I went to the Gaia Gathering in Boulder

This past Saturday was Gaia's "Global gathering event." I drove north about 45 minutes to Boulder and attended our local party! It was a trick figuring out where exactly it was, because there aren't signs that say "This way to Eben Fine park!" But I had been there before and never knew the name of the park.

It is along a river with rocky embankment, and when I entered the parking lot I saw a young man emerging from the river with an inner tube. I think innertubing's a popular thing to do for young risk-takers (did I say whippersnappers? Am I showing my age?)!

There was an enclosure with picnic tables reserved for Gaia, and I could tell because of the giant vinyl sign that said "Gaia". Once I entered, the only face I recognized (from her avatar, the old one, not the current vector caricature) was MsCaprikel! I made a beeline for her to find out who everyone was. Later there were formal introductions, AA-style: "Hi, my name is ___ and I want to change the world! Here's how!" Funny, I never took my turn!

So there was a band playing, and I'm not very knowledgeable about this, but I think it was jazz or some kind of jazz fusion! I found out that my friend Jaxxon was playing guitar. (and now that I see his profile page, I found out he stole my name! See there, under his photo? Yeah, ok, he doesn't use two l's in thepixelator.) So we are both in the web development world, but he was so busy grooving on his guitar with his group Sacrebleu that I never got a chance to speak with him.

I had a short chat with Gaia's very own Siona, who sends emails to all in the name of Gaia. She handed me her card and it read, "You are beautiful". Thanks Siona!



Can someone tell me the other Gaia members in my band photos?

I had a little fun playing with the settings on my digital camera, and even though it was dark in the enclosure and we had lots of backlight, these images turned out pretty good. Jaxxon is on the guitar, and I think it's Jake standing and examining something on the right. He's on the web development team, too.

My two children went to play in the park behind the enclosure, and they had a good time playing on the swing. They were playing with another boy whose mother is a massage therapist in Boulder, and she had joined in the party. Perhaps she will join Gaia soon! Cobalt captured her smiling in one of her photographs. Let's see, she'll be Dancing Bird if she joins!

I also chatted with Matthew and I didn't know it at the time, but also his wife Ayako. Matthew kept me and my kids entertained with a nice sleight of hand trick. Ayako has traveled to Central America.

I also talked about camera settings with Cobalt, who just happened to be in the area for the gathering, as she lives in Arizona, I think. And, while she was asking her (adult) son if he wouldn't mind going out of his way to stop at the Gaia party, her son admitted that that's where he had wanted to go, too. Cobalt captured some really great images of that day!

I talked with a woman that Cobalt photographed, but I didn't get her name. She was wearing the constellation bandanna and she had a really cool method for giving a burst of inspiration into someone's life. She had a "cootie catcher" but "it's NOT a cootie catcher". You choose colors, numbers, and such and then at the end the folded paper is opened to reveal an inspiring and insightful comment. Mine was about Action! No more sitting around wishing, it's time to act, Jessica!

As I left the park, I chatted with two men who were loosely related to Gaia, as one of them said he had attended a Matrix workshop recently and was told about Gaia Community there. He had me laughing when we were talking about gutters. I said, "my husband and I run a gutter company. Would either of you like our card?" Blank stares**cricket**cricket**

I broke the silence, "Well, gutters are something you only think about when the snow melts and rips them off your house, or if they rust out and start leaking." Then the one man said, "Or if they save your life! You know, like if you're on the roof and you slip and fall and you catch yourself with only the edge of the gutter, then it comes undone from your roof and it slides you down to the ground safely!" His body language was even funnier, as he acted out this whole pretend fall-from-the-roof. 

Then a fox emerged from the woods and trotted across the parking lot! After that, we saw two bats flying around because, of course, it was dusk. "That's when they (foxes and bats) come out to hunt!" said our animated friend. The fox went to check out the garbage, but was foiled by the bear-safe trash bins.