Islands in the Stream

counting hundreds on the table, twenties on the floor

2009-10-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

hello old friends. what have you been up to lately? it is so ridiculously beautiful here in santa barbara, you almost can't believe it. it is bright and clear and blue for days. there is something else we should talk about. how i moved to santa barbara following the epic fail that was making it work in mammoth, and not one day later i met my synergy warrior amesia, who handed me, on a golden platter, my life.

that sounds dramatic but that is how it happened.

now 1101 state st is home to the french press and arcobaleno trade, and todd and amesia and i are making it work, making beautiful coffee and selling beautiful things and getting it done. i love coffee, i love espresso, i love people, i love standing behind a super hot la marzocco and talking to new friends and old. i love the french press. i love it so deeply i spend all day every day there working and growing it and making it real.

it still is beyond me, just a little bit, that in less than 4 months my life could take such a turn and become what it has become. i miss mammoth, i miss flippant little things like not knowing how to spend an afternoon. i feel though, that i am finally inhabiting my bones, stretching out my fingers and testing their muscle memory and recalling why i kept coming back to coffee, to people, to business.

so come see us. we are lucky and dreamy and we know it.

love letter to mammoth

2009-06-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

we've left mammoth for good. well, not for good for good, but i will, i realize, never live there again. it feels great to realize this. i've drifted un-anchored for years. moorless, right? i have tried and failed to find my place, that sense of place where you realize with your stomach and limbs and brain that THIS IS WHERE YOU SHOULD BE. i've been looking, you know. so we left our mountain top, our beloved mountain top. we cast our eyes to the horizon and set our course back home. but what is back home anyway? back to where my parent's live? do parents make a home? does a couch make a home?no silly. home is just where you put your foot down and say fuck it this is home! and home is santa barbara. it was frightful, the anxiety making a decision like this caused me. when you have moved every year of your adult life, every 9-16 months putting everything you hold onto into a box and unpacking it again, deciding not to do it anymore is fucking scary.
do you regret things? decisions to move that happened years ago that derailed you? do you mourn the places you left or are leaving? do you feel jealousy toward those whose tap roots are deep, who are settled and content?
i won't regret uprooting myself. it is who i am. i am a human who needs to walk circles around my place before i nestle in. and now i know that i am where i should be. who knew?
but this is after all, a love letter to mammoth. our mountain. a pretend life that we stretched and tried and loved. breathed the air and let the cheeks get rosy again.

i love sunday sunday morning

2009-04-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

just a sweet sunday by myself.

crawled to the sea that was calling for me so I could swim, swim the ocean wide

2009-04-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

we are thawing out in the mountains. the temperature reached 50, then went to 60. and then kept going. melt melt melt.
the sun gives us some sunburns, but it also is waking us up.

thawing, feeling muscle memory, testing it out.
we have to be ready.
todd got laid off and is moving to santa barbara tomorrow.
i am pretty sure we are ready.

hot rainfalls made of magma melt alaska

2009-02-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

we live in the shadow of a volcano. we work on its face. we drive over faults to start our days.it sounds so volatile and treacherous but really it is consistent and predictable.

snow

2009-02-11T23:38:00.001-08:00

i've settled in the snow, into the winter quiet. this is longest we've stayed anywhere for a little over a year. nothing could be less settled than our employment, than this economy. each day we wake up and wonder if today our number will come up. it is a really terrifying and unbelievably stressful way to spend the work day. senior management walk the halls and i really panic, freak out for a minute, try to understand the logic of layoffs.

the truth is that i can't find any logic in such decisions. work is not a thing i have ever done on autopilot, so i've never feared losing my job. here are good folks, getting laid off, goodbye. hard workers, that is that. not just here. everywhere.

i like the snow. i like the consistency of it: it is quiet to walk in, and my life is constant and that feels right for the first time in... ever. there are fires and books and my cheeks are always red. rosy.

there seem to be a few options, so far as i can see. we can accept this illogical number game and understand that eventually and soon we will be laid off and we can ride it out until it happens. or we can cut our losses, and try to find some greener pastures. i'm afraid they don't exist. i'm afraid to find out if they do or not.

the snow is falling slow and consistently. every morning when i wake up there is a fresh foot of it on the ground and i have to shuffle a new path to the bus stop. underneath there will be grass in 5 or 6 months and the trees will bloom into a late spring. it will smell like 8050 feet above sea level. i hope it will still look like home.

the kind of love that lasts forever

2008-11-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

it has been awhile. it has been so long awhile that i can't figure out the re-telling of all that has happened. love was promised, dreams came true, decisions were made, it snowed and fires burned.
extreme optimism was born and encouraged.

the kind of life moments that force your heart to get bigger to contain it all. they happened.

and they kept happening. we decided to put them first.
honestly, what job satisfaction trumps watching best friends get married on top of a hill in the forest?

we walked two miles in the snow to vote our guy into the white house. and then we cried because that hope that we had been daring feel was okay and real! then we started to feel something new: pride. again with the extreme optimism!
the sun set and rose and set and the days got shorter and colder and quiet.

there is nowhere else to look except up and forward. and that is a great feeling.

right back where we started from

2008-10-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

what happens between utah and california??it's vegas!!!

which is so silly. and so fun.
and then you wake up, and realize you are so close to home, just a treacherous drive across the desert away from CALIFORNIA, so you get up and dash across that desert.
and look at that. 16,000 miles and three months later, we are back on the 101.

the promised land.

2008-10-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

zion national park.it was the best of our trip: tubing, hiking, mind blowing vistas, delicious meals...

todd grew a beard for the occasion.
we hiked two astonishing things while in zion: the narrows and angels landing. perhaps you know of them?
the narrows is a 13 mile upstream hike through an insanely narrow canyon. there is no trail, you hike through the water, usually it's about knee deep.

it is preposterous!

angels landing is also preposterous. the mormons who first came through zion thought it was so high and trecherous that only angels could get to the top. it is a real test of one's ability to not be freaked out by 1000 foot drops on either side of you.
todd wasn't scared. i was though.

the end was in sight, todd could see it.
we gave our inner tubes to some french kids, who were psyched.

so, like, how are you?

