BYOK

At a small shop in the Barlow:
"Check out this very hippie version of Adam and Eve."

Chatting at Community Market, I hear about a dinner group in a small neighborhood.  The woman explains to me, "After doing dinners together twice a month for a while we realized there were three very different types of meals.  We had the hometown grill families.  We had the hummus and veggie plate families.  And then the extreme vegan meals that are usually wheat- and sugar free too.  You know, where you're still hungry after.  We had to design a system depending on who was hosting."  She showed me a group email:
D = desserts will have sugar
M = if you want meat/poultry you have to provide your own
V = if you want vegetarian option, have to provide your own
VP [veggie protein] = protein will be nuts, tahini, tempeh, etc.
NS = do not give children anything with sugar
W = wine only, any fancy health drinks like Kombucha... BYO

At the end of a friend's text:
"We meet every third Wed.  And by meet I mean everyone is so cheap & won't pitch in ten bucks a month, so we meet at Community Market.  Because, ya know, it's Sebastopol."

On top of spaghetti
all covered with ghee
I lost my poor tofu
when somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table
and onto the floor
And then my poor tofu
rolled out the front door.

Somewhere in downtown: 
"I don't need an excuse to go shopping.  I could do it everyday."
"The only thing that will get me shopping is having yoga pants with so many holes I can't wear them any more."

I was tagged in a post by a woman who did a week-long retreat somewhere in the hills of west county:
"Such a lovely vacation.  Really delicious food.  Although it would have been nice to have an option of doing something without it being consciousness-raising or healing or meaningfully life-changing.  Is it ok to do a walk on the property without having to meditate?  Even in town, talking to a cashier about carrots that led to veganism saving the world."

A Sunday school teacher sent me the following:  "We are talking at the end of class about good and evil... kids saying who is good and who is bad.  Evildoers are robbers, thieves, murderers.  I practically fell off the chair laughing when a boy says very seriously, 'The person who built the new CVS.'"


License plates:
JEDI MOM
JOY XX
OH ROCKS
NVR NRML
USED EWE






www.facebook.com/sebastoblog/

Goddess selection

You know you are in west county when someone describes the glow of the fires as orange "like a Himalayan salt lamp."

A friend lives in an area which had a voluntary evacuation and she left for nearly a week with her son.  On the way to Sebastopol she was telling him about the family they were going to stay with.  He was quiet and finally she asked what was bothering him, wondering if he was worried about their house or how long he would be out of school.
"If it's the family I think it is, they aren't going to let us eat any McDonald's or junk food, are they?"

A co-worker, stressed about talking to some people on the phone:  "Ahhhh, these people are going to make me inhale eucalyptus oil!"

As I was leaving Whole Foods, a mom siting on a bench telling her son:  "I really don't appreciate having tempeh thrown at me."

On a thread for mothers:  "My daughter wants to be a YOGA MUMMY for Halloween.  I have no idea why.  Suggestions??"

Code phrase for purchasing alcohol in Sebastopol:  I need to make tinctures.

Two women on a bench at the Farmers Market.  They are conversing about the music.  One remarks, "There must be a schedule of it somewhere."
"I don't know.  That might be way too organized for Sebastopol."

My young niece and I were looking for a parking space on a crowded weekend morning.  I tell her, "We need to ask the parking goddess to help us!  Who should we ask?"  Having spent the first four years of her life at Milk & Honey she is no stranger to the goddess.  She chose Lakshmi.  So we implore her to help us find parking.  After another five minutes of driving around, I slow down thinking someone is leaving but it turns out they were not. 
"Well, this isn't working!" I observe absently.
She says matter-of-factly, "Um, why don't we try Kwan Yin?"
(Right after her suggestion a space opens up.)


License plates:
BB OTTR
OM JJ MA
UNDADOG
ZINALOT



~Slice of Life is offering free meals to evacuees and those affected by the fire~

If you are an evacuee or a first responder please come in for a free meal or you can pay whatever you are able to. We put two thousand dollars on a gift card for those affected. The gift card is at the register for anyone to use no questions asked. If you want to donate you can add money to the gift card. If your not in the area and you want to donate meals/add money to the card over the phone please call between 11-12 or 3-5 to do so. Our community is in our hearts. 💜 -Keith & Chloe

https://www.thesliceoflife.com/

Many thanks to the firefighters, first responders, shelter volunteers and all those who donated time, money or services to help those affected by and fighting the fires!   

Spiritual transport

You've lived in Sebastopol for a long time when you receive a text from someone in an ambulance, and you believe you read they are "in an abundance..."  I was thinking, an abundance of what?

A comment on Sebastoblog's sister column (about consciousness):
Don't forget my personal favorite "Conscious Roommate Wanted."  I can never decide whether that sets the bar too high, or too low!

In Whole Foods:  "We can't bring her pop tarts made with acai berries.  She's never going to go for that!"

Facebook status updates: 
"You know how you know you live in Sebastopol?  Wherever you go it smells like pot and patchouli oil."
"Chillin' on my bench downtown watchin' this old hippie try to light his joint with a magnifying glass.  Only in Sebastopol..."
(Apparently he was successful.)

