Persephone

Well, I guess it's March already. I guess I didn't blog during the depth of winter. Not surprising, I guess, considering how winter makes everything cold and stagnant and bitter and shut down.

I kept on thinking, "Now is the winter of our discontent." There were some good things that happened during winter. Still, I spent a lot of it trying desperately to feel as if my life had meaning and that I was spending my time in a worthwhile manner. This meant a lot of cleaning, cooking, preparing, running errands, trying to make up for loneliness with productivity. I need to feel like I matter, and it's easiest for me to feel like that when I feel like I matter to other people. I knew I mattered to people who were far away, and it makes my heart feel spread thin over so much distance. With the people around here, though, I often felt forgotten, or like I was not much of a priority, and I missed having a supportive community of people who I cared about and could count on to care about me. It was a loneliness not as lonely as the one I had in California, but one that I couldn't fill with hills or flowers or sitting in trees looking at the sky. It was different, though, to have people there who I wanted to connect with but was left without the connection I needed. I'd worry at times that I was just too needy, or that I was coming off as needy, or that I was trying to cling to people who just wanted to shake me off. So I spent time with myself, and I tried to take good care of myself, and to keep my room and kitchen clean and prepare healthy food and get my homework done, and to read books and go to sleep on time and remember to pack the right binders on the right day.

It's still terribly cold and there are nasty old snow mounds everywhere, but at least I know that spring will happen. Maybe as spring happens lots of good new things will awaken and grow and maybe I'll feel happier.

In those months when I didn't blog I had a lot of constellations and did a lot of healing and it all helped a whole lot. Winter was a good time to do that, I'm sure.

Come on come on come on come on spring. I have hopes.

Blessed are the seeds waiting in darkness for the coming of spring.

although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life) the true time of year

Abandon

It's almost November.

The smell and feel of this season in my house is something I remember so distinctly. It's something I'd forgotten, but it's so familiar.

This may be the last time I spend this season in this house. Or not. Who knows.

I know it's not new years yet, but Judith Berger says that this Halloween time is witches' new year. It seems that starting in September and going to February there is a New Year every few months or so. No New Years in the spring or summer, though. Makes sense, I guess.

Anyway, the 12 months between last witches' new year and this one have been so transformational for me. Everything changes. Nothing lasts for long. I guess this is being 23. I wonder if things ever settle.

What is to become of me.

Life feels like crashing through the underbrush in the PNW forest. I love crashing through the underbrush, but I've been doing it for an awfully long time by now.

No end in sight. Oh well.

I'm certainly better at teaching now than I was two months ago. That's something.

Mermaids Never Lie

September September September.

I've lived in Massachusetts in September within the last five years. The last time I did that was two years ago, I think. No, three. I guess that's been a while, too. But oh September you are so lovely and you are so lovely and you are so lovely. I am excited for October, too. Come on foliage. Bring it.

I love September. Maybe I'll name my daughter September if I ever feel like life on Earth is good and safe enough for me to bring a child into it. The weather in September is like the weather in the Bay Area always. Maybe that's why they say the weather is perfect there. September is perfect. I love the September wind and the September sky.

September September September.

There's more I want to write, but I don't think I can.

I started school for real and I don't have any time for anything anymore. But I'm still going to try to do all I can whenever I can. Maybe it helps that I think the world is headed for disaster because I'm trying to live as much as I can while I can. I mean, the whole fear and panic about the world doesn't help things I guess. But I am not about to think I didn't do all I could while I could.

The only thing between my butt and the sky is sunshine

On Monday night I took the ferry over and met Jeannette in Woods Hole. When we got back to the house we ate dinner with Dan and then Jeannette and I walked the tennis ball walk to the pond. We wrapped ourselves up in our big fluffy blanket and split a bottle of sake and took off all our clothes and went in the luminescence and cuddled. It started raining on us and we couldn't really figure out what was going on except for that it definitely was not not raining. 

On Tuesday we went to Menemsha and bought five pounds of mussels for five dollars off a fishing boat that had just come into the docks. We walked down the jetty and made friends with a fisherman and looked at all the fish and put our feet in the water. Then we went to the ocean and swam and lounged around naked. That's when I had to fend off that dude with the ipad. We stayed until sunset and watched the sun set over the ocean and turned around to see the full moon rising over the dunes. Everything is beautiful and life is perfect and good. We went home and made seafood paella and ate it and then walked through the woods to the pond in the moonlight. The moon was so bright. We wrapped ourselves in our blanket again and took a little nap before hiking back out. 