2008-10-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

southern utah is one of the loneliest places in the country. you can stop the car in the middle of the highway, make a sandwich, take some pictures and never be a traffic danger. i read that this was the last part of the us to be mapped, it was so remote and impossible to get through. now highways crack through canyons and teter on the edge of the colorado river.

southern utah is also unbelievably unlike anywhere else, i'd wager, in the world. it is like wandering around on another planet, how else does one explain the shapes and colors the rocks have taken on?

and then suddenly you pop out in a pine tree forest, and descend back into a canyon so narrow and devoid of life, it is like watching the earth age like a bell curve.

i set out to get you with a fine tooth comb

2008-09-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

mind blowing! suddenly we were in london, straight from the desert in utah. and then we were back.
but not just yet. hold on to your hats!

When he first came to the mountains his life was far away

2008-08-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

out of the plains into the mountains. mountain air. mountain sky. denver, the mile high city, is like some kind of outdoor utopia. a major metropolis streams and bike trails connecting neighborhoods, people kayaking home from work.
and just up the way is boulder, a sight for sore eyes. our skin, so used to life at 8000 feet, so happy to be in this dry thin air.
i never get tired of looking up into the mountains.

i also never get tired of finding family members scattered around the country! well hello taylor davison! nice to meet you garron!

should we just move to boulder and become city mountain folk?
alas, the call of our dear sweet california pulled us west. into the sunset we drove.

and so it happened. we crossed over the rockies. through snow. in august. the backbone of the west.

Save my love through loneliness, save my love through sorrow

2008-08-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

before this epic sabattical, i worked 80+ hours a week, barely taking a day off a week, never taking a vacation or extended time off. come to think of it, the only real time off i took in the last 2 years was when i got pneumonia. from this context, i have been thinking about the fact that i haven't worked in over 4 months; that i have spent the last three months just being, just engaging my surroundings, enjoying my far flung friends, looking at the sky.
this is america, where an almost 30 year old is almost always fine tuning the career track and life track; looking for their first home, getting married, having babies. my whole life i thought this is where i would be when i reached 29 1/2. instead i find myself unshowered for 3 days, completely divorced from the expectations that i had for my own life.
i am in the west, so close to my california, my "real life". i am trying to reconcile these two versions of myself, the one who by all measures should be getting married and perfecting a career, and the one who wants to look at the sky all afternoon.
i had this idea that maybe i'll start a visiting service, and if you'd like, i'll go visit your relatives that you don't have time to visit. i'll babysit your niece, i'll take your grandma out to dinner.
maybe instead, you should all go visit your grandmas, and your aunts, and you best buddy who moved to chicago. chicago is awesome. your friends are awesome. take it from us, you won't be disappointed.

children of the corn

2008-08-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

kansas.8 hours in a straight line.

goodness gracious great balls of fire!

2008-08-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

memphis! it was elvis week, which means lots of insane ladies buying elvis lampshades and the line to get into graceland was absurd. we drove by. it was a big house. hello elvis!
beale street has apparently been completely redone from back in the days. a local girl told us that memphis knocked down more history than most cities have.
memphis. known for being the birthplace of rock and roll and making delicious bbq.
the lady behind the counter called todd baby as she handed him his pulled pork sandwich. the south!
we toured sun records.
imagine your life without elvis, johnny cash, roy orbison, carl perkins, jerry lee lewis, etc. etc. and all the rad bands that have been influenced by them and all the blues bands that i don't know the names of.
it is because of sam phillips and sun records and memphis recording company that you don't have to!
sam phillips: "Everyone knew that I was just a struggling cat down here trying to develop new and different artists, and get some freedom in music, and tap some resources and people that weren't being tapped."
so rad!
just like todd!

do you know what it means to miss new orleans

2008-08-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

new orleans.
when i was a teenager, i read all of anne rice's books about vampires and witches, and thus had developed a very tangible and rich mental picture of it. crumbling, kudzu, wrought iron, victorian, creole, voodoo, you know. i also worked at kcrw during hurricane katrina, and spent all day transfixed on the wreckage and the horror stories. the aftermath, that unbelievable mishandling by everyone involved.
so with these two very intense mental images, we checked into our hotel in the french quarter. i had forgotten all about the french quarter somehow. bourbon street, with all its excesses and tourists drinking beers at 10am.
a horrible fact about new orleans is that 3 years after hurricane katrina there are so many neighborhoods still in complete ruin. we drove through the lower 9th ward, names so familiar after months of hearing them on the radio, where 3 out of 5 houses are still empty, destroyed, spraypaint on the doors from being searched 3 years earlier.
how do you reconcile this? this is the usa, where a major metropolitan american city is still gutted in so much of the city. it wrecks me. i just do not understand. i was trying to find a comparison, like is after the 89 earthquake what if 50% of san francisco was still destroyed?

new orleans. i am fairly certain that i've been impacted by this visit more than anywhere else. i want to cry and i want to be part of the spirit that is not letting this city slip away. these amazing business people who are defying the government's inefficiency and have rebuilt themselves and the restaurants that are back, and the high school brass band playing on canal street because that is what they do. new orleans is so mysterious, even bourbon street. it is just like i romanticized as a teenager, and it is just like what npr told me. and it is more. it is young families and hipster diners, and the birthplace of the cocktail, and crawfish, and cemeteries filled with ghosts and slaves and rich old french families. and it is the worst natural disaster to ever happen on american soil and the worst handling of such a thing.

westward ho!

2008-08-14T09:14:00.001-07:00

we made our first right-hand turn. heading west. we drove through the florida panhandle, along the coast.
we found the wakulla springs: the worlds deepest freshwater spring. it puts out about 300 gallons of fresh water a day. after swimming in 85 degree ocean water for a week, swimming in 75 degree fresh water was the best.
swamp thing, tarzan, and the creature from the black lagoon were all filmed here.
there are alligators and manatees here. like in the swimming area on occasions. it is crazy!

the beaches in the panhandle are insane. the sand is quartz, washed down from the appalachian's, and it looks like fine sugar.

they call this area "the redneck riviera" because it is so close to the south.

it is baffling that this country is this big and diverse; that we can be having a tropical vacation in the middle of our usa tour is absurd.

we crossed the border into alabama. did you know that alabama had beaches like this? i surely did not.

southern belles

2008-08-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

charleston south carolina.
charleston is so dreamy. cobblestones, oak trees with spanish moss hanging off them, old and sweet.
antebellum. twilight.

canopy bed! cookies and milk before bed!

and not an hour away is savannah, georgia.

savannah got taken early in the civil war so its downtown was never destroyed like so many other southern cities. it is one of the largest historical landmarks in the usa.
the real deal is the town squares. 24 of them in the downtown! full of oaks and shade.

you sit on a bench in a square and people stop and say hello. southern hospitality.

sweet carolinas!

