Activism takes up a lot of my time. As a person with both disorders, I'm active with both the Celiac Disease Foundation and the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association. I do a lot of civic education and am a free adult education tutor. I worked as a lobbying coordinator for a major drug policy organization for a while and have volunteered for several women's rights organizations in my state. I'm active with my local historical society and our Friends of the Public Library organization. I've recently begun to get involved with the Barnaba Institute. I would list all of the organizations and causes I support, but it gets a bit long.

I don't watch a lot of television, but I do have my favorites. As a bit of a walking medical mystery myself, I've become a wee bit obsessed with House, M.D. and have spent more hours than I care to think of watching DVDs of past episodes. I've been with Nip/Tuck from the start; I suspect I am the only person who closes their eyes for the sex scenes but moves closer to the screen for the surgery shots. I will never grow tired of Fawlty Towers, The Simpsons, or the Stewart/Colbert combination.

I refuse to be one of those young people who says that music is their whole world, but I do appreciate it as much as the next. I grew up on the local alternative rock station that focused on playing a lot of independent artists, and '90s alternative will always be "my" music. My favorite artists these past few years have been Ani DiFranco, Fiona Apple, Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne, Travis, The Cardigans, The Decemberists, and of course, U2. I think the whole "who can be more indie?" game played by my peers is getting older every day.

The social sciences make a good home for me, except for the fact that they don't involve enough literature. History and Political Science consume much of my time, but I also have a great interest in Anthropology. I can easily see myself teaching one of those subjects in the future. I have a special dream of one day holding a degree in Historical Linguistics from Cornell.

I love philosophy, even the varieties with which I disagree. I am most interested in existentialism, post-modernism, and third-wave feminism. Two of my favorite periods are – here again with the contradictions – the Enlightenment and the post-WWI era, which I was taught was called the "Age of Irrationalism," even though apparently no one else was.

And what else? Surrealism and Dada, women's education, etymology, separationist movements (especially Celtic), geology and the earth sciences, labor history, social networking, web design, gluten-free baking, organic gardening, fat acceptance, vegetarianism, hand-made natural jewelry, educational policy, and used book sales, to name a few.