On Wednesday Jeannette slept until one. I spent the morning sitting on the back ramp with Sophie drinking dandelion coffee and reading Prodigal Summer. Sophie dug a big hole. When Jeannette woke up we went to the cliffs and to the lighthouse. Then we went to Lobsterville and explored around for horseshoe crabs and worm mucus and crabs and octopus eggs. We spent a long time being mudfish just laying naked in the shallow water and looking at the birds and the fish and the landscape. When we went home Jeannette made an amazing mussel curry. When that was done we built a bonfire at the ocean and watched the full moon rise again. We went on a moonlight beach walk and drank vodka and drew with charcoal on rocks and wrapped ourselves in our blanket again. When Dan found us we had fallen asleep but the fire was still going. 

On Thursday we had to clean and pack but there was also time for us to go to the ocean. We went on a nice long naked beach walk and looked at all of the seaweed and saw so many ospreys flying around. We found a beautiful clay river and peed in the most beautiful pee spot. Then we went to the boat only to find that Dan went to the wrong port, so Jeannette and I walked onto the boat and made our connection to the bus on the other side. We met Khadijah at South Station and Minh picked us up and drove us home to Jeannette's birthday party. When Martha walked in Luna greeted her at the door and then she found us smoking in the kitchen. We partied with Rosie and all her friends and KK and Dan. It was Rosie's last night before college. We sang happy birthday to Jeannette and then everyone sang happy birthday to KK. Jeannette and Minh and I had the best time on the trampoline where we played Who's Foot Is This and then went inside and all made an herbal first aid kit for Rosie for college. 

On Friday we dropped Khadijah at the T and went to Minh's house for a second before heading off to show Jeannette Boston. We went to my old neighborhood in JP and then into Boston. We had a bit of a phone emergency but it all worked out thanks to some payphone magic. We met Minh for lunch and then went back to head out for Southold. I took the most amazing nap on Jeannette's lap on the boat with her just stroking my hair and covering me up exactly when I needed it. When we got to Southold we checked out the beach and then went to cocktail hour. After cocktail hour and dinner we went naked stargazing on the beach. We saw three shooting stars and went in the water and everything was perfect. We slept in a tent right up next to the cliff on the bocce ball court, but the tent only had one tent pole so we had to string it up to the trees. We called it our palace and it was also perfect. People who think camping has to be uncomfortable are wrong.

Saturday was Jeannette's birthday. We went to the Anti-Bias picnic and then went sailing with KK and Uncle Ed and Uncle Mike and Grandfather. After sailing Jeannette and I went swimming at sunset. We swam out to the big rock and climbed up on it and watched the water and the sky change colors. When we got back up it was cocktail hour again. Grandfather and Uncle Ed found a brand new sail that they needed and didn't know they had and were freaking out about it. It is because magic is real. We had another amazing dinner. After dinner we got all cozy in the tent for a while but then decided to go on an adventure. We had a tickle fight on the rope swing and explored the barn where Jeannette got a birthday present from Beyond (The Bean Trees) and then we sat in the big wicker chair and I read to Jeannette from this farming book for kids that I found. It was amazing being in that tent with the stars all out through the roof and the insect symphony. It was amazing feeling the sensation of just knowing that you're on a cliff. The only motors we would hear would be planes, which we would watch and then see disappear and go back to just wind and insects and waves. That was last night. 

This morning we woke up and went on a tour of the property in the mule with Grandfather. He told me some things that I didn't even know before. Then we harvested mullein flowers and pokeroot berries. Nanci and Uncle Ed and KK joined us for a pokeroot ceremony on the beach. Then we made some more mussels and drank wine with everyone outside in the white chairs before having to pack up and leave. I took another amazing ferry nap with Jeannette and then we had to drive her to the airport. 

It was the most amazing week. Awe and glory and wonder and reverence. Jeannette and I were both amazed the whole time at how good things are. And even though it's over now and Jeannette is flying back to LA, it happened and it was perfect and that will always be how I spent August 19-25 2013. Life is good. 

