::Repost from old blog::

Friday turned out to be a great day from start to finish. Ideas exchanged, friends made, and better outlook obtained, what more could one ask for? I spent some time in the morning watching the various videos I had downloaded while copying the rest of the CDs I have obtained from the radio station. After that I had a great time chatting with Nancy over IM. She has some really good ideas and I very glad to have befriended her. After lunch, the last of my expensive spaghetti, I called Laurie and chatted a bit, and told her that I was going to go outside and do some yoga. I think I’m going to do that again when I done typing as well :-) I also said I’d show up at her work to say hello. So I changed into some more loosely fitting clothes, found my large fleece blanket, took off my shoes, and made my way to the park. It was sunny, warm, and the ground was firm. I opened the blanket in the center of the park (which is straddled by the eastbound & westbound lanes of E st) and began doing tree pose. It felt good. I kind of get a kick out of doing something so publicly. There I am half naked in the middle of a park with business as usual happening around me. I like it that way though. One of my yoga instructors said the best place to meditate was in a busy place because you have more distractions to quell. So about 45 minutes into my practice, two beefy baseball players notice that there are two attractive women sunning themselves behind me on the periphery of the park. So they decide its time to play catch, and of course I am in the way. So as I’m balancing, I hear the repetitive sound of the ball hitting the leather mitt. And I listen to their dialog, it made me realize why I have so few male friends like that. After doing a handstand, one asked me if I was doing yoga, and simply nodded my head. I should have asked if he wanted to try, but I think that might have been a little to forward. About a half an hour later the girls leave, and so do the beefy guys. At the end of every practice I feel slightly more flexible, and it feels good. I returned back to my room, answered my odd craving for bubbly sugar water (which after a few months of abstinence has returned), and then proceeded to make my way to Dupont Circle for the Critical Mass bike ride. With the weather so nice out, there were about 25 folks who showed up to ride. I was really happy to see Adam come out and show up. I like the way that he has an unofficial leadership role in the group. I can tell how he is respected among his peers. Our route led us to the Burmese Embassy where there was small protest going on, much like the Free Tibet protest of last week. From there we made our way around down to Rock Creek Park, and followed the highway down to the Watergate and our plan was to bike to DC General Hospital, which was closing that evening for good. Just past the Lincoln memorial we got attacked by three National Park Police on motorcycles, they pretty much rammed everyone off the road. They were like use the bike path, and we all said that we don’t have to. They were just pissed because we took over all the lanes of traffic. A compromise was made, and we proceeded to all ride in one lane of traffic until past the Capitol building. It was pretty funny as usual. I love Critical Mass just because I feel so ballsy, and I like the fact that I have some degree of safety in numbers. The arrival at DC General was rather uneventful, but the ride to there was a different story. I had never been on that park of NE DC before and contrary to popular lore it wasn’t that bad. I think its because the area around the Capitol has been gentrified by the representatives and senators that live around there. After DC General we trekked back to Dupont Circle where we all said goodbye. I was in the process of telling Maggie about the wheatpasting party on the corner, and right at that time two of the people I did it with come walking by. I cannot recall their names, but the older guy is from Kashmir, who is only person I know from that region. We chatted for a few seconds and mentioned the party to them. Ironically, a guy walking by heard me mention it, but it wasn’t at the party that he asked me if I was on the corner at that moment early in the evening. 3 degrees in flux at one location. Very interesting :-) Synchrondeity strikes again. I rode along back to Foggy Bottom, feeling so empowered from the CM ride, I was doing a big woohoohaw (WOOO!!) each time I rode by an outdoor restaurant. It was fun diverting the attention of people, living in the moment, being a spectacle for the hell of it and when I rode by the uber-expensive steakhouse Smith & Wollensky, I shouted "Meat is Murder" I think I’m going to do that from now on. Maybe vary it with a Mad Cow reference. When I got back to Foggy Bottom, I went in to the magazine shop that is in the same building as Laurie’s job. And after checking twice earlier in the week, my beloved Adbusters Magazine had arrived. So I gleefully paid for it, and made my way around the bend to Coney Island Ice Cream Shop where Laurie works, I noticed a big line outside, so as I walked by I grabbed her attention and kept walking. I made my way outside and skimmed the contents of the entire magazine, read a few articles, marveled at some of graphics, quotes, and statistics, and about 20 minutes later made my way back in to an empty shop. She was glad to see that I came back. We chatted a little, I showed her the pictures from the ride, which she liked a lot. And then I asked from some free ice cream, and what I got hit me like a brick in the head. Colinearity of life sometimes amazes me. And it took me a few seconds for it all to sink in, and I’m still trying to register it all now. Laurie made a Sunday using cotton candy ice cream with oreos and marshmallow sauce. As I sat down to eat it, I realized that I hadn’t had cotton candy since Christmas when I worked with Mariel’s family circus. I had used to make "floss" aka cotton candy with