I absolutely love my job teaching biology to high school students. The other day I told a joke to my AP Biology students and they laughed so hard two of them fell completely out of their desks. It was such a great moment. When I'm not having fun working I like to do anything outdoors, watch sports, read, dance, and travel. I'm not much of a tv person, but I can get hooked on a show if I'm watching it with someone who is passionate about that particular show.

I get along with everyone and have friends with many different interests, but I seem to gel best with people who at least appreciate nature/science/biology. It's what I spend 70% of my time thinking about so it only makes sense.

I'm trying to change the world one teenager at a time. Yes, it's a work of the heart. Am I making any progress? Maybe. One of my former students just had a plant species named after him. Of course, one of my current students just asked me if I believed in global warming after we spent four weeks learning about it. This is the same kid who got sick from downing a bottle of tabasco sauce after his friends offered him $5 to do it. So I'm not really that upset. Of the two, plant kid or tabasco kid, I'm sure tabasco kid will be our next president so the idea of him accepting global warming in the first place is futile.

bravely trying new things.

my eyes. A female acquaintance once said they were Precious Moments eyes. It's still my most favorite compliment that I've ever received.

Movies: The Cutting Edge ("we're doing the Pamchenko!"), Baraka, and anything with slightly off color humor (e.g. Knocked Up or Forgetting Sarah Marshall).

Books: The Time Traveler's Wife, Disappointment With God, The Origin of Species

Music: Ray LaMontagne, Patti Griffin, Nelly Furtado, it changes often

Food: I've been vegetarian for 10 years, but lately I've been slipping. I was forced by peer pressure to eat clam chowder during a recent trip to Boston (yum!!!) and now I'm moving to Maryland. I can't imagine it will be too long before I am "forced" to have lobster (scratch that - I've been told it's blue crabs in Maryland not lobster).

love. I finally realize what love is after many years of looking for it in all the wrong ways. I recently went home to visit my family and the night before I was to fly back home I went to Wal-mart and bought some magazines and my favorite candy, Runts, for the plane ride home. I left them sitting out on the kitchen counter and went to bed. The next day my mom drove me to the airport and we said goodbye. I got on the plane and about half-way though the trip I got out my box of Runts. Have you ever heard of Runts? They're fruit shaped candy pieces - cherries (yum!), oranges, limes, and bananas (yuck!). Who eats banana flavored candy? I hate the bananas and always take them out. When I was a kid I used to force my mom to eat the banana ones because I thought they were gross. Anyway, I got about a quarter of the way through the box when I realized I hadn't come across a single banana! I couldn't believe it. Did the candy company finally wise up and stop making the disgusting banana ones? I looked on the cover of the box - nope - there were the little cartoon dancing bananas on the cover. So that couldn't be it. And then it finally hit me. I turned the box upside down and there it was, a piece of tape. Sometime during the night when I was in bed asleep, my mom had opened the box of runts, dumped out all the candy, and then sat there and picked out all the bananas. Once she had removed all the bananas she put the candy back into the box and taped it shut. Sitting on the plane I finally realized what loving someone is really about. When you truly love someone you want to remove all the "bananas" from their life. You want to do everything you can (even the littlest things) to make them happy.

out with friends.

um...no thanks!

you want to say hi!