Live Free or Die

I've been reading Herbal Rituals because Daniela told me to. My plan is to read each month's chapter and only that chapter at the beginning of each month until I get through the year. I read August's chapter while we were in New Hampshire.

August in New England means kayaking on the lake to blueberry bushes and finding more blueberries than you can eat, so you go back and get your friends and pick wild blueberries until you've got two jars full, and then you all work together to make a gluten-free pie with lots of pistachios in the crust and split the whole thing three ways on the dock at sunset. 

                                        

It means a lot of skinny dipping. It means taking off all your clothes and going in the water whenever you want to, under cover of darkness and liquor or sober in the morning, and leaping off the dock and not even caring if people see. Because like, yeah my body doesn't look exactly like the bodies of those girls in the media or like those girls that walk around looking like them, but that doesn't mean it isn't perfect.

I feel somewhat like my youth is slipping away. I don't think I'm an adult yet, but I will be one soon. It's nice in some ways. We can drink fancy delicious infused alcohols and make legit food and get everyone home on time, and that's nice, but I don't want us to lose all our spunk. 

Summer is for dancing. I danced by myself in the sand at the side of the lake at two in the morning because nobody else would dance with me, and while I was dancing I realized I wasn't okay, in a sneaky sort of dangerous way where I was aware of what I was doing but not thinking it was a problem. It's been a lot, with everything changing and moving back to Divorce City and all. I'd been fooling myself into thinking I was fine, but I wasn't fine. Now that I've realized it I'm working on it. I think I'll be fine again soon. 

But by goddess, fine or not, I'm going to be free, and I'm going to live, and live free, and live as free and as close to myself as I possibly can.

Joni Mitchell-All I Want

Mercury Retrograde

Well.

I might as well document the whirlwind of the past while before it's too far gone.

It started back in the beginning of May, when Jeannette came to visit and the hills were still green and we made a picnic and drank wine and didn't watch the sunset because she had to leave. That was just the little teaser opening.

Then I went to LA and visited her. We went camping in Malibu with Adrian and his girlfriend. It was beautiful. We drank vodka lemonade and took off our clothes and went in the water and wrapped ourselves in seaweed boas. There were pelicans and dolphins and we cuddled up in the tent with Margot and everything was good. Of course there was our ill-fated desert adventure too, but hey I got to commune with Granny Kay and feel her love for the desert. So that was cool.

Dolphins, darling.

Then Julia and Miriam came to visit. We went to the beach and went to the bar and lay in my room watching Netflix. We ate delicious seafood and made it through all the twisty cliff road without dying. We went to the Albany Bulb and found the library and had a bit of a treacherous Bay crossing. Pretty soon after Asia left and I missed her.

Next Jesse came to visit and we went to the redwoods and the ocean. It was great. We hiked to the top of a hill and I saw dolphins again but Jesse missed them every time. The sunset on the ocean is always magical. I love the friendship that I have with Jesse. We had the sort of slumber party that I haven't had in ages, where you sleep in separate beds but stay up late talking about crushes and life and stuff. Thank you Jesse.

After-school ended. It seemed like it would never end, but then it ended, and now when I look back on it it already seems so far away. They say memories block out the pain, maybe that's already at work. When I showed the kids the garden video Christian cried. Those kids. I wish I could have been a better teacher for them. I did the best I could. Already after really only two weeks of grad school I know so much more and could have done it so much better. But they don't get people who have gone to grad school. They get people like me, or who I was. I'm sorry, kids. I'll try to make things better somehow.