2008-08-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

to beat the heat, we headed to the outer banks of north carolina.the outer banks are a chain of barrier islands off the coast, thin strips of land spotted with little and big beach towns, stretches of nothing but sand and a road and the atlantic on both sides.

we bought some boogie boards and set up camp.

an hour later, check out what happened!
our tent blew away, lightning, thunder, wind. there was nothing to protect us out there!
we finished bbqing our asparagus, chased the tent down, waited it out.
the next morning, exhausted, we ferried over to south carolina, where we discovered southern hospitality and this magical sunset.

taxation without representation!

2008-08-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

we didn't really understand humidity until washington dc. fortunately for us there were freedom pops! walking in the humidity is totally worth it in dc. did you know that the people of dc don't get to vote, except in presidential elections, because they aren't part of a state? they didn't get a mayor until 1975!

we stayed with my aunt maggie, who was in town getting ready for her new foreign service job in tanzania! she left the very next day. we scatter around the world and it becomes smaller and smaller. best buddies in london, friends in australia, aunts in tanzania. it boggles the mind. distance is measured by how long it takes to get there in an airplane. we talk on the phone via the internet in a video chat. technology!

we said hello to president obama's future home,

paid a visit to one of my favorite americans in the capitol building,
were wowed by the supreme court!

we were impressed by the revolutionary act of the signing of the declaration of independence!!!!
saw some crazy airplanes,
went to a marine parade at iwo jima!

and then we hopped down to our first colony, jamestown!

we happened upon a revolutionary war re-enactment at colonial williamsburg,

and were blown away!!! ha ha ha.

with broad stripes and bright stars

2008-08-10T18:44:00.001-07:00

road lunch in the south.

delicious!

fire island

2008-08-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

it was hot and it was saturday, so we opted to head to fire island where eddie's family has a house. fire island is only an hour away from the city, and there are no cars on the island. the whole island is about 500 yards wide, and you get to your house by boardwalk. it is awesome!

this is my favorite picture of eddie and lauren. thanks guys!

i never sleep, sleep is the cousin of death

2008-08-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

we took a ferry from connecticut to long island and drove into manhattan. (it should be noted that where a ferry can be taken, we have done so.) what can you say about new york? you can say that it is fiercely busy and fun and beautiful and full of people that we love and art and music and bankers and parks. the best part being the people that we love.

justin, new transplant.
natural history museum. if i were a kid in nyc, i would have lived here.

the displays are perfect. and as a side note, jess' great grandparents were commissioned to hunt most of the african mammals displayed.

alec, in his office!

and edward cooper. edward cooper!!!!

jammy's house

2008-08-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

since you all know my family, you know that there are a lot of us, and if there is anything going on, we are all there. (on a side note this is the best of my family: unfailing, stubborn, predictable love and affection for each other. truly, it is the best thing about us.) one of the excellent perks of having my brother marry into the davison family is that by proxy i gain a whole new family. being surrounded by family in boothbay was so wonderful. we got to spend quality time with tyler's new parents, getting to hear fun jess stories, be part of the sunday burger tradition. and in true familial style, as we were packing our stuff up, nan and chip insisted that we go stay with jammy in connecticut. jammy is the davison matriarch, and jess has told us a million amazing jammy stories. a call was made and we headed south!

jammy, (i cannot believe i didn't take a picture of her!! shame on me!!), who is in her 80s, greeted us at the driveway: "should we go hiking or kayaking? kayaking, great lets go!" she has a working farm, 400 acres that juts up on a nature preserve, with untold amounts of waterways. there is a little lake that jess' grandfather made, jammy took us swimming, we attempted to catch frogs, we grilled fish. it is so easy to imagine being a little kid, going to spend a week and grandma's house, what unbelievable fun would come? nan told us a story about how kate (jess' older sister) wrote an account of her summer vacation with jammy for school when she was young, and the teacher called nan up with concern that kate had made it all up.

we had some quick and unbelievable fun here.
and by some good fortune, these davisons are going to be my family too.
isn't that just magic?

boothbay

2008-07-31T07:06:00.001-07:00

boothbay, maine. birthplace of jessica davison, my soon to be sister. we stayed with jess' parent's nan and chip.

there house and spot in pleasant cove is lovely.
we celebrated todd's birthday with a kayak around the cove, followed by a sail.

in fact, it was todd's first sail!

there is 3,500 miles of coastline in maine, because its coast is made up of bays and deep inlets and rivers and coves.
nan
captain chip
the winsome
to round out our mainer experience, nan and chip took us out for lobster.
birthday lobster of course.
we spend so much time driving and trying to figure out what comes next, getting to the next stop, it is such a treat to get to stay in one place for a bunch of days.
especially somewhere like this!

what happened between mid and east

2008-07-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

we took a ridiculous and crooked path to boston from chicago.chicago to pittsburgh
two hours south to fallingwater
(which is really something to see)

to buffalo, where tyler my very talented and smart brother built these gigantic wind turbines,

to niagara falls,

all the way to boston!
see the bricks? boston!

paul revere and samuel adams are buried here.

"Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real."

2008-07-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

i bet you all know that i love chicago.
chicago has some serious magic because it is in the midwest and thus untainted by being coastal. it doesn't really care about being super cool, so it just is.
we went to wrigley field and saw the cubs clobber the giants. cubs fans have serious team spirit, unlike anything i've ever witnessed before.

we stayed with katie and gabe. did you know that we all lived together in italy? i love katie something fierce, and for the past 2 years our friendship has existed exclusively in the internet.
when we lived together, we cooked ridiculous meals and once had a christmas tree that we decorated with fake money and left up until about march. now they live in a big beautiful apartment. buddies in real life are totally rad.
this is their street. you walk from the train and you can almost see the newspaper men and bankers commuting home to their nuclear families in the 20s.

my grandparents are from the southside of chicago. after the war they moved out to california, and the rest is history.
in the winter when lake michigan froze, my grandma's dad would drive their car out onto the lake and spin donuts.
this is the church where my grandparents were married.
during the war, after my grandpa was taken as a POW, my grandma would come here every day and light a candle for him.
when i visit these mini personal monuments, it is like a fountain of unlimited enthusiasm is uncorked in me.
it is pretty great.

our midwest love

2008-07-21T05:57:00.001-07:00

we love the midwest so much, and we want you all to love the midwest too.

minneapolis

the mississippi

my auntie's house in wisconsin
auntie!

young hearts be free tonight

2008-07-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

we have been on the road for 1 1/2 months! and guess what happened yesterday? we made it to the east coast!!!!