A text to a local after her brother-in-law visited:  "Land of the hipsters, wine tasters and last stand of the old school hippies."

A friend, having tried to do a voice group text, glanced down frustrated at the mangled names of her co-workers.  "Goddamn Sebastopol and all of these hippie names!"

My co-worker (decidedly un-west county) informed everyone he had reached "a new low" by driving through Sebastopol in a Prius.

"I cannot do math, I just got out of yoga."
"I can't really do math any time."
"I'm fine with math, except right after yoga.  I also can't handle listening to NPR."

I was chatting with a woman while waiting outside a class for my niece.  The conversation turned to local preschools and kindergarten.  She noted at one point, "It's like it becomes a political statement. 'We are Waldorf.  We are not Waldorf.'  Do we really have to figure all that out by the age of three?!"


License plates:
INSPYR U
DUK DWN
RD HAWK
AGL WINGS






www.facebook.com/sebastoblog/

Mere recycling

At Community Market:
"If I hear one more time that Mercury is in retrograde!  I don't want to know.  Tell me when it's OUT of retrograde!"

On Facebook:
"Conscious Ink Manifestation Tattoos feature empowering messages & imagery designed to support you in manifesting your deepest desires!"

A therapist told me about a west county couple who came to see her when she was an intern.  Often the issues between partners are about money or housework or childcare, but this couple caught her off guard when the husband complained, "She just meditates too much.  It's one of the reasons we're here.  It's really become a problem."

"One thing I've learned living here, hippies are not Buddhists.  They have a lot in common but when it comes to bugs and flies, they'll leave their doors open all day and don't care that there are dead flies all over the kitchen.  I tried to explain to [my neighbor] that maybe you shouldn't do something that will end up killing a lot of flies, and he just stared at me, like 'what are you talking about?'  But they don't like it if you bring carrots to a pot luck that aren't organic."

On looking for housing:  "How far does the line go?  You shouldn't be discriminated against for race, religion, etc.  But in Sebastopol you could be discriminated against astrologically.  You could not get housing because you're not the right sign.  'Sorry, can't rent to an Aries.'"

According to a woman I ran into who I knew years ago, it is annoying to have a guy mansplain to you.  However, it is even more annoying to have a guy holy-mansplain.  It's a double whammy, the sexist patronizing coupled with the condescending, "I'm more evolved than thou and therefore must explain to you why you have not evolved as far as I have because you are merely recycling instead of using your own container.  And did I mention how spiritual I am?"

The day after the eclipse I was in a downtown store where a few people were sharing eclipse stories.  A cashier remarked, "Well, it's Sebastopol so it brought a lot of crazies out."
"I don't think you need an eclipse to bring out the crazies around here."


License plates:
WHRLWND
H2O GOD
I GOT THS
MSDMNR

Shout out to Golden Gear Automotive (next to the post office).  Reasonable and good customer service.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/golden-gear-automotive-sebastopol

Intentional and repurposed

The webmaster at Sonoma West Times who sends out a weekly newsletter gets these Sebastopudlian auto responses from people on vacation:
"Autoresponse - off the grid for a bit."
"Away on retreat."

And from a Forestville correspondent:
A few nights ago I got a late night call from a friend who lives a few doors down. For several weeks, she had been living with the knowledge that there was a large black widow spider making itself at home in her guest bathroom. As a Buddhist, she was unwilling to kill it, but she was too scared to play catch and release. Feeling heroic, I donned my elbow length rose-pruning gloves and grabbed a large yogurt container and walked down to her house through the darkness. I could see why she was alarmed. The spider was huge and glistening black and had spun its nice thick web right in the middle of the bathroom. But it was also in a position close to the floor where I figured I could slam the yogurt container down and slide a thick piece of paper underneath. Which I did, but when scooped it up, there was an unfortunate tell-tale smear on the tile.
“I have good news and bad news,” I told her sheepishly. “The good news is I caught the spider. The bad news is I think I killed it.”
“That’s OK,” she said kindly. “It’s all about the intention.”
She noted the spider would probably not agree with that spiritual distinction.

Couple at Retrograde, talking to their young boy about all the music festivals he had been to by the age of two.

From one of my community moles, after reading my very conscious column: 
"I love all the 'repurposed' (that's a new one too) words. 
Trying to stay conscious, despite a lack of sleep. 
Trying to sustain as well."

On a page for a fundraiser:
"Could somebody please drop off reusable bags for the picnic?  This would help out a great deal."
A few days later:
"Other bags besides Whole Foods bags please!  That would be APPRECIATED!  It now looks like we are a making a Whole Foods commercial!"

Bumper sticker:
REFRAIN FROM
CONSCIOUSNESS

Kombucha flavor of the week:  tantric turmeric
"People can't just drink kombucha?  It has to be a tantric experience?!  It has to be the best kombucha you've ever had??"

