Yes, I'm still alive! I made it back this evening from my weekend in NoCal with no scratches and precious few bumps and bruises!

The trip served as a short vacation from work, but my main purpose was to sell music at the Sebastopol Celtic Fest in, naturally, Sebastopol, CA.

Mason flew up to meet me at about the same time I arrived in town Thursday evening. He and Chris (my best friend in the whole wide world besides Mason) got to meet and get to know each other, and Mason also got to meet Rose, Seth and all of Chris's other housemates. Rose, especially, is worth getting to know. Much wine was drunk, and Chris and Mason discovered they both have equal facility for giving me shit; getting the two of them together is positively dangerous, since they feed off each other and egg each other on. It's kinda funny!

Friday Mason and I played tourist, plunking down dollars for matryoshka dolls at the Russian store on Pier 39, taking pictures of the sea lions, hunting for antiques on Sacramento St., etc., etc. For Friday's dinner, Mason, Chris and I ate with my friend Alex at an intriguing Japanese place in Oakland. While we were sitting there, I reflected on how lucky I was to have the people I have around me. It did me good seeing Alex again, although he dashed off not long after our return from dinner. But he made a great impression on Mason and Chris, so maybe he'll be persuaded to do it again sometime.

Come the weekend, Chris and I jetted up north to Sonoma County for the festival. I felt tremendously fortunate to be visited by Todd and Chris and some other new people who seemed nice enough but didn't really talk much. I dearly wanted to hang out with them all for the time they were at the festival, since I hadn't seen them in about a year, but the booth was amazingly busy for the entire weekend (thanks also, partially, to Chris, who indeed kindly patronized my wee business!), so I had to content myself with a couple of brief meetings, hugs, etc. I didn't even get a chance to take advantage of Todd's offer to spell me for a while. There were others, too, I'd hoped to see sometime on my trip, but time and circumstance didn't allow. Perhaps next time!)

I went into the weekend worried about competition from other vendors and came away having my most successful year yet (we've been vending at the Sebastopol Celtic Fest since its start eight years ago), so even from a money standpoint the trip was a success.

Fast forward through another long day of driving and I'm home, unpacked, desperately tired and grateful for the escape from work, the chance to work at something I love and my many friends who kindly altered their orbits to intercept mine for at least a short time. It won't take us so long to come back next time. I promise!