About Me

  • About Me: "I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things." --Van Gogh

Food

  • Favorite Cuisine: Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese
  • Favorite Dishes: Tacos, quesadillas, spinach and artichoke dip, cheese tortellini, tomato-toast sandwiches, corn on the cob, barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh salsa, Beth's Thai wraps, teriyaki chicken, watermelon, peaches.
  • Favorite Desserts: Key lime pie or cheesecake, anything with fresh peaches, and anything really, truly, decadently chocolatey.
  • Favorite Drinks: Fresh meadow mint tea, ice-cold milk, herbal tea, almost any kind of Snapple, Diet Coke. I love browsing the "new age drinks" section at Redner's. I try a new one almost every time.
  • Favorite Junk Foods: Lime Tostitos, Doritos, Cheez-it Crisps, Haagen-Dasz ice cream and sorbet
  • Best meal ever: Slow-barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes with lots of butter and sour cream, fresh corn and tomatoes, crusty bread, iced tea, and key lime pie.
  • Favorite Restaurants: Cerulean (Winona Lake, IN); Noa Noa (Warsaw, IN); The Macaroni Grille; Casablanca (Santa Monica, CA); Atika (Cheb, Czech Republic)
  • Foods I hate: Lima beans, red beets, sauerkraut, olives, sweet peppers.

Travel

  • Places I love: Colorado, Alaska, eastern Pennsylvania
  • Places I've been: Eagle River, Alaska Carlsbad, New Mexico Colorado Springs, Colorado Orlando, Florida Rehoboth Beach, Delaware Biloxi, Mississippi Stratford, Ontario Cuernavaca/Tlapa, Mexico Winona Lake, Indiana New York City Freiburg, Germany Basel, Switzerland Southern California Salzburg, Austria Vienna, Austria Czech Republic Budapest, Hungary Bratislava, Slovakia Nuremberg, Germany Rothenburg, Germany
  • Places to see before I die: Ireland, Spain, Greece, Germany, Mexico (again), Italy, England, India, New Zealand, Australia, Zambia, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Jamaica, Hawaii

Books

  • Favorite Books: Till We Have Faces, Lord of the Rings, Blue Like Jazz, Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Count of Monte Cristo, Mrs. Dalloway, Little Women, The Van Gogh Cafe, A Wrinkle in Time, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Tuck Everlasting, Jane of Lantern Hill, The Book Thief
  • Favorite Authors: Ray Bradbury, Louisa May Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, C.S. Lewis, Virginia Woolf, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lois Lowry, John Steinbeck
  • Favorite Genres: Fantasy, science fiction, theology, adolescent fiction, poetry, short stories.
  • Favorite Characters: Bartleby the Scrivener, Jo March, Orual, Edmund Dantes, Meg and Charles Wallace Murray, Samuel Hamilton
  • Recent Reads: "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

Television

  • Favorite Shows: The Office, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, House, Heroes, Project Runway
  • Favorite Reruns: Star Trek, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Boy Meets World, Full House
  • Most Addictive Show: The Office
  • Favorite Late Night Talk Show: Conan O'Brien
  • Favorite Episode: "Office Olympics" - The Office
  • Characters you relate to: George O'Malley, Jim Halpert, Pam Beesly, Betty Suarez
  • Favorite Theme Song: "Teardrop" by Massive Attack (House)
  • Show I Secretly Watch: America's Next Top Model
  • Show I wished wasn't cancelled: Joan of Arcadia

Movies

  • Favorite Movies: Contact, Mr. Holland's Opus, Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, You've Got Mail, Mona Lisa Smile, Equilibrium, The Fifth Element, Little Women, The Truman Show, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, Pride & Prejudice (old and new), Dead Poets Society, The Sound of Music, The Emperor's New Groove, Cast Away, Beauty and the Beast, Garden State, Signs, Unbreakable, Back to the Future, The Mighty Ducks, Field of Dreams, Once
  • Favorite Actors: Tom Hanks, Katharine Hepburn, Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ian McKellen, Johnny Depp, Joaquin Phoenix, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep
  • Favorite Directors: M. Night Shyamalan, Peter Weir, Robert Zemeckis
  • Favorite Genre: I'll watch anything that's good.
  • Favorite Soundtracks: Little Women, Pride & Prejudice, Gladiator
  • Movie Quotes I say all the time: "How long has *that* been there?" (The Emperor's New Groove) "Or not, maybe not!" (Win a Date With Tad Hamilton) "If you break her heart, I swear to God I will tear you to pieces with my bare hands! ...Or vicious rhetoric!" (Win a Date...) "There's innocent, there's childlike, and then there's just asking for it." (Win a Date...)
  • Movies I can watch over and over: The Sound of Music, Mr. Holland's Opus, Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, You've Got Mail, Little Women, Back to the Future, The Mighty Ducks, Field of Dreams, The Emperor's New Groove
  • Actor that would play me in a movie: Claire Danes

Style

  • Where I shop: Aeropostale, Boscov's, Wal-Mart, Goodwill, Old Navy, H&M
  • Brands I love: Aeropostale (especially for jeans), Old Navy, Skechers, Bat'a
  • I like to wear: Jeans, t-shirts, jackets, and Skechers.
  • Can't live without: Skechers.
  • Prized Possessions: My Bat'a shoes from CZ.
  • Guilty Pleasure: Lots and lots of graphic tees.

