Now the heat...

So it is hot now, really hot, the last three days in the 110s. And we hear that it is hot in even San Francisco... so I don't feel so bad I guess. It is hard to do anything during the day, and the last two evenings it hasn't even cooled off less than high 80s at night. At least for the last 3 days. It seems tonight that it will be cooler. I took this photo of Kiki staring at a deer in the window a few days ago, just thought I'd put it in here.

Three other girls and I went to the most beautiful waterhole spot yesterday, the local's call it Hippie Hole or Skinny Dipper Hole, because it is such an awesome spot. It is at the end of Alder Point, and the Eel River is ultra swimmable here. We had the wide stretch of cool, still river to ourselves most of the day and were having great fun jumping off the perfect diving rock. I got a pretty bad, all-over sunburn, but it was worth it. In the evening back at Heartwood, there was an afro beat drum band that we all danced to, and then from 10 til 2, a trance dance party at a house here.

Michaël is at an Energy Healing seminar in Utah, put on by a shaman who has studied extensively in the tradition of shamans in South America. He will attend 7 of these over the next 2 to 3 years. It is strange to be here by myself, but interesting too. Makes me think alot about the reasons I came here and what I am here to do.

The blessing of cool weather...

I have personally felt so much gratitude that the weather here has continued to be on the cool side. I went for a swim in the big pool, and just as I was getting in Michaël finished a free deep tissue massage with a student and got in the water too. He had to go to work, but I ended up doing 90 minutes of laps which was wonderful exercise. If any of you come to visit, it is a swimsuit optional pool, so don't be surprised, but feel free to either suit up or strip down. I have this handy snap front dress that makes it really easy to get in and out. Then a short walk away is the sauna and hot tub. Really nice.

Here is also a photo of Michaël and I one of the first days we got here. It has been nice to be one of the couples here. There are not too many, about 3 or 4. One is this totally cute lesbian couple named Morningstar and Romeo. Honestly very cute and loving, it makes everyone happy to be around them. The other couple that I know about is with one of my co-workers Elizabeth and her boyfriend Said. Right now I am off to get a free Polarity Session from one of the studens - YAY! that should put a nice finish on the weekend!

Humboldt Festival

Michaël and I went to the 30th Annual Summer Art and Music festival on Sunday along with many other employees and students of the school. Heartwood always has a booth where folks can have low cost sample massages, and it was always full when we saw it. Michaël has a lot of friends in the area so it was an opportunity to reconnect with them now that he has taken a job here. Here are some photos of him when he was in his element as ground support coordinator for the famous Luna Treesit in 98 and 99.

At the festival we saw a musical artist that Mich has seen before named Scott Huckabay, who did an amazing solo performance in his style of aptly named "acoustic trance".


Then he introduced me to the renowned activist, musician Darryl Cherney, whose sardonic political lyrics I have come to respect.

Often during the day people would recognize Michaël and sneak up on him to surprise him. It was comical to see it happen over and over again with different people getting him into their sights for an ambush. He is somewhat well-known, (as forest name: 'Rising Ground') to people involved in environmental activism in the area and in the EarthFirst! Movement. It was good to see him have such community up here.

The festival was right on the Eel river, and we went out there to eat our lunch and then walked in to cool our feet off. The food was good, the music better, and we just enjoyed people watching and being 'off the mountain' for a day.

The cabin, the class, the trade...

This is a clearer photo of the cozy cabin they assigned me-The Boat House. I have been on a rampage to pull out some of the non-native grasses around the place and get the garden looking tended again. I uncovered maybe 15 blue iris plants and some roses, poppies, rosemary and other nice plants that were gasping for light. There is a farm down the hill where lots of the organic food is grown for the kitchen, and one of the guys there said he would bring me some lavender and other nice things to plant, since I was taking an interest. I've filled up 5 large garden bags full of tall grasses and trimmings, and now it's looking pretty manageable.


Here is one of Kiki settled into her cat tree. She has adjusted well. I have begun to let her out nearly every day to sniff around and make friends with the territorial neighbor cat "Weegie", who yowls at her threateningly, but doesn't seem to want to do anything else. She walks along sniffing this and that as I work in the garden. I had a window open and Michaël said that a little lizard crawled across his chest when he was checking his email in my cabin. Kiki actually caught it for a moment, but he was able to get it safely out the window where it came from.

Michaël is working part time at the school and in his off time is writing (prolificly) on a creative project. It is a cathartic work and I am happy that he is able to make good progress while working here. Being here is a good exercise for both of us for different reasons. As for me I still have all the reasons I had before, keep doing good work for my clients, get out of debt and save money again... painting.

