Occupy My Pants

Gah. I need to start taking pictures at the hostel of my favorite guests and some of the stuff that goes down here. I also need a computer of my own, so I don't have to do this on the office computer. Someday, these things will happen.

In the mean time: I spent Christmas out at the hostel. I was a little sad to miss the Oakland festivities, but I was afraid I would get overwhelmed while I was there like I did the last time I was down that way. I ended up having a really relaxing four days, went on two long hikes, cleared my head up and then had a blast christmas night with the guests that had come out. I made some new friends and sang songs and played guitar and laughed real hard.  Favorites: A couple from the bay area, she worked on scrap booking and gave me some occupy pins before she left, he asked a lot of questions about Cilantro. I had made their reservation and spoke to him over the phone, and apparently they had been asking for me, and he was really excited to meet me. She told me, "He's been so excited! The whole way up here he was all, 'My friend Ashley...'" I laughed and looked at him, and I said, "Yeah new friend! High Five!". He was stoked. They basically weren't having any of the silent oppression of the common area on Christmas night, and they truly made it a night.

The next day my favorite Texans came out with cobbler and a band shirt, and the ugly mom scarf. I'll come back and post pictures of this scarf as soon as I can, because it is truly something to behold. Really. It's a genius masterpiece of ugly.

Last night we had an arborist staying at the hostel, who happened to be a good friend of a previous landlord of mine, who was also here. This is a fine example of how small my world is getting and how it attacks me at random at my work. Anyways, apparently, you can compete at anything, including Arboristism. No, this is not a real word. I made it up, however, competing as an arborist is in fact a real thing, and this is the stuff I love my job for. How else would I know that you could compete in tree climbing/trimming competitions? Note: This is NOT a lumberjack competition. I mean, damn, just look at this guy:

Is this not honey badger status? I think so.

I have some friends coming up for New Years Eve. I'm hoping rain doesn't dampen our party, I really want to take them all out to the beach for the rise of the New Year.

Redneck Bicyclist

And also, Merry Christmas!

For once, I have had money to spend on Christmas gifts. I paid off my school bill, I bought Christmas gifts, I made a ton of gifts, and frankly, I'm pretty stoked about this whole Christmas thing this year. Though, admittedly, most of my gifts will be sent late, since I got them kind of late, and they still need to be wrapped and packed.

Sad news this week, Warren Hellman, who has put on the amazing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival for the past 10 years, passed away this week. If every billionaire spent his money like that, the world would sound beautiful.

I thought I was a horse person. Turns out no, I am a bicycle person. I have moved far away from the hustle of Oakland, and I am in the woods with no cell phone service, no phone, little contact with the outside world, and yet I can end up making friends with one of the highest level directors of Safe Routes to Schools, because he chose to bring his family here on his two week vacation, instead of to a fancy hotel. His kids are rad, his wife is awesome, and he was fun to talk to and play music with. They were so Portland. I saw the future of my friends right before my eyes. I don't even know how I ended up in this world, except that sitting in a park when I was 24, I said to myself on a whim, after seeing a messenger fixed gear riding type, that THAT was who I wanted to be, who I wanted to hang out with, and how I wanted to get around. And today, here I am.

He also looks like an old sailing instructor I know, who happened to start one of the more successful community bike shops in Portland a decade and more ago, only director guy is significantly shorter than sailing instructor. Also, there must be some Portland specific affliction that causes 40 year old ish men to grow soul patches. I don't get it.

When I was talking to my dad about possibly visiting Texas, he asked why I would want to go there?
"It's full of Rednecks!"
I told him I wanted to go there BECAUSE of the rednecks.
"Well", he huffed. "I don't know why."
"Well because I come from a family of rednecks and I'm more comfortable around them."
He looked at me and said, "You think I'M a redneck?"
I raised my eyebrows at him in the classic "Really?" style.
He goes, "Yeah, I'm a redneck...hehehehe" (really, my dad laughs like that.)
Then we got into talking about bike shops and he told me he wanted to make me a t-shirt.
"Yeah? Of what?" 
"It would say Redneck Bicyclist!" He's a genius.

I told this to my Texan friends later, and they laughed and said it would go over really well. Sincerely. We decided iron on letters on a white t-shirt would be the best way to pull this off.

I'mma get me some.

Also, my amazing grandfather has been haunting me lately. Can't say I mind it, he was pretty awesome, but it's been interesting. And I don't mean haunting like he's flipping switches or doing weird things like he's a ghost, only that he's been on my mind a lot lately, more so than he has been in years, and it happened suddenly, and it started about two weeks ago. I'm not sure what's up with that.

I'm going to go for some hikes in the next few days and see if I can hear what it is I'm straining to hear so hard and settle my mind a bit.

A short synopsis on a five day weekend

Bam.

Update on Occupy Arrest Status: Still under investigation. I have to call back once a week until they decide what to do with me.

Five day break: Awesomeness:

EBBC Winter party made money and had a bunch of attendees and was really fun this year! Yay EBBC!

SF Bike Party was a blast: Space dress was amazing, the ride was great.

Aaron guided partial tour of the city, hilarious.

OCSC Sailing Christmas Party: Weird, in that I saw a bunch of people I used to know, but didn't get to see the people I most wanted to see.

Pelican Inn beer: Delicious. The band was pretty cool, and they let me and another audience member sing Wagon Wheel and then told me to sing another one and then told me to come back and sing with them again sometime.

Fentons: Deliciousness.

Sunday sleep in, very nice. Picked up some much needed crafty things at the Depot, and then Picked up my own christmas tree makings at the  christmas tree place, and then watched braveheart on projector screen.

Monday family shopping trip, also hilarious.

I haven't laughed as much as I did this weekend in a while.