The Adventures of Sprout: November 2013

I've been back in Arcata for almost 2 months. It's amazing how many pursuits are just waiting to be found [personally] hiding in the cattails.

I'm forming a band with a few other grrls at the moment. We've got vocals, saw, acorrdion, drums, possible sax, possible bass. I've dreamed of this for a while.

I've been doing hot yoga. I started doing hot yoga so I could get past my aversion to heat and being active in heat. This is because I want to do conservation work in the Southwest and I want to overcome my strong feelings towards heat (it immediately aggitates me). I've gone a few times now and it worked, not to mention the heat allows you to do extreme flexi stretches. Who knew you could sweat this much? It's hot but its not unbearable. It normalizes at a certain point, like cold water. ya know?

I'm also trying to physically train in an array of different ways that are fun and interesting. This is for general health and well being but also so I can do my job better (carpentry), breakdance more solidly, and do more supportive acrobatics.

With that, I'm starting (on tuesday) to train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). Surprisingly we have 2 BJJ centers in Arcata alone. I want to learn to effectively defend myself and train my body really intensely. Also, if you haven't noticed I gravitate towards activities which are predominantly male, I think the challenge and initial discomfort is a factor in why I do these things.

As you proably have realized it gets dark at 5:15pm give or take if you're in different parts of the country, but still.....it's a trip. Every year this happens it gets me. It's so sleepy feeling. The autumn makes me feel gloomy, in a good way mostly though. Remember last year, I was in MD and getting so bummed out about the drastic losing of leaves and chill and alla that East Coast stuff.

Sprout Out!

It seems as though my last post was many many moons ago. I kinda fell off the blog wagon. Spending time on the computer began to feel like a waste of time every free moment I got (especially on Lopez).

I'm going to try to remember all that happened before I made it back to Arcata.

So I finished the awnings/shingling in early August. Then I drove an hour south of Seattle and did a Vipassana retreat. If you don't know about Vipassana the initial retreat is a free 10-day silent meditation. That means no talking, eye contact, writing, or reading. Eleven hours a day of meditation. There are centers all over the world and in most western states there are 3 centers in each state. Very accessible! You are fed delicious vegetarian food, and housed for 10 days. They pull off the free thing because many people donate $, but many people also donate their time. They see them as pretty equal, it's all about the volition behind each act. If donating money is a selfish act or you really don't want to do it then one shouldn't donate money. If you feel obligated to donate time then one shouldn't donate time. However, it's very essential to give back in some way. This was really my first time seriously meditating or learning how to meditate. It was very challenging, both physically and mentally. Who knew how much physical pain could come from sitting in the same position for hours. But that's kinda what it's alla bout. If this sounds interesting to you I'd highly encourage you to visit their website and schedule a retreat for yourself. Here are some photos from the Center in Onalaska, WA:

What an amazing and beautiful pillow. wisdom: no amount or combination of pillows will ensure comfort.

I couldn't stop thinking about concrete and this particular finish.

After Vipassana, I decided to visit my good buddy Waggy in Seattle. I met him on Lopez. He was a LCLT farming intern. He's one of the sweetest, good hearted, coolest of guys I've met in a while. So I went to Seattle and stayed at this 10-person vegan house that Waggy used to live in (he lived just down the road at this point). I stayed for a week. This was a great amount of time to get to know Seattle a little better. I have to say--Seattle is an awesome city---multi-faceted. So much beauty, so many natural areas, amazing bike trails. My arrival day in Seattle was the day I was done with the silent retreat and when I get to the city we (Waggy's old roomies and i) immediately headed to The Civic Center for the Anarchist Bookfaire. What an odd place to be after a very peaceful silent 10 day period. While in Seattle, Waggy and I endeavored to build a full size cob oven in the back of the house I was staying at (named Montopia). So we did! We drove around Seattle and scavenged as many materials as possible, which turned out to be all of the materials. This was a free project :) Sawdust from a lumber store, dirt from the ground, broken up concrete from a construction site, randomly found bricks. All around great time in Seattle while meeting new friends.

From Seattle I traveled back up to Lopez. I was there for on last week before I was to make my way back down the Coast. I had been away for about a month so it was great to see my beloved Table again and hang out with her, Ralph, Gabriel, Pamela, and Suzanne.

So I left Lopez and went directly to Portland. My friend, Ivy, who I couchsurfed with one night on the way up North in the beginning of the summer had invited me to go on an 8 day group backpacking trip in the North Cascades. I'd been wanting to see the Cascades since the summer before so I jumped on this sweet opportunity with basically a group of 8 strangers. The hike was super challenging and really beautiful. We day hiked once to the top of the surrounding mountains and swam in a glacial lake (well, I only got in to my hips, but it was great). It felt like we were the first people who had ever been there, that's an amazing feeling.

The day after the trip I was set to head back down to Arcata. A person who I met at Montopia in Seattle, Camila, met me in PDX and headed down with me to meet up with some friends in CA. When I got back to Arcata I started purging my material possessions down to a really workable mostly necessary amount of things. Then I started building an awning on the side of the house where we will put our washer and dryer. It's my first time working with roundwood (logs) and notching and working with the inherent imperfect-ness of roundwood. Good thing my summer work prepared me for awning creation. I'm about to put the last rafter on and add the metal roofing and then it will be complete. One of my bestest best buddies, Jess, is helping me out with it.

I also traveled down to the SF Bay Area to goto Treasure Island Music Festival with my friend Claire and her roomies. It was an electronic music festival. Best performance: Little Dragon! After that I went to Stinson Beach to meet up with my mom and dad for a few days.

Now it's now and I'm still working on getting more projects started and planned. I'm break dancing more regularly. Bike riding. In the process of forming a riot grrl band. Doing hot yoga. Looking for part time manual labor jobs.

Here are some pictures from the last 5 months: