It's been nearly one year since I made the (literally) life-shattering decision to leave EMI and start down a completely unknown career path. It was a rough transition, and a very difficult year- both mentally and physically. After a lot of whining, hard work, self-esteem recalibration, an apartment redux and much impromptu soul-searching, I feel like I have finally reached that most elusive inner-peace.
Work has turned from excruciatingly boring to pleasantly comforting (with definite lumps of boredom), thanks to new friends.. and being admitted into the avocado club. I appreciate our early dismissals and built-in vacations and very concrete job security. And I can't complain about the happiest ambient noise in the world- the sound of kids having fun. It works magic on one's mood. My struggle with 'second puberty' is finally evening out as well. The hair is past the awkward grow-out stage, my acne is starting to dissipate, and I am setting (and attaining! w00t!) new fitness goals. My knee injury has gone back to latent phase thanks to strength training, and my wrist is almost back to normal. My chronic depression has been entirely more manageable, and I have started planning events and outings and dinners at our place. Now that I feel at peace with me, I can start re-strengthening all the friendships that I mostly ignored while stuck in my depressive cocoon.
Things are looking up.
Which makes me very excited about summer 2011. I missed being able to appreciate sunshine and outdoor activities. I fully intend to compensate for the misery of the last year by doing as much fun stuff as I can. And my personal goal for this summer is to pick up my camera again. When the depression hits, I stop taking pictures. And we all know- photos are the spice of my life. Along with ground cumin. Love that stuff. It makes everything taste like chili.
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I am now going to depart from this honest revelation to a completely unrelated tangent-
WORLDFEST 2011!!!!!
Whitney from HW and I went to Woodley Park to check out what's billed as:
"a solar-powered celebration of music, the environment, animals and humanity. Helping people learn what they can do for the Earth and its inhabitants."
It was basically a giant hippie-fest with vegan food, reggae, reuseable water bottles, crafts, animal-cruelty prevention groups, petitions galore, new age meditation, palm readers, and a million pet dogs crusin' around. In a nutshell: fun times.
We got to the venue and immediately saw hippies walking from every direction towards the festival grounds. Within 20 seconds of entry, we were handed an all-natural fermented soft drink alternative while observing a dude tooting around on a segway, taking pictures of dogs.
I lol'd.
Then we signed some petitions, sampled delicious vegan granola and un-chicken salad, talked to the Sea Shepard whale and dolphin rescue team, ate some really tasty vegan stews and brown rice, pet some baby cows and saw this:
I lol'd again.
Then we watched a movie about the invention of bottled water and learned some really disturbing facts about garbage (I have my HW standard-issue water canteen on my desk right now... no more paper cups) and saw my personal favorite thing of the day- the
Greyhound Rescue booth- complete with 10 lazy-ass greyhounds. I didn't get any pictures of my own, but it looked something like this:
But, you know, without christmas trees and pastel laser background.
I WANT A GREYHOUND! They are so sweet and big and they have long faces, and when they sit down and curl into a ball- they get really small because they are actually 70% legs (fact.) The rescue manager lady looked like a giant greyhound. She was 6 feet tall and lanky and had a pointy face. It was kinda hilars.
After greyhound time, we had our light energy renewed.
You sat down on a chair and closed your eyes for 7 minutes while a nice lady held her hand over your head. I sat there clutching my purse so nobody jacked my wallet during the 7 minutes of spiritual cleansing. After it was over, I felt better- mostly because I got to sit in the shade and close my eyes for a while.
Then we got free plants. We were instructed to direct our loving energies to the seeds as we placed them in the little pot. I chose dill. Whitney got basil.
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| Note the nice ladies raising their hands over people's heads. |
Then- we saw someone who brought a pet goat in a stroller. Yes. A goat stroller. Crazy hippies.
On our way out- we heard some reggae (it was Reggae Motion! foreals. no jokes.) and saw the cutest bunny in the world. It was part muppet. It HAD to be.
It was like this- but gray.
All in all, it was a fun time and it felt like the start of summer '11. And it marked the first time hanging out with work friends while not at work.
And for that- I am thankful.
Word.