I had nothing to do on this hot afternoon but settle down and write you a line

2008-07-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

grand forks north dakota is on the border of minnesota. in fact, the grand forks river splits the city into two- grand forks north dakota and grand forks minnesota. the north dakota side is home to the busiest intersection in north dakota and our dear dear friend leah.

the best part about taking 3 months to drive all over the us? visiting far flung friends, spending real time with them, in their hometowns or newly adopted ones. leah is a born and raised grand forks north dakotan; todd met her in santa cruz when he was 18.
spending a few days in grand forks and discovering how much we loved it, i wonder how many other awesome little cities and towns we just drive by, on our way to the chicagos and minneapolises.
leah is an amazing hostess- we rode bikes. . .
ate the north dakota specialty taco in a bag,
went to the speedway and watched the races,
light off fireworks, ate dill pickle chips, went to the lake, loved grand forks.
there are times in our lives where everything is perfect, and we usually don't realize it until it is over. when all your best friends live in the same town, and the weather is just right, and the fun seems to happen without planning it. santa cruz summer days, working with your buddies. . .
things change, people move away, get new jobs, have kids, drift apart. such is life. you have to re-negotiate your friendships from afar, email, text messages, phone calls. this is part of getting older i am realizing.
we said goodbye to leah, knowing full well that we will never live in the same city as each other again. it is bittersweet and it is life.
and knowing what it looks like to be leah in the summertime in grand forks is sweet.

under god, the people rule

2008-07-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

south dakota, great faces, great places.
we camped in the black hills, one of the most sacred places for the lakota sioux. we woke up at 4 am to earth shaking thunder and lightning and pouring rain. would we float away, in our tent?
the history is palpable in these black hills. we stood still and listened to the wind in the trees, who else over the years had stood here, listening?
probably some gold prospectors, like these two! deadwood.
south dakota is a place you should all see. packed here in the middle of the usa, it is full of monuments, weird roadside attractions, truly mind blowing prairie land, the black hills, the badlands.

the badlands.

O Canada! Where pines and maples grow

2008-07-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow,
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western sea!
in banff , we hiked out onto the columbia ice field, which is a giant monster of a glacier , and is over 10,000 years old.there are signs every 200 yards or so marking how big the glacier used to be, in 1977, in 1997. in the past ten years more than half of the glacier has melted away.
they expect that all the land glaciers will be gone by 2030.
this change isn't just some ice melting away. as we learned on fliers posted everywhere, the slow melt off of the glaciers feed almost every river on the continent. from the columbia icefield, the melt off goes to both the pacific and the atlantic via multiple rivers and lakes.
and suddenly they will be gone! and what will we do then? it is a crazy shift to try and understand.
the lakes in banff get this spectacular color from minerals in the glacier runoff.

banff on canada day. oh canada!

montana is the home of glacier park, the usa's (and canada's) worst and meanest mosquitos, and some epic prairie land.
a moose!

the weeping wall.

our home on the range.

it took us about 10 hours to cross montana.

north and west of the mississippi

2008-07-06T22:19:00.001-07:00

a major portion of our trip has been spent shred attacking. the pacific northwest, (and we learned canada), is full of skateparks. every little town that has a teenager that skateboards has a skatepark. it is great!

ashland oregon, not only home to thespians, but shred attackers as well.
medford oregon.
burnside!

port angeles washington.

port townsend washington.
go skateboarding day!
seattle washington.

orcas island!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the photographer.

vancouver skatepark.
glacier national park.

billings montana.

nexxt stop..... east of the mississippi!!! get ready!

happy birthday usa!

2008-07-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

happy fourth of july everybody! we will be celebrating the usa's birthday in grand forks north dakota, with our good friend leah. we will light off some of the very legal explosives we purchased and think of all of you.

this once in a lifetime opportunity to quit our jobs and travel through the usa makes both of us feel blessed because it is in no small part thanks to this country. just being born here gives us the choice to change directions if we so choose, to spend thousands and thousands of dollars in gasoline!

taking this bit of time, and meeting people all over the usa, and driving the backroads of south dakota and montana and washington, we just feel really lucky, and really optimistic.
this country is so massive and so diverse, and it wasn't all that long ago when it wasn't the usa at all. everywhere you turn there is a reason to become polarized: war, oil prices, religion. but everywhere you turn there is also a reason to be proud and be galvanized to do your part to bridge these seemingly vast gaps, and fix these seemingly unfixable problems. we are all just people, trying to make our way and follow a dream of some kind. we are not so different.
so happy fourth! love to everyone! happy birthday dad!!

from the sea to the sky

2008-07-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

canada. we drove up to whistler from vancouver, which is one of the most spectacular drives we have done. it is on a highway called the "sea to sky" and it makes sense: you climb along the ocean and the inlets and bays up into the mountains.
todd and i have a soft spot for ski towns, and vancouver was very good to us. it is like summer camp for 20 somethings- biking, hiking, skateboarding, lakes to swim in, a river running through the villages. . .
and a giant glacier at the top of the mountain that you can snowboard and ski on. it takes 3 chair lifts and one bus to get up there.

whistler is the host for the 2010 olympics, so they are building this peak to peak gondola that is an engineering feat unrivaled in northern america. the towers are 4 times the height of the statue of liberty, and it spans 2 miles and is 1400 feet in the air.
totally nuts!!

mountain towns. we love them.
it was 86 degrees and beautiful. we got off the chair lift and headed to the lake, snow bro heaven.
30 feet of snow a year! lakes! lets all move there!

orcas island love

2008-06-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

this is a fine sunday morning. my whole life sundays have been the one day a week that my busy family takes off. while i worked in santa cruz, i only really ever got one day off a week, if that, and i fiercely protected my sundays. they are made for resting, re-setting, eating big meals with your friends and family, slowing down, noticing things.
one thing i noticed while we camped on orcas island is that i do not like to camp near anyone else. i do not want my campsite to look out on anyone or anything man made. i get this from my dad, who (like me on orcas) will drive around until he finds the perfect hidden campsite. while we were living in mammoth, my dad told me that my grandpa used to be the exact same way when he was a kid, making them hike farther out if they were backpacking and saw another human.
i like that i am picky like my dad and my grandpa. i like being alone in the nature! fortunately todd is (for the most part) willing to put up with me pulling into a campsite, walking around, trying out the views, leaving, pulling into a new one and starting the process over.
do you know the story of puget sound? how a glacier a mile thick tore through the area and over 6000 years created all these inlets and islands? orcas is in the san juan islands at the top of washington's puget sound. it is a sleepy fishing island that somehow happened to get a world class skatepark that todd got to skate everyday, pretty much by himself.

