My self-summary
Hi, my name is Rita. My actual location right now is northeastern Colorado, but I will be moving to the above listed location (MA) this upcoming January - great timing, I know. I enjoy keeping this profile active but would prefer to chat and match with people I can look forward to eventually meeting instead of leaving behind so soon. Massive two shits, see you in the new year!

CA → HI → GA → OK → Germany → PA → CO ... and soon to be → MA
My first eleven years were evenly spent between the first five places, then I went a decade in Pennsyltucky before escaping to the Rockies. I didn't travel so much as just move residence. Basically, once an army brat via my father, now a tumbleweed without any wind in my sails, but still finding coattails to hitch a ride. There's more to being well-traveled than that, I think.

Now, what I'm looking for here is very open-ended: to grow connections (friends, dates, eventual relationship partners, etc.) and share experiences. Come as you are.

By my own nature I'm enthusiastically and ethically non-monogamous, specifically polyamorous (non-hierarchical / egalitarian / relationship anarchist / solo-ish), and have identified this way for six years. I'm an individual accessible individually: I don't have or want any primaries or package deals, insofar as our logistics, collective histories, and emergences allow. I am not single as in uninvolved with anyone, but I am single as in available for more. My status here is "open relationship" (in the singular) for lack of a better option. I am not a swinger or part of a couple. Nothing wrong with any of that, but it just isn't who I am or what I do.

Personality-wise, I'm highly sensitive and expressive, while seeking high sensations. I like to have intense, maybe overwhelming, experiences and then withdraw to digest and rest. I'm more interpersonal than generally sociable, valuing strong, deep and close mental interaction most, which tends to get dispersed in groups, though all still eventually necessitates being alone for awhile, as socializing drains me and solitude energizes me, all else being equal.

My interests/hobbies include:
(A few are just budding or simply leave me far from being an expert [more so a dabbler, I need to level up], but they've been listed in the hope that the more experienced may be willing to teach me and those with less experience may want to learn with me.)
-my web-browsing habit (addiction?), microblogging, aggregators, prosthetic knowledge
-various social gatherings/parties/meetups/concerts/shows/festivals
-urban/rural exploration (abandoned or otherwise), walks/hikes/bicycling/off-roading, nudist locations and events. I like to be outdoors as much as in.
-body/sex positivity (with critical thinking applied), body modification (particularly scarification)
-ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). Touch triggers me best, but I'm somewhere between type A and B, so videos can be a good substitute. I love trading massages, hair brushing, ear cleaning, makeup application, playing with sand, etc. Let's trade.
-observing and attempting to participate in art of many mediums, particularly photography (portraiture / landscape / surreal)
-scifi, fantasy, cyberpunk, futurology, transhumanism
-Studying ASL, as a fun and beautiful language in itself, but also hoping to incorporate it into dance, singing, rapping, stand-up comedy, poetry readings, gloving/fingershows, and other performances, by either myself or others.
-philosophy, skepticism, logic, reason, agnosticism, atheism
-mindfulness and meditation
-rational psychonautics and altered consciousness. I read and listen to trip notes/reports/stories, care to share? Also on the subject of drugs, I do not bring them up to encourage others to try them if they never have and don't want to, nor to encourage trying again for those who did try them and found they didn't work out. It is simply my choice to enjoy them recreationally, therapeutically, and responsibly, in moderation.
What I’m doing with my life
Moving along at my own pace, for better or worse, because it's the progression that's more important. Then I can allow for all the pain and pleasure, and the good is always better than the bad is worse.

Immediately after high school I did a year of community college, but decided against returning the following year due to lack of funds and uncertainty about my major/career. I plan to resume when I am ready. For now, I work full-time.

In my love life, establishing multiple long-term and mutually meaningful relationships is ideal for me, but I don't necessarily think anything short-term is meaningless. It's all about the net gain.
I’m really good at
Using language. Though on the other hand I'm dyscalculic, self-diagnosed. Numbers can bum me out because they're so difficult for me, but words are different; their ease brings me comfort, and so I'm trying to apply my love for words to numbers, to get better at both and then fully enjoy the beauty of what it all has to offer. Eventually I want to become multilingual. Right now I'm only fluent in English; I'm teaching myself Spanish, among other subjects like math, using free online resources.

("Do you have any other skills? Like typing?" Nope.)

Some other things I want to learn to be really good at:
Typing, net sec / programming / web dev, gardening, illustration (mostly digital), making electronic music, DIY, to be continued.

I try to further my goals every day, which is not to say that I accomplish a lot - just something, anything, no matter how small. So far my life has been pretty undisciplined, causing me to be an underdeveloped and passive person, so I'm trying to get strict with myself, even with baby steps, usually in "one step forward, two steps back" fashion.
The first things people usually notice about me
Either an open book or a hard nut to crack. It's not me or you, it's us.

Wardrobe (shabby as my wallet) is comfortably futch, sometimes awkwardly femme. So weakly agendered as to be cis-by-default because I get to not care about gender and its presentation AND not care that I don't care.

