- 24 aprilvisited cloudforest today
a solar powered house in the forest covered santa cruz mountainstravelled with ryan driving hunched over, amy said like a buzzard, i thought like some kind of driving consciousness leaned forward into the world
krusty was the uber-outdoorsman
seeing as we were near rope-swings and tree houses and plant gardens and chicken coopy structures and abandoned houses to explore and acres of forest largely untouched
i saw him sitting reading a book about linux system crashes in a chair between the TV/dvd and the computerwith ellen and egg
they're like my sisters almost
fun and comforatble to be around them
conversation never stops
i noticed at one point the east bay contingent out back near the food arguing loudly
the cloudforest cadre in front on couches smoking handrolls and quieter taking turns talking
amy and i got excited in the forestdan was there
after some moments of contemplating silence
and the distant sounds of agro arguing over BBQ
we rubbed each other until we remembered the proliferation of poison oak
what a bummer it would be to have poison oak penis-
painfully itchy and swollen genetalia
so we stopped, paused.
hah!
my freshman year roommate now californian deeper than i
or just in one direction:
he says, i don't eat mammals
(used to admire Mickey D's)
except then he remembered he'd eaten bacon this morn
and, he's a gardener on an old japanese estate garden, many acres of careful pruning and learning - he's like deep into some meditative shit.
we were comparing work environments. I have a 20 inch monitor, two pcs running linux and a little windows underneath
amy's mac, and a tv/vcr over there to have sometimes some company
christmas tree lights,
lots of faces - gk, monkeyboy, family, renfaire, link different, paintingsla la la
rob visited,
phil was there, a smiling fellow with a pleasant disposition that wins him good reviews from strangers
he lives with dan who lives with nadine,
where dom used to live
it's like a swarthmore-california reeducation facility.
there's a very whelming and actually moving physical quietude to mountainous forest beyond the pale of cut trails and power lines, parking lots and mountain bikes. it's a stillness that makes me think i should someday venture into it to live and just finally find myself listening to the world slowly as opposed to straining to hear it so fast
krusty complained about the isolation, he raised the point of distance to hospitals several times, especially with regard to my swinging.i don't care for culture in a way that i don't think i would find more than enough sitting by a lightsource with a new friend delving into a million and two worlds. but that's romance.
and actually living in the forest is today a vacation, not the work required. living in this house in oakland is like the beginning of a warm up to learning about how i might someday maintain more of my own environment. ie, deal with my shit a little more off the grid. still, i'd wanna have bandwidth out there.
soon i leave for copenhagen, that's exciting. getting ready to go i actually have to get all sorts of shit together and i remember than travel can be helpful in that it makes you relish your parting all the more. you get juicy for love and you clean your desk and you pay bills. my new aspiration:
leave town carefully packed with a full nights sleep beforehand, instead of the usual jet-lag aggrevating all-night netjam and general panic preceeding a harried departure.
i've been gardening a bit - every day i go out and putter around.
i think i sat in some poison oak - my butt itches. there was a rope swing where you could climb a platform and jump off and freefall into a serious swing up over a valley of mist and trees growing up from undulating craters and i scampered back and forth from the landing to the descendingpoint - i loved it but hanging and jumping around i did rip some holes in my hands, first they were pussing blisters and now they are darn ripped open bleeding sores from rope wear.
pair of unrelated hands
belonging to dr. robert e. markison
photo: amy
i like the idea of going to an internet conference with some bloody blistered hands. and a few thorns and scrapes from gardening. gives me something to look at during the uncomfortable silences that come when one is displaced, the contemplative moments because you really don't have anywhere to go actually.
thanks ryan
but it's nice - jonathan may loan me his old ibm laptop and i'll write a little bit of what i would write if i could ever successfully leave my community and the wonderful projects behind. i'll bring books and i may live in an apartment in copenhagen for 10 days (nicer like home, a kitchen, but no room service). so maybe i'll have parties. or maybe i'll clean the apartment i rent. what does one do during a temporary solo quasi-domestic haitus? i wish amy could come - too much work for her to finish school.
- 22 april - short, vague
- 18 april - juicy and revelatory, i'm sure.
justin hall | <justin at bud dot com>