Just got to Ventura and have already crawled into bed with a buttery chardonnay.
My nephew pup who looks like a metrosexual Baxter from Anchorman is getting sooo old but he got so happy he re-puppy’d upon seeing me…and then made me scratch his butt after making sure his mom wasn’t going on vacation again lol.
It was tight. My charge’s parents’ flight was delayed by 40 minutes so the entire community kicked into just in case gear… I wanted to be present for the handover but with a last train up leaving 7ish & LAX being. ..Lax at best, getting from MDR downtown for me was potentially as hit or miss as them from the airport.
Travel Angels were all over this as much as the it takes a village crew:
The Pilot told them upon boarding he was going to make up those 40 minutes From Austria. The daily playdate was scheduled for the window I needed to bounce IF they didn’t make it, and an army of folks were facilitating hand offs for first time aparters for 3wks.
They arrived Just in time & another villager punted me to the station as my charge- who was too young to understand “yer mom & dad are coming back” howled with joy at seeing his first humans again.
The subway we were pointed at came early *(as we arrived)…but! The next one was early too, which made up much of the time lost after its on the road delays.
I got to Alameda without breaking a sweat, a growled yet gratitude filled “everything works out for me” riding shotgun as I headed to the track known best, somehow 20 minutes before the last train I didn’t even have a ticket for yet.
…why not?
it really wasn’t 100 at any moment in this trying to be all things for everyone that I was gonna make this last locomotive north.
I got my ticket nestled in my seat.
An hour into the ride, my nephew pup’s mom offered to meet me at the train like a bandit.
… which brings us to here: bed.
So much fucking grace.
Add to all that a storage run 2 hrs before go-time, which led to packing 90minutes prior, damned near blasphemous for Virgos, yet done consciously. ..and a plethora of things vying for attention they didn’t deserve today, considering the press.
All in all, it came together to be an amazing opener to being on the road to finally experience all Ojai has to offer for the upcoming(3rd published in the series) Globalboho travelogue.
This sojourn has been a long time coming.
I’ve had half a day in Glyph mode within Ojai’s territorial limits.
( photo from a great New york times article on ojai)
It was when I was mini-basecamped in either Oxnard (nov 20)or Summerland(Jan 21) for some writerhead respite or wanderlust “gmtfoLLA” necessity deep in the depths of Covid lockdown.
(“Get Me the fuck outta lockeddown Los Angeles”…for you acronym savvy folks.)
There was a lull, communities peeking their heads out of their havens hopefully. Pretty sure it was to no avail & the gates slammed back shut immediately afterwards but even in that half-day, all things me knew there was more for me to see in these particular parts.
But it had to happen organically, fluidly, sincerely.
Three years later…
I’ll be exploring the area for a nice chunk of time, just enough to be able to figure out what Ojai story to tell is truly mine.
The way that came about was already beautiful and beatific.
…But then things decided to get a wee bit craaaaazzzzzy.
There may or may not be somebody being burned in effigy adjacent to the start of this story tomorrow and, gotta admit, no other terroir explored for Globalboho can lay claim to that.
Talk about a territorial opener that’s right up my alley.
That’s just the touch down intel, too.
I was actually initially going to be in studio working on Altand post-handoff before meandering north to my Ojai basecamp sometime tomorrow. I haven’t painted since the ring of fire & paint I ran out of has arrived🤗.
…But there’s a film fest afoot yonder , a storied one.
The Ojai Film Festival has been around for over two decades, happily sustained in this realm of laidback creative maelstroms that a pretty large selection of the cool folks I’ve met via GB have spent significant time in.
… What they picked 23 years in may give a cool gauge of what Ojai sees itself as truly being about…so I’m looking forward to indulging in it. There are some wildly interesting titles on the docket too
The run tonight was for the love of all things good possible tomorrow.