The stories behind the pictures

Alright, I finally have a quiet moment to give the stories behind all the pictures I've posted!

I'm in New Mexico right now, at Zach's farm. We're taking a 5 day Permaculture Design class at the Seeds of Change farm next door. We've also been bottle feeding triplet lambs who are just weeks old! I'll write more about them later...

When I first returned to Olympia on April 16, I immediately drove down to Medford, Oregon to attend my cousin's fourth birthday party. I've only missed one of Kati Rose's birthdays yet! My aunt and cousin had just moved there from Modesto, California, so I suggested we go wine and cheese tasting the day after the party. Southern Oregon is such a rich agricultural area, with some of the best wines and by far, the best bleu cheese I have ever tasted. After 4 wineries and the Rogue Creamery, we ran across a chocolate factory by chance to finish off the day. That evening, I taught my aunt how to make my mom's famously delicious version of spanikopita, phyllo dough and all. The next day, this is Monday now, I dragged my aunt and cousin down to Ashland to visit the Dagoba chocolate factory, and the Standing Stone Brewery for their spicy dark chocolate stout. The whole weekend was a fabulous family event and I can't wait to go back again soon. I love Oregon, and I love having my family so close!

Next in April was the Procession of the Species and Arts Walk weekend. Arts Walk is a biannual event where the majority of businesses in downtown Olympia hang art all around their stores and stay open late on Friday night. The art usually stays up for weeks afterwards, too. The Procession of the Species parade occurs only during the spring Arts Walk, on Saturday afternoon. It is a parade including any and all community members dressed up to reflect some aspect of the natural world. The only rules for costumes and floats are: no written words and no motorized vehicles. Volunteers staff a community art studio for 3 months prior to the parade with donated supplies so that everyone can make a costume or other art. Every year, some of the same groups of animals appear, like flamingos and jellyfish. The most unique costumes that I noticed this year included a sloth, a tree with 3 little monkeys, a beaver, a gorgeous owl and slime mold.

Spring Arts Walk is always my favorite weekend of the whole year. Usually, the April showers let up just for the weekend and begin again immediately afterwards. There are lots of musical and performance events that happen all around downtown, in and outside of stores. This year, a few of my friends formed a firedancing troupe called The Fire Within and performed Friday and Saturday night. The pictures are from their first official performance on Friday. They were totally amazing and the crowd was huge, mostly kids and families. I mean, how can you not be spectacular when you're flinging fire around on poi, staffs, swords, palm torches and hula hoops? They were right outside of Olympia Salvage in the street with a DJ and two live drummers on kits. The performance space was defined by barrels with fires burning for the whole show. The Saturday night show had a more college age crowd and at the end, the troupe allowed anyone who knew how to spin to take the stage with their own instruments. I was on fire safety, not camera duty that night, so I don't have any photos of the chaos. Both shows happened with nothing worse than a little singed hair. No accidents or explosions! I bet they'll be looked forward to next year.

The first weekend in May, I took off for New York City to visit some friends, especially an old friend from Las Vegas that I hadn't seen in 5 years. In that span of time, I managed to get a Bachelor's degree, while Anna finished a Bachelor's, was hired on by an investment company in Baltimore, and was paid to complete a Master of Finance. It's fascinating to stay in touch as we move through life, however distant. Our first evening, we went to a super fancy dinner near our hotel (which was right across the street from the south edge of Central Park) and caught a New Monsoon concert in the East Village. Anna had just flown in from an earlier trip to Russia, so we made an early night of it. The next day, we caught discount tickets to a Broadway show and my friend Christian took the train into the city from Ossining to go with us. After eating cheesecake for lunch, we saw Spamalot, the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grain. I thought the show was fantastic, mostly because I love watching people have fun on stage with extravagant costumes and a seriously hilarious script. After the matinée, we took the free Staten Island Ferry and caught the sun setting behind the Statue of Liberty and the financial district. For dinner, we found a great Thai restaurant near Chinatown and then brought more cheesecake back to the hotel for dessert!

Monday, Anna and I spent the morning shopping instead of tracking down art museums that were open, like my original plan. My friend Claire met up with us at Union Square and we had lunch. Claire went to high school in the Tribeca neighborhood of NYC, so she took us to the best pizza place and a wonderful bakery with delicious cupcakes for dessert. Anna had to leave and catch her flight out to Las Vegas, so Claire and I continued shopping until Ari Moshe, my old roommate joined us down at Battery Park. He had been visiting his family in New Jersey and happened to have the same flight home to Seattle as I did the next day. We had a short dinner together and Claire had to meet her dad at an art opening event at the MOMA.

Ari Moshe and I had planned to go to a New Moon event at Alex Grey's gallery, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (www.cosm.org). We made it just in time and soaked in Alex's art as he and his wife led guided meditation and a creative drawing/writing session. I hadn't kept the hotel for that last night since it was so expensive, so Ari Moshe and I asked around for a place to stay after the event was over. A sweet woman named Lauren invited us to stay with her, and she lived all the way down in Brooklyn near Coney Island. We spent a cozy night and had a long day of travel ahead of us. On Tuesday, we bought a dozen authentic Brooklyn bagels to take home to Saralynn and then took off for the airport. To get all the way home to Olympia that night, we had to take two subway rides, a train ride to Newark International, a 5 hour flight and an hour long drive. It was incredible, and the only casualty was the cream cheese that was confiscated in airport security. It was chive-scallion-lox cream cheese, too!

I think this is enough writing for tonight, and I'll write more about the farm, soon.