Here I am (left). I made it back to Lopez Island, WA just in time for a very special solstice celebration. If there's any solstice to do something spiritual, ceremonial or special for I think this one is the one to do it on. The ceremony starts at 5 pm today and will last until 4 am tomorrow (which is when the actual physical solstice happens). Part of the deal is that everyone stays up all night singing, dancing, and letting go. A lot of thing will be on my mind as we enter a new year and new season. Things in my life to let go or keep close and everything in between.
I hope solstice is powerful for everyone today, tomorrow, and beyond. Even if its just a ceremony with yourself, it is still special if you give it the power to be so. Happy Solstice! May peace be with you.
Lopez is a very different place in winter (so far). I just put up these 2 photos because the one on the right is from this exact spot about 5 months ago. Just an ode to a special spot. I'm staying with the wonderfully warm and awesome duo, Pamela and Suzanne. They are so great to be open and welcoming all the time.
As I write this I'm still in shock. Smeagol, my beloved friend of 14 years, will be sorely missed.
Less than 2 hours ago I was looking into his eyes and holding his hand as he died. And less than 3 hours ago he was happy as a lark while I brushed him.
He had a heart attack, he couldn't breath, he was in the only distress I'd seen him ever be in. We rushed him to the hospital as he was gasping for air and within 10 minutes we were making the decision to temporarily treat a terminal illness or kill him.
He was gasping until the last second.
I kissed him, looked into his eyes and told him I loved him and that everything was going to be okay.
I watched him die.
My heart hurts.
Ah....San Fran Bay Area, how many times shall I visit you and always have a great time? Hung out in the Inner Sunset for a couple days, crossed over to Oakland for a night (in the 18 hours I was there I managed to lock myself out of my Hannah's place AND successfully break back in- Score!), chilled at Claire's place right on Haight St. for a few nights, and finally moseyed over to Santa Cruz to do some best friend time with Ms. Fallin. Claire and I were able to catch a free admission day to -drum roll- The Exploratorium!!!! That was so so fun. I wanna work there some time and come up with fun experiments for kids/people. The last time i was there I was 19 and with Mat and Natalie......we had plenty of fun as well, but it wasn't free :) Oh speaking of Mat, we had a dinner meeting that was very enjoyable and figured out that sometimes friends just need a 2 year hiatus. right? Santa Cruz was perfect and sunny and lovely. I hung out on the train tracks, journaled, read, drew, and drank lots of beer. Fallin's bf, Tommy, is a head brewer at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company so there was a lot of beer and beer enthusiasts. On Saturday night we went to a great Channukah party. Appearances were made by the usual delicious characters: latkes, brisket, matzo ball soup, sour cream, apple sauce, and adult beverages. All of the people there were high school teachers. It's been so interesting getting older in a way that partying with my peers often mean partying with teachers. It's a funny switch up of perceived roles and stuff. That night I felt a burning sensation on my thigh as we were sitting down to play a raunchy version of Apples to Apples. I figured it was just my pants catching a leg hair or something. So i forgot about my leg for about an hour and as Fallin and I were getting up to go outside I remembered my leg was still on fire. We went to the bathroom and I dropped trou and wouldn't ya know??--it was a HUGE tick with it's head encysted in my thigh. AHhh! wtf! Its legs were moving as I watched it feast on my blood. Fallin's friend helped me get it out and my leg has continued to hurt for the last 2 days. 1) I thought tick season was over, 2) it wasn't a Lyme disease kind of tick, 3) F ticks. Then the next night I met 3 new friends and we roamed this one part of SC until 3 am. I ate fresh butchered, smoked, and cured meat. Tons of it! I was lucky enough to make friends with 2 local butchers. It was awesome! I'd never seen/touched a beef carcass in real life before [not even in fake life]. I think I wanna try my hand at butchering. Pictured below is Fallin: we have been best buddies since 1st grade.
Oh yeah! In SF I hung out at this great neighborhood coffee shop called Trouble Coffee. I met this cool cat there named Nolan who invited me [shortly after our meeting] to his place around the corner to draw and make quarter sized legit buttons. So we button made for a few hours, chilled out, and generally had fun making a new buddy. The next morning after waking up at Claire's Nolan invited me to join him in a breakfast quesadilla on my way out of town. This was delicious, fun, and I put banana in my spicy cheese quesadilla----soooo good! (NISWA!!) Haha!
After my bay area adventure and generally being "homeless" for the last month and living out of a backpack on people couches I'm finally ready to get all moved in and situated to my new spot in Arcata. The attic space at Brett's place with some rockin other people living there. I can't wait to be settled again and create a really homey thing for myself and my roomies.
Through all of my adventures in the past 9 months I have made so so many new friends and I have made so so many pen pals. Most people who I correspond with are so fantastically great at getting back to me and making me smile. I love this aspect of life so much. It's an immediate creativity outlet. I highly recommend doing this with anyone and everyone. Sometimes I don't even write a letter I'll just send some doodles, it's all about the surprise and effort.
Cheers to friends, travel, and going Home.
Sprout Out!
Someone once said I remind them of this lil' being:
Editing to add a slough of Michael Franti songs (3:17am music)..
So if you haven't heard, I took a 4 day train voyage to get back to Sacramento, CA. First of all let me just say that I am so surprised I got on/off at all the right places in my whole public transportation experience. Of course, in New York I had some help because Jess and I were along for the ride. But damn! yay for not getting lost or mugged.
Train stations these days, the big ones at least, are like malls w/ trains. In the DC station there was every mall shoppe you could imagine and over 50 eateries in the food court. It was nuts. On night 1 of my trip I got the whole 2 seats to my self, but at some point in the evening after I ate my dinner (while traveling I carry cheese and a loaf of bread and quinoa everywhere I go) I got to feeling like I wanted a beer. It's nice to drink a beer on a train ride where you dont have to do anything but sit and watch the scenery. So I moseyed down to the cafe car and bought a $6.00 Heineken--- lesson learned---it was delicious anyways. When I arrived in Chicago the next day I had an 8 hr layover so I left the station in search of a CVS/Walgreens where I could purchase beer, toothpaste, toothbrush, and an iPod charger. As my luck would have it there was an aforementioned store right across from the station. "Gottcha," I said as I took my items, receipt in hand out of the store. Yes, my train trip would now be much more enjoyable. I went back to the station, still having about 3 hours left. I waited until 12 noon and went to get a beer or two at the station restau-bar (this was a beer heavy trip, if you can't tell--I love beer). In this restau-bar comes a very funny story I wrote down right after it happened.
Half way through my first beer I really had to pee. I covered my drink and left my 2 backpacks next to the table my beer was at. I scurried quickly to the Women's room as to not leave my stuff unattended for too long. When I got there, there was a huge ass line. One my bladder didn't feel ready to wait through. So on my bladder's request I hurriedly switched over to the Men's room right next door, because---hey, I can pass for a boy most of the time. In my mind there would be tons of glorious open stalls. Much to my surprise, there were plenty of urinals and only 2 stalls. Drats! There was a stall that seemed like in might be vacant, but as I drew nearer I noticed a HUGE crack in the stall door, exposing a man umm.... taking a shit (I suppose). Drats! Drats! Triple Drats! There I was standing in front of the urinals waiting for a stall when a man walks in and, me, not being privy to Men's room etiquette, steps away from the urinal area, thereby giving up my spot in the "line". I gave up and went back to drink the rest of my beer with a defeated/full bladder. Lesson: Don't think you can do what you want just because you can pass for both genders.
So then my journey was almost complete, just 2 more nights until Sacramento. I can honestly say that all of the scenery east of Omaha, NB was industrial and ugly and everything to the west of NB was beautiful and amazing. We went through The Rockies, desert, and Sierra Nevada's. It was a great experience to take the train across America. Would I do it again? No, I just wanted the experience and now I have it. Also, the journey was a huge test in patience, torturous at times.
Before the train trip: I finished out my time in Philly with that couchsurfer host I was talking about, Maddy. We took a trip to Central PA for two nights to visit her friend, Peanut. It was nice to see the countryside of PA and I found out that most of PA is countryside and small towns. On my final night in Philly Maddy and her bf Rand took me to a really cool experimental performing arts show at a co-op bike shop named The Bikery. There were an array of performers, some bands and some solo acts. At the end there was this absolutely amazing shadow puppet show performed by 3 amazing women. Wow! I wanna get into shadow puppetry. Anyone wanna start a troupe? After the show the 3 of us took a bike ride through Philly at night to a converted sewing factory where Rand lives with 3 roomies. We had wine and really dank pizza. yum yum!