Less relevant as my hair lengthens: I don't "pull off" short hair; I think short hair is fantastic by itself and doesn't need to be pulled off at all by anyone, as if looking good with short hair is some difficult feat ("I guess I'm just old-fashioned hyuck hyuck"). I first cut my hair short because I wanted a change (but face wide and pale as the full moon no matter the frame, hell yeah). Now that I've enjoyed having it short for a few years, I'm ready to grow it out and when it's long enough again I will cut it, donate it, rinse, and repeat.
Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food
Books: goodreads.com/pitapaprika
(Been in a dry spell and starting to get back into almost always being in the middle of a good book.)

Movies: imdb.com/list/1zcISQazm8o
(Yep, my username is partly a reference to Satoshi Kon's film.)

Shows: imdb.com/list/3az9WX-G9Yc
(I don't have cable but I do know the passwords to someone else's netflix/hulu accounts and I torrent.)

Music: last.fm/user/pitapaprika
(I deleted a 5 year old account recently because I hated the username so this new one is a really incomplete look. Also, I tend to loop until I burn out, a frequent consumption method no matter the content.)

Food: I've been told I have the palate of a toddler because I don't care much for spicy food, beer, or hot/cold coffee/tea. I know many tastes are acquired over time, so I am open to having them now and again. Otherwise, I'm not picky.

blawgs n stuff (NSFW)
General (mostly visual) art: pitapaprika.tumblr.com
Personal: insideoutlet.tumblr.com
Kinky facebook: fetlife.com/users/2032773
The six things I could never do without
1. ████ ███ ███ [DATA EXPUNGED]
2. ██ ███ ██ [DATA EXPUNGED]
3. █ ████ ███ ██ [DATA EXPUNGED]
4. it rubs the lotion on its skin
5. cranberry pills for that healthy urinary tract
6. scp-wiki.net
I spend a lot of time thinking about
Or, some things I think about that I'd like you to know I think about regardless of how often:

-Mental health and illness, self-harm and self-healing. I take an SSRI anti-depressant (dysthymia) and anti-anxiety (general/social) medication; it provides the balance and solid foundation to be a better version of myself. If we meet physically, you will notice scars on me, most self-inflicted (I tried to cut myself out of my meat suit. Y'know the manufacturers didn't even include a damn zipper?). There's a quote by Mikko Kuorinki that I think can explain well the desire for self-harm: "I want to keep smashing myself until I am whole." My scars partly serve as reminders for me to continue trying to use more constructive methods to deal with those feelings.

-Ambivalence. Ambivalence is friction, and friction is sexual. I used sexuality, among other things, partly as a coping mechanism while I was growing up. I see I can do that with almost anything of my choosing and that makes me try to be passionate overall. However, I do not regret the special attention I give to my own sexuality as it spurs my development there and I am very much attuned to what arouses me. I can be self-sufficient in sexual satisfaction as well, and so I do not necessarily desire sex, or even physical contact, with any given partner. Conversely, I am comfortable with being touched but the more cuddly may find I don't initiate it enough for them.

-Speaking of sexuality, I am sexually and romantically attracted to a wide variety of people, sometimes because of sex/gender and sometimes regardless of it. Obligatory "pan/queer over bi" insert, though I don't have anything big against bi (particularly if seen as "my [lack of] gender versus everyone else's genders" and not "men versus women") and I will often use it for the sake of convenience. I also don't think of them as "labels" if that's meant negatively. They're authentic shortcuts past a longer conversation (or the initiator to that if necessary or desired), applied after the fact of attraction felt freely.

-I'm constantly introspecting and remain open to change while reaching only stepping stones to self-knowledge and -expression, not conclusions. This applies to any "label" I give myself. I am what I currently am, but I also like to communicate that to others as effectively and easily as possible. Resisting definition doesn't necessarily mean resisting limitation. Everyone is unique but limited anyway, not because of definitions, but because of that reality of being a person. We contain multitudes, but not infinity.

-Planning and preparing. If you fly by the seat of your pants 24/7 that just won't fly with me. I'm OK with spontaneity within reason, but I like having something to look forward to, I like to be ready for it, and I like using my time wisely.
On a typical Friday night I am
I do like a fair share of quiet alone time (or quiet time spent with comfortable company), but I'm also learning how to enjoy more crowded and noisy places, so on future Fridays or just free days (maybe spent with people I've met online) I could be here or there.
The most private thing I’m willing to admit
I'm working on permanently quitting a nail and cuticle biting habit (stress-coping / psychomotor agitation), which I've probably had since I first grew teeth, but more concern is being placed on coping with the stress in better ways, rather than having pretty and long nails. After a huge breakthrough last year, it's been going very well.

I am currently only in contact with one member of my biological family, one of my younger brothers. For the rest, I have strictly no contact. Someday I hope to have built a large network of "logical"/chosen family.

I have no desire to ever give birth. I'm not tokophobic or anti-natalist, but I am nulliparous for life by choice. If ever I rear a child, it'll be through adoption or foster care.

A lot of people put "having an okc account" here, but I openly enjoy online dating. Since I started in Jan 2012, I consider it to be a great step for me in meeting new local people, not a last resort.
You should message me if
"My parents fucking lied. Talking to strangers on the internet was like the best decision of my life."