Graduation and Janet's Visit

A good chunk of the blame for not updating my blog Nov. 10 as promised can be laid squarely on the shoulders of JANET, my old friend from high school days, who left today after what i hope was a delightful 5 days. (She agreed in advance to assume some portion of the blame.)

However, just for starters, the following factors also played a role: 1) graduation on Nov. 3, which required 2) moving out of the room i occupied while RA, which meant 3) loss of the phone and internet connection to which i’d become accustomed. And you can imagine the kinds of things i was doing prior to graduation which took up a lot of time and energy: striving mightily to avoid incompletes, by learning new movements and techniques in Massage class, preparing a presentation on the benefits of massage for my business class, just to name a few. I also did 7 deep-tissue and 6 Thai massages on the trimmers down on the farm over the final two weekends before graduation.

Before beginning the story of Janet’s visit, i must mention a wonderful young guy named Sky who strolled oh-so-nonchalantly into my life a coupla weeks back.

One afternoon, my instructor Bess sent me out to find a body to practice our Thai massage on, and what a body i found! Sky was free at the time, lounging up in the library, and came along quite willingly. (Most do at a massage school!) Hunky 23-year-old farm-boy from Iowa came with his mom from New Orleans -- where they’d volunteered some time and energy -- to do the Heartwood Massage intensive: learning a lot of what i learned over six months, crammed into a two-week course!

i got to practice on him in class, and then down in my room he helped me pick up some of my new Thai routine a night or two later, the first time an intensive student had visited me down there. What a great guy: very nice energy, easy-going and cooperative; helpful and full of suggestions about what positions might work better.

During their time here i got a 2-hour massage in class from Sylvia (his mom) and not long after a two-hour massage from Sky himself. (I’d given him a nice long massage in my room showing him some of what i’d learned, too.) He also showed me how to walk on his back .. it sounds simple enough, but you need to know where not to step, and how much weight you can exert on which parts of the body.

Sky and i partied together with others the night of my graduation; a number of us went down to the sauna about 1:30 in the morning, and i don’t remember crawling into bed until at least about 3. Former classmate and good friend Laura B. visited, one of Sky’s classmates Shana, Azad, Sara M., Ian maybe? (i don’t know), lavender Man Chris [see below] came and hung out, and others too numerous to mention. [i should say And others whom i’ve forgotten, having smoked too much to remember!]

i was a little .. melancholy i guess is the word .. to say good-bye to Sky on Friday the 4^th. We bonded in a way that’s somehow different from the ways i’ve bonded with others since my arrival here; i can’t quite put my finger on what makes it unique. Just to say that i really enjoyed the short time we spent together, and am looking forward to his return in February as a full-time student.

Janet arrived Sunday the 6^th (my mom’s 85^th birthday) at the airport up in McKinleyville, an hour north of Garberville. My friend Heather went to pick her up, and the two of them arrived at my new room at about 10 pm. Rain continued the following day, but on Tuesday it cleared and warmed up, and Janet and i set out after breakfast to hitchhike into town. The first car to pass us contained a gray-haired older woman named Maria who’d moved out here from New York City 25 years ago. She had some criticisms of Heartwood, mostly of its environmental impact on the mountain, esp. as concerns huge water usage and heavy traffic on the dirt road.

She dropped us off in an area called Old Harris (today’s population of a few hundred there a tenth of what it was a hundred years ago, i’ve been told), and i decided that we postpone hitching a bit and walk a couple of miles so Janet could check out my favorite tree coupla miles up the road.

A few minutes later my friend Matt (the budding rock-n-roll singer i’ve written about here before) and his white pit-bull Moses drove past in his Jeep; he backed up and we had a nice little chat for a few minutes. Nice Janet got to meet him.

About a half-hour later Janet and i were standing in front of my favorite tree (which i’ve also written about here): an old pine tree whose top was wrenched off years ago in either a windstorm or a lightning strike, and which then sent new growth out on both sides, before producing what from the ground look like two full-sized trees. Janet took some photos (evidence: confirmed tree-hugger) and we continued hitching and walking down the road.

About ten minutes later, one of the people it was GREAT Janet got to meet came along, Chris! I don’t think i’ve yet mentioned Chris in these pages, so i’ll introduce him to you now: he’s a farm boy (i’d say early 30’s) originally from Virginia but having lived in Portland and Eugene for some time, working on a lavender farm a few miles down the road. He and i began to hang out a bit over the past coupla months, and .. well, i am simply enthralled. He is a handsome, muscular guy and SO friendly. But he’s also kinda shy, not having made the great friendships here he’s apparently left behind in Eugene.

He’s mentioned ex-girlfriends, which Janet reminded me of when i rambled on to her about my romantic interest in him. i simply focus on the EX- part and will wait to see what life has in store. (He DID after all bring me a bouquet of lavender graduation night! How many people can say that a dark and handsome, muscular dude brought them a bouquet of lavender?!) i want this guy in my life, whether or not in my bed.

