I love creating art, but most especially ceramics. I really got into ceramics while I was a graduate student because of a program offered by the Arizona city I lived in. I have a number of interesting sculptural pieces I've created that I keep in my office at Siena, but most of my work has consisted of functional surface-decorated pieces that I have given away to friends and family or use at home every single day.
I bought my very first car just one year ago. Although I’ve had my driver’s license since I turned 22, I have enjoyed the challenge of figuring out alternate methods of traveling and commuting, whether by train, by bus, on foot, or by bicycle.
I don’t care for the taste of ginger! I realize a lot of people love ginger, and I appreciate it for many of its qualities and will still eat it even though I don’t like it. The fact that I don’t care for it has made me conclude that there’s just no accounting for individual differences in taste!
You might never have guessed that I didn’t fall in love with insects until after I started working with them in graduate school! Prior to that I knew I loved animals and studying animal behavior especially, I just wasn’t very familiar with how to interact with insects. It only took around two months of working with honey bees and ants in grad school for me to realize that they are fascinating and highly accessible social creatures who can teach us so much about the world around us and ourselves.
I was the last of my siblings (older brother, younger sister) to lick a banana slug (below). In case you were unaware, there is a substance in a banana slug’s slime that is supposed to make your tongue go numb, as part of how the slugs normally defend themselves from predators that try to eat them. In my case, unfortunately, I did not experience this supposed tongue numbness, which was disappointing. But more fortunately, I also did not contract a disease that I later learned these slugs can carry.
I got a love of bicycling from my father, who I once convinced to dress up like a pirate while we rode 200 miles from Seattle to Portland on an unusual recumbent tandem. The longer explanation for that particular adventure was that he had undergone some really hard rounds of chemotherapy for colon cancer earlier in the year, and I came up with the idea of providing the pedal power for a bike ride he loves, as something for him to look forward to. And I just happen to enjoy dressing up in costumes and pirates. We had a great time and it’s now a cherished memory (above).
I was such a huge bookworm as a kid that I used to read books while walking to school. I just couldn’t wait to find out what happened next! I did always stop and look up and look both ways every time I crossed the street.
I recently built a wooden boat! Thankfully there are companies that sell boatbuilding kits and instructions, and also places that offer boatbuilding classes for people like me who don’t have much previous woodworking or boatbuilding experience. From that project I can tell you that people who estimate that boatbuilding is 90% sanding are wrong, it’s more like 98% sanding. But 100% worth it.
I love talking about compost! I keep a worm bin plus a more traditional garden compost, and in the past I’ve kept chickens, who are just as great at making fertilizer as they are eggs. One of the main reasons I love talking about compost is that I also love to garden and grow my own fruits and vegetables, and gardens thrive best when they get good compost.
I really enjoy a good, competitive game of Scrabble, so much so that I’ve played a game just about every week with friends for at least the past 15 years.