the last day we were there, todd was skating the park with this little boy, probably about 10 i would guess. he had a packed lunch, you could tell his parents dropped him off at the park in the morning on the way to work. he kept asking todd how to do tricks, showing him these giant ants, offering him tic tacs. he was lonely and wanted a friend.
as we left todd gave him his skateboard. it was the best feeling i have had in a long time, watching this little kid be stoked beyond belief by todd.

magic. the pacific northwest is magic.
one ferry ride and an hour later in the car, we were at the border.
well hello canada! nice to meet you eh!

ports, ferries, islands

2008-06-27T23:20:00.001-07:00

port townsend is at the northernmost tip of the olympic peninsula.

like most towns on the coast of the pacific northwest, it is a port town.

and what gem did we find just across a bridge? poulsbo, the scandanavian village on the bay!

bainbridge island. a 30 minute ferry from seattle. total magic.
we camped on the beach and read until 9pm. summer solstice buddies!

seattle has a space needle.
and then. . . a port town! anacortes, the gate to the san juan islands at the top of puget sound. and a ferry ride!!!!

we could get used to commuting via ferry. it is the most efficient method of public transport, and full of views and fresh air.

the ultimate catch up

2008-06-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

it has only been about a week, but it has been a lifetime, two states, an island, and a new country. we have been on ferries, bridges, chair lifts, trails, kayaks. we keep being reminded of the scope of this trip, when we spend hours in the car but only move a few inches on the map.

so when we last saw each other, we were leaving oregon. well hello washington. we drove around the olympic peninsula into the olympic national forest.
it is not yet summer in washington.

there are hot springs in the olympic forest, and you know we found them.
sol duc hot springs. totally in the middle of nowhere.

sol duc waterfalls. pretty no? the olympic national forest gets about 14 feet of rain a year, which is why everything is insanely green and there is so much water everywhere.
also they get snow.

and that is just part one.

Empty Fossil Of The New Scene

2008-06-23T13:18:00.001-07:00

i was in the shower in seattle two days ago when out of nowhere, i started to feel so exhausted. i thought to myself that it would be nice to go home for a few days, to some familiarity. that is when i realized that we do not have a home. we don't have a house, or even a town that we ally ourselves with above any others. everything we own is spread between my brother's attic, a storage unit in santa cruz, and my honda. this is the plan, and all is going smoothly according to it. our rules on this trip are that we do whatever we want, we don't stick to any agenda, and if we like someplace, we can stay and enjoy it.

seattle is a neat city, there is so much going on that we are both into - amazing coffee, skateboarding, ferry boats. . . but it was also unbelievably annoying too. muggy, full of tourists, no place to stay. it was the first time on our trip so far that we hit that point. the point where all that sounds good is familiarity. knowing where you can go and have some food or get a beer without the exploring part. when you are in your hometown, or even in a town that you know, you have a way of navigating it, making it part of you. your coffee shop, your street you walk home on, your post office, your bar, your view. it is the compass that helps you figure out who you know who you are. a new place every day or so means that nothing is familiar, and this is awesome. it has been a totally mind bending experience.
it would be easy to fall back on becoming a tourist in these places. go to the spots, take the pictures, eat in the applebees. but that isn't what we are like in our hometowns, that isn't how i navigate through space.
after 2 hours of frustratingly walking through gross bar filled neighborhoods while trying to find something to eat, we ended up finding a restaurant/bar called linda's tavern that was familiar. we ate grilled cheese and drank some beer, and felt like we had found a way to be part of seattle a little bit, instead of looking at it, snapping pictures of it. while we were there, somebody even put some alice in chains on the jukebox.

a nice place for nice people

2008-06-22T00:17:00.001-07:00

30 minutes from portland is white salmon, home of the columbia gorge and my cousin leana. since it was father's day, and none of our dads are much of golfers, we went golfing!
what form! todd got creamed by leana and nick. i drove the cart.

later on we bbqed.

leana and nick. love you guys so much. white salmon! hood river!
next thing we knew, we were in astoria.

and then we were driving out of oregon.

If that ain't love then tell me what is

2008-06-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

we made it out of california! oregon. rad gnar super awesome times. family, coffee, tasty beer, walks, skateboarding, bbqing, bridges, dogs, best breakfast ever, hipsters, haircut, cherries, 75 degrees, green, sunshine, the max!

todd skated 4 parks in one day. savage.
these precious human beings are olivia and alex. they belong to my dear cousin mikey and kelly.

ashland. greenery abounds and we saw some shakespeareans faux sword fighting in the park.
we stayed in the ace hotel. it is so lovely, and was totally awesome after a WHOLE WEEK of camping.
so, word is that is rains a lot in portland. it was high 70s and sunny for our whole trip.
this is olly, who belongs to monica and stevie.
and this is monica and stevie, who have a rad portland house that they graciously let us stay in.

i know todd! portland is the raddest!

after all it was a great big world

2008-06-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

i was thinking, this fine saturday, that we could all use some redwood photos.

did you know that redwoods used to cover pretty much all of north america, in the days of the dinosaurs? they are the oldest living things on the planet!

that is reason enough that all of you who are lucky enough to live near some redwoods should go outside and check them out. go spend the afternoon being amazed that their bark gets to be about a foot thick and they live to be 3000 years old!

babe the ox, you are not a redwood tree.

enjoy the sunshine!

we've been on the run, driving in the sun

2008-06-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

we popped south to san francisco to help tyler pick out a suit for the wedding.
popping the veuve means that we found the suit. you will all just have to wait to see how much tyler looks like a professional male model! handsome and dapper just do not do him justice!
finding such a suit meant we had some time to be tourists in our favorite city.

and look who we coaxed over the bay bridge????
inti!!!!

no matter how short our trip to sf, we always have time for some blue bottle. we love blue bottle.

we love sf. we love the bay area. we love california. we live california.

we are blessed that we were lucky enough to be born here in this amazing state. you all realize how mind blowing california is right??

california. magic. love you.

passing these old rusted warning signs, what did they say? i think they said "run!"