I took the Bolt bus the next day 2hrs North to the Big Apple to meet one of my best friends, Jess. When we met up we headed over to her brother Damien's place. Before we did that though we bought week long unlimited Metro Cards. These were soooo great to have (the unlimited part). Got some really good coffee in Williamsburg (where Damien lives with his bf and 2 roomies). Then met up with Jess's mom, Catherine for some authentic arepas from a Venezuelan restaurant. Good Lord! These arepas were so effing good AND they had sweet plantains in them. Y'all know how I love me some bananas :) We spent the week chillen with Catherine in the day and Damien and Yuta at night. The metro is so great, you can be out at bars 'til 4 am and hop on the subway and be safe and sound in your bed 15 mins later. Oh the joys of a city! Had an amazing Thanksgiving with Damien and friends. One bar night we ended up meeting 2 cool ladies (Meg and Farmer) who come to the city every weekend to perform in an off-broadway show called "5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche". These ladies were so fun and full of life. Then in this rag tag group we seemed to be wrangling up we met a guy named Quintin, he was also very rad. The 6 of us were a lik' pack for a while, rallying around to different places and ending up at a bar called Bia with a rooftop hangout section. This was a wonderful night with 3 new buddies!
Here is a clip featuring our buddies Rachel Farmer and Meg Johns: I love quiche (click me)
The last few months have been great experiences and the last few weeks have been amazing journeys with twists, turns, new friends, old friends, and odd smells :) My spice of life is going new places, doing new things, and meeting everyone I possibly can and who are open to it. Thanks to the universe for always letting it work out. Thanks to all of my friends and family for supporting my unconventional lifestyle. I dont take it for granted.
Now to a photostorm of pictures I wasn't able to post because of the slow internet in MD (and some after MD):
Too Harris Hall from my house
Forest of the Eastern Shore
Chesapeake Bay
Robin and Annie Rae (and Amy)
Echo Hill's beach right on The Bay
Sunset at our beach
Forest in the adventure course
Dani and Roxanne
One of our main fields
Soybeans in Worton, MD
Ending day picture after eating Bfast at Galena Kitchen (Me, Amy, Kodee, Kate, Robin, Alec)
This is where I am writing you from right now. It's a little, cute, neighborhood cafe in North Philly. Philly is a very interesting place. I have been welcomed in to a friend of a friend's warehouse living space to stay for my time in Philly (about a week). The place I'm staying is a very Oakland-esque warehouse with built-in studios and many roomates. I really like this whole warehouse conversion movement that is sweeping the nation. I wonder if this happens in every city now-adays? Anyways this particular warehouse used to be a textile factory in the Industrial Revolution days. This whole city is an awesome representation of post-industrial revolution progression. There's lots of old dilapidated buildings, lots of partially burned down buildings, and lots of "grit" as they say here. But all of this is paired with neighborhood alleys and markets, narrow streets that remind me of being in Quebec. Culturally rich. I really like it here despite its uber-cityness.
So now I am en route back to The West, finally. It was tough, at times, living all the way out here in a seemingly foreign land. I cant wait to start up silks again and see friends and family.
New Day:
I went on an adventure alone in the city today. I rode the "El" to a few stops west of where I am. Stopped in the "Old City" of Philly. That was kinda boring, reminded me a lot of a bigger old town Sacramento. Then it was getting dark out and cold so I went to West Philly and walked around, got a ginormous Asian pear. It was so good. Riding public transportation in a big city is as little alienating. No one talks to each other or looks at each other its so weird. It's like everyone is afraid of each other or something
Last night, however, was such fun! It was getting late and the people who live where I am staying (the warehouse) were all off on their own adventures. So I made contact with a couchsurfer, Maddy, I contacted before I came to see if she was doing anything. I'd never met her before, but she was down to ride her bike over here and then we both rode our bikes to her friend's house which was just a few blocks away. We stayed there for a while and ended up playing fun kids games and watching Star Trek: Next Generation. It was a great night. Then we were yalking about plans for the rest of the week til I leave and it turns out Maddy and her friends are going to Northern PA tomorrow and staying the night.....that sounded fun so I'm joining in on their adventure. I love meeting random people. You never know what kinda fun things you'll get in to if you don't go out on a limb and just meet folks, ya know?
