Weekend Out

Went hiking this weekend, which I desperately needed. Got a great walk in on Sat, then camped over in Big Basin and came back here in time for a relaxing afternoon of catching up on AVEN stuff. I went to the E bay for a concert at Karuna's house, some amazing artist who sang Hindi songs all night, then came back in time to record a podcast for my brother.

Great weekend, but not too much of a dent in the broader things I'm up to. Hopefully this week...

Heavy Lifting

That's right:

• Gave blood
  
• Got groceries
  
• Moved my friends' couch through a goddamn labarynth of stairways on the side of a hill
• Made pizza from scarth
• Made 2 loaves of bread for tomorrow's hike
• Wrote Winch
  

Bright Colors!

Yesterday:

• Lunch w/ Ellen
• Went to visit Ruby and Sam, saw their new apt for the first time
• The cabin this weekend is no go! Did some frantic but fruitless research on an alternative w/ Aliza
  
• Wrote an article for the GGAG website
• Was stressed out, anxious and therefore self-centered all day for no reason
  

The Zan

I probably shouldn't talk too much about work. Suffice it to say that something big (beta) ended very well today and otherwise I failed to get done quite as much stuff as I would like to.

After work my friend Zan came over for dinner. We just reconnected for the first time since 4th grade, and have been clicking with only a few minor bumps. We had a great high energy conversation, she talks very fast and very passionately about green stuff. She has more of a "isn't this all cool!" vibe to her than the "let's get empowered to address the insurmountable environmental and social justice issues facing our society right now" that I'm used to, which gave her a new and useful perspective but which I had to adjust to a little. I wanted to get excited with her without having to worry about whether social justice and some other important baselines in the conversation would get kept in mind, it was a cool exercise.

She updated me about her life, which sounds like it involves a lot of sports. Fantastic. Could use some outdoor/sportsey relationships as a way to unwind and introduce new folks and get a powerful new social skillset. Plus our convo was high energy, very smart, and went for two and a half hours without seriously pausing, so we've established a great baseline for hanging out more. She's about to start working at Google, so time's gonna get scarce for her. Hopefully we can sement some sort of a biweekly-ish tradition right quick, or something else to keep the relationship solid.


Now the constant dilemma-having done NOTHING for AVEN today, do I chill out because it's 11PM and watch the Wire? Just 'cuz it's hear? Maybe I knock one of two things off of some list first and start at 11:30....

The Inspiration

I have a strange love-hate obsession with Craigslist dating, the way that I am obsessed with eating food from taco bell even though it is evil, unhealthy and gross. Taco Bell is OF THE PEOPLE, the day when I can no longer relate to the reasons why people drive 40 minutes just to order a Baja Chalupe is the day when I have rendered myself uselessly our of touch with most people's life experience.

Craigslist dating is to community building what day trading is to running a business. It can get the job done, but it's risky, crass, and not really based on the fundamental forces that create value in the world, IMHO. For that reason I'm really interested in seeing how it works and why people do it.

The best way to figure that out seems to be experimentation, so I'm trying to put things out there and understand better how relationships actually come out of what happens there. If I can further flesh out my community in the process then bonus, but I don't think that there are gaping holes to fill right now (cuddling would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath for this to be the mechanism that makes that happen.)

In this spirit of experimentation I got all inspired to write a craigslist posting yesterday, which made me realize how fun it is to just account for the stuff I do. Here it is:

There’s a lot you can tell about someone by how they spend their time. Here’s my week so far:

Sat- Woke up at 5AM to take on a pundit on Fox News radio, totally got him to agree with my frame on the whole Elliot Spitzer thing. Celebrated with a 4 hour hike, then went to the bday party of a friend who I haven’t seen since 4^th grade. We caught up by randomly throwing out years in our lives and saying what happened in them.

Sun-Swing dancing in the park! Dropped off $200 that I’d fundraised earlier that week, grabbed pizza from Arezmendi and finished a book I was reading on oil politics. Met up w/ an accountant friend of mine to do my taxes, then made a tomato, feta, basil and tofu salad for dinner*. Played around with some new blog software and wrote a postcard to my friend who is doing biological research at some game preserve in South Africa. Flip out over how much the basil on my windowsill has grown.

Mon- Rollerblade to work. I’m trying to get all of my friends who work in the Chinatown area to have lunch together by figuring out the holes in their respective circles of friends and doing some platonic matchmaking. I’m having reasonable success. Rollerblade home and make another tomato salad (ever had one food you’re OBSESSED with for like a week?) and meet w/ folks about affordable housing initiatives currently underway in the city. You heard what’s up with 98 on the June ballot? Nuts. At the meeting my friend brings me some flowers for no reason, super sweet. I walk her home and her and her boyfriend and I all cook together and joke around while they pressure me to post an ad on craigslist. I go home, make chocolate chip cookies from scratch** and go to bed.

Tues- Take cookies to work! Work on some software which will (fingers crossed) get a few thousand folks to volunteer next year. Meet with a friend for coffee to joke around and nerd out about ways to be creative/create social change and have it feed your life without burning you out. She gives me shit because I’m obsessed with community building as the answer to everything, but whatevs. After work meet up w/ some progressive kids to drink Tecate and discuss a voter guide for the June ballot. Get in an intense and interesting discussion w/ this kid who’s pro nuclear power as a solution to climate change (I’m not). Get home and watch Arrested Development (amazing show) with my housemates while cracking jokes, eating a burrito, and setting up an online network for queer folks from random parts of the world to get advice and support.

*In the interests of full disclosure- after I ate the salad I was still hungry so I had a hotpocket. I’m from St. Louis, MO so crappy microwaved foods have these strangely grounding food-of-my-heritage feel to them. Totally worth it.

**Chocolate chip cookies are a thing for me, I make them ALL THE TIME. My recipe has evolved pretty substantially over the years, it’s got antioxidants and omega3’s and all kinds of craziness and is incredibly tasty. I keep the dough in the fridge so I can keep making fresh ones throughout the week.

Drop me a line and let me know how your week’s been so far.

The Plan

Most things, 80, 90, 99.9% of the things that I start I do not follow through on. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing, but blog, don't get too comfortable. Take fair warning.

I've realized that I'm a lot happier going to bed at night when I have a sense of accomplishment for the day. For better or worse, my self worth is deeply tied to getting shit done, and if that's the case then self worth for me demands good accounting. So the idea is to log in and write, eloquently or in half a half-conscious sentence, whatever my sorry carcass spent the day dragging to fruition. Here goes.