Destiny and yoga partners await

Infusions.  Late afternoon.  I am enjoying some lime ginger tea and waiting for a call from my mechanic.  I have forgotten my book and am skimming a local magazine which is not holding my attention.  Since I am truly not that interested in over-priced wine tours.
The woman to the right of me is looking through a card deck.  She shuffles the cards several times, sighing dramatically.  She does this loudly.  (In case you are wondering if she was shuffling loudly or sighing loudly, the answer would be both.)  Several times it appeared she was going to draw a card, but then she would exhale sounding rather exasperated.
My curiosity eventually won out.  I asked her a question about the deck.
She showed it me.  "I was at a yoga class," her story began.  (Of course.)  "This guy who I've seen before but never spoken to until today asked me for my number.  I am drawing a card to see if I should go out with him."
Her telling me this seemed to diffuse the sighing.  She showed me a few cards from the deck; it was one I was familiar with.  The cards range from positive to flaming positive.
She drew the card Blessings.  "That is a pretty positive card," she observed.
"Well, if you want to shake things up a bit you could draw a card from a deck that is a bit more diverse," I interjected.  I was half-joking.  But she looked at me and thought for a few seconds, and then reached into her large purple bag.  Another deck came out.
"That's a good point."  She showed me the new deck and noted that there were cards that were positive, some that weren't necessarily favorable and some neutral ones.  She was, indeed, going out on a bit more of a limb this time.
"Are you interested in this guy?" I asked.
She stared at the cards before her.  "I'm not sure.  But I want to see what the cards say."
Another card was chosen, and this one had optimistic sentiment.  She did not quite seem convinced, though.  Asking for her tea to go, she told me she was going to have to go home and research how Cancers and Aquarians get along.
So drawing a card was only the first act.  Astrologically favorable or not was part two.  And then there was another phase, that had something to do with a gong.
Evidently the gentleman from the yoga class was waiting for her reply.  After her research was done she was supposed to let him know via email whether he could have her phone number.  
"Does he know you are drawing cards and figuring out your astrological compatibility?"
"Yes.  I told him that."
"And he was okay with all this?"
She nodded.  "Oh, yes.  He said to go draw a card."
Well, then.  A match made in heaven.  Or at least in west county.


Favorite Facebook comments of the week:

L:   ...there could be an entire blog dedicated to the kids of Sebastopol.

D:   Absolutely!  And their sense of "fashion!"

L:   Yes!  Jim has named it "Sebastopolian dynamite!"

Sebastopol snippets

A 7th grader to his friend:  "That is not a push-up.  That is a really sad downward-facing dog."

Customer, peering at a cracked glass door in the Whole Foods refrigerated section:  "Did someone go postal because they were out of almond milk or something?"

Regarding a young child:
"Does she need to fall asleep and take a nap?"
"I'm not attached to it one way or another."
"Is that because you are Buddhist and you don't believe in attachment?"

"People here cancel on you at the last minute for the strangest reasons.  I'm not talking about being flaky.  Flaky people are everywhere.  I'm talking about why they cancel - like 'I can't meet you, I'm having an emergency session with my astrologist.'"

"Massage!  Reiki!  My chakras!"
"What is this, Sebastopol Tourette's?"
"Aromatherapy!"

And from me:
"You cannot get into my blog by mocking things!"


Status update of the week provided by Daniela:
"Will people judge me for playing Candy Crush at Whole Foods whilst eating Ceres Project food?"*




* (Ceres Project prepares healthy and nutritious food for people with serious illness.)









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Year of the Horse/Day of the Dragon

