hardly, strictly

every october, there is a huuuuuuge, twangy but august, sensational (thanks to the copious music and weed), and absolutely free bluegrass festival in golden gate park. it. is. rad. how could it not be with a name like hardly strictly bluegrass??

the first saturday in october, i rode my bike (!!! more on that later) to the park after general conference (!!!! i love it almost as much as christmas) and met up with kelsey, a genuine bluegrass aficionado. the place was packed with people, young and old, frumpy and fabulous, sweet and sour, high and tipsy…lots of hippies. the atmosphere was unparalleled in its unique, gritty brand of goodness and energy. everything felt organic, including an inner contentment in my beating heart.

we got to see patty griffin, one of my all-time favourite artists perform up-close and live. she was fantastic; i could have sat there listening to her sing forever. everyone was just really truly enjoying the sweetness of harmonies and cadences and expression.

the weather was gorgeous and the sky was outrageously blue. and of course there were some wierdies wandering around. i love them.

we saw gillian welch, who has become one of my new music loves, and her adorable guitarist (i have a major crush) perform. we elbowed our way to the front and asked if we could sit on some people’s tarp. at the end she sang “i’ll fly away” and the whole crowd sang along with her, bathed in sunshine. it felt somehow so freeing crooning with everyone else, and when we stood up and turned around at the end we realized “everyone else” was tens of thousands stretched at least a quarter of a mile back. the sea of humans was just incredible. i love crowds, and this was one of the best.
{check out the sweet grandma in the foreground of the pic on the right – really there were all kinds of people there!}

even outside the official venue space there were performers along the park roads plucking and belting it out. it’s like there was this little bubble of hippieish, ruddy electricity over golden gate park that day. i rode my bike through the park to the beach, singing “i’ll fly away” out loud as the sun went to sleep and left us with a spectacular goodnight. i turned one corner at the end of the park at was hit in the face with the smell of the sea and it was intoxicating. as i cruised along the great highway, i squealed with delight at the sunset and the light and the colors and the perfect-happy tingling in my fingers and toes. it was one of those moments {the i’m-not-sure-i-could-be-one-ounce-happier kind}. i biked past joggers and hollered, “it’s gorgeous, no?!?” and they chuckled.

now, recalling that slice of euphoria, i remember those moments will always come to carry me through and keep me feeling like life is freaking awesome. hardly, strictly awesome.

when the lights go down in the city…

…and the {moon} shines on the bay…
oh i want to be there, in my city!
wooo ohh ohhhh ohhh ooooooh…

that journey song is what they play during the seventh inning stretch at giants games. i loved my first experience watching america’s favourite pastime at at&t park. it’s about a fourth as awesome as fenway park, which means it is pretty wicked cool. we got cheap craigslist tickets, the gigantes won, the weather was so mild and kind, i danced between innings and belted “take me out to the ball game,” and the wave went around the stadium without a break at least seven times. i think that certainly makes for a good baseball game.

speaking of the lights in the city and the shining bay, a couple days earlier rachael threw a bridal shower at her apartment which has stellar views for our dear bride mccaye. we enjoyed treats, presents and that certain brand of sticky sweetness that is only at showers…with the city and bay glittering out the window. mccaye is the greatest; i’m so happy for her; it was a delight to be with all these rad girls.

runnin’ just as fast as we can

when asked, “do you want to run the napa valley ragnar relay practically for free with a bunch of strangers?” i said an emphatic “yes!”

an old friend of my sister’s from college sent me a facebook message in august, knowing i lived in the bay area, asking me if knew any runners because her ragnar team was desperately looking for a replacement for a drop-out. i said, “i’ll do it!” and a few weeks later i got picked up at 4am by a car-full of cute moms from walnut creek ready to run.

