Cheers.....To A Revolutionary New Year

So sorry it has been a long three week black-out on my blog but I have been engaged in the holiday festivities and traveling a bit. I am back now with a positive outlook on a very, very different new year! I think this is the year that average, everyday people begin to take serious stock of their lives, begin to look at life through more political and community-oriented lenses and make big positive changes in how we live & communicate with one another. This is truly an exciting time to be alive in America (in my opinion).

My travels were confined to the west coast region but with all the freak snowfall here in Portland, I made a mad dash to get out of the bad weather and make a new friend in northern California. I enjoyed my first real experience in San Francisco and the bay area.

My friend took me by bicycle through Golden Gate Park, which to my surprise, is the largest active park I have ever been in! I had no idea that there was so much in that park!!! Besides a huge botanical garden and two huge museums, there are polo grounds, a soccer field, an area for horseshoe throwing, ponds to operate remote boats and toys in, a real Japanese tea garden, picnic areas, a couple rose gardens, a running restored old windmill that was put in to irrigate the more than 1,000 acres of park land!! It is just AMAZING! The park runs all the way down to the ocean where we sat and watched all the people with their pets, kids playing and people surfing (ooooh wayyyyy toooooo coooold water for me to swim in!) and then went across the street to a historic building built by FDR's 1930 WPA program (which is something we desperately need now!) which is a restaurant/bar and ate some yummy appetizers and had a drink!

I had the best New Years Eve of my life with my new friend who took me down to Santa Cruz, CA for the night. I just love how relatively close all the cool communities are from the bay area to LA. There was a bicycle parade and party in the downtown area that evening so we drove down and attended the festivities. I was shocked at how cold the weather was there! We bundled up and managed to keep warm with the booze and a really yummy meal at a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed all the crazily-dressed people and wild, artistic bikes that people rode. Before midnight we rode to the boardwalk where there is a big amusement park with rides & games (all but two game rooms were closed) and a HUGE pier (you can drive cars on it and there are tons of shops and restaurants there). We heard the huge seals crying out under the pier and I marveled at how amazing the pier was! After a few games of Skeet Ball we rode back to our cottage and rang in the new year with bubbly and a kiss! It was the most fun I have had on New Years ever!!!

I am now back in Portland and amazingly enough there was still snow (fresh from the other day) on the lawns and roofs of houses!! People here are shocked at how the global climate disruption is impacting the area. Now there are some mud slides from all the snow/rain recently and some houses have been shifting off their foundation. Scary.

I am really excited about the coming days in terms of finding some really good, meaningful employment and seeing where my potentially fruitful romance is heading with my new friend.

Wishing everyone of my readers a magical and fruitfully productive 2009 !!

xoxoxxoxo

TRULY BLISSFULLY YOURS,

Emma : )