meetings

A day of meetings. It is physically possible to have had more meetings today, but from 2pm until a little bit ago, I have been in different forms of meetings. I love meetings. I am not complaining. I am tired and ready for bed though. I am preparing for a 2 week trip back to Phoenix. I am overwhelmed with getting my personal and work stuff ready for me to not be here. I have been here since June 2, 2008. 8 months! The longest I have been away from LV since I have lived here has been ...maybe...3 days? That is odd. I cant remember a time since college, when I haven't traveled in so long. The odd part is that I don't feel very compelled to leave or travel. I want to be here. After sitting in these meetings all day, it feels weird to be leaving. I will miss the 1st official facilitator guild meeting, I will miss a purpose circle and a few well being meetings, and other misc. gatherings. It will be ok- I know. As R said the other day...(he has come and gone to LV over the last 10 years) ' so much changes, but sooo much is the same' . When I come back there will still be no official alcohol policy, and most likely no membership track. We seem to be in this forward propulsion though, where I wouldn't be surprised if I am wrong about that. I trust that the community will make (or not make) great decisions without my presence. What I do need to worry about is that the mice wont come take over my room... or saying bye to anyone who is leaving while I am gone... staking a claim on a bigger room in case of another housing shuffle...etc.
Thank you J and M for gathering us for what has been called , the first ever LV staff meeting!

...get ready for tomorrows 'almost mandatory' rollerskating adventure

anti prom

A select few, enjoyed Kitchen Prom 2009, last night. P even happened to be wearing her prom dress. At the last minute I decided it would be fun to have a prom here since it was V day and K never participated in one. I quickly put together a play list of goofy 80's ish songs, in the hopes of getting some people to dance and reminisce.
It started a bit later than I planned, but it turned out great. P and M were making bagels like they did on their first date. R wandered and talked about how he usually doesn't dance. K finally convinced me to slow dance with him... I had to teach him some moves. There was a quick 2 girl slow dance to demonstrate the typical american middle school dance style. N came in and out frequently and just continued to shake his head.
We mostly sat in the kitchen and listened to the music, talked about the songs, and occasionally a slow dance happened.
It was fun.

Bliss party!

I am settling into bed, all comfy cozy, after a nice long hot tub sit. I had some nice conversations about love and fear, metallica, axillary LV band, mocha making, maypoles, not playing tambourine, bonfires, millionaires buying PBR for us, and healing. B, D, J, and K came and went while I was there...all guys. I am , once again, living in a place surrounded by guys. Our ratio is about 7:1 guys:girls. When we have permaculture classes it is usually the opposite though.
A quick run down of the day.
c+c
FDA visited me to get proof that we were notified about the peanut recall. C was very excited about having government officials visiting us, although it was rather uneventful- she didn't even stay for lunch.
leftover lunch day
I read a little bit of David Holmgrens book
wandered around wondering what i should do next
Had an ice cream social. I got a good deal on some coconut bliss. I need to pay the kitchen back for it so I put a sign up requesting 25 cents a scoop. yum.
Hot tub night!

C+C music factory

Every Thursday we have something we like to call c and c. It is short for cleansing and creation. We all come together at 9:30, hold hands, make announcements, remember why we are here, and then get a 2 hour job of cleaning some part of the land. Basically, its our time to clean the bathrooms. Lately there is more cleansing and less creating. Theoretically we would have options for creative work like painting a mural in the bathroom, not just cleaning it.

We didn't have any options like that today, but we did have some new off the wall excitement. We started out by circling outside behind the lodge. It is a nice sunny day, but why behind the lodge I wondered. I soon found out that S was giving a short recycling demonstration. That seems normal and very useful....then the absurdity set in...in my mind. R was videotaping with his little camera...I am eating my egg in a basket breakfast... D and J are facing the other direction...A has crazy hair... alot of us are dazed and would prefer to still be sleeping...
S shows us that things are not being placed in the proper cans for trash and recycling. When this happens he has to dig through the trash. For full effect, he dumps out the can marked for paper only. To our dismay we find a paper bag filled with non paper items. Then the investigation starts. The bag was from DQ! Oh the horror! Who would eat at DQ then put all the trash in the bag and put it in with recycles! *someone who ate at DQ apparently*
All in good humor, we started pointing fingers. We come up with a pack it in pack it out sort of rule. We thank S for showing us that we need to be a little better about living what we teach.
Part 2. We move into a sunny spot to choose our jobs for the morning. We make announcements such as.... FDA lady is coming to confiscate the rest of our recalled peanuts....coconut bliss party tonight... lets step it up a notch and get the place clean for our season of visitors...
and we choose our jobs.....bathrooms....lodge....dorms....office area....driveway pothole filling...kitchen....kitchen....anyone?
two people finally slowly raise their hands
'which one of you really wants to clean the kitchen?'
naturally we needed to rock paper scissor decide this one
I say naturally, but that doesn't mean this is how we always make these decisions...but in this moment, it just seemed to be the obvious thing to do.
M and M went into the circle for this serious situation. We all eagerly watched to see who the winner of the kitchen cleaning would be.
Too bad R wasn't videotaping anymore, cause the reaction of the winner was pretty funny.
We all dispersed to our chosen jobs.
Now I am here writing about it, and the day has just begun.
I still need to write about last nights PC.

"I found myself at lost valley"

I am just loving some of the off the wall, completely random conversations that have been happening lately.
today so far...
cannibalism- at lunch 2nd day in a row- yet again the topic was changed quickly of course. chocolate, price of chocolate, and where to get some organic bars that are on sale for 1 $... this info was received thru an urgent email earlier in the day. how to cook beans. purpose circle* on ice. required field trip to the skating rink next week. stories of falling in blackberry bushes, rose bushes and cacti...some while drunk.


*purpose circle is our most important decision making time. It is very structured with a consensus model. I have gotten in trouble for laughing in these meetings at least once. We are in the middle of working out ways to ease the decision making process here. Some people have called it purple circus.
ooo maybe that can be the title of my blog!

another blog?

While driving home from a rollerskating adventure with a few of my community members, I realized something....I really should be documenting this craziness. I am living in this community that is known around the world. This place is one of THE examples of intentional communities. I am here. I am the community. I am helping structure what our intentions are in this community. I am living the life I envisioned for so many years. I need to document this daily. So much happens here in one day sometimes it feels like a week has gone by. I am still deciding exactly how I want to do this. I might keep all names a secret. I might use initials. I might do random mutterings of gratitude. I might be serious. I might write about important permaculture principles. I'm sure I will use pictures of some sort. I want to write daily. Help keep me accountable! Email me if I am not writing daily!