Because I can't believe how many blogs start out with me being in or around Whole Foods, I was glad to be approached by a tall, lanky dude in front of the Barlow's Community Market.  I don't know if he was a Sebastopol Dude or Du-uu-uude but based on his attire and the mix of surfer and hippie energy he emanated I would guess he was the latter.
He had on a t-shirt with varying iridescent shades of light emanating from spiral shells.  The tinted hues were so bright it seemed to hypnotically radiate the colors of the rainbow.  I also noticed a black bracelet with a Chinese symbol and a horse.
I thought he was going to put something in the recycling bin I was standing in front of, but instead he stopped and said, "Hey, you are the blogger."
I'm still not quite sure how to respond when people I don't know say this to me.  But yes, I nodded, I was "the blogger."  It turned out he was the friend of a friend who had told him about my blog and he had seen my friend and I (at Whole Foods of course). 
He was smoking a cigarette and holding a cup of coffee while also starting to spin three small hoops on his left arm.  He began telling me how he had moved here from Capitola and the things he liked about Sebastopol, but I was more mesmerized by his ability to multi-task these three different activities.
I asked about the bracelet.  "Is that for Chinese New Year?"
He held it up for me to see.  "Yes.  We just began year of the horse."
Since I live in west county and have not been in a coma the past two weeks I was aware of this.  But I was curious.  "So, do you just wear this bracelet every twelve years when it is the year of the horse?"
Snapping it off, he showed me that you could change the animal.  "I have eleven other animals somewhere.  Ten actually, the boar disappeared kind of mysteriously.  That's another story."
Of course, I had to ask about the story of the lost boar.
He laughed.  "I'm not sure I want to end up in your blog."
I guaranteed him his t-shirt alone could probably generate an entire blog post.  (With his permission, I would not mind having him be a blog guest.)
"Okay then.  I think I'd like to go by something different in the blog.  My blog name could be like Dragon or Cactus."
"Whatever you decide," I assured him.
He returned to inhaling his cigarette while holding his coffee and spinning the hoops again, while telling me the differences between Sebastopol and Capitola.  I did not know some of the references he made to Capitola since I have not been there for a long time, but I did gather that he digs frequently seeing a man on a unicycle here in town.  I pictured my new acquaintance riding one through the plaza while twirling his hoops and simultaneously drinking a cup of coffee.
After a few minutes a woman with long flowing robes walked up to him.  They gave each other a semi-epic hug.  He introduced me as the local blogger, her as a "healer in the woods."
"And for the moment," he mentioned turning to his friend, "can you just refer to me as Dragon?"

Favorite line of the week (man coming out of the Dhyana Center):
"I don't know why but every time I do a sauna sweat and a steam, I always crave a Big Mac."


 
   

Epic hugs

A comment from the last post, too funny not to share (from my friend Gina):

A SNAG will often (but not always) have a ponytail.  He will take a long, deep, audible breath before answering any question.  His ability to hold prolonged eye contact is unnerving.  His hugs are epic. When dating he doesn't pay because he doesn't want to appear patriarchal, a move which only works on a SNAW (spiritual new age womyn), and is seen by others as simply cheap.  This is just off the top of my head, based on my own experience, and I, in no way, represent Sebastoblog or the beliefs of its founder, Cami. :)

I was able to track down Troy (San Fernando Valley visitor) which was no small feat considering he was the friend of a roommate's friend of an ex-co-worker.  Based on some questions asked by several readers, I wanted to know how his week in Sebastopol went.  And if he was able to become Sebastopol Guy.
The day before he left he cordially met with me to describe his week in Sebastopol and how it went trying to fit in.  He told me he met a "true SNAG" and that while he thoroughly enjoyed talking to this guy, he realized he could never be one.  "For one thing, I think my girlfriend would at the very least mock me and might even smack me if I kept calling her 'goddess.'  Although this guy could pull it off.  Not me however."
Troy had half of a Kombucha but did not particularly care for it, but liked an organic ale he tried. Kombucha, in his words, was "way too healthy without the buzz you get from a good beer.  And it tasted too much like fizzling dirt."
He very much enjoyed his stay in west county.  He told me about several hikes he took and a nice warm day at the coast before the rain began.  And he spent a few evenings at HopMonk.  He did not go to any yoga classes but was tempted to carry around a yoga mat because he saw so many people doing it.  He decided against it as he did not want to appear to be a fraud.  "I have to admit that it inspired me to find a yoga class once I get back home."
(Well, we all know this is the effect of the vortex.)
The only drink with green tea he tried was at Starbucks.  "It wasn't bad, a green tea latte of some kind.  But it has so much sweetener I'm not sure how 'good for you' it was.  'Have a teaspoon of green tea with tablespoons of sugar and milk...'  Not the healthiest drink I've come across."
I asked if he found out what his rising sign was.  "I did."  He smiled.  "I also found out that you don't say 'my rising sign is Virgo.'  You say:  'I'm a virgo rising.'  And I found out more about the year of the horse than I ever thought I would know!"
"Do you know what year just ended?"
He nodded.  "Year of the snake."
"Ah, bonus points," I responded.
"And this woman divulged to me why, as a Libra, this year of the horse would be good for me.  I would recap but she lost me about sixty seconds into her explanation."
Troy ventured into Whole Foods several times.  There is a Whole Foods in the town he is from so this wasn't too out of the ordinary.  "But one thing that is different is all the hugging here.  My friend just kept going from person to person hugging them.  Then an entire group of people from some class she took, hugs all around.  I don't know, hugs like that just doesn't happen where I'm from.  Quite the phenomena.  I don't quite know how to describe it."
"I think 'epic' is the word you might be looking for."


Favorite line of the week:
"It's hard to describe his look.  He kind of dresses like a yoga nerd."




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