Bed: front seat of a compact
City: Santa Cruz
Drink: sleep deprivation
We woke up Thrusday afternoon and broke our fast with a bunch of Middle Eastern food from Trader Joes, courtesy of the EBT system. We spent most of the day killing time, waiting on Lauren's friend Tim, the originator of our faulty directions, to get done doing whatever the fuck he was doing (in the spirit of most co-opers, Tim doesn't seem to have any discernible job or obligations, but is still always very difficult to catch up to), which was actually pretty alright, since we ended up cruising around the absolutely gorgeous UCSC campus, which more closely resembles a summer camp or wildlife preserve than any university campus I'm familiar with. Seriously, it's mostly open wilderness; redwood groves, grassland, that kind of jazz. After that we drove past the now defunct Chavez co-op, and ended up at the Zami co-op, a cool set up with two moderately sized, ~5 bedroom houses share a courtyard, where Tim lives and Lauren is well known. Parts of it look like this:
Also in true co-oper fashion, the kids living there immediately made us feel completely welcome, even going so far as to throwing some food together for us while we waited around. Tim eventually showed up, and we rolled out to the Max house, an enormous communal living space that, while not a registered co-op, did contain the refugees of the Chavez. This house is friggin' gigantic, with three or four huge rooms on the bottom floor. Of course, they're mostly just filled with random crap, but it's still pretty neat. The place reminded me of nothing so much as that island in Pinocchio where all the bad kids play pool and smoke cigars. We ended up sleeping at the Max in a school bus parked out front retrofitted with bunk beds.
Bed: hippie bus, actual mattress
City: Santa Cruz
Drink: Pabst containing bourbon
Friday
Woke up in the Hippie Bus, dragged our carcasses to the Santa Cruz Diner for the traditional two-eggs-over-hard-with-potatoes-and-coffee. Decent food and prices, but the service was iffy once our original waiter took his break. Also, stupid fucking sales tax keeps throwing me off. The first four or five times I bought something down here, I thought I was just terrible at math. Anyway, Lauren, Tim and some of the Zami kids went busking downtown, Kelly Maris and I took Asi (our token co-oper dog, and a close friend of mine) to the one dog park, which was gorgeous. We spent a few hours on the beach reading, while Asi made a bunch of friends and had the butt sniffing of a lifetime. Packed up, met back up with the rest of the crew, went to a party at a house over on Storey st., big place with a really beautiful courtyard in the bag, koi pond and everything.
There's a little castle-looking building back there too, which I found out was somebody's house by walking into it, and now I really want to live in a castle. Got a ride back to Zami after the party shut down due to noise complaints, spent some time back at Zami making delicious tempeh stir-fry with Kelly and Zami local Kayla then blissful sleep.
Bed: Couch in the Zami back house
City: Santa Cruz
Drink: Trader Joe's brand stout, bourbon
Saturday
My last day in SC, spent a little time wandering around downtown while Lauren busked again, got some tasty Indian food at a place called Sitar. The downtown is...strange. It's very small and very pretty, kinda like the more successful Oregon coast tourist towns, but it is very regulated. No dogs allowed, no sitting outside of marked areas, no stopping on the sidewalk, noise policies strictly enforced, etc. Lauren's busking was pretty illegal too, but luckily they didn't get hassled for it.
too cool for the Man to touch
Anyway, abandoned that for some wandering by the river that bisects SC until the buskers finished up, picked them up, spent a couple more hours at Zami then bribed my erstwhile companions to drive me the forty miles south to Marina, where I met up with the excellent Meredith and her roommate/partner Devon, who's couch I am currently typing this from. Went out to a bar in Monterey, which is apparently where Marina people go to get cra-zy, to celebrate the end of their teach for America stint (these two badasses have spent the last two years working on underprivileged elementary and middle schoolers' literacy in Selinas, which is about the size of Eugene but has one of the highest murder rates in the states), staying out 'til one, which they and the two other teachers we went with assure me is pretty epic for this group.
Bed: Meredith's couch
City: Marina, CA
Drink: Gin and Tonic
Sunday
Determined to show me some of the natural beauty of the area, we took a drive to Santa Cruz for a short hike at Pfeiffer point, and it was really gorgeous.
No, really
Dear Oregon: what everybody else thinks the beach should look like
Went back to the casa after a quick stop at Whole Foods, made a delicious vegan taco plate, by which I mean Meredith and Devon made a delicious taco plate while I watched and then mooched their food. Ended the night with Devon' drink of choice, chocolate hazelnut soymilk and kahlua, and some Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Bed: Meredith's couch
City: Marina
Drink: whatever the fuck you call soymilk and kahlua
Right now, I'm hanging out at their place while they go and teach or something stupid like that, trying to figure out how to get to vegas. I'll keep you updated.
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