user2

I'm an environmental journalist living in Washington DC. I've worked for some magazines (with recognizable yellow or red borders) as well as newspapers. I've been a photo editor and podcast host. I'm also learning how to fly (airplanes) -- I've successfully solo'd (flown by myself) and am working to get my license soon.

Things I love:

• History
• Photo Archives
• The American West
• Bicycle touring/racing
• Photography
• Environmental Conservation *National Parks
• West World
• Breaking Bad
• The Office

My goals this year:

For fun, I love riding my bike long distances and photography. I'm hoping to combine the two this summer on a 2,700 mile, solo ride called the Tour Divide. It travels down the spine of the Rocky Mountains from Banff, Canada, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico (on the Mexican border). It's the longest bike ride I've ever done, and I hope to ride it in 40 days or less. I've been training almost every day for it, progressively riding my bike longer distances and getting used to just sitting on a bike all day, every day.

Books:

I love reading, and I'm usually reading some form of non-fiction. In 2017, I published a book called 'PIttsburgh: 1950', a collection of photographers by the famous photographer Elliott Erwitt. I found a collection of his negatives in a local library and published the book in collaboration -- he hadn't seen the negatives since he first shot them in 1950, when he was just 22 years old!

About my username:

I am Swap-bot user #2! I joined in the very beginning, back when my friends Rachel and Travis were developing the site. I was curious about how they were making it, so I signed up...now, more than a decade later, I'm back. Somehow I remembered my password! I figure now's a good a time as ever to participate in community like this.

Quotes:

"The goal of life is to plant trees under whose shade you never expect to sit." --> It helps remind me that we are all capable of bringing each other joy, comfort and happiness in the smallest, most random ways sometimes. And we may never even know it when we do.