rngstgstll

Passionate and distracted, I love people while craving down time. Urban wildlife, classic funk, uncomfortable joy, trans-cultural. I enjoy exploring the contrasts in life. I think about things and get sidetracked in interesting ways.

I adore my 2 kids. My daughter loves music, logic, comedy, theater and architecture. She's a cynical teenager with a lot of love to give. My son loves all forms of transportation and animals. He helps me garden and adds an autistic lens to my attention deficits, which is a blessing.

I really like a wide variety of music, from reggaeton and samba to 80's and modern pop to bhangra and baroque.

My favorite books have humor and humanity. I like personal and fictional narratives with a lot of reflection in them. I have an annual tradition of reading crime fiction and detective novels, good and not so good, every holiday season. I

One of my favorite movies of all time is called "Shower" -- it is a Chinese film about the final days of a family-owned bath house. It's absolutely beautiful.

I don't get out much, but recent movies I enjoyed with my kids included Coco and Black Panther.

I love BBC i-Player and podcasts, when I get the chance to listen. On the Media is my favorite show on NPR.

I rarely get to watch TV these days, but I do love Death in Paradise and the Great British Bakeoff, as well as NOVA and other science series, History Detectives, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, and The Voice. I still miss The Sing-Off.

I have turned to Twitter lately and spend daily time there ...

I have been a gardener for a while. I prefer plants that do well without a lot of support, so I am into prairie plants and cottage type gardens. Lately, I have been getting excited about houseplants. Tovah Martin's The Unexpected Houseplant and The Indestructible Houseplant have been big inspirations. Among my current favorite houseplants: Ledebouria, Muehlenbeckia, Gonialoe variegata, various Ficus pumilas, and a Cryptanthus.

Pretty much sketching, watercolors, ball-point pen work and silly things. I recently folded an origami llama and drew a number of Toyota vehicles whose weights or load capacities varied by factors of 10. That is silly.

Big skies and open water are my favorite things. Also, museums and places that serve good cheap food and allow me to people-watch.

I love swap-bot because I get to see a little of what makes my swap partners happy and inspired. I am especially fond of *science *natural history/ fossils and ancient plants and animals *information and images about ancient and modern cultures from around the world *cars, boats, and all forms of transportation *plants *animals of all kinds *miniature figures and things to put in houseplant pots *things that make me think or laugh *social justice inspiration and humor

I've moved recently, so my Swap-bot stuff has gotten a bit jumbled and I have had mail rerouted from my previous address that has arrived rather slowly or that I have had to go pick up.

I have things that I have meant to mail and been very slow with.

My son has had a very tough year at school and my daughter has been very busy in her first year in high school, so we are slowly coming out of a busy year.

Tapirs, paddlefish, gars, rays, capybaras and sloths. Any prehistoric marine life. I follow SUE the T-Rex on Twitter.

Favorite plant list in process ... waiting to receive my third variety of Muehlenbeckia and a 'tapeworm plant!' in the mail :)