ANYway, enough mooning over Chris. Janet insisted on riding in the bed of Chris’ pickup, so i rode shotgun, with Chris’ handsome but shy (hmmm.) 10-year-old mixed lab Zeke riding behind us. We stopped for coffee at a place run by friends of his, where we ran into my friend Jerry and a couple of workers from the Farm where Sandy lives (lived)! Jerry used to work at Heartwood and this summer i introduced him to Mike, who ended up hiring him. We hung out for a while, while Jerry gave Janet a hard time worked for working at the Library of Congress (which makes her a Fed). I said “Hey, i was a fed the 3 years i was a Peace Corps Volunteer, and YOU were a fed during the 20-some years you were in the friggin’ Navy!” He still managed somehow to get the last word in, damn him.

After caffeine and banana-bread, Chris drove us 20 minutes up 101 to Founders’ Grove, where the largest stand of old-growth redwoods are found. Everyone around here quotes to visitors that 2 or 3% of the redwoods that were here a hundred years ago remain, and even these are NOT all protected. i intend on getting involved in actions to help save the trees now that my program is complete. Stay tuned for more details.

Under the giant redwoods, Chris casually amused us with his banter for about a half-hour before continuing his drive north to the county-seat Eureka, and then Janet and i enjoyed a walk of about a half-hour through the trees. It was her first time there, and my third or fourth. If you have not seen these majestic wonders of nature, plan on doing so sometime. We would’ve stayed longer, but wanted to leave enough time for her to meet Sandy, and so walked back out to the 101-south entrance ramp.

About the second car that passed us was driven by a local couple in their early 30’s who were going to Garberville and who picked us up. Interesting opinions about Humboldt County folk. The guy said: My parents moved here in the 70's to escape the materialistic mainstream life-style; their kids absorbed a lot of their progressive values, but now there are 20-somethings who don’t want any part of that. There’s big money to be made growing pot, they don’t care about their parents’ or grandparents’ values, and are only interested in making money and buying the things they see on tv. But he also said there’s a big range of people living here, from rednecks, to pot-growing hippie-types, to ranchers and all types in between. And a lot of people who look and drive like redneck ranchers are growing lots of pot. A lot of free-thinkers here too who don’t want to be told by the government what they can and can’t do.

Bought me some water-proof boots for $60 in town, had some lunch, hit the health-food store (for a chocolate cookie!) and then hiked down the road to where we began hitching for the final leg of Janet's journey to meet Sandy, finally, after all these years.

A few minutes later we were in the comfy big 4-door [we never thought someone driving a car this nice would pick us up!] driven by Bill, the former volunteer fire dept. chief for the Palo Verde area (where Heartwood is located). Spent a year in jail after having been busted for growing some time back, raised a family out here and is now a granddad twice over, he told us. Real nice guy. Dropped us right where we were headed, and Janet and i had a lovely ½-hour walk from the pavement down to the Farm where trimming operations are now winding down.

Janet saw the whole operation, and i’ll leave her to describe for you her impressions of the place. I dj’d for the trimmers while we waited for dinner, and then Janet and i compensated for a really great meal by washing up the dishes.

Big news is that i noticed just since the week before that Sandy seems to be going a bit more quickly down-hill. She used to shake a little in her hind-quarters, but now, sometimes, that shake is a little more all over. She’ll walk slowly and before moving to sit down, will lift one front paw and just hold it there, shaking. It’s kind of sad, but she is now 14 years and 4 months old, and i’ve been emotionally preparing for her death from old age for some time now: something we all hope to go through, after all.

Despite Heartwood’s refusal to grant me permission to bring her on campus, i could not leave the Farm without her. Jerry agreed to take the three of us back, and we left about 10:00, Janet up front holding Jerry’s puppy Mu, me on a fold-down seat behind Jerry and Janet, and Sandy sort of boxed in on the floor in front of me. It was quite a production to 1) locate Sandy, 2) find a flashlight in order to find her [then realizing that she was not in her usual place under the house, then asking someone where she might be, and THEN finding her!], THEN waking her up, which took longer than it ever did before, worryingly, 3) find the turkey legs the dogs get fed, and then 4) find a plastic bag to put a few in.

Poor Janet was exhausted, still jet-lagged, and about to fall asleep standing up, but i still had to laugh when, hurrying as best as i could under the circumstances, the first leg i threw into the bag burst through the other side and out onto the ground, leaving me holding what was now just a loopy piece of plastic. (Janet was not amused.) We made it back safe and sound, in spite of Jerry's and my being mildly stoned while jabbering our heads off.

So Sandy is an un-official Heartwood resident, and i figure it’s only a matter of time before she’s discovered and we’re reported. Not sure what will happen after that. Hopefully i’ll be considered valuable enough to keep around in spite of my transgression. They’ll hopefully see that i’d truthfully described a harmless and loveable creature who won’t cause anyone any kind of a problem.

Janet had a great five days – didn’t you?! Let me know when you get a chance! – although i had to put in a lot of hours here at the store during her last three days here. A walk in the rain up to the airstrip her first morning, a sauna and hot-tub together one night, a massage from me her second night, a shiatsu session from a classmate this morning, meal after meal of really tasty vegetarian: the kitchen staff only get better. I think it was a great re-union, a great one to add to the ones we’ve enjoyed overseas.

Gotta get back to my room to give Sandy some lovin’ attention before crashing for the night. She devoured the 3 turkey legs over the past 3 days i brought from the Farm, and Jim R. in Maintenance gave me some of the dog food he feeds his little 3-legged pooch Tele, until i can get into town to buy some on my next day off, Monday.

SO much more i could write, but must crash. Next time: plans for life after graduation. Man i got a lot of great ideas.