College

  • School Name: Grace College & Theological Seminary
  • Status: Alumni
  • Class of: 2006
  • Attended: 2002 - 2006
  • Degree type: Bachelors
  • Major(s): English
  • Minor(s): Journalism
  • Organizations: The Sounding Board (college newspaper)

Music

  • Favorite Artists: U2, Jars of Clay, old-school Newsboys, Smalltown Poets, Alanis Morissette, Enya, John Mayer, Sigur Ros, Death Cab for Cutie, Enigma, Moby, Phil Collins, The Cranberries, Simon & Garfunkel, Caedmon's Call, Coldplay, Nickel Creek, Stephen Speaks, The Postal Service, Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, Derek Webb, The Wailin' Jennys, The Be Good Tanyas, Iron & Wine, Rosie Thomas, Sufjan Stevens
  • Favorite Albums: Exodus (various artists) Jars of Clay (Jars of Clay) Watermark (Enya) The Best of 1980-1990 (U2) Play (Moby) Voyageur (Enigma) Plans (Death Cab for Cutie) No More Doubt (Stephen Speaks) Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette) Continuum (John Mayer) On A Starry Night (Windham Hill collection) Trouble (Ray LaMontagne) Our Endless Numbered Days (Iron & Wine) Come On, Feel the Illinoise! (Sufjan Stevens)
  • Favorite Genre: Acoustic singer-songwriter.
  • Favorite Songs: "Higher Love" (Steve Winwood) "Black or White" (Michael Jackson) "I Hear the Bells" (Mike Doughty) "Like a Child" (Jars of Clay) "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (U2) "Hands Clean" (Alanis Morissette) "The Luckiest" (Ben Folds) "New Slang" (The Shins) "Rest" (Skillet) "Somewhere North" (Caedmon's Call) "Nothing Better" (The Postal Service) "Jolene" (Ray LaMontagne) "The Shadowlands" (Ryan Adams) "Apocalypse Lullaby" (The Wailin' Jennys) "Passing Afternoon" (Iron & Wine) "Since You've Been Around" (Rosie Thomas)
  • Favorite Lyrics: "blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl / oh-oh, the sweetest thing" (U2) "sitting silent wearing sunday best / the sermon echoes through the walls / a great salvation through it calls to the people / who stare into nowhere / can't feel the chains on their souls" (Jars of Clay) "and i rest in the shelter of your love / and i rest in the wonder of your grace" (Skillet) "rock candy's melted, only diamonds now remain" (John Mayer) "your glory, Lord, is still a burning light / a light that all our faithless hands could never dim" (The Waiting) "a man needs something he can hold on to / a nine-pound hammer or a woman like you" (Ray LaMontagne) "cause when i looked into your eyes / and you dared to stare right back / you should have said, "nice to meet you, i'm your other half" (Relient K) "she won't falter easy / she'll be careful, she'll be coy / but still she paints her heart / among the musings of a boy" (Future of Forestry)
  • Songs for Roadtrips: "Life Is a Highway" (Tom Cochrane) "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" (KT Tunstall) "I Want You" (Savage Garden) "A Little Less Conversation" (Elvis Presley) "10,000 Miles" (Mary Chapin Carpenter) "Where the Streets Have No Name" (U2) "Gone" (Switchfoot) "A Thousand Miles" (Vanessa Carlton) "Rockin' Robin" (Bobby Day) "Higher Love" (Steve Winwood) "I Hear the Bells" (Mike Doughty) "Come to the River" (The Jayhawks) "Gonna Make You Love Me" (Ryan Adams)
  • Songs I hate: "Beautiful" (Christina Aguilera) "Photograph" (Nickelback) "The Reason" (Hoobastank) "Umbrella" (Rihanna) Anything Casting Crowns attempts to sing.
  • Guilty Pleasure: Shakira, Eminem, Michael Jackson, reggae.
  • Songs I repeat the most: "Hands Clean" (Alanis Morissette) "Higher Love" (Steve Winwood) "Somewhere North" (Caedmon's Call) "Wedding Dress" (Derek Webb) "Passing Afternoon" (Iron & Wine)
  • Band I wish I was in: Nickel Creek

More About Me

  • Nicknames: The Crystalline Entity
  • Nationality: Caucasian, American
  • Religion: Christianity
  • Heroes: C.S. Lewis, James Joiner
  • Interests: Books, writing, cooking, ethics, Doritos, small dogs, quantum physics, psychology, poetry, music, lots of music, the church, lip balm, Diet Coke, breath mints, friends, coffee, hot fudge, television, movies, philosophy, glass, photography, Wikipedia, Europe, pens, money, tea, Star Trek, notebooks, Latin, art, cool T-shirts.
  • Expertise: Hiding.
  • Occupation: English teacher.
  • Website: http://ut-pictura-poesis.blogspot.com

Video Games

  • Games I Play: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Diddy Kong Racing, Harvest Moon, Zoo Tycoon, Civilization III
  • Consoles: X-Box, Nintendo 64, PC
  • Favorite Classic Arcade Games: Pac-Man
  • Most Addictive: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  • Proudest Achievements: Almost beating Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Contact Info

  • AIM: abookishone
  • MSN: crystalynn84@hotmail.com