But this is an El Nino year and we were promised rain. For two weeks, we had constant rain. All day and all night. I wore black everyday for two weeks and rain boots. I was a hermit. I was also on a 2 week work stint, no days off.
I am a bit of a sun worshipper, wish I wasn't. Wish I was jumping in puddles and singing in the rain but truth of the matter, those grey skies throw me into the doldrums. It's why I don't live in Seattle anymore.
So midweek, I was at the Meadery, which I am normally not, I am normally tucked away in the woods all day and all night on Wednesday's but this Wednesday, I was here.
Irena walks into the Meadery. She's a local musican originally from Norway but you would never guess from her Americana style and folky tunes. She has done a couple small concerts at this place right by my house and they have been a true joy.
So Irena stops by on this day I am normally not here and buys some mead for the concert which I wasn't going to go to but then she meets Jordan (our farmer and my homie) and Jordan gets interested. So I look at the invite and see Robert Blake from Bellingham is playing. What?
A little back story. I left Chicago in 1997 to attend Fairhaven College, a hippie college within Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. I studied Writing. Herbalism, Opera Study, Awareness Through the Body, and Sustainable and Organic farming.
A year later, I moved on to science so I could go to Baystr. At that time I meet Korby and Mike at open mic night.
I was instantly head over heels for Korby. He was a soulful musician with great charm. I also met his friends who played bluegrass with him. I instantly adored and wanted to adopt as my own crew, especially Jeff and Adam.
I needed an apartment and there was one above Jeff and Adam that Brook, Lauren and I would move into the next fall.
In the meantime, the summer was spent going to bluegrass festivals, hanging around picking circles, falling in love with bluegrass and my Bellingham life. I adored my small town- hikes to swimming holes in the summer and hands stained purple from continuous blackberry harvesting.
At the end of the summer I drove with Korby across the country to West Virginia so he could study for fall semester there. We went to his hometown in Idaho, my mom's house in Denver and my house in Chicago. He left me there in Chicago and went on to Huntington, WV and when he arrived asked me to come meet him to drive across West Virginia to go to a bluegrass festival called Stompin.
I hopped on the next Amtrak and we were off. I will never forget that festival. It rained like crazy. It seemed as if all the performances were cancelled and Korby and I stuck in the back seat of his car in a field trying to stay dry. When he said, "Let's just see if anyone's there at the stage."
We made our way across the wet fields to the huge main stage and there was a small group up there. They closed the curtains and the fans who made it out were on the stage in an intimate circle with Doc Watson and Peter Rowan (who lives here in Pt. Reyes!) It's one of my best memories. This small concert with the storm on the other side of that curtain, candles lit and these bluegrass greats playing acoustically inches away from us.
Soon, it was time for me to head back to Bellingham and move in with the boys. These boys, Jeff and Adam became my guys, my favorites. Brook, Lauren and I would go to every concert they played. I built I bonfire pit and we'd sit around it every night and listening to the boys play. Jeff could finger pick that guitar like no other.
I had a community, a family, that I adored and sometimes I think I have been chasing that Bellingham community every since I left. It is by far one my fondest moments of life.
And in this bluegrass and folk world was Robert Blake, a musician that the boys played with often. We all had a crush on him too.
When Korby came back he broke up with me and he wrote a song about me (and here's the link), about our time in Chicago and his drive to West Virginia called Lacey in Chicago. And he played it all the time, how about that for a broken heart, having to hear a love song about you from someone who didn't want to be with you. But, still, it made me feel special.
Fast forward, I text Irena and tell her I know Robert from a past life. So I go and Robert says, "It's Lacey, Lacey in Chicago! I am going to have to play that song!"
Robert had met Irena at a festival in New York and contacted her as he was playing some shows in California. She had happened to have this small show happening in Point Reyes and invited him out. He took the tiny Stage Coach bus and made it to our tiny town, just down the hill from my house. Crazy.
I thought he was kidding about singing the song but he did it. He knew the entire song and there in my little town of 850 people, with my dear friends next to me, Robert Blake was singing a song written about me 16 years ago. I fucking cried. This entire time, Point Reyes reminds me of Belligham but it's more lonely. And to have that feeling back, to have a my a part of my past that meant so much to me back, if only for a brief moment, was incredible. And to have a handsome man sing a song with my name in it made my cheeks flush–made a girl feel pretty special.
When I first started traveling, I would become so sad when I'd part ways with someone I bonded with but as I got older, I saw so many people again, so many. I learned that the world is small and every thing is connected. That life is magical.
The next week I went to another concert in our small town. I sat on the ground in a close cluster with my friends. I looked at Galen on my left and Hanna and Jordan and J on my right and realized I have really good friends here, I have community. I have people that are more than just casual acquaintances, friends I can truly count on. I have a job that fulfills me, gives me purpose and makes me grow. And I live in a not too shabby landscape as well. Ca c'est bon.