... having been breathed out

I went on my scheduled wildflower hike this morning/early afternoon, and it was—undeniably work, but. Rewarding. It's hard to spend five hours with strangers, constantly chatting because you want to form connections!

However, pluses:

• Very diverse group, racially, gender-wise, and with ages from early-20s to early-70s represented
• Carpooled with a lovely young female scientist who brought cookies and offered me gas money despite the fact that we live like 10 minutes apart, what a doll
• Learned a ton about native NorCal wildflowers, thanks to friendly & knowledgeable older gay dude guide
• Got to socialize with a plethora of older San Francisco Lesbians (a particular breed), ALL OF WHOM were extremely excited and full of advice upon learning that my partner and I just bought a house which we are planning to renovate
• Wow did they have home renovation stories
• They were also reading a selection of interesting-sounding books
• And then one of them spoiled Anna Karenina for another of them, which was pretty funny given it is extremely famous and was published in 1878 (there is a subtle detail with a train?)
• One of those women in particular reminded me, to a spooky degree, of one of my BFFs another 25 years down the line. She seems like she's doing well; I hope my buddy will be, too.
• Hike started slow, but featured a satisfying push to the mountain-top above the treeline
• There was also a section of forest full of gnarled old oak trees creaking and squeaking in the breeze; it seemed so much like a language.

Wildflowers I can currently remember having seen, six hours, three episodes of The Good Place, and a bottle of wine later: Violas, larkspur, Indian paintbrush, blue dick, lupin, blue-eyed grass, California poppies, miner's lettuce, hummingbird sage, chamomile, California lilac, Douglas iris, buttercup, cow parsnip, hemlock, nightshade, yarrow, scarlet pimpernel, goldenfield, honesty (money plant), mission bells, coffee berry, owl clover, juncas grass, baby's breath, and a lot of invasive French broom which I must admit is pretty despite being, you know, problematic (tm). Also a LOT of poison oak, but luckily I seem to have avoided touching it.

1. Gertrude Stein was from Oakland (????!!)

2. Artist Kaucyila Brooke is doing a super cool project where she interviews folks about the lost lesbian bar scene of Californian cities and then maps the narratives thereby unearthed. I <3 the results a lot.

3. My people love their softball, potlucks, & S&M.


(Okay, I didn't need to "learn" the third one.)