WCOUNTY vibes

I was by the Cookie Company and heard a woman say to her friend, "Let's go get some cookies and sit outside and listen to this wacky guy playing the ukulele.  Oh, look, people are even giving him money.  I love this town!"  I also saw a flier for a room rental, which apologized at the end of it:  "I'm sorry, I know this is Sebastopol.  But I am not a healthy eater, not vegetarian and I have a free pass to a yoga studio I never use."

And while walking by Rite-Aid a few days later with a group of people, one commented while looking at her phone:
"Hey, the Apple Blossom festival is on the new moon."
Person walking with her:  "I don't think that was planned."
Third person.  "Well, you never know around here." 

A singer who recently performed here was swigging cherry bark syrup during her performance. She joked in between songs this was the Sebastopol version of a Red Bull.

Guy standing by my car while I was loading some groceries, talking to his friend on speakerphone:  "What kind of vibrations are you talking about?  Because look where we are. Festival vibes.  California vibes.  Ocean vibes.  West county vibes...  Just saying 'vibes' doesn't help."

I was at Papas and Pollos with my toddler niece.  We went to sit on a bench and there was a small, thick pillow.  "I want to sit on the meditation pillow," she told me.

Several weeks ago I was running late meeting someone so I called to let her know I'd be there shortly.  She was waiting in the plaza, and texted me back:  "Don't worry, I'm fine.  Just sitting here enjoying the sun and a nice contact high."


License plates cont.:
WCOUNTY
NOTICE
WDSTK 2
LI-10 UP




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Envision your supplements returning

A friend of mine who describes herself as "entirely unspiritual" texted me when she was in Sebastopol recently:  "Love the envision."
Yeah, I thought when I read it, I have no idea what she is talking about.  About a week later I was in my car and noticed white and blue streamers spelling out the word 'envision' on a fence right before I got into town.
Oh, that envision.

At the park with my niece, I seated myself on a bench next to a woman watching several young children.  She told me they had been in a coffeehouse on Main Street and as she was getting everyone together to leave, she set her phone down with a bottle of supplements.  A few minutes later she realized she didn't have her phone.  Racing back, she was relieved her phone had been turned in.  But the bottle was gone.  She laughed, remarking, "You've got to love a town where someone turns in an expensive phone but swipes a bottle of digestive enzymes."

Wandering around the Farmer's Market, I heard a babysitter say to a young boy: "Well, let's look and see.  If your mom packed snacks it's probably cashews and chard and celery sticks.  If your dad packed it then you probably have cupcakes and gummy bears."
Little boy:  "I want some chard."
Babysitter:  "Seriously... that's your first choice?"  Then she muttered parenthetically, "I don't think I knew what chard was at your age."

Filling my water bottles at Whole Foods I half-noticed a teenager walk up to her mom who was next to me.  She dumped some items in a cart.  Her mom handed some hummus back to her daughter shaking her head.  "What is this garlic-basil-cilantro-parsley-pesto-pine nut stuff, probably with kale in it?  She won't eat that.  Just plain hummus, or better yet maybe some artichoke dip."
(And yes, I had to ask her to repeat her descriptive diatribe for me.  It was actually just pesto hummus.)

And also at Whole Foods:  "I think we need to get the right wine.  I mean, we are serving a bunch of liberals tonight."


More license plates:
U BECOME
H20 FALL
N HRMONY
C BRZES

West county highs

Favorite comment from the last blog (regarding Sebastopol landlords):
"I love the ads that say no pets, alcohol, illegal drugs or cigarette smoking.  Horses OK.  4/20 friendly.  Good, because my horses love to get high."

I was speaking to an acquaintance visiting for the weekend who was shopping for her nephew's graduation.  She liked the downtown shops but hadn't been able to find anything for him.  She looked around and sighed, "The divine feminine has kind of taken over this town, hasn't it?"

A month or so ago there was a woman stalker at Hop Monk who was asked to leave and ended up "peeling out" of Sebastopol (in a Prius) with a cop chasing her, resulting in an accident.  There were some funny comments on the webpage for the Press Democrat article:
"Don't bars usually have bouncers to throw out unwanted guests, you had to call the police to have this lady thrown out?"
"It's Sebastopol. They don't have bouncers they have people that ask you nicely to leave and offer patchouli oil as a parting gift. Haha"
"They offer patchouli oil and a zen buddhist mantra."

My friend and I met recently at a café for dinner.  She was laughing at the Himalayan salt on the table, observing:  "I know in Sebastopol this is really normal.  In other places people would be like, what the hell is this pink salt?"

