Everything is Everything Take 2

If yesterday were opposite day, I'd be saying what a fucking horrible day! It's good to know that for me things like my general emotional state of being can change in a heartbeat. Yesterday, my friends from Mudville were in town and not just any friends but The Amazing Family whom I love more than anything, each family member in it's own special way. Just the mere fact that they were here brought tears of joy to me, but an actual outing into this strange new city of mine brought me to a nearly ecstatic state just anticipating it.

The day went up from there. When we got to the expansive botanical gardens to which they had invited me, special just for us, there was no admission fee whatsoever! We wandered the gardens and guess what? All the cacti were in bloom! Purple, orange, pink, chartreuse! It was as if we had called in advance and reserved a private blooming. We were all very excited as you can see by the photo. We traveled from the desert to Japan to the English countryside and to the tropical rain forest and back again. We saw carnivorous plants and rare orchids. We traversed bamboo forests and hid among the orange groves. And guess what else? You can be a volunteer there! Hmmmmm. Something to think about.

On the ride home, I got a chance to talk to one of The Amazing Family's friends who is a local here. She is also an artist and not just any kind of artist--well, ok, she's a painter, too--but a conceptual performance artist to boot, my favorite kind of artist, the if-I-could-do-anything kind of artist. So, she had some suggestions of hikes, mentioned a 10 acre marsh area not too far away, and most important of all, assured me I would come to like it here. She herself arrived only six years ago, not too far from where I hail, has managed to explore what there is of the wilderness here and hereby, and come to love it, accept it, and call it her own. We saw some cute pollito graffiti near her house, an unexplored Haitian bbq joint with a curious sign reading goat show, and talked about how you can still get any kind of drugs kind of like a drug drive through, right down her street, same as when I was growing up here.

That night I attended the inaugural reception to the Lady's Auxiliary Art Salon or Whateverthehellyouwannacallit of which I am a proud new member--there are now three of us--and founder. We came up with many hairbrain schemes, non-viable ideas, and the completely perfect horror film. For obvious reasons, we decided to proceed with the completely perfect horror film, even if that had little to do with anything we were individually working on. By the end of the night, I felt enthused and excited in a way I really haven't yet. Almost as if I was beginning to fit in here.