Let's see. Next up was the field trip to Lakes Basin. What a magical field trip. Somehow I had been thinking it was a desert field trip, but it wasn't. We were way up in the mountains with all the mountain plants and mountain rivers and mountain rocks. I harvested Aralia next to a creek. I tried asking all the plants which to harvest, and the one that called to Cathy and I came up so easily, with its root gently breaking off of another root section, giving itself to us and we didn't even have to kill the whole plant. I tinctured some of that root and made some of it into a honey. I've already eaten all my candied Aralia. I thought that maybe I should save it, but I've also been in quite the time of transition so I thought I could use some fortification. I hope I was respecting that root as much as it deserved. Anyway, then we went to the waterfall. Katie and I swam in that beautiful pool and some dragonflies had sex on my arm. I spent a long time sitting at the base of the waterfall and found gold flakes in the sand by the riverbed. That night I played banjo at the campfire in front of all the people. I had been going back and forth on whether or not to bring the banjo, since I thought if I brought it maybe I'd have to play it in front of people, but then I also thought I would miss it if I didn't play it for four days. After a bit of sitting around the campfire Kara told everyone that we had to start cleaning up, but then she told me that playing the banjo counted as work and I got to just sit there and make music for everyone who was cleaning. That's some solstice supermoon magic for you. The next day I dug up a ceanothus root that was a dragon. I mean, James really dug most of it up, but I helped. We lost my water jar and found it and lost my sunglasses and found them and lost Katie's earrings and found them. And by that I mean James found everything that was lost. We swam in a lake under the mountains and Cathy sent her healingness to a life flight helicopter that went by. The next morning we woke up before sunrise to hike to the top of a mountain. There was a time in my life where I would have been like god no worst activity ever, but that time must be past. I went slow, it was hard, the altitude was some serious business, but Max did a moxa treatment on my knee and I didn't hurt it more. When we got to the top we did our daily energy medicine and literally connected heaven and earth. On the way back we saw a bear, just like I'd dreamed we would, except in my dream it charged us. Also at some point we saw some amazing pitcher plants, all luminous and snakelike. Everything magic. James and Max and Katie and I went to the Naked Hot Springs on the way back. Amazing. Like being in the Mother's womb. I did a really great constellation for myself and learned that my jaw pain comes from the silenced screams of all my female ancestors. You know how it is.

And then Minh showed up! We went to San Francisco and saw the street art and I went to my last herb class and had the whole goodbye ceremony and came back later than intended. Whoops. And we went on a crazy hike in the rain and got absolutely soaked through. People do not let themselves get absolutely soaked through nearly enough. We learned how to make some bread and went to the ocean where we couldn't see anything but some mussels and sea anemones. Then we went all the way back up into the mountains to the Naked Hot Springs and the woman at the general store tried to get me to stay. I harvested spearmint with my teeth and we harvested mugwort in the moonlight and sagebrush! and yarrow in the sunlight and soaked.

Then I packed up all of my stuff and left California and now I don't even live there anymore.

It's weird. I'm home. I've been here for just about two weeks. Right now this is my home, it's my only home, I don't live anywhere else. I'm happy to be here. It's good to be reconnecting with everyone. It's good to have clouds and green. I'm still trying to settle in. I still feel like I'm not quite anywhere, or like I'm rattling around someplace, or like I'll be leaving in a few weeks. But Mercury retrograde will be over in five days, and maybe then I'll feel like I'm home.

Two things have absolutely saved me

1. Asia

2. The hills

I don't know what would have become of me without either.

Asia, for obvious reasons.

And the hills are so incredible. I hated how dry they were when I first got here but I understand them more now. I like the little lizards that run by. I like how the wind blows the grasses and how the sunlight looks on everything as it sets. I love the lupines that grow everywhere. I love their skinny little leaves and how soft and fuzzy they are and all their sweet little colors and the big fuzzy bumblebees doing their thing all around them. I like how tall the hills are and how much I can see when I'm on them. I like that I can go farther without getting tired than I could before. I like the solitude and the quiet and the turkey gobbles and the owls. I hope Massachusetts has hills and I hope I love them as much as I love the hills here.

And Asia - move to Boston!!!!!

Funny that I should post that right before things turned around and reminded me that my life sucks a little out here. Ugh.

It's hard to be really upset about it though since it's a beautiful spring day, 65 degrees and sunny with a nice breeze. In January. Real life.

Everything I was freaking out about before break seems to be actually going really well now.

I feel more like myself now than I have in a while.

Things are actually pretty alright, and everything will drastically change again in six months, but I don't feel anymore like I can't wait for these next months to be over.

I'm just going to enjoy what's going on now, because it seems it's an especially unique time in my life and it won't happen again or last for much longer, really.

It's so weird being human.