Some more "west county" names from a first grade classroom in Sebastopol:  Quest, Juniper, Sequoia, Kairan, Kovanni, Mystic, Orion, Aurora, Jenner and Iris.  (I remember someone telling me, "In other parts of the country somebody is named Iris or Rose after their grandmother.  Around here it is after the flowers.")  I also heard from someone who grew up in this area that when she was younger, she had neighbors who named their twins Daydream and Deja Vu.

Quintessential Sebastopol bumper sticker:
This is what a goddess looks like 


Latest license plate sightings:
SOLRNOW
ZINOMA
{hand}2 BODHI
YOGA HI
HIGH 5

In full disclosure, I was not quite in Sebastopol, more like Sebasto-Rosa.  But a car owner after my own heart:
OVR IT





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Klm down and have some warm (hemp) milk

A local Facebook post:
Sebastospeak:  this morning at drop-off, I asked another mom how she was... her reply: 'Grounded.'
(And I like "Sebasto-speak.")

The same friend from the above post told me her young daughter relayed a story to her that began: "This morning when I was 'om'ing'..."
She added, "I don't know where she was taught that, she didn't learn that from me!"

A pre-schooler to her play mates by the sandbox at Ives Park:  "Don't come over here, you are going to step on my kale garden!"

A friend passed this on to me and it made me laugh:
Diva: $1000 Sonoma County Landlords @!(sebastopol)
"I have noticed that properties for rent in Sonoma County are so pet 'unfriendly', more so than other counties in the Bay Area. Why, with all of the open space these properties are sitting on, are pets not allowed?? These ads describe these 'jewel-like' settings, lots of land, we are peace-loving landlords, blah, blah, blah... Yet, they do not allow animals?? It is a given that all landlords are greedy, apparently they are soulless and void of any trace of humanity as well. Don't post how idyllic and peaceful and peace-loving you are, then write, NO PETS!! Just write what you mean: I am a greedy, money-hungry, cold-hearted waste of space, seeking the perfect, pet-free human being to occupy my janky shack for significantly more than it's worth . oh, and by the way: namaste, have a beautiful day."

A body worker who works with a group of holistic practitioners told me an email came to their office:  "I just moved here and am looking for a new massage therapist.  Do you have one there who is not into energy healing, who won't make me draw an angel card or talk to me about astrology or what colors I should be wearing more of to attract different energy, or that I should stop drinking espresso and try green tea, etc.?  Or do I have to go to another town?"


License plates around town:
KLM DOWN
CRZY LUN
GREYWLF

4 HEMP

  --which reminded me of talking to an older gentleman who owned a coffee cart that he would take to music festivals around the north bay.  On a particularly hot afternoon during the Sebastopol Celtic Fair my date and I were attempting to cool off in the shade next to his cart.  He told us there was a group of hipsters who were upset with him that he didn't have more non-dairy options for a chai latte.  He did offer almond, soy and rice milk.  I asked him what they had wanted, and he answered, "Hemp.  They really wanted hemp milk.  Never-satisfied hipsters."
The guy I was with replied, "Hempsters."




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The land of interesting names

While I was waiting for a chai, I overheard a gentleman to his friend (I don't know what the topic was):  "Well, it depends on which dimension you are in.  If you go into another dimension, it could play out very differently."

I was clearing some things out of the back of my car, most of them recycling items.  I asked my friend's daughter, who is six, if she could hand me a soft drink bottle.  "This is a pro-biotic drink," she corrected me.
"Yes," I said as she put it in my bag.
"Soda is not good for you," she added in an admonishing tone.

At the library I ran into the "Q is for Quan Yin" girl.  I asked her how she knew about Quan Yin, given that she is quite young and looked like neither a Sebastopol hippie darling nor a Waldorf child.  She informed me, "I just know."  Her mother overheard me talking to her and sat down next to us.
"Well, she did not 'get' Quan Yin from me.  And she definitely did not get that from my husband."
I asked if they had ever been to Milk and Honey.  The mom had, but she wasn't sure about her daughter.
A few minutes later the young girl murmured, "Jade."
"Of course!" her mom exclaimed.  Turning to me, she said a bit quietly, "I forgot about her babysitter from a while back.  Very into... counter culture.  When I ran into her a few months ago she had changed her name again, to Dawnlight.  Or something along those lines."

"What is Earth in Upheaval?" someone asked me.
"It's a mechanic place."
"To fix your car?"
I nod.
"What kind of a strange Sebastopol name is that?  It's a place to take your car??"