My friend received a text:  "I saw you park and walk toward Starbucks, what in the world is she going to Starbucks for?? That is not like her! She is ANTI-Starbucks!!  Then figured out you were going to the Kefiry. Makes much more sense, so relieved."

A young child says, "I'm watching tv and I'm not allowed to!" pointing to a yoga DVD that is playing in the background.  Waldorf kid gone wild.

T-shirt of the week:
Que Syrah Syrah

License plates:
JST THS
O SNAAP
NT SHDE
OMG GOP





Sebastoblog has a sister column in Sonoma West Times
http://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_west_times_and_news/opinion/columns/sebastoblog-conscious/article_87930a7c-786b-11e7-82b5-1b2a305ee841.html

Your purple Prius just gives you away

"I was fine listening to her talk about the group, until she started telling me how enlightened everyone was.  Then my ears automatically shut down.  I've developed this skill by living here for a while."

A text from a friend:  "I'm in Sebastopol getting ready to have lunch and there is a lady at a table passing out samples of a drink called 'How High.'  She says 'it's coffee with super foods' then I heard her telling someone it has essential oils and antioxidants.  Lol.  Only in Sebastopol."

A woman shopping in downtown told me she and her daughter were driving by Screamin' Mimi's and her daughter commented on a Prius parked on the corner.  The mom absently responded something along the lines of, "You're surprised to see a Prius in Sebastopol?"  
To which her daughter replied, "I said I'd never seen a purple Prius, mom.  I know they're all over the place, they're are as many Priuses as trees in Sebastopol!"

Facebook posts:
The most OVERUSED phrase in west county.  "I feel drawn to..."  Second runner up, "Do you feel drawn to...?"

"Orders from Young Living and doTerra arrived on the same day.  
I am so west county!"

Walking through the plaza after getting out of a restorative yoga workshop.  There are several post-Farmers Market straggler groups.  One is drumming.  One is doing slow movement contact yoga/dance (I don't know if this is a thing, I am not sure what to call it).  And then there is the dreadlocked contingency.  

At the Whole Foods deli counter:  "Be careful, those look like burgers.  But they could be veggie patties masquerading as meat."

Word of the week:
aromafave

Chalk graffiti in Sebastopol:  DREAM written on the side of the library.  With a crescent moon next to it.


License plates:
GD GREEF
FESTVAL
B BZZN
1DR N AW (this one took me a moment)







Shout out to Jaiyen Spa (right next to Honey Moon).  Wonderful Thai massage and reflexology. 
http://www.jaiyenspa.com/






www.facebook.com/sebastoblog/

Conscious contraband

A woman went to a yoga workshop which had come highly recommended from a neighbor.  The retreat took place on a beautiful piece of land with large windows in the yoga room over-looking sprawling hills.  Good healthy meals were provided.  The only glitch?  "The yoga teacher kept excusing herself to go in the back and cry."  She learned later the instructor had been engaged and endured a difficult break-up.  Apparently the weekend of the workshop was the same weekend the wedding had been scheduled for.
"She couldn't have picked different dates to do the retreat?" I wondered.
"You would think!  A few people felt too bad for her to ask for her money back, but I had no problem.  I didn't pay three hundred dollars to go watch someone break down practically every time we did child's pose."

A friend of a friend texted me an unusual picture one day.  She knew her thirteen-year old was hoarding something but she wasn't sure what.  She thought it might be cigarettes because he was being secretive about something in his room.  One afternoon she snooped through his closet and discovered a large box hidden behind some clothes.  It was full of unused recyclable and compostable containers.  Dozens of them and all different kinds.  "I know there are worse things a teen could be hiding.  But I just really don't know what to make of it!!"  

From co-workers in our Sebastopol office:
"Should we do a minute of silence to ground?"
"How about two minutes?"
"Whoa!  Gettin' crazy!"
"That's how we administrators get crazy."
"That's how Sebastopolians get crazy!"
This reminded me of being at our main office at my former job, and several of us sort of watching a group of therapists doing a guided mediation at the beginning of their meeting.  It had been going on for over ten minutes.  One of our directors hissed, "I can't believe they are all getting paid for this!"

"What's wrong with hugging?"
"Nothing.  It's just when eleven people you don't know hug you at one event, then it gets kind of old."

At my yoga class a fellow classmate and I were talking about dance classes.  Our teacher came in and said facetiously, "Next week, restorative hip hop.  That's a class I do."
Other possible hybrids that were discussed:  Hatha swing, vinyasa salsa and Bikram ballroom dance.

By a food truck at Ives Park last week during the Celtic concert.  My friend and I watch as a worker comes out to the board and erases one word.  We realize it was "vegan" from the "vegan mushroom sandwich" on the menu.  We wonder what would cause the sandwich to lose it's vegan status and then laugh, as it seemed like such a "you know you're in Sebastopol" conversation topic.  (As it turned out, they had run out of vegan bread.)

License plates:
BUDDHA2
AIRGASM
SWEET PE
YES SING

Shout out to Retrograde Coffee on Main Street, many good drinks and pastries

http://www.retrograderoasters.com/