Let's see. It's been about six months since I updated. In those six months I

- had a great time with the most crazy awesome internship ever with the coolest witchy ladies in their coolest witchy garden 

- graduated

- packed up all my stuff

- left Olympia and drove a giant truck all through the windy Oregon mountain roads all the way to da bay

- found an apartment in Berkeley and moved into it

- brought Luna on an airplane over to move in with us

- went to LA, drove back up to here

- visited home for a second

- started my new job

so it's been pretty busy. I just figured I needed to record right now for a bit since it's such a significant time job wise. It's now the third week of school and there have been some serious ups and downs. Overall though I think I really enjoy it and I think I would really like being a teacher, maybe even especially a teacher in an inner city/high need setting. But like, it's also really hard. I think I like hard work, though. I need to get a lot better at it, but I'm working on it.

Herb school starts on Monday!

1. HOW INSANE IS IT THAT I AM GRADUATING IN JUST A FEW MONTHS WHAT ON EARTH WHAT.

2. I'M SO EXCITED TO MOVE TO OAKLAND!

3. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE IN JUST A FEW MONTHS. I THINK IT WILL BE GREAT THOUGH. COME MEET ME IN OAKLAND YOU'LL LOVE IT.

4. YEAH YEAH YEAH

another good night

Last night Benji and I tried to finish 2001 a space odyssey but I was getting too freaked out to watch it. We had just left off at the end of intermission when things were so intense and so scary and I tried to watch it but was too scared to even start, and then we tried watching intermission but the music was too scary so we had to turn it off. Then today we watched the second half and it wasn't what I was expecting at all, it was so weird and now I'm just weirded out by it.

Tonight was super fun though. Emily and I were making valentines in my room and then Jenny came in and said it was Mardi Gras night at one of the bars downtown so Benji and Emily and I all went and Jesse and Jenny were drunk there and it was great fun. It is so lovely to see Jenny and Jesse dance together. They're so great for each other and Emily and I just stood watching them and seeing how much they like each other. And both of them need to be with a person who can dance like that with them.

Today I was going crazy for sugar and I had none in the house, I was like looking through my room to see if there were any chocolate bars I hid left anywhere. I have this problem where I crave sugar all the time and can't stop eating it if I had it, so I try to not let myself buy sugar but KK keeps on SENDING me all this sugar which means I have a whole bunch of sugar at a time in my house which I can't handle. A while back she sent me a bunch of Stirs the Soul chocolate bars made with just cacao and raw honey since that's the only kind of chocolate I can eat since I can't eat vanilla or dates or agave or artificial sweeteners or pineapple concentrate or brown rice syrup or maple syrup or sugar or anything really and I had to hide them all over my house to keep myself from eating them all at once. I thought I'd run out a bit ago but then I found another one and then I had two desperate times where I searched through everything in my room and then eventually found a chocolate bar, which was the most exciting thing when I actually found them. Today though I didn't find any so I think they're really all gone, and I didn't have any honey because I don't let myself buy it because I eat it too fast, but then a package came for me since it's almost my birthday and inside were a whole lot of chocolate honey candies that I can eat and SIX JARS of honey. So what am I going to do now.

I think is really beautiful that every batch of honey tastes different. That is such a beautiful thing. I wonder if that only happens with raw honey or if it happens with all sorts? Back when I ate honey without caring if it was raw or not I wasn't a such a honey expert so I don't know. If anyone knows anything about this please let me know. HONEY HONEY HONEY HONEY HONEY HONEY Something else I've been thinking about: I'm really thankful for Asia because I know if I have a child with special needs she will help guide me so much that I know I'll be able to do a good job raising them. I'm so comforted knowing that she is there for me and would be able to help me so much. Also, Jesse and Jenny and Emily and Greg and Benji and Maggie and I all had an oobleck party tonight in Emily's room and it was so fantastic. Maggie said that the free store had a lot of cornstarch right now so we could make oobleck so I went and grabbed some of my crazy amount of corn starch and made oobleck and everyone loved it. Jesse had never played with oobleck before and he had the best reaction to it. I'm so happy I was there to see it. Then I was able to give Maggie the nutritional yeast that I have since I don't eat it anymore, and I know Benji still eats it sometimes but I will buy him more nutritional yeast if he wants it but I was just so happy to be able to give Maggie that gift. I want her to have my nutritional yeast. And really, I'm three stars sensitive to it. Then Maggie left and the rest of us all lay on the floor in Emily's room with our heads on each others stomachs and hung out and it was so great. Maybe it's because I know that I am leaving Olympia, but I have been feeling so strongly lately how much I appreciate these people and love having them in my life. It's so sad to me that this is soon to be over. But at the same time, I know that the friendships we've built here are so real and so deep that going to another city won't be the end of them. And who knows, maybe we will all make it to California someday. I mean, why not? We're all the type who would go to California and while our lives aren't the most flexible now, once we get enough job experience to be able to get a job in any city we can really go wherever we want. AND QUICK EVERYONE! BEFORE YOU SETTLE DOWN! I mean, if you want to. I'll post some pretty great pictures from tonight soon. Only wish we had some of the oobleck. OH I FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! The most important part is that today I finished the first draft of my super huge paper and it ended up being FIFTY ONE pages and I finished it EARLY. It's due tomorrow at noon. I haven't handed it in yet because my webmail wasn't loading but maybe that's a good thing. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and edit it further, because I was definitely well aware it was a first draft as I was writing that last part so I totally could have done it better. But man that first part of my paper, and by first part I mean like the first twenty pages, is really really good. It probably isn't written super well, but the synthesizing of ideas and information I did in those first twenty pages is seriously impressive. Not to toot my own horn or anything.