After the last post (mentioning a dog named Blissful), I got an email that read:
"When I was in college my parents rented out a cottage on our property in rural Sebastopol.  The woman that rented it had three cats.  I can't remember all their names, but two of them were Celestite and Lavender Fire."

In the parking lot at Whole Foods, a teenager in front of me was telling someone on her cell phone, "She is goth, but she is very balanced goth."

A woman I know went to a presentation regarding essential oils at a small store in Sebastopol. After a somewhat lengthy discussion about the positive attributes of essential oils, another woman interrupted the presenter:  "You're in Sebastopol.  We are believers.  You are preaching to the choir."


License plates of the week:
INTUIT
YOGAMOM (thanks Bryan)
MRLIN
SOUL LVL


And a humorous article about New York dudes channeling northern California dudes:
"If You Give a Dude a Kale Chip"
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/give-dude-kale-chip

Sebastopol tidbits

Returning from a walk, I saw someone I knew in the parking lot by the Teen Center.  It looked like a kid-friendly event was coming to an end, lots of parents and children walking to their cars.  I asked her how the event was, and her response:  "It was nice.  There always seems to be a number of Sebastopol feral children running around at something like this.  I don't know where their parents disappear to.  But it was fun."

Another afternoon I was walking by the Teen Center and a woman was asking about a class that was just starting.  Someone else, standing at the door, said to her pointing:  "It's in the room over there.  Just follow all those women with the long, flowy pants."

I was asked if I wanted to buy some Girl Scout cookies one day outside a grocery store.  I shook my head, as I can't have refined sugar or dairy right now.  But I was curious.  "Has anyone asked about gluten-free cookies?" I inquired.
One of the girls smiled and nodded her head.  The scout leader standing behind her started laughing.  "Gluten-free, sugar-free.  Somebody asked if we had organic ones.  I mean really, we are talking about Girl Scout cookies.  There's nothing special about them just because we're in Sebastopol." 

Waiting outside the library for someone, I heard a twenty-something complaining to her friend about texts from her "crazy landlord."  She started to read one and muttered, "It is probably something really important like which aromatherapy candle she ran out of."

Favorite pet name:
Blissful  (a small white dog)

From an email:
"You've got to love driving through Whole Foods at dusk and having a man dressed in tie-dye sweats from head to toe step right in front of your car and walk slowly just at the particular angle where you can't go to the left or right.  Just have to slowly follow him as he walks aimlessly nowhere." 

And my sister and I watch the Oscars last night in a bar.  Right next to a sign that said, "You Are Loved."


Favorite license plates:
IAMAGEM
RX YOGA
B NICER





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Oh Ganesh

I was standing behind a woman at Community Market who was returning a lunar calendar because it did not start in January, it began in July and had special designations for different moon phases. Several of us were joking about how untraditional this calendar was, and one fellow customer observed, "You know it is very unconventional if you can't even get away with selling it in Sebastopol."

In my yoga class I attend the conversation can naturally tend toward healthy living topics.  After a recent class one of the women said to me, "At this other class I used to go to this woman kept talking about - I thought - a 24-hour cheese cycle.  She would bring it up a lot, and I kept thinking 'What in the world is a cheese cycle?'  I didn't know if it was some weird digestion thing she was talking about.  I finally had an acupuncturist mention the body's 24-hour chi cycle and realized that is what she had been referring to.  Which of course made a lot more sense." 

While I was looking for some ginger tablets at Community Market:
Customer:  "Do you have something for stress?"
Worker:  "Yes, a few different supplements."
Customer:  "What about something for persistent cough?"
Worker:  "Yes... {explains several options}."
Customer:  "That's great.  Do you have something that will make my roommate stop talking so much about himself?"

At work I was sharing a story about (years ago) accidentally eating homemade cat food that my vegan roommate had prepared.  It was pretty strange and bland-tasting, and when I found the veggie casserole about an hour later I realized "Oh, that is what she had made for dinner.  What did I eat??"
As a good follow-up Sebastopol inquiry, my co-worker asked, "Was the cat food vegan?"
Good question.  I honestly couldn't remember. 

My friend showed me a key chain she got for her birthday:  What would Ganesh do?  She was explaining to her "rather puritanical" grandmother who Ganesh is, and her grandmother asked, "So this elephant god, do you pray to him?"  She told me, "I wanted to say to her, 'Well, I don't but there are people around here who may.  Or maybe have a Ganesha on their alter.  But I thought that was getting too Sebasto-complicated for her.'"

Another friend was shopping in the produce section at Whole Foods and heard a young girl ask her father what "conventional" means.  His reply: "Poison."


Favorite license plates:
ZEN BIZ
OGANESH