Introducing Myself

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I think of myself as tall; when I remember to stand up straight, I'm over 6'1". (I slouch sometimes.)

I'm not wide — more slender than thin. My shoulders don't brush against most doorways, but it's close. My arms and legs are long. They're proportional to my body. My upper arms and shoulders are the exceptions. They're more muscular, but not unreasonably so. I wish my calves were larger, but I have my father's thin ankles. Someday, I'd like to put on another ten pounds: some of my lower ribs show too. A little more muscle might fill this out nicely.

Someone once called me "dark and handsome". If you look at my baby pictures, you'll see that my hair and eyebrows did darken over time. The same thing happened to my brother, though he started out much blonder. My hair is medium-brown, but my eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard are several shades darker. Oddly, a patch of my hair on the front left grows much lighter in the summer, partially red and partially blonde. It's very interesting because sunlight doesn't seem to affect it.

My hair is wavy, so it looks shorter than it is. During my freshman year of college, I grew it long. At one point, I could pull my bangs down past the tip of my nose. Then the winter winds caused tangles and it became too much to maintain.

The next year, again following the lead of my friends, I shaved my head to 1/4 inch of hair. This looks good on people with nicely-shaped heads. Shortly after this, I met my father for lunch. I wore a hat. He knew something was amiss. I rarely wear hats.

That hairstyle lasted for three years, well into my first professional job. Short hair tends to grow out unevenly. Unless you trim it every two or three weeks, it can look unkempt. I waited out the awkward phase. Finally, I could part it again.

The only way my hair does anything sensible is to work around the cowlick on the right front side. Parting it in that area helps. It also means that I can run my fingers back through my hair to fix it. When it's too long, though, this often makes the back stick out a little bit.

My eyes are bluish-green. They're more green than blue, but it depends on my mood, the lighting, and the color of my shirt what shade they are. Besides my smile, they're my best feature. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to hide them behind glasses. I've worn glasses since the third grade, though I wore contacts from my senior year in high school through college. I had to stop when they irritated my eyes too much to continue. It's funny; before I had to wear glasses, I wanted to wear them because I thought my face was too plain. Now I think I look better without them, though I see better with them.

I have a beard. It de-emphasizes my prominent jawline. Though I don't shave every day, I keep it trimmed. When it grows too long, it itches. It's also much easier to look clean with a beard and a little stubble than with stubble alone. The beard and my my glasses combine to make me look like a young college professor. Sometimes I play the part by gesturing with my glasses in hand while pretending to lecture about philosophy or music.

I like my smile. You can tell when it's sincere because my eyes smile too and you can see my upper teeth. Once, while talking to a friend, I kept smiling at her because it would distract from what she was saying. I have dimples in both cheeks.

My nose is a little longer than normal. It's not big or crooked. It slopes downward but doesn't point. It's just prominent. There's a little bump where the skullbone ends and the cartilage takes over, but my glasses usually hide it.

My ears are small. They always have been. If there's anything cute about me, it's my ears.

I usually wear a t-shirt and jeans. Sometimes, I wear a tucked-in polo shirt to look more dressy. In the winter, I often wear a flannel shirt over my t-shirt, even if it doesn't match. It's more important to be warm than to look perfect.

During college, I started wearing boots most of the time. First it was hiking boots, then Doc Martens. They're very comfortable and they wear well. Sometimes I instead wear comfortable sandals, but not out in public. Even though I don't follow fashion too far, it does seem wrong to wear white athletic socks with sandals.

In person, I think I seem very distracted. I often sit in the corner of a room or a couch and watch other people. My friend Nikki pointed this out in college. Even in an empty room, I head for one of the four corners.

Other times — rarer times — I pay a lot of attention. Instead of having a faraway look in my eyes, I'll concentrate directly on the speaker. This is easier in a one-on-one conversation where I can face the other person. It depends on how I feel though.

My normal facial expression is a neutral scowl. It sounds worse than it is. It's a bored expression, not an angry or upset expression. When I think of it, I prefer to have a slight smile, with my mouth stretched out a little bit and the ends turned up. It's a small difference that makes a big difference.

I like to put my feet up when I sit. I often cross one leg over the other and switch every few minutes. It's not fidgeting, it's trying to find one comfortable position. If I had better posture overall, I'd probably fidget much less. When I think about my posture, I imagine my spine twisting and bending and have to sit up straighter. I did that just now.