Journeys' Intermission

8.11.23

Time spent in Santa Cruz, decompressing from my Journey North, preparing for my Journey South… Finding little pockets of joy in the middle of the chaos…

My new friend, Will, popped in to say hello. We met at my birthday week at Esalen in February.

Turns out, he’s a rather good sport. Spent the next few hours with me bopping around Santa Cruz…

Walk down the street to pick up Charlie at my friends house, obligatory Pelican Spank coming up…

Time to Craigslist Hustle and move some toys before I fly out on the 24th…

After photos, we went to do some errands, stopped by my friend Lorrie & Randals’ for some tea, and checked out my art studio… Weee!

8.12.23

Will left me with a painting gift :)

The last of the home made clam chowder from Oregon

Took Charlie the truck out for a drive, been a while!

My favorite dumpling spot in Santa Cruz - River Cafe!

Porch time…

Also, I keep locking myself out of the house with the self locking doors, so I have told Rand I might show up at his house if I lock myself out, so he can tell me the code to get back in. I have also hidden the code on paper in a few spots. And in case I locked myself out and still have my phone, have told a friend what the code is so he can text it to me.

I know, I know.

8.13.23

Sammy time between running amuck with errands, phone calls, emails….

And some friend time with Lorrie and her surf buddy Yvo! Went out for lunch and walked the town. Hearty few hours. :)

8.14.23

Ventured down to Moss Landing to see one of my favorite people and shamanic teacher, Lorraine… We had a fun session and I stuck around for one of her online classes. She’s really quite amazing, feel free to schedule a free consult to see what she’s all about on her website.

Kintu offerings for the despatcho

Offerings of abundance, etc on top of the kintus

Flower finish for the despatcho before it gets wrapped up and burned!

8.15.23

A big day of action today…

Selling Charlie’s shell to my friend…

Charlie is being sold tomorrow to someone who needs a truck to rebuild their home after the fires that burned through Santa Cruz - Felton.

Sad to see Charlie go; it has been such fun learning to drive stick and driving around in this 1993 Ford Ranger. But alas, I decided it would not be good to have the truck sitting and not being driven very much while I was down south. Plus, I still have Becca the van and Betsy the Vespa….

Travel Doc time… Dr. Dover is the best. Check him out here.

In case you want to brush up on your international medicals

So many fun options!

I am told Bolivia needs yellow fever proof of vaccination card stapled into the passport.

Middle flowers from Rand. Side flowers from Josephine. Love you guys!

Makeshift vases I found around the house. :)

8.16.23

Another adulting day… Also, I found out today, how to set the automatically locking doors to ‘unlocked’ mode at my friends house…. 🤷‍♀️

Dental cleaning and chipped tooth fix! Yes, I has the vanities!

Snakies before Dr. Dover visit #2 for more shots.

This is what a yellow fever vaccine card looks like. Goes in the passport.

Bag empty, ready for re-fill. Staging at the art studio which is now my storage space of my life…

8.17.23

Another adulting day as we get ready to launch on the 24th….

Settling the computer things

A little outdoor appreciations

A newly acquired book from Tamara’s bookshelf :)

8.18.23

Real Talk: While I am incredibly thankful for the awesome Eastern and Western medicine team I have been fortunate to be paired up with, THIS SHIT IS A PAIN IN THE ASS AND ALSO EXPENSIVE AS FUCK!

I have endometriosis and PCOS. Endometriosis is the more serious of the two, having left me in level 10 pain 1 week of every month, and level 5 pain another week of every month. Yes, that is 6 month of pain out of the entire year… For the last 15 years.

I thought this was normal.

The only reason I went in and finally ended up getting diagnosed was because I was concerned how many pain killers I was taking and the long term affects on my liver.

My condition took a turn for even worse, made worse by the stress of my occupation. It became an untenable life of work and doctors appointments. I couldn’t even ride my bike very much anymore.

I had surgery to help the condition in November. It helped a lot.

The western meds I am taking right now basically put me into synthetic menopause, where my side affects are hot flashes and night sweats. These meds also mess with cholesterol and bone density. That’s where the eastern meds come in, to balance all of these things within my body and also try to balance my PCOS and my shot adrenals.

My reality is having to take a bag of pills in the morning and at night. I pack 90 days of each at a time.

Pain has gotten better. Still much more healing to do.

Seeing as many faces as I can before I leave. Hi James! He is very excited because we are going to one of our favorite perches… And maybe because of his new toy :)

And there’s Becca in the background :)

We both love cars

8.19.23

Stacking stacks for another day of adulting

George and Tamara are home!

And they brought my new hermit shell with them. That’s Stella, their adventure machine. But sometimes they let people stay when they are home :)

I went surfing with my financial advisor today, it was nice! But then I found out all of my wetsuits were covered in mold so I had to launder all of them and put them out to dry.

8.20.23

Getting close to departure date!

YES! Quality time with one of my favorite humans of all time, Rand! My cycle partner, holiday partner, Charlie adventure partner, dinner partner… ETC! <3

AND EVEN MORE EPIC QUALITY TIME! So happy George and Tamara are home. Some of the most wonderful people on the planet!! <3<3

Tam made cocktails/mocktails , so yummy!

George making pasta by z hands!

8.21.23

Today was another adulting day, and definitely not such a fun one… The only picture I have from this day is tracking information for sending a pair of Method Seven Sunglasses [best eyewear for your eyes health] to my dear friend, Jeff, in Haida Gwaii…

8.22.23

Peeping on the caterpillar chillin’ in Tam’s garden

Becca gets a shower after 10,000 miles in Canada

Little dinner party :)

I made a house mess in Stella

8.23.23

A dear friend dropped off some grapes from his garden for George, Tamara, and I to enjoy. :)

Quick siesta at Rand’s house. :)

Last drive up the coast with Becca, one of my favorite things to do…

Placed these rocks here with a friend before I left for Canada, looks like they’re still rocking strong!

Quality time with the ocean

Pills take up more than half of my bag…. Packing almost done!

For the last few days, Tamara has been missing her toothbrush… Nowhere to be found… I guess maybe because I accidentally took it to my art studio for staging and packing! Whoopsie

8.24.23

Departure day!

The 13 days spent in Santa Cruz were hectic as fuck! Decomissionging from Journey North and gearing up for Journey South was a much bigger undertaking than I anticipated...

But now my life is all straightened out to be on the next chapter of healing journey for an undetermined amount of time [I don’t know how long this type of thing takes?]….

Hey! I’ve been technically homeless for the last 3 months and counting…. 🤣