it was so stinking fun. 198 miles, 30.5 hours, practically no sleep, looooads of laughs and tons of singing and dancing to classic catchy music thanks to our team name:

i was in this van with five great girls, none of whom i had ever met before, and we became fast friends and had a blast. i just loved the whole relay experience, and i felt on a high the whole time, even when i was so tired. yes, we had a fantastic time, even though there were moments when we really felt like we were:

we each ran three legs, and luckily i got pretty easy ones: 3 miles, 5 and half, 3 miles. we started at 5am at the golden gate bridge and while one girl ran, the rest of us followed her in the van, making stops to cheer and give water. i was so full of adrenaline that i ran much faster than my usual pace and i felt so alive and aware of my body and thrilled. it was such a rush. we started at the golden gate bridge before the sun came up. i was runner 5, and here i am before my first leg, marci running in to pass on the baton:

at the major exchange points (where our 6 passed off to the other van of 6 on our team) there was a lot of people and a lot of excitement. and free peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…

after cheering our other van on to start their 6 legs, we laid down in the park and relaxed!:

we also happened to get our keys locked in the car. did you know instead of calling a locksmith you can just call the local fire department? we certainly made quite a spectacle when the fire engine rolled up at the major exchange point and the firemen wedged in to unlock the car (setting the alarm off in the meantime, of course):

pretty soon it was our turn to run again, and the weather was beautiful, and we were happy:

 

we got really good at making tunnels for our runners to go through and cheering them on along their runs:

my second leg was near sunset, and then we slept for a couple of hours (hardly) on the floor of a middle school gym, woke up at 2am and started running again:

 

i loved the night run – it felt so peaceful and quiet and neat under the stars in the middle of nowhere. and after lots of cheering, a little puking, and some quick dance parties along our routes, we finished all of our legs right as the sun came up:

we decided we wanted ihop, so we ended up on a extremely windy and extremely gorgeous mountain road in the first hours of day, and then we ate like queens. we went to the finish line and prepared for a triumphant finish for the ladies from the 80s:

we literally danced across the finish line. we jumped in with anna (our last runner) for the last few hundred yards and sang/screamed together, “running just as fast as we can, holding onto one another’s hands, trying to get away into the night…” shakin’ our booties all the way. at that point we had literally no energy, but somehow we sang/danced/ran/celebrated our guts out. it was pretty fantastic.

yes, we were running just as fast as we could, all niiiight long, even though every now and then we fell apart and were living on a prayer. it’s true that girls just wanna have fun, so we said “just wake me up before you go-go” and we beat it, just beat it, like a total eclipse of the heart. it took our breath away, but we had the time of our lives!
p.s. billie jean is not my lover.

a farewell tea party

one of my sf besties moved back to utah in september. i was so sad to see nikki leave the city. i kind of begged her to stay…but a new and right adventure was awaiting her. on the sunday before her move, we had a nikki’s-best-sf-girls-tea-party to celebrate our friendship with this stellar girl. nikki is crazy about herbal tea, so we asked everyone to bring their own mug and she shared her dozens of flavors, and we had little tea sandwiches and tea cakes. we sat around and had girl talk (two engagement stories from the attendees!!) and enjoyed our time with a dear, wonderful, departing friend.

then, of course, we took loads of pictures!

i think there are few blessings in life more sweet and lovely than good girlfriends. i’ve found such fantastic girls everywhere i’ve gone, and i’m so grateful.

bleak beauty

on labor day, kelsey and i went to pt reyes. i couldn’t ask for a better bay area adventure buddy than kels. like me, she likes doing stuff, and she’s pretty much always up for anything.

one of our conversations while exploring was about the searing beauty of bleak landscape – and how we loved the sweeping vistas we saw that weren’t lush or flourishing but so gorgeous in a raw, earnest way. indeed, a lot of things in life are bleak but somehow the most beautiful…

pictures by kelsey (who likes to stay behind the camera and photograph me until i drag her out by asking park rangers to snap one of both of us):

we saw so many elk and one bone-fide, hissing elk fight! of course i had to try on the antlers.

i loved our blustery, wild, foggy adventure on a little golden peninsula jutting into the open sea. there was hardly anyone else there. it was good for the soul.