Party like it's 2008

Wow, what a day Saturday (yesterday) was! Too many events crammed into too little time. Well, what am I saying? It was just the right number of events but I just couldn't attend them all properly. But I put forth a good effort.

First event on Saturday was the 10th Annual Citizens in Action from 9:00 to 2:00. I didn't make the 9:00 opening because of sleeping in later than I can remember doing for years and years. Nearly until 9:30, in fact, and then I still had to shower, mess around with the bread. It’s probably a natural effect of staying up until 2 or 3 AM for most of this past work week. As always, there were some very good workshops and seminars, all free. The topics this year were: Campaigns & Elections, Environment, Jobs, Discrimination, Health Care, Public Safety, Education and Housing. Hard to select just one from that grouping! Anyway I managed to arrive by 12:30 and the Coffee and Conversation with Elected Officials. I had my first cup of coffee since September 2007 (did have 2 sips in the hospital room when Odin was born) and not only was there coffee, but free food too: fruits and vegetables, chips and salsa, anniversary cake, meat and cheese and crackers. There is such a thing as a free lunch! Went to the Environment discussion group and met some interesting people including a very cool Sierra Club guy and a activist into mining, a zoning expert and many more. Later, at the closing I met an interesting woman who raised chickens in the city. If you’ve been reading my blog in the past, you know that’s an interest of mine. So I signed up for a Raise Chickens in Town group.

Once I got home I needed to finish the bread I was making for the Greens Soup and Bread Fundraiser and also wrap the gifts for the Girl’s Christmas Party. I really didn’t feel like wrapping all of those gifts, for 5 people at 3-5 gifts apiece, so used those pretty little Christmas bags. But only had 3 of them and needed 5 so guess what? You can make a credible gift bag by taking a sturdy (co-op) bag with a handle and covering the bag and the handles with Christmas wrap! It sounds tacky but actually looked pretty nice when I was done. The bread turned out awesome, the best I’ve ever made! In fact, although it sounds quite immodest, it is also the best bread I’ve ever eaten. Ingredients make all the difference: stone-ground whole wheat flour, a bit of cornmeal, yeast, sea salt and olive oil for the kneading. Wow! I don’t eat much bread since mostly eating raw but the bread I do eat is always home-made now.

Barely finished cutting up the bread and putting it on a tray and packing the gifts into the Christmas bags when it was time to go to the Girls Christmas Party. It was fun and I was in a goofy mood by then but it took far too long to open the gifts and it was going on 8 PM before I left, which is why I’d been trying to get them to change it to Sunday, like we had first talked about. But I couldn’t really just grabthe gifts to me and leave earlier, now could I?

The Soup and Bread Funraiser site was DARK by the time I got there. Oh oh, I had promised to meet a friend I hadn’t seen for ages and she was going to network me with a guy who lives at the co-op where I want to live. But she had told me they were going to the Sustainable Farming’s second showing of the film: King Corn so I quickly headed up to the school where it was being shown. I’d been planning to see that film with them after the funraiser anyway. Friend was pretty cool to me after the movie. She had been going to do me a favor and I was a no-show. Plus the funraiser was not well attended so they really could have used more attendees there. Great film! Check it out at:

King Corn

After the film we headed off for the (third annual?) Diorama contest held in the gym of the co-op where I want to live! There were live, great local bands, lots of dioramas, of course and free food and beer!! It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a kegger and I foolishly brought my coat and backpack into the crowded mass of people. Most were young but there were a few gray-hairs here and there, too. All the hip and happening people in town were there, including our new boy-mayor. It was the second time in a day that I’d seen him because he was at the Citizen’s in Action event as the closing speaker, too. The dioramas were so very interesting that I wish I’d brought my camera. Next year my friends and I need to make one for the contest. Friend came a bit later and warmed up to me after a while and a group of us went upstairs to see the guy’s apartment. The co-op is in an old school building and the ceilings are high, windows large, wood floors and wide open space just begging for some decorating creativity. Oh how I want to live there! There are 2 openings right now but my house isn’t even on the market yet and those openings are highly competitive, there is an application and interviews to even be considered. The apartment had a 30-pound Maine Coon Cat, the second one I've seen. What a sweetie, named Chairman Meow.

Below is a link to some photos of the Dioramas that were taken early before the bands started playing and the place filled up.

Diorama Photos!

If the photos in the link above don't open for some reason, try going to his Photo Gallery Index Page and selecting the Dioramarama galley. These photos are worth viewing!

As I was walking back up the hill to my car, a police car was sitting in the intersection, just waiting for the kegger people to leave and get into their cars. SLA and Houseguest both have had a DUI last year and I did not want to join them, so messed around in the car until the cops weren’t looking and quickly left for home!