Inspiration

dead tree turned sculpture
a wonderful painting by Lisa in Bree's room! the middle has the tag from a Yogi tea bag that says "you are infinite"
"Ecstasy Singing"
a painting by Bree's friend
art in Luke's friend's room
the lovely but painfully cold Pacific ocean
kelp
more palm trees
workin at Haggo's Organic Tacos
Haggo himself
my friend Chef April and I
yummy organic tacos!
and a little somethin I made too!

this post turned out to be categorized as things that are inspirational that i have encountered here. art, landscape, and food and people. today my friend April asked me to come fill in at Haggo's Organic Tacos in Leucadia. its like a food truck permanently parked in a pretty little spot. it was fun and inspiring meeting and hanging out with Haggo and his new restaurant of all organic yumminess, and watching him and April cook while i cashiered. i will be there tomorrow as well come see me!
i've gone through so many emotions in the past 2 weeks, just waiting to go to Oregon. sometimes i was unsure and nervous, but now i am feeling totally inspired and excited. i am so grateful to have had so many opportunities here! i've worked at the farmers market, at Lotus Cafe, and Haggos, and reached the monetary goal i projected for amazingly. its been so fun doing a little of this and a little of that, and i feel more confident that i can make it happen in new places just as well. i can't wait to be in a new place and start a new life as a new person! yesterday a storm came in, and i watched the wind blow to the north, all the trees and flags pointing that direction, and i could feel it blowing me too. i don't know what it is, but the fact that i am being drawn towards the north is something in which i am absolutely certain. for someone so wishy washy and indecisive, it feels very good to feel certain about something...
so, here i go again. i probably won't have cell phone access for a few days while at Lisa's mom's alpaca farm in Lebanon, but hopefully internet! then i think we are going to check out Ashland, Oregon in the first week. honestly, i don't really have much of an idea about what i'm going to be doing or seeing or anything at all. i guess that's the fun in it. blank canvas, ya know?

Pesto Brown Rice Spaghetti with Lima Beans
1 cup fresh lima beans (we got some from the farmers market!)
1 red onion, chopped
5 cloves diced garlic
1 yellow and one red tomato, chopped
2-3 servings brown rice spaghetti
1 jar-ish pesto
2 tbsp olive oil
cilantro garnish

boil water and cook pasta, adding lima beans to cook the last 5 minutes. meanwhile, saute garlic in oil with onion. Once pasta is done, drain and add noodles and lima beans to the onion and garlic. Add tomatoes and pesto and cook on low until heated, about 5 minutes. serve and garnish with cilantro, and any cheese you might like. (we used some sort of spicy fire roasted mozarella from the farmers market)

Where in the World is Kristen San Diego?

sunset time!




palm trees!

Brooks and I with our new looks
Brooks (weird face), Bree, me, and Kate. girls reunited!
bonfire beach party!
Kelsey and I with organic yerba mate beer...so californian
nectarines and peaches!
Bree and I workin the farmers market

today i had to take my camera on my run, because its just so pretty! so that's what most of these pictures are....i forgot how beautiful it is here and how awesome it is to exercise on the beach! sunset time is my favorite, the lighting is just so pretty! yep, there's nothing like going for a run on the beach and living a block away. I have to admit i'm totally falling in love again with California. definitely better than Indiana.
I'm having so much fun working at the farmer's markets with Bree! playing with fruits all day and eating them, trading them for lots of delicious vegetables and hummus and stuff, and getting paid daily in CASH. so great! plus its fun to go to new towns instead of being stuck working in the same place everyday, and its also pretty funny to ride around in a big white van. its definitely hard work though, but it feels good to do work that's like extremely hard exercise. and i sure do love not having to pay for all my food...
its also really nice to be here but be out of the little bubble i was in before. i feel like i didn't even fully get to appreciate all the greatness here because my job sucked alot of the life out of me. now i feel like i'm seeing things for the first time, and noticing so many things i never saw before.
i'm still very excited about Oregon, but instead of feeling more clear and sure about things like i hoped, i continue to feel more confused by all the opportunities that are popping up here. i don't really know what to think. but if its too cold in Oregon for me to make it and things don't start working out before i run out of money, i sure am happy to know that i have a place by the beach to come back to! i feel like such a crazy person with a ridiculous life. i also feel like i probably drive people around me crazy with my indecisiveness and rash decisions. but it seems i am loved and accepted for it anyways...what more could i ask for?
so, i still mostly have no idea what i'm doing, but i do know that i'm excited about it, whatever it is. and from the pictures, my life looks pretty darn good to me!

Guess Who's Back, Back Again

st louis arch
texas sunrise
new mexico rocks
terrifying dinosaur attack
arizona can be surprisingly pretty!
after 3 days of desert, finally back in the forest in Flagstaff, Arizona
red rocks of Sedona, Arizona





7,000 foot high tree pose




draw!



in the vortex
then suddenly back to desert....
i really get a kick out of saguaro cacti!

and back to California! not so pretty right on the border....just a big pile of sand

its been a busy week! we drove from Indiana to California in 3 days, through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico (the land of enchantment), and Arizona. we camped a night in Oklahoma, where we were the only campers in RV park, and the designated camping area was a patch of grass by the bathrooms....but we came out on top because we got there late and got up so early that no one was there to pay, so free camping woo! saw a nice texas sunrise and drove for so long in such flat places that i even missed the corn fields to look at. i really loved Sedona, it just seems to pop up out of nowhere. everything is deserty and brown and then you drive up a mountain and there's a beautiful forest and red rocks and it just feels so good there! supposedly there are a few spots there that are some sort of spiritual energy vortexes. so we went to those (they were depicted as a little swirly tornado looking doodle on the map), and saw stunning views, and perhaps got zapped by the vortex or something. i felt a little different i guess. definitely a little crazy and shook up, but in a good way. maybe that's just from the sudden complete flip in my life. i went from having a daily routine that i went through every day in Indiana, and now I'm all over the place! But its fun, I love change. It seems like things change so much each day, and i have no idea what is going to happen the next day. Like I was expecting to work at my old job, but when i got here they didn't put me on the schedule. But then my friend Bree who i'm staying with asked me to help her work at farmer's markets, so I've been doing that. So lots of things like that, where I feel like i can't even make plans for the next day, much less week, because things are changing all the time! It's a little overwhelming. Plus I am so tired from and unsettled feeling from traveling and then working the first 3 days i got here, getting up at 4 and 5am. Today is the first day i've been able to stop and sit still. I've definitely been having tons of fun seeing all my friends here, and I love working at the farmers markets and making good money with a friend. So things are good. I am stuffed with all the things we sell at work, nectarines, peaches, grapes, almonds and apples. I am happy to be in the sunshine at the beach. And I am so ready for a nap right now.