Writing a paper writing a paper writing a 40 page paper writing a paper writing a paper writing a 40 page paper. It's cool though because I can really tell how much I've learned this year. Like, I know enough about stuff to write a 40 page paper about it. Which is good, because even if I didn't know stuff I would still have to write this paper and that would be rough. Lyme update: still get headaches. Can't eat any of the foods, no grains whatsoever, no sugar, no almond, green bean ,pinto bean, bran ,cashew, cheddar, cottage cheese, swiss cheese, coconut, coffee , egg whie, egg yolk, gluten, lemon, malt, cow milk, pinapple, brown rice, rye, safflower, sesame, black walnut, wheat, yeast bakers and brewers, yogurt, amaranth, red bean, red beet, casein, blue cheese, chickpea, cranberry, date, hazelnut, herring, licorice, mango, goat milk, oyster, pecan, pike, pistachio, radish, vanilla bean, whey, none of the foods. But I still get headaches. Besides that though life is pretty great. Emily's been gone this past week so the house has been lonelier without her, but still, it's great how much fun we all have with each other around here. Pretty nice stuff. Michelle is going to have her baby really soon. Babies! New plan: move to Berkeley. Live in Berkeley. How wild right! Leaving Olympia...I really didn't think it would happen this soon. Berkeley will be a heck of a lot more expensive, but also a NEW EXCITING ADVENTURE!

HOMEMADE COCONUT YOGURT

SENIOR YEAR!!!!!!!!!

I had a really great day today. Things are really good. Things are like, crazy good even with the lyme disease. I went to the occupy olympia kickoff today, it was great. It's good to know that there are outraged people out there cause like, seriously. And we went to Traditions and Benji ordered vegan enchiladas and they accidentally made enchiladas with cheese so they gave those to us too for free. Best reason to be vegan but not so strict as to turn down free enchiladas vegan ever? Also like, that's how good my day was today. I stayed at the occupation longer than anyone else that I went with but I ran into Lauren which was great and she came home with me. Tomorrow we're going to make kale chips in the dehydrator and maybe make tempeh and do a fall planting in the garden. I love Olympia. All these other people were at my house when I got home and it was this spontaneous party with just the right people. Maggie and Soren made dinner in our kitchen, we had a fruit ninja party with Kelsea and Maggie's iphones, Asia was there for a bit, Khadijah was back from Seattle, it was great. Benji and Jesse and Emily and I have also gotten to be so playful with each other. It's wonderful to have such nice roommates. The pros of living with people is definitely outweighing the cons, which is good because I didn't really know what it was going to be like after a year of living with just Benji. But it's great. A few weeks ago or a week ago or something Turtle Women Rising came to town. Check them out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahi_6dAGsUA&feature=related. It was these Native American women drumming for peace non stop for four days and anyone could join them so we did. It's weird to me that this is my senior year. It's so good, but will it all change when people graduate? I guess it changes every year here, every year will be different, but things are so nice it's hard to imagine they could change and not get better. Isn't that nice though? But maybe things still will get better. Who knows.

Hello

I haven't posted all summer. Whoops. I have a lot of recapping to do because it has been a very exciting summer.

