In her own words, she describes herself as, "Short, athletic build, fair skinned, bleached blonde, freckle faced, long hair. My favorite physical feature is my eyelashes. They’re long."
I thought she was a Californian, as she pulled off the blonde quite convincingly. But she stuns me with the knowledge that she is, in fact, Italian. If we're gonna be nit-picky, she is actually Irish-Italian, with a tiny bit of Native American and a tiny bit of French thrown in there. She typically identifies more strongly with her Irish side, both cultural influences were very present in her upbringing. She had a very Italian grandfather who had a tanning bed in his basement. (And the tanning goggles.) But let's start with her parents.
Kathleen's parents were from the same hometown. Her mother was an Northern Irish/Democratic Activist, who moved out to San Francisco to be a full-time hippie. While there, she married someone who was NOT Kathleen's father. Eventually, she came back to Massachussetts after having the marriage annulled. She was already acquainted with her future husband, because he had dated her best friend from high school. They reconnected, got hitched, and have been together ever since. When asked if her father shares her mother's passion for activism, Kathleen responds, "Dad just kind of lets mom do her thing. Mom’s the feisty one." Ironically, when it came to raising her and her younger brother, Kathleen's former hippie mother was always really strict to protect them from making her mistakes.
Growing up, Kathleen wanted to be a marine biologist. But then she actually figured out that science wasn’t really her thing, so it sort of fell by the way side. (Who hasn't wanted to be a marine biologist at some point in their life? I think it's a phase we all go through.) As she grew older, she cultivated a love for music. This led to her latest "crazy" dream - to be a DJ. What were the chances that I ended up sitting next to two aspiring DJs? Kathleen took some classes, and decided it was right up her avenue. Interestingly enough, her interests don't stop there. Turns out, Kathleen also does a bit of improv comedy and comedy writing on the side.
So now that we know what she WANTS to do, what is it that she actually does? She's an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission. Obviously, my next question had to be, "HOW THE HECK DID YOU END UP THERE?" For a while, Kathleen also considered going into linguistics. She knew she wanted to go to grad school, and started doing international development. That was her realistic goal, doing foreign service. But she didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do, so she ended up at law school. Kathleen is also very interested in Latin America, and can speak Spanish tolerably well.
There is not necessarily one major embarrassing event that Kathleen recalls, but she does have memories of living in a continuous embarrassed state. It was the 80’s. Mom used to dress her. "I wanted to wear the crazy, bright fluorescent things, but my mom never let me." Instead, Kathleen was made to dress conservatively, and kids being the mean little monsters they are, she got made fun of, and was really embarrassed. All the time.
But then, Kathleen grew up, and she got to pick out her own clothes, and make some happy memories. Her best memory was the time she lived in San Fran for a summer. "The feeling of living there, and just being there was just amazing. I felt a sense of freedom that I rarely experience. I was a newcomer, and it was only temporary, and didn’t know anyone, and had no obligations to anyone." Kathleen discovered that she is happiest when she is in exploration mode.
Things that make Kathleen smile real big: 1) Comedy. Laughing in general. Luis C.K. is at the top of her list for standup. 2) Music. Good music. Her favorite genres include classic R&B, funk and disco, and old school hip hop. She loves Otis Redding, Steely Dan, and Hall & Oats. 3) In general, she is really interested in people. Working towards a good cause, and helping people in need rank especially high on her priorities list.
Love: "It’s so complicated right now." Just like her fellow DJ, 2 is the magical number of love. Both happened very recently. One of them was her boyfriend of 2+ years. They just broke up about three months ago. The other is someone she met a year and a half ago. "We were friends. When my boyfriend and I broke up last winter, me and this friend started hanging out together, and developed feelings for each other." Then the boyfriend came back into the picture and said he really wanted to be together again. "I asked if he
could see a future together, and he said he didn’t know. So we went our separate
ways." During that time, the friend and Kathleen got closer. Finally, the boyfriend came back and
said, "I want us, I want the family, the whole deal." So Kathleen and ex-boyfriend got back together, and
moved in together. Shortly after getting into this arrangement, Kathleen was getting the feeling that it wasn't working out. On top of that, her friend that she had feelings for was
really upset that she had gotten back with her boyfriend. "I was upset because I was totally unsure of what to do." Now that Kathleen and her old boyfriend are officially over, she has been working to reconnect with her special friend, and
trying to show him that he means more to her than just rebound.
I hope everything works out for you, Kathleen.
Kathleen was poised and ready for the final question. If she met her 16 year old self, she would tell her, "RE-LAX. I was way too serious. It was good that I worked hard, but I
overdid it."
So with three new profiles under my belt, and the five hour journey home nearly complete, that's exactly what I did. I sat back and let the lull of gentle conversation roll in and out of my consciousness. Thank you, Megabus.
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