Words of wisdom from Sprout: Don't be afraid of people. We all have stories and a lot of people are interesting. Never miss a connection, they could end up being a life long friend.
There is it! The tickets, the passengers, the lights, the person you see and wonder what their story is, the superbly talented busker playing a cigar box ukelele, the lonely waiting for love, the wayward wanderer looking for the next thrill, the next adventure. I suppose I am somewhere in that mix with with some applying more than others and some not at all. But either way that's where (how) I'm leaving the East and how I'm getting back to CA. If you don't know what this is it's Penn Station in New York New York. I will be here with Jess doing Thanksgiving with her mom and brother (he and his bf have a photography blog--- Damien and Yuta). I'm really excited for another NYC adventure. Hopefully there will be some nights riding the subway at 4am and wandering the crowded streets late at night. I wonder what the exhibit will be at MOMA. Hrrrmmm.......
So I'm getting all stoked to go back to the coast where I feel most comfortable. Being here makes me appreciate my "there" even more. Though if I hadn't been here and lived here I would have nothing to compare there to, so as it turns out I needed here to know there. It's all clear now, right?
Went for a really great scanoe (swamp canoe) trip this weekend on my off time. We take kids out there and it's so damn beautiful, but the kids are loud and make the swamp not that peaceful. I always think "hey I should come out here on the weekend", but then the weekend rolls by and I didn't make it out. Well, last week end i finally did and it was amazing, peaceful, and beautiful. All of the red maples that populate the swamp are turning deep DEEP fall colors and it's like a dream.
That whole fall colors thing and season change was really affecting me last week. This picture (on left) is literally what most roads look like around here when you're going to someone's house. Stunning! I have never felt a seasonal switch over as drastic as the one that happened/is happening now. I got very emotional and was having some difficulties/sadness. But I'm pretty sure it was just me adapting to a season which is so very romanticized. I'm getting into writing poetry and I used to not be very good at it, but I'm finding inspiration lately, it's really nice. Finally, I can do poetry.
As my stay at Echo Hill comes to a close I have many reflections. I have learned so much about myself and about children. It's amazing how you can learn so much by just doing. Probably more than in textbooks. What I'm referring to is the fact that I have never ever taken a psychology/child psychology or development class and I feel that in the 1.8 moths I've been here I've been able to learn the mental and cognitive differences between 5th-8th grade kids. That is nuts and so awesome. I have many more reflections, but will wait until I am fully done to commit them to the blog-sphere.
Hope your life is happy, healthy, and warm. Love.
Sprout Out!
The circle cannot exist without the space in between.........
The week that just passed was a very important week in many aspects.
This week I finally feel like I am "getting it" with teaching kids and
doing this whole improv thing. For the previous weeks I was scared and
nervous every time I got a schedule and saw what I was teaching. I
wasn't confident in my skills on 1)how to get kids to focus, 2)what to
teach them without a solid idea of where the class would go, and 3)how
to use different "tools" to teach them effectively. It clicked this week
and I felt confident while teaching ALL of my classes. I also got
"observed" to be a solo teacher on our adventure course. The adventure
course is all about fostering teamwork through completing physical and
mental group challenges. After every challenge "element" we talk about
what went wrong, what went right?, why?, and relate the situations to
life in the larger picture. It's pretty cool and kids are smart. I enjoy
5th and 6th grade kids. I also "adopted" a tent all last week. That
means I didn't sleep there, but I came in every night at 9:30 tucked
them in and read them a bed time story (tent of 10 girls). Also, it is
stink bug season and the population exploded last week. That was trouble
on tent side, because alla these kids are from the city or suburbia and
have strong entomophobia (fear of bugs). I had to help a girl who
refused to get into her bed [with a bug net] because she was so afraid
of stinkbugs. She was crying and we stayed up until 11:30 trying to deal
with it. It was hard and tiring. Stink bugs are the drunken idiots of
the bug world, they are just so clumsy and bobbly that they'll land
anywhere and walk everywhere. I think they only exist to feed other
animals (just like June bugs). They don't sting they just have a defense
mechanism that makes them smell bad. I actually think they are pretty cute and cartoony.