We moved out of our apartment and into our new house. I'll get some pictures of it up soon. It isn't one of Olympia's cute little houses but it certainly does the job and it is quite nice inside. Benji and I have our own bathroom attached to our room and a big walk in closet. I started a compost out back and turned over a bunch of yard to make a garden. My tomatoes, kale, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, squash/zucchini, and lettuce were all successful. My spinach was not, my cabbage hasn't made any cabbages yet, it is too early to tell what's going on with the eggplant and tomatillos though they both have little fruit on the way, and all my first round of starting plants from seeds failed. Next year's garden will be even better. But I'd still call this year's a success.

Michelle got pregnant this summer. It's so hard to comprehend still. She just reached her second trimester. What.

Rosie and Dan visited in the middle of July. We had a very nice time living with Rosie for two weeks and a nice road trip to Oregon with Asia. Khadijah showed up here, which is great. We've been hanging out, walking to the co-op, picking blackberries all the way there.

There are so many inspiring backyard farms around here. One of the houses on our street has a big hoophouse and a house across the street has chickens. We walk around and look at all the super cute houses and super cool yards. It's a great activity.

Benji and I went vegan in the beginning of July. Great decision. They make vegan chilly goats, don't even worry.

I also have gotten really good at making sauerkraut, finally. I just had to learn Lauren's secrets. I've also pickled radishes and kohlrabi and pickling cucumbers which I grew in my own garden on my own cucumber trellis. I make my own soy milk but I'm not that good at soy yogurt yet. I can make good coconut yogurt but that still requires packaging for the coconut milk cans so I might as well buy soy yogurt (which is actually really good) since it has containers I can reuse. It would be great if I could master the homemade soy yogurt because that would seriously reduce my yogurt packaging since I have so many soy beans in a big tub. I wanted to get them in bulk at the co-op but they don't have bulk soy beans at the co-op. Weird, right? I've been trying to reduce my waste as much as possible, buying everything I can in bulk and reusing everything I can and making reusable tissues and toilet paper and homemade toothpaste and cleaning spray. I've been trying to reduce my water usage too but then my doctor went and prescribed daily baths with tons of borax and baking soda and cornstarch in the water. So that gets in the way of reducing water usage but what can you do.

Olympia in the summer is gorgeous. It's great. It's beautiful it's perfect. But I didn't get to go in any water at all this summer which is NOT okay. I need to get in water as soon as I get home.

Jesse got a ping pong table for the garage so there have been lots of ping pong parties. Pretty great. Also lots of cooking parties in the kitchen and reading parties in the living room. Benji has been growing a dandelion and yellow clover meadow in the front lawn and we've walked through it so much that there is a little path worn in the middle.

Bailey got a house two blocks away from ours so she will be so close by which will be great. Asia lives within easy walking distance, Michelle lives within easy walking distance, Megan lives within easy walking distance, all great. Lauren is wanting to move to the westside again so I hope she moves close enough. Khadijah and Jeannette are staying at our house right now so they are plenty close by. Parties parties parties all the time.

Last night there was a free pizza square dance downtown

What a wonderful weekend

it has been. On Friday I led a field trip by myself and planted kale with the high schoolers. Great fun. Then I got all inspired about gardening and came home and transplanted some broccoli and rosemary. Hopefully we will get this house that we're applying to today and then I will be able to really garden outdoors. The weather is great.

Then we took a nap and then made some sushi with Jeannette and then went to arts walk where OH MY GOODNESS, we met Nikki McClure. Benji and I both cried a little when we met her because we were so starstruck. We told her she was our favorite artist and she said she recognized me from around town. There were also the cutest littlest babies there.

And we saw the luminary procession which was very nice and saw some more art and hung out by the water. And went home.

Then yesterday was real procession. We went to Asia's house beforehand for an easter egg hunt and got to play on her swing set and in her beautiful yard. We saw a seal and a crane in the water when we walked downtown. Olympia has been being very sweet lately. I'm really liking it. Lovely town. I really could not stand shoes so I was walking around barefoot downtown and it was funny because it was like I was just another one of those barefoot hippies. I was also wearing my tree dress and got tons of compliments on it which was weird because it was like what, you can see me?

After procession we had our seder which went super great, I think everyone had a fantastic time at it. Yes for traditions.