2008-06-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

california. love you.
first stop! yuba river, thanks to dear friends jason and kate, (who are getting married this year!) kate planned an epic birthday weekend camping trip for jason, which is an awesome thing to do. think about all the birthday parties you have been to, where you talked to a friend of the host and had a rad chat, but then you all leave and that is that.
spending a weekend with your friends friends is more like a friendship marathon. we met and got deep with bunches of rad and inspiring people.
kate herself is full of brilliance and rad. like a camp counselor of fun really.
we jumped off rocks, floated down the river in inner tubes, swung on rope swings, bbqed tons, drank beer, laid in the sun, played whiffle ball, snacked, plotted, laughed, sang a long.

this is chuck, who gave us a sibley's field guide to birds of western north america. birding is our new hobby, thanks to chuck!

so thanks buzz, thanks jason and kate, thanks fiddle creek. thanks new friends, thanks sunshine, thanks california!

we'll meet up on the floor, and maybe do the twirl

2008-06-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

skipping town gives you an excuse to have going away parties. who doesn't love parties? who doesn't love an evening with number one aces?
we filled the great room in my parents house. most of the people in the room have known me my entire life.
like this guy, the best man in my brothers wedding. he is the best guy.
and these turkeys. number one aces.
people that know you inside out, in the dark and in the light.
i love these people, these rad humans. these people help make sense of the crazy insanity that is life, strike some sense of balance, move forward, keep going, slow it down, live it.
before we left my mom blessed the car and called out the universe to keep us safe.
and with that, we started the new chapter.

summertime

2008-05-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

the car is packed. we put away our snowboards. we looked at all of our favorite things, one last time.
it is time for us to find green pastures, rivers, lakes, old friends, ancient glaciers, corn fields, sailboats, bbqs, skateparks, miles of wheat, dreams, grass, wine, weddings, sunshine, inspiration, oceans, love.
basically, mammoth was the training grounds for the next three months. we learned to live with none of our stuff, with no boundaries, with open hearts.
we have been practicing gratitude, acceptance, friendship, fun, love.
seriously all of you humans. i figured out the secret to this universe! it is full on gratitude. i am so grateful that i do not work in a basement anymore. i am so grateful that 80% of my days are filled out of doors. i am so grateful that i know all of you. i am so grateful that over millions of years the eastern sierras were created and i got to have my mind blown daily for three months here.
thank you and goodbye, for now. next stop. . . ?

the moon was so big when i drove it to the levy, girl

2008-05-29T23:21:00.000-07:00

does it get old posting photos of amazing natural hot tubs in complete seclusion, where all you can hear is birds and the water running? i hope not!
this one, little hot creek, was the farthest away, and worth it. it is huge, hot, and lies in the middle of a meadow.
mind blowing, right?
above little hot creek are these rock cliffs that are filled with obsidian. we met this old hippie out in the valley once who told us that indians must have used the cliffs as hunting blinds. he had found a bunch of arrowheads buried in the dirt.
the sky is just as dramatic as the landscape up here. you just turn down another dirt road and follow it until you see something that looks like it might be a hot spring. then you explore.
next thing we knew, we had found another unbelievable spot. they call this one the crab cooker, because it is insanely hot. and insanely awesome!
we felt like we were in the swiss alps, and maybe the von trapp family would scamper over the hill.
nope! just us. just us all day actually. we didn't see one other person the entire afternoon. i will take you all to these places, and we can share moments in the sunshine.

Let me keep spinning till I hit the ground

2008-05-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

memorial day weekend brought 2 feet of snow and a car full of strubings.
the strubings are like family. getting to spend time with them before we leave is an amazing and unexpected treat.

joya marie is a fashion plate already.
it snowed the entire time they were here! we planned to bbq by the pool and do some hiking.

instead, we played in the snow, and swam in the snow!
monday morning we woke up to blue skies and what was to be the mountains last day for the season. by 11, the mountain decided to stay open another week. radical!
the countdown is on.

our tentative grand tour

2008-05-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

we tentatively have planned our trip.

it looks insane! if we accomplish half of the things on our trip, it will be mind blowing and life altering.

View Larger Map

it is like christmas!

2008-05-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

would you believe it if i told you that it snowed a half a foot during the night?
in 48 hours it went from 76 degrees to 34 degrees. wow! we wore our down jackets one last time this season. it is hard to imagine that two days ago we were in t-shirts!?

we found yet another amazing hot tub. todd thought he hallucinated it, but we found it to be quite real and warm.

it snowed on us while we relaxed.
or rather, while todd tried to relax and i bothered him.
driving back home the dark clouds gathered all around us. it seems that we are in for some winter weather, this last week in may!

You are the only person who's completely certain

2008-05-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

we drove ten minutes down the 395 to convict lake.
convict lake is named after a gang that busted out of the carson city jail and fled into the mountains in 1871. they were caught by the local sheriff, (who they shot and killed, and who the big mountain is named after), and were caught and hanged... apparently back in the day the eastern sierras were quite lawless. it was the wild west!!
we got wild and hid like bandits in the trees!
it is crystal clear and amazing. i am afraid we are becoming spoiled with beautiful scenery.
we are also becoming spoiled with relaxation and enjoyment of magical experiences out of doors.
of course i'm joking. we shall never become spoiled by majestic mountain scenery! look at todd giving thanks for the mountain spring crystal lake!
and what foray into the mountains would be complete without a stop at another natural hot spring??
we have become experts in the hot springs of the owens valley. this one is our new favorite, super hot, with benches!
thank you eastern sierras! we love you.

folks up here know what they've got

2008-05-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

look who came to visit us on this fine may weekend?
the weather is unbelievable. it has been 75 on the mountain, thus necessitating that we get up there early and wear t-shirts. it feels quite right to spend the last few days of the season riding with my parents. snowboarding, and mammoth really, has been a family tradition forever. all through highschool we spent the weekends driving up in our red jeep, doing homework by flashlight on the way home. once it became summer, we would add bikes and tents to the car, snowboarding in the morning and riding bikes and hiking in the afternoon. we have annual summer photos at the top, in t-shirts, just like the one above.
the lakes are thawing out too. in a few weeks they will be filled with campers.

there is a similar photo to this hanging in the hallway in our condo in mammoth. my grandpa took it. he, along with my grandma, are the reason we love mammoth so much. my grandpa loved the mountains and rivers and streams, and he loved mammoth. my first memories here are of him, he used to babysit all the grandkids while our parents went skiing. he was a photographer, amongst other things, and for a while he went by theo, (instead of tedd.) i think he is happy i am here, taking photos of what he took photos of, remembering him.
i salute the rivers and lakes!
my scabs are healing nicely, thanks to my mom the nurse and belle and brandy. their love heals all wounds. that also is a proven fact.

