topo = my nickname. It means ”mouse” in Italian and is rock climber-speak for “topographic map”.
tales = an English noun used to represent true or fictitious narratives. It is also a homophone for tails.
I’m half Indian and half American but somehow came out in a cappucino shade of skin that made me what academics like to categorize as “invisibly ethnic”. As far as I can tell that just means white people think I have a nice tan and Indian people can’t figure out how I understand what they’re saying. Sometimes it’s fun to be an undercover brown person and sometimes it sucks.
Originally from the Chicago South Side (where my love for the -warm- outdoors incubated), I left the United States in 2004 with two suitcases and a desire to live in the Mediterranean but somehow ended up stuck in Brussels, Belgium. The weather here sucks; it rains all the time. Seriously. Even the Brits complain. I speak fluent Spanish, enough French to get laid (or at least slapped) & (in)decent Italian. My English, on the other hand, has been sodomized by various European pronunciations & grammar but is still fairly comprehensible. And indeed I have an okay understanding of Hindi - white, not stupid.
I’ve been climbing rocks, ice, mountains and everything I could haul my ass up since 2002. It’s a lifestyle.
I believe in unicorns, kittens, ballet, heart-shaped things, boy-bands, the color pink, jazz hands and wee babies.
The above picture where I’m all clean and nice-looking is an anomaly. If you can photo-shop these to picture the foot that lives perpetually in my constantly-moving mouth, I normally look more like this:
or this: 
Please feel free to comment on my posts, I’d love to hear what you think! If that’s too public for you, I can also be reached at topotales at gmail dot com.
