conversation, and NOT being normal/typical/"just your average guy" (Your weird does not have to be visual. Being a stealth freak is ok, but for the love of all gods everywhere, be aware of something non-standard about yourself). Points deducted for net-speak, insults (thinly veiled or otherwise), and general egregious idiocy. It honestly doesn't matter what you look like. You could be a 5-legged space alien for all I care. My friendship standards do not contain a "physical attractiveness" category, largely because if I like you as a person, you will be attractive to me. There probably is such a thing a too weird for me, but I haven't met it yet (and I have friends who are furies, if that tells you anything). Also, due to above mentioned desire to travel and lack of ties to any specific place, your location doesn't matter much either. Having friends everywhere sounds like a good idea to me.

It should probably be noted at this point that my Ok Cupid IM is almost never on, so just send a regular message.

Sometimes I circle for a while before getting up the nerve to contact someone (it's that shyness thing). If you're getting impatient, please feel free to take initiative.

Also, when I send a Woo, I try to follow up with a real message, but I don't always remember. It's part of the whole "artsy-fluff-brain" thing.