i want to walk down the other side of the mountain

2008-05-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

we have been taking advantage of our free time to learn some new tricks. todd and i rented skis the other day and then todd took me skateboarding. now todd and i are both accomplished snowboarders, and todd shreds on a skateboard. i haven't been on skis since the 5th grade, todd never. my skateboarding skills mostly involve pushing around.

i am learning that putting yourself outside of your comfort zone is all part of growth. it is fun to have to think about how to do something and to accomplish it, especially if it is getting yourself down a mountain. to figure out for yourself how to get your skis to not cross and how to turn without falling. you take things like this for granted when you are really good at doing it.
check out this form!
now skateboarding. todd loves skateboarding. i love skateboarding. on our big trip we will be visiting many skateparks and i like the idea of being capable of rolling around in them while todd does rad tricks.
i am pretty good at pushing around, but i learned my limits while going down a hill.
i will not be skateboarding down hills anytime soon. you should have heard my mom when i told her that i fell!! if you know anything about my family, you will know we have a history of falling off things like skateboards.
rainbow sherbert makes scabs heal faster. it is a proven fact.

high on a mountain top

2008-05-12T21:16:00.001-07:00

back in mammoth. it is truly magnificent here right now. there is no one in town, it is sunny and warm, we wear hoodies while snowboarding... it also means that all is better in santa cruz. todd's dad is taking walks, eating burritos, pretty much anything but laying in a coma-like state. we are very thankful. hospitals are surreal, especially once they become familiar. but i digress.

mammoth. we are unemployed, so there isn't much we have to do. this kind of freedom is pretty scary to me, i have to be honest. my mom, who is wise beyond her years, keeps reminding me that this will be over before we know it and i must embrace all this free time. to that i say. . .

how was i so lucky that the universe gave me my mother as my mother?????????????? someone my mom and i both admire would say that i chose her to be my mom and i definitely know why: she is wise and accepting and caring and beautiful and full to the brim with love and wonder. my grandma often refers to her as her little angel and it is kind of true. my heart bursts when i think about her. really. again i digress.

today the wind blew so hard that instead of attempting to snowboard we went hiking.

there is still so much snow, especially when you get way back in the mountains.
actually, there is so much snow, there wasn't a hiking trail at all, just snow and up.
my dad rides his mountain bike back here. there was no one at all for miles and miles.
and then, out of the blue blue skies, came snow. snow!!!
so we called it a day at a natural hot tub we found on the way home. and some tecates too.

we are considering moving to mammoth once our round the country tour is over. it has captured our imaginations. we feel more alive here than anywhere.
but we are just playing real life, we don't have to make any decisions yet.

it's hard to make the good things last

2008-05-06T10:02:00.000-07:00

what a whirlwind few weeks. after 1 month in the hospital, todd's dad has finally been moved to a rehabilitation center where he is planning to make a break for it. this is good news, stewart is getting himself back to normal. old friends were married in the park, we laughed and cried a lot, swam with the best babies in the universe. we are ready to get back on track.

in theory we will be leaving in the beginning of june to drive around the usa for 3 months. it is daunting and exciting and magical all at once. our plans hit the snag that is life: taking care of your family, being there for those who need you, it is all part of being a human being. so we are grateful that we have the time to hug each other and clean up the messy stuff and chase stewart who has just unplugged his IV and is tearing down the halls.

santa cruz you're not that far

2008-05-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

aww, old friends.

we are leaving for mammoth tomorrow. goodbye santa cruz!

best of youth

2008-04-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

where did you come from?
where do you go when you need unconditional love and support?
who will tell you their honest opinion?
where feels the most like home?
how is it that my mother does not age and did i get this gene?
where are you going and who is going with you?
do you realize we're floating in space?

i'm lost

2008-04-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

does anyone else watch lost? i want to give up, but i just can't.

i drove to santa barbara this afternoon. i dragged my feet to put everything in the car, prepared to be gone for 1-2 weeks. leaving, because i must, because i am unemployed. i have to fight the urge to run into any business and beg for them to let me work. i am too old to be unemployed. i am too old to be doing any of this nonsense. i've spent the past two months surrounded by 19-22 year olds. in mammoth, i am not so old, i blend into the 19-22 year old lifestyle quite nicely. it is when i start to drive back home, back to santa cruz, back to reality really, that i start to panic. it is a real soul shaking kind of thing to look a 19 year old peer in the face and think of all the years of experiences, both bad and good, that have happened since i was 19. what has made me, me. how little i knew about who i was going to be. during my drive i tried to think of everything that happened to me between 19 and now. how it was that i got here, in the car driving back to santa barbara:

i moved to italy
i traveled with my brother and crashed a motorino in greece
i wrote an awesome thesis
i collected records
i graduated college
i fell in love
los angeles
i hustled
i fell out of love
protests
i worked my ass off
music, daily, nightly
radio station
my car got stolen
i got my heart broken
i lived alone
i lost friends
i found them again
a million moves
i hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon
i drove for 4 years straight
i collected danish furniture
i traveled in australia in an rv with my family (and discovered my undying love for australian cancer council sunglasses)
san francisco
i ran a marathon
i ran a business
i spent ten million hours in awe of my amazing friends and family
i fell in love
i had a breakdown
i had surgery
i said enough is enough and put everything in storage
i worked at mammoth as a lift operator

who would i be without this? without all the rest that happened in between these landmarks that are just as important? (how could i leave out eating at alegria with katie and joey while we tried to sort our lives out? that was fundamental to where i am now.) how could my 19 year old self found me now without this map?

our arms fill with miracles

2008-04-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

todd is in santa cruz taking care of his dad, who is still in the ICU. please send positive healing thoughts to his lungs if you are so inclined. and so i am alone up on the mountain. the wind has been vicious. it shakes the windows and knocks things over, myself included. at the top of my chair lift the other day the wind gusts reaches 115 mph, and so we closed. however while moving a bench the wind picked me up and blew me over. i was all alone up there, it felt so insanely lonely, like in a second i could be picked up and blown away and no one would notice.
i was laid off on sunday, which means i have been enjoying much relaxing and shredding. it also means that sooner than later we will be moving away to seek excitement in greener pastures.