Mariel’s mom. And then it hit me that at the exact time I was eating this cotton candy ice cream in Washington, DC, Mariel was doing the EXACT same thing in Mt. Vernon, that Laurie was doing. Both were working in ice cream shops. The collinearity goes deeper, both my sisters worked at a ice cream shop. So did my mother. Why am I drawn to ice cream? Why was I served cotton candy ice cream? There is reasons for it all, and I think its simply because that is what was meant to be. The synchrondeity strikes again, but in such a beautiful way. After eating the ice cream & reading the adbusters (making sure to not get the pages sticky!) the place had gotten more busy, and I said I was going to bounce. Went back to my room read some more of the magazine, packed up my bag, and made my way to the party. I love riding my bike so much! I love cruising by people waiting at stop lights, and I’ve come to the conclusion that bike riding is better in traffic! I rode by the new convention center and witnessed the gentrification of the surround areas first hand and was quite amazed. Along the ride, I stuck up the Krafty stickers along my route :-) Meme Warfare baby. I made my way into the party was rather taken aback by the people at first. I was expecting more earthy types, but what I found was a lot of normal looking folks. It took awhile to find the cups, but when I did I also met one of house residents, Frank. It was good meeting someone ‘on the inside’ so early off. I met so many cool people at the party. I am not going to list them all, but I went through Friendster this morning and dropped them all a line or two. Some of the better conversations / people from the night were with: Liz, an absolutely gorgeous blonde haired woman who works Bread for the World, Boxie, a Serbian scientist who is working on Malaria drugs at Georgetown, Joanne, Zoe, and damn so many more I cannot recall. I think the highlight of the night was bonding with Adam. After being reintroduced to him at the first Critical Mass ride, I did some research on him, and was amazed at what he has been doing. In the process it made him into a present day hero of mine. When you have so much respect for someone its great when you can bond with that person over an idea. The idea, posed by me, was something that he fell in love with and decided to spend much of the rest of the party posing the idea to fellow party goers. The idea is to have a 9-11 love parade on the mall. Something non-political in nature, and something that says although what happened to America on that day was bad, we can turn the other cheek and say that Love of Mankind is more important. Imagine having millions of people show up on the Mall for one huge party all in the name of the love of mankind. Adam was fully behind the idea and one of the first people we told was Liz who happened to give a devil’s advocate approach. That was the beginning of conversation, which moved on to me working at the Pirgs and what she did for a living. Oddly and sadly, she became more reserved toward me later on into the night. I don’t think I said anything wrong per se, but I think she might have noticed my interest in her, and opted to remove herself. Oh well. I didn’t get her e-mail or phone number, but I think we’ll meet again. Plus I have an idea for her non-profit that might make them some more money. Later in the night I met Adam’s love, the beautiful Alexis, whom I had met late September in front of the White House at a decriminalize marijuana rally. She is the national field director of the Marijuana Policy Project, and I gleefully told her who I was a member and that I’ve FWDed all the info to different lists in Missouri. I think it really made her happy that people were doing stuff like that. Around the time they left I opted to leave. I explained to Adam that I thought 9-11 2004 would be an even better date to hold it to put pressure on Bush’s reelection since he is having the Republican National in NYC around that time. So there is a funny dialectic of the republicans being NYC site #1 of 9-11 and the freedom loving being in DC, site#2, at the same time. I checked my calendar this morning, and found that 9-11-04 is on a Saturday, this could be FUCKING HUGE. And its been my dream to have a love paradesque event on the mall. Adam was the one behind the Sorry State of the Union, where I heard DnB on the Mall for the first time. We’ll see about Love Parade DC. I’m excited about the prospect of it. On a different note, the DJs at the party were simply okay, lots of house, some really really really bad progressive trance, and some hip-hop. I wish I would have brought my records. It was good seeing so many different type of people at the party, and it felt great walking in there knowing roughly two people, and walking out knowing most of the people at the party. I’ve become a lot better with the name game, and I think that is really helpful. It made me realize what kind of presence I have, and whith out gloating, it feels really cool. Going to a party like this actually makes me sad to leave DC because I am going to miss out on getting to know these people better, but it also reemphasizes the fact that I think I’ll want to live in DC for a little while. I’ve come to really love this town. A lot. Rode home slightly drunk, which was fun, and played Codec & Flexor’s "Time has Changed" and fell asleep before the song was over. Woke up rather refreshed, and I’ve lollygagged most of the day away, thinking about the night before, and in about 20 minutes I am going to meet up with Laurie for her little birthday bar crawl and then on to the Spanish restaurant which holds irony too. It was the last place in DC where my mom, sister, and I all ate together the move in week of my freshman year, as well at it being the place where Serena & I ate the last night she was in DC a few months back. I wonder what is in store for tonight, I hope I find something fun to do. I’d love to hang out with some of the folks from last night. We’ll see :-)