a quick post and then much much more to come later...but i made it to hoopa! the drive up here on I-5 then west on 299 and north on 96 was breathtakingly gorgeous. through the miles, with sights of whiskeytown national recreation area, the trinity river, trees and mountains, and the sounds of 'the old crow medicine show' and 'the devil makes three' coming thru my ipod and over my scratchy car radio, i was overcome with emotion a few times.

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i am still processing being here...feeling how truly free i am in life right now. no job, no significant other (although many significant friends!), no set plan, per say, but lots of passion and willingness and energy...it's equally scary and thrilling. but i know this point is right where i need to be. in years past, i've fought against all committments, be them personal or professional, and although that has definitely caused troubles for my heart and head, i am truly glad for the place i'm in right now...

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we woke at 6:15 a.m. today, started working at 7:00 a.m., and finished working at 7:00 pm...with a lunch break in there. we weeded the beet beds, hoed the herb area, thinned the asian pear trees and planted hundreds of lettuce starts...and tomorrow we harvest for the saturday market! there are six of us on the farm now, with more visiting and coming to volunteer throughout the summer. i'm still totally becoming acclimated to and getting comfortable with this environment and these folks...but i am loving it.

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on the drive up here, thoughts about some hard things that happened in the past year started catching up to me, and with so much time to think, i know i'll be dealing with quite a bit...but it needs to happen..and i cannot wait to see where the newfound weightlessness of understanding and acceptance will take me...

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grady and nathan brewed their own asian pear hard cider last fall and i'm going to go see if i can get a taste! oh, so much to TELL..but i have to share the computer. more later, i promise.

well, time is going too quickly. it turns out i will not be able to see dear tressa tonight in boonville, as i've got to pack and finish up many last minute things here and then head straight up to hoopa tomorrow. but i will see her on the way back home, for certain, because i was really really looking forward to kickin' it! sigh! in-between running around to drop stuff off and pick stuff up and finish stuff off, i had some wonderful times with friends this weekend...

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many thanks to chelsea and louis and ella for a wonderful dinner and gypsy jazz guitar history lesson on sunday evening. i'd love to replicate the menu one evening this summer on the farm...a carrot ginger soup with morel toasts and a strawberry-spinach salad with baked goat cheese. MMMM! plus, lots of wine, cameras, laughter, music...and a apricot blueberry galette with...are you ready for this?...lemon verbena ice cream (homemade)!!! chelsea, for real. when are you going to open that B&B?

..and many thanks to jessica for letting a crew of rowdy and goofy bikers invade her house last night for a memorial day barbecue! sadly, my bicycle cookie cutter disappointed me. i am going to have to make a sturdier model next time. the cookies were still tasty, i hear, but i was more proud of the carrot-cake cupcakes that i made.

it was wonderful to have so many friends in one place at one time...we ate delicious food, drank delicious cider and had an overall delicious time. i'm going to miss these people, but we've got a full summer of wonderful rides and epic times ahead...so i'll look forward to those :)

and now, i'm off!

This weekend, the NACCC (the North American Cycle Courier Championship) has invaded San Francisco. Couriers, or messengers, and their groupies from all parts of the world have descended upon my neighbor city to compete against and debauch one another. Although I'm tempted to partake in one of the many events planned across the pond, I'm quite certain that I could not have a fully functional weekend after kickin' it with those kids, and I've got *stuff to do.* So, I'm staying Eastside and gettin' my ducks in line for my trip up north on Tuesday.

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Nevertheless, bicycling was still on my mind today, and I did construct something in its honor. I had to work for several hours to finish last-minute sample runs and to collect all the belongings I've left in my office over the past three years...plates, mugs, tupperware, food, clothing...and so while I was working, I took a short break to celebrate bike love by making my very own cookie cutter, shown above. Assembled from materials that otherwise would have gone to waste, I *skillfully* twisted out a seat, handlebars and wheels, making a very believable bicycle. I'll add a detailed bottom bracket and chain with icing after I bake and cut out the cookies. I was quite proud of myself. I'll definitely post pictures of the finished treats...which I'll be baking for the bar-bike-que that we're having on Monday at Jess' house. Wheeeeee!

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Lastly...as I sip wine and pack tonight, for unbeknownst reasons, a familiar rap is going through my head. It is a rap that my classmates and I wrote in the fifth grade for a social studies project focusing on Christopher Columbus. I can't remember it in its entirety...but the first few lines went like this (I was unaware at the time that the man was from Genoa, Italy!):

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yo, i'm christopher columbus. you can call me 'cc.'

i'm the baddest rappin' spainard there'll ever be!

i've been sailin' on the ocean longer than i can stand,

and i'm waitin' for my sailors to shout 'i see land!'

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Ah. Know that I was a late bloomer, socially. Heh heh :)

yesterday was *pure entertainment.* all day; from the time i woke up to the time i drifted off to sleep. maybe i'm just simple and easily amused, but boy, i had some good laughs yesterday.