So now on to something I've been trying to figure out ever since I've been here. Why does the East Coast feel so different from the West Coast? I didn't want to believe there was a difference, because we're all just people, but in living here for 1.5 months it's obvious that things are different. I think I've figured out at least partially what makes the East Coast the way it is. There is a deep connection to the colonial history inherent in the East. The makes people rely upon prestige on lineage and "old" and "new" money and such. Speaking of prestige, all of the "ivy league" colleges are over here and this creates what I see as a constant struggle for status. Bragging rights if you will. It's created a culture of the "holier than thou" types. There's huge yachts, dockers, polos, Sperry boat shoes, khaki shorts, and a severe attachment to the traditional roles of women and men that you just can't shake. This is what I have noticed about the East, but I'm basing very little of these observations on the people I work with. The people who i work with and who are my friends are great and most deviate from this East Coast that I've just described.
Okay great, so another really really exciting this that happened this week............I enrolled for Spring 2013 semester at College of the Redwoods. I'm going to get an Associates of Science degree in Construction Technology. After I am done with this degree I will have all of the knowledge and skillz to take the exam to get my general contractors license (GCL). From wikipedia; "A general contractor is responsible for providing all of the material, labor, equipment (such as engineering vehicles and tools) and services necessary for the construction of the project. The general contractor hires specialized subcontractors to perform all or portions of the construction work. Responsibilities may include applying for building permits, securing
the property, providing temporary utilities on site, managing personnel
on site, providing site surveying and engineering, disposing of or
recycling construction waste, monitoring schedules and cash flows, and
maintaining accurate records. Basically I will be a legal carpenter and can run my own business. I also want to take fine wood working classes at CR if I can work it in. Their construction tech program has a good reputation, so I'm really excited for this new degree. I never thought I'd be getting a second degree. I kinda like how I went backwards with degrees; I got my BS and now I'm getting my AS...hah! I called the adviser for the program who is a woman :) (thats cool) and she told me there are lost of scholarships out there for Women in Non-Traditional Occupations (WINTO). So I need to do some major scholarship searching very soon, hopefully today. Just for a little WTF activity (if you have time): do a google image search on female carpenter. This makes me cringe and then after I'm done cringing if makes me determined to be the best carpenter/woodworker out there and show all of these menfolk what a real carpenter can do (did I just get sassy?---yes--KMA) haha. I crack myself up!
Note: No offense to my menfolk friends. I guess I'm just talking about menfolk who ascribe to the notion that women can't do this type of work. This weekend is Hardly Strictly Festival in SanFran and Claire, Katie, and Hannah (all from Lopez) are going tomorrow and I wish so much that I could be there with them. Boo Hoo! This job is amazing and rocks, but I miss CA (and WA). I miss my friends. Hope you all are doing SO well and are having wonderful fall season so far. Sprout Out!
Video: Blast from the past. What a beautiful song. It makes me emotional.
Ah....San Fran Bay Area, how many times shall I visit you and always have a great time? Hung out in the Inner Sunset for a couple days, crossed over to Oakland for a night (in the 18 hours I was there I managed to lock myself out of my Hannah's place AND successfully break back in- Score!), chilled at Claire's place right on Haight St. for a few nights, and finally moseyed over to Santa Cruz to do some best friend time with Ms. Fallin. Claire and I were able to catch a free admission day to -drum roll- The Exploratorium!!!! That was so so fun. I wanna work there some time and come up with fun experiments for kids/people. The last time i was there I was 19 and with Mat and Natalie......we had plenty of fun as well, but it wasn't free :) Oh speaking of Mat, we had a dinner meeting that was very enjoyable and figured out that sometimes friends just need a 2 year hiatus. right? Santa Cruz was perfect and sunny and lovely. I hung out on the train tracks, journaled, read, drew, and drank lots of beer. Fallin's bf, Tommy, is a head brewer at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company so there was a lot of beer and beer enthusiasts. On Saturday night we went to a great Channukah party. Appearances were made by the usual delicious characters: latkes, brisket, matzo ball soup, sour cream, apple sauce, and adult beverages. All of the people there were high school teachers. It's been so interesting getting older in a way that partying with my peers often mean partying with teachers. It's a funny switch up of perceived roles and stuff. That night I felt a burning sensation on my thigh as we were sitting down to play a raunchy version of Apples to Apples. I figured it was just my pants catching a leg hair or something. So i forgot about my leg for about an hour and as Fallin and I were getting up to go outside I remembered my leg was still on fire. We went to the bathroom and I dropped trou and wouldn't ya know??--it was a HUGE tick with it's head encysted in my thigh. AHhh! wtf! Its legs were moving as I watched it feast on my blood. Fallin's friend helped me get it out and my leg has continued to hurt for the last 2 days. 1) I thought tick season was over, 2) it wasn't a Lyme disease kind of tick, 3) F ticks. Then the next night I met 3 new friends and we roamed this one part of SC until 3 am. I ate fresh butchered, smoked, and cured meat. Tons of it! I was lucky enough to make friends with 2 local butchers. It was awesome! I'd never seen/touched a beef carcass in real life before [not even in fake life]. I think I wanna try my hand at butchering. Pictured below is Fallin: we have been best buddies since 1st grade.
I finished out my time in Philly with that couchsurfer host I was talking about, Maddy. We took a trip to Central PA for two nights to visit her friend, Peanut. It was nice to see the countryside of PA and I found out that most of PA is countryside and small towns. On my final night in Philly Maddy and her bf Rand took me to a really cool experimental performing arts show at a co-op bike shop named The Bikery. There were an array of performers, some bands and some solo acts. At the end there was this absolutely amazing shadow puppet show performed by 3 amazing women. Wow! I wanna get into shadow puppetry. Anyone wanna start a troupe? After the show the 3 of us took a bike ride through Philly at night to a converted sewing factory where Rand lives with 3 roomies. We had wine and really dank pizza. yum yum!
I took the Bolt bus the next day 2hrs North to the Big Apple to meet one of my best friends, Jess. When we met up we headed over to her brother Damien's place. Before we did that though we bought week long unlimited Metro Cards. These were soooo great to have (the unlimited part). Got some really good coffee in Williamsburg (where Damien lives with his bf and 2 roomies). Then met up with Jess's mom, Catherine for some authentic arepas from a Venezuelan restaurant. Good Lord! These arepas were so effing good AND they had sweet plantains in them. Y'all know how I love me some bananas :) We spent the week chillen with Catherine in the day and Damien and Yuta at night. The metro is so great, you can be out at bars 'til 4 am and hop on the subway and be safe and sound in your bed 15 mins later. Oh the joys of a city! Had an amazing Thanksgiving with Damien and friends. One bar night we ended up meeting 2 cool ladies (Meg and Farmer) who come to the city every weekend to perform in an off-broadway show called "5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche". These ladies were so fun and full of life. Then in this rag tag group we seemed to be wrangling up we met a guy named Quintin, he was also very rad. The 6 of us were a lik' pack for a while, rallying around to different places and ending up at a bar called Bia with a rooftop hangout section. This was a wonderful night with 3 new buddies!
Basically I will be a legal carpenter and can run my own business. I also want to take fine wood working classes at CR if I can work it in. Their construction tech program has a good reputation, so I'm really excited for this new degree. I never thought I'd be getting a second degree. I kinda like how I went backwards with degrees; I got my BS and now I'm getting my AS...hah! I called the adviser for the program who is a woman :) (thats cool) and she told me there are lost of scholarships out there for Women in Non-Traditional Occupations (WINTO). So I need to do some major scholarship searching very soon, hopefully today. Just for a little WTF activity (if you have time): do a google image search on female carpenter. This makes me cringe and then after I'm done cringing if makes me determined to be the best carpenter/woodworker out there and show all of these menfolk what a real carpenter can do (did I just get sassy?---yes--KMA) haha. I crack myself up! 