it will be terribly hard to leave though. we have been living a pretend life, where simplicity and making enough to make ends meet are all you need. but that makes me wonder, why should that be a pretend life? i have spent the majority of my adult life trying to impress people with my successes and career benchmarks, and i have never felt so fulfilled and purposeful as i have here in mammoth. i wonder if it is because i know it is temporary, or if i was destined to be a mountain girl???
by the way, when making cookies at 7000 feet, don't forget to make the appropriate adjustments. i forgot.
i would also like to make this point: taking time to re-set your priorities, take care of yourself and your loved ones, and truly appreciate the moments as they appear before you will completely change your life. i am a completely different person than i was 2 months ago. it is awesome.

mothers and fathers

2008-04-12T22:05:00.000-07:00

today we were reminded how precious and fleeting life can be. we are reminded to tell everyone how much we love them and how glad we are to know them.
especially the mothers and the fathers, who sometimes need to be taken care of too.
we are glad to know you all. every day you are in our thoughts.

rosy cheeks

2008-04-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

all this time in the nature and sunshine has left me with some serious rosy cheeks.
however, i find that i prefer the rosy cheeks to the pallid sunken look that i had acquired after no less than 4 years working primarily in a basement.

it is time for our nightly jacuzzi. would anyone care to join us?

you're my sunshine, and i want you to know

2008-04-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

we are just two people. two really really really really really ridiculously good looking people.

our lives have been simplified. we care if people are having fun, and if they are safe.

we care if we are having fun and are safe.

we feel intense gratitude all day long.
we say thanks universe! thanks mom and dad! thanks snow! thanks friends! would you like to ride my chair lift? i will make sure you are safe and happy.

love!!!!!!

but i'm just harry

2008-04-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

in a few months my brother is getting married to the most amazing and magical person. what i have recently put together, is that this means i am getting a sister. a sister!! and not just any sister, a sister who is sweet and bakes and i can talk to like a real sister, because she is going to be my real sister! this makes me happy on many levels. really, the first time we met jess (my family) we knew she would be perfect for us. fortunately, tyler likes her too so we all win.

because of this, i took a road trip to meet jess, shay and my mom in san francisco. we need bridesmaid dresses, and jess needed to get her wedding dress altered. this meant driving through the eastern sierras through tahoe, which may quite possibly be the most beautiful drive i have ever driven.
this is mono lake, where all you los angeles folks get your water.

i am pretty sure my mom is the prettiest lady i have ever seen. and jess isn't so bad herself, no?
tartine, the most delicious and magical of bakeries. we couldn't decide what to get so we got everything.
san francisco!!! i love thee!! there is never enough time to see everyone or do everything that i want. but there is always time for blue bottle, the most magnificent coffee in san francisco. i have been obsessing over my vacuum pot since my first visit to blue bottle, where they brew each cup of coffee via siphon bar. if you are interested read on here. look at jess, tasting!

dresses. dresses! dresses!!!

it was a perfect day.
you will have to wait for the wedding to see the dress. here is a teaser.
i was driving back before i was ready. it stormed intermittently the entire way back.

and then i was back home. back to todd and our mountain lifestyle.

is there a ghost in my house

2008-03-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

it was windy and crazy up on the mountain on our day off. No lifts open at main lodge, only the park chairs and bunny slope chairs were running. After tiring of the mini park, we decided to hike out to the hot creek.
it should be noted that i am wholeheartedly embracing my inner snow bro.
mammoth, if you didn't know, is an active volcano. the mountain that we ski and snowboard and work on. neat right? when it errupted 110,000 years ago, it was one of the biggest erruptions in the history of earth. they found ash in nebraska from the erruption! there is so much geothermal activity happening all over this area, including all these amazing hot springs. the biggest one in the area is hot creek, which is heated by magma that is flowing 3 miles under the surface.
no one was out there. just us. usually you can drive right up to the main pools, but there is still so much snow that the road is closed. awesome.
you aren't supposed to swim in the creek right now, as it is changing, almost before your eyes. huge geysers of boiling water suddenly shoot out of the middle of the pool.

even though we have been here a month, mammoth is still absolutely breathtaking. not just because of the altitude. ha ha.

i waded out into the creek, total rule breaker.
the next day it snowed.i feel so content, first time in years and years. remember, you can come visit at any time.

stay with me, go places

2008-03-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

i want to move into this house.

i'll build a solar powered greenhouse, grow organic produce. bake muffins. roast coffee. blow people's minds with my hippie cooking skills. todd can build a mini ramp in the barn that we would have. live a simple life.

i am pretty sure that my brother was baptized at this church. it is all boarded up now. he is getting married this summer. life is magical. i am learning that i just have to pay attention.

in heaven there is no heat

2008-03-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

spring is here. it has been 50 degrees out, total t-shirt weather at work. trees, grass, flowers are even showing up.

I feel like the grass and the pine trees outside; I can feel the last two years begin to crack and melt.
I have been taking long walks after work, just enjoying what it looks like outside. i don't have anywhere i have to be. i don't have anywhere i would rather be.

by the way, this is where we work.

not bad, right?? during our daily jacuzzis, todd and i laugh about how amazingly lucky we are to live here, even just temporarily.
this is the gondola i take to work.

oh! look who is working?!!

radical!!!!!!

happy easter everyone!

new mammoth lifestyle

2008-03-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

living in mammoth for a few months was the best idea. not only are we getting in touch with our inner snow bros, we get to make fires every night, take hot tubs, enjoy the magical mountain scenery, shovel the skatepark, and take snow walks. that and when we get home from work, we have absolutely no responsibility at all. being that we are both very industrious, we have had to try not to get promoted, as this time in mammoth is to learn how to enjoy life outside of work rather than make an extra 30 cents. work on the mountain is easy and fun. say hello to people, make sure they don't fall off the chair lifts, make sure they get in the gondola. plus we get ski breaks. and i get to ride the gondola to work in the morning.

friendship train

2008-03-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

thanks again friends, we miss you.

hello, goodbye

2008-03-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

january 1 2008 we decided that i (we decided collectively because i am weak in the face of breaking commitments, no matter how toxic they may be) would leave my job no matter the consequences.

so we quit. we moved. goodbye santa cruz.

because we are amazingly lucky people, everyone came to our(my rescue). todd's dad let us live rent free while we figured out direction. shaena orchestrated a trip to tahoe so that we could say goodbye to best friends and families. oldest friends of our lives invited us in to re-connect even though the toxic life we (i) had lived pushed too much time between us. tyler and jess made room and we became roommates.

mom and dad allowed us to move into their house in mammoth for as long as we needed.

what happens when you make a decision to re-acquaint yourself with being a human being? that is what todd and i plan to find out.