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i commenced the day with a quick (okay, maybe i struggled just a little) dash around the lake. i love to start my days circumscribing lake merritt; there is always such a wealth of individuality and energy pulsating at its shores. yesterday, the highlight was a diva who was prancing around in a shiny pink leisure suit with a poodle at her side...and the poodle's fur was dyed hot pink. bwahahah! no joke. it looked like a little fluff of cotton candy hopping on the pavement.

next, several 'distinguished' men in suits ran into me as they were rubbernecking at cute females struttin' their stuff on the sidewalks...they were so embarrassed! i'm just sayin', it's beautiful people season in oakland, boys, so get rrrrready! watch out for runners and bikers, though, wouldya? when i got to work, i started pumping the coffee in like usual. after an hour, i'd already had about three cups and i was WIRED, yet somehow convinced that i needed more caffeine. i barely got the fourth one back to my desk in my shaky hands before knocking the whole cup over onto myself...soaking my pants, my keyboard, my socks and my sweater :) hahhah! i smelled like stale coffee for the rest of the day! awesome.

in the evening, my coworkers threw me a little going away party at lanesplitter in berkeley. that was entertaining simply beacuse we were all drinking and eating pizza. i love my coworkers. they're a fun buncha kids and i'm going to miss the heck outta them, but not the JOB. lastly, i got home and i got the kewlest letter in my mailbox from madds. with a spokecard that said "please don't touch my [freaking] bike." it was so cute! i'd seen 'em on bikes before, but i never had one for myself and that was just so cool. plus, the letter had all these stickers and drawings and all that jazz...man, i love my friends! can i say it enough?

then i went to bed and had some crazy, crazy dreams about gem sweaters...like i said, pure entertainment :)

It's a little hard to grasp that life as I know it will be changing significantly in a few days. Whilst some people are used to constant flux in their lives, I'm definitely a fan of a bit of stability, so the pending upheaval of sorts has me a little nervous, but the excited kind of nervous. I'll definitely miss parts of the routine I've had for the past few years: waking up leisurely and riding my bike twenty minutes over potholes and railroad tracks and past taco trucks on West Grand to work; seeing familiar faces and friends each morning and letting my sarcasm run rampant without fear of offending those around me; gulping down cup of coffee after cup of coffee after cup of coffee; stepping out onto the balcony at my office and seeing the Golden Gate shimmering in the distance...this company has been good to me in many ways for years, and I am thankful for that, but it's time to move on.

I'll be heading up to Boonville next Tuesday afternoon to spend the evening with my friend Tressa who just started working as the kitchen manager and head chef at the Highland Horse Ranch. She and I are, indeed, meant to be friends...we met volunteering in the kitchens at CUESA and had an immediate connection. Soon thereafter, we learned that we have the exact same birthday!! We're planning to eventually spearhead a non-elitist movement focusing on outdoor adventures in local food foraging and preparation. With the continued politicization and globalization of our food supply, focusing on local bounty will progressively become more integral! Mark my words :) Here's Tressa gulping a jug of cider to that!

After a night in Boonville, well, Philo to be exact, I'll hop back on the road and head up to Hoopa! I expect I'll see some lovely redwoods along the way and that I'll find at least one greasy roadside diner at which I can sit and have a cup of joe. Wednesday night I'll arrive at the farm - and there I will spend the next month :)
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While I have no illusions that I'll have all that much free time in Hoopa, I am looking forward to being able to *think.* Life here in Oakland has become so busy and energized, which I absolutely thrive on and love for the most part, but I need a periodic zoom out to put things in perspective, and I think that my time working on the farm will provide that. Although I've adapted to the sounds of motorcycyles revving up and drunken bar-goers laughing loudly on the street below, I'm looking forward to maybe...hearing the wind blow through some trees, the river flowing over some rocks, or a cricket chirping again...the little things; I really really miss them.

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I'm hoping that up North, I'll be able to recharge my batteries and sharpen my focus a little bit. There is so much to be done here in Oakland, as well as in the suddounding cities in terms of improving our food system, and I just want to get my hands in there and start working, already! I have been ravenously applying for jobs, and I'm hoping that at least one will come through. If any of you reading this know of an opportunity, do let me know! In the interim, I plan to work with OBUGS in their summer program; there are some kids I've met through volunteering that I've become good friends with and it will be fun to spend more time with them! We're planning field trips up to Tilden and Lake Anza, to u-pick fruit stands, to the beach...my kinda fun, for sure! More later...

a few things on my mind tonight:

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is it really already may?

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why have i been paying $21.95/month for DIALUP internet service?

my logic evades me.

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why does melty mocha fudge soy dream taste so damn good? mmm.

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what am i going to do after working at green fire farm this summer?

and why am i so certain that it's all just going to work out?

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what does my new neighbor look like?

i can hear him walking around next door...

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why didn't my brother call me back? hmm.

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did i really quit my job this week? i did. that rocks!

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how many glasses of wine did i have last night

before i started imitating the little mermaid? three, i think...

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what is it about the conscientious yet rebellious boys..

that always gets me?

rrar.

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how did i get so fortunate to meet such good friends

since i came out to california?

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these past few weeks have been wonderful, eventful, exciting...a couple weekends ago, several friends and i went on a tour of the Redwood Hill Creamery where the most delicious goat cheese is made (pix to follow); a week or so ago, my ladies and i did a gorgeous ride down to the beach in Alameda, drinking cider and eating snap peas as the sun set; i rekindled my love for fishnets when i wore them with my polka-dot black dress and shiny black boa on saturday night to a super fun party in fruitvale; i spent time with my stellar friends at bars and in homes and on bikes; tressa and holly and alicia and i successfully threw a full moon celebration complete with a bonfire in the albany keyhole at which we laughed and reveled in good friendship; i told my boss that i'm outta there at the end of the month...and...the freeway melted in oakland! (more to come...with pixxx)