Me
I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Stigler, a small town in eastern Oklahoma. I went to the Oklahoma School of Science and Math (free boarding school in Oklahoma City) for the last two years of high school and then went out to California to study at Stanford.I graduated in 2002 (major in physics, minor in political science) and wandered around working and traveling for a couple of years until I landed in Palestine. I lived in Ramallah for a year and a half and had an amazing time working as a journalist, doing foreign press coordination for a presidential candidate, traveling, and writing a blog called Letters from Palestine.
In January 2006 I moved to Washington, DC, and worked at a Defense think tank in the belly of the Bush Beltway. I lasted nearly two years until the desire to go back to Palestine was overwhelming. I went back in the fall of 2007 for three months, and while I was there, I decided that it was time to sit down and write the book I've been wanting to write for years, Fast Times in Palestine. I'm now living in my home town of Stigler, OK, and working full-time on the book.
I like to travel and write and play sports, especially soccer and jujitsu, and I'm a Rescue Scuba Diver certified by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
Here's a picture of me next to a fire with a kitten in my sweater in Dahab, Sinai, Egypt:
Rough chronology of my life:
21 January 1980 - about 1987
Tulsa, OK
1987 - 1988
Tahlequah, OK (Cherokee Elementary with Mrs. Rahe)
1988 - 1996
Stigler, OK (3rd grade through sophomore year at SHS)
1996 - 1998
Oklahoma School of Science and Math, Oklahoma City
1998 - 2002
Stanford, CA (including fall 2000 in Moscow and summer 2001 in Qingdao, China)
Summer 2002
France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia
Fall 2002 - Spring 2003
Working in Palo Alto, CA, as a bartender, environmental research assistant, and various other things, squatting in Columbae
Summer 2003
Novomikhailovsky, Russia (Camp Golden Shaft)
Fall 2003
Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey
January - June 2004
Working in Palo Alto and researching the Palestine/Israel conflicts, squatting in Box of Rain
June 2004 - December 2005
Living and working in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine
January 2006 - September 2007
Living and working in Washington, DC
October - December 2007
Ramallah, Palestine
January 2008 - Present
Stigler, OK, writing Fast Times in Palestine
At Holly's Wedding, July 1, 2006