I went to the BodyMInd Class on Wednesday and liked the teacher's approach. Amy Glovin graduated from Heartwood back in, I think she said 87... so she has been living, practicing and teaching this work for a while. The first class was an overview, breathing exercises to get you in touch with your body, and checking in with your impressions of where you may 'feel' your awareness going when certain words are spoken. One thing for instance, was that when I heard the word 'anger', I felt an awareness of that in my face of all places. 'Love' was in my hands and forearms, and 'space' I felt deep in the area of my solar plexus. There were dozens of words to track throughout the body. It was eyeopening. The book I was assigned is BodyMind by Ken Dychtwald and it goes through the idea of your body being intricately connected to your mind.

Two days later I did a swap for some computer training with the founder of the school, Bruce Burger. He did a 'Polarity Energy Healing' session with me. It is meant to be a transformational session where you are able to unlock certain patterns (left over from life traumas) that no longer serve you. Definitely some 'stuff' did come up, and I do think it did some moving around of old emotion. Time will tell if I see any big changes with the way I react to things or approach life. Very interesting work. This may be something that would interest me to learn if I stay here long enough to earn the free courses (1 week of classes is available for every quarter worked).

Kinetic Sculpture Race

Last weekend was a big Humboldt happening where hand-made mobile sculpture vehicles competed in a race from Arcata to a town called Ferndale. They had to be human-powered, and had to be able to be race-able on land, sand, and in water.
I was going to go, and even got other people organized to take the ride into Eureka, (where we'd identified the most fun segment), but then in a fit of 'not feeling like it', decided in the morning not to.

Special thanks go to my office mate Jamie who was very strong that I should honor my desire about it.

One thing I was clear on, I desired not to spend a total of 5

hours in a car on that beautiful Saturday.

I did however give my camera to one of my new friends, Scott, who took the photos you see here. They had a great time in town, and I heard something about an 18 dollar sundae. My thing was just that it was a gorgeous day, I had some work to do, and I wasn't feeling particularly social. It sounded fun, but just not the thing I needed for that day.

To be honest I was also remembering that whenever I have not been the driver, (so far this has tested 100%), I get very carsick on one of the windy roads. Road 4, Joan 0.

Kind of BurningMan-sort-of-art-vehicles, Humboldt style. My friends said they had fun, but by the time I saw them again at 9 or so, they looked beat.

That night there was live blues-reggae-funk music being played in the lodge. The music was very good and everyone was dancing, so I did that in the evening, dancing until 11 or so. A bunch of people went in the pool after that to cool off, and I'll bet that was refreshing - brrrrrr When I went to visit Michaël, he was still diligently writing away.

Body Mind Class

I have just begun my first class here, a class called Body Mind. It is a 10 week course teaching the connection between body and mind to holistic massage and asian healing arts students. Because I am staff now here at the school, we are able to participate in classes in the afternoon which are not the core of the full time student curriculum. Some interesting stuff though.

I will be talking about this more, but essentially the class will be having each student look at their own emotional traumas, how their bodies have been dealing, and ways to release stored emotion.

On Friday I am trading some web development training to the founder of the school whose work I really admire. It is called Polarity Energy work, and he will give me a session on Friday. I can't wait, should be interesting. I was told to come with a really big 'intention'.

Two weeks in...

Two weeks, two days. It feels like much longer, perhaps because everything is new, perhaps just because time passes a little slower here.

I was given a great little cabin called the 'boat house', it is probably because of all the wood panelling making it look like the inside of a boat. There are lots of built-in shelves, a sink and a large armoire. The stuff I brought actually fits well enough. Kiki is loving the shelves and the 4 big windows. I also brought her cat tree which she really enjoys, so I'm glad Michaël encouraged me to bring it.

I work in the 'Barn' just the next building across the road, so I am close enough that I have the internet in my room which is ideal. The bathroom and showers are across the street in one of the school classroom buildings. Everything is quite comfortable really.

The people are pretty interesting, each with a story of how they came to either work or attend school here. Some started here as students and made it a larger commitment later on.



We are getting some well needed rain right now, so the green color will stay a bit longer. Last week everything was hot and drying out fast. We were all eyeing the pool. They uncovered it and got it ready though, so when the rain stops at least we can swim when it's hot.

The past two months have been so much change in a short time. I have just barely weathered it I think, and am ready to heal a little from it and slow my mind down just a bit. The job is going well and I do like the people here.