Welcome to Sebastoblog

I live in Sebastopol (in Sonoma County north of San Francisco).  I like Sebastopol and there are many things I appreciate about living here.  A friend visited recently and I realized we were within 20 minutes of driving to the coast, going to the redwoods or catching a good independent film.  I have lived in Sonoma County for 16 years and 12 of those years have been in Sebastopol.  My sister owns Milk and Honey in downtown Sebastopol, a goddess-themed gift shop for women.  I worked there part-time for over a year.   It is a “very Sebastopol” store.  I know this to be the case because I can’t count how many times people came in and said “My sister/cousin/friend I reconnected with on Facebook is visiting and I just had to bring them to Milk and Honey.  It’s part of the Sebastopol experience.” 

I enjoyed working at Milk and Honey and met some customers who are now close friends.  I had lengthy, meaningful and interesting discussions with folks who came in the shop.  (I alsob have been told I have meaningful, philosophical conversations chatting in line for groceries, so I can’t pin that all on Milk and Honey.)  But there were times people visited the shop that were so Very Sebastopol they pushed me over the edge.  One time when I was waiting to meet a friend a man came in and said he wanted to put together a goddess bag for his beautiful goddess girlfriend’s birthday.  I was innocently looking at birthday cards but for some reason he chose me as a “fellow goddess” from whom he wanted advice.  He showed me several things to assess how goddessy they were, one of them being a pen with a little Lakshmi on the end of it.  What would go better in a goddess room – this kind of candle?  Did this shop have any gift bags with a goddess on them?  Now, I have a Kwan Yin statue of my own at home, and also several pictures and carvings of Sarasvati (Hindu goddess of poetry and the arts).  But at one point, I thought to myself, if he says the word goddess one more time I am going to gouge myself with one of those Lakshmi pens.  

So there are some cultural aspects to this west county community that can be quite humorous.  I thought it was just me.  But about six months ago I posted on Facebook:  “You know you’ve lived in Sebastopol for a long time when you are talking to someone and they start doing tai chi, and you don’t even notice.”  For about a week, everywhere I went people kept telling me how funny that post was.  "And it's so true!" more than one individual exclaimed.  Even some who I thought might be offended, people I would consider Very Sebastopol themselves.   Every few weeks I would post a new “You know you’ve lived in Sebastopol for a while …” update.  At some point people started telling me I should start a blog.  Naturally, many days are quite ordinary.  So I can’t promise every post will be funny.  But it is an intriguing community and not many cities have prompted a bumper sticker that reads:  “Could I get directions to Sebastopol, or do I need to go on a vision quest to get there?”  
Welcome to notes, observations and contemplations from Sebastopol.  

~Cami