Hi Everyone!
Wow, I can already see I'm going to be writing more than one long post in order to say everything I'd like to say! Thanks everyone for bearing with me on my often voluminous posts!
We've returned from our trip to Sebastopol/Occidental, and we are quite favorably impressed! We've both been getting prompted almost constantly (like nearly every time either of us looks at the clock) lately, so we must be moving in the right direction! We also encountered many synchronicities, and got endless prompts, while driving down there and back, on the road mileage signs, the mileage-marker stakes along the road, license plates, phone numbers on billboards, and so on, as well as on the digital clock in the motel room, and on our own car clock (even though it's about 20 minutes off from the "real time")! We stayed in the tiny little town of Occidental that you looked up online,
Sandy. (What fun that you looked it up!
)
We too had looked online at that same Inn at Occidental you mentioned before going down there, and I agree, I loved the unique and beautiful rooms, even though they were way too expensive! So we stayed at the nearby average-but-much-more-reasonably-priced Negri's Occidental Hotel instead.
We loved the little town of Sebastopol, as well as its proximity to the coast, and all the many little roads in the redwoods in between. To add further to the food-and-beverage conversations we've been having on this thread, we happened upon a "chocolate cafe" while in Sebastopol. In addition to gelato and handmade chocolates, they serve this fastastic, thick, rich hot chocolate made with cream infused with orange and ginger. I had a 6-ounce cup of that with a lemon-lavendar shortbread cookie and it was really lovely; it certainly took hot chocolate to a whole new level!
We saw some unique and interesting places for rent, although it was a bit too early to start actually looking at that level, so, now that we know for sure we like the area, we'll probably go down there again in another couple of weeks to actually try to find a place. So we're in quite a stage of growth and transition at present. We even spontaneously bought a couple of ukuleles the other day after we got back, inspired by a conversation we'd had with the folks in a music store down in Sebastopol, and have started playing and singing favorite old Eagles and Bob Dylan songs just for the fun of it (the ukulele is proving to be a much more versatile instrument than we'd been aware of previously
)! So, it's been quite an adventure of late!
Sarah, I don't think I've run into Cote d'Or chocolate yet (though I do peruse the chocolate section each time I go to a new grocery store!), but I do frequently eat Equal Exchange fair-trade chocolate bars (
http://www.equalexchange.com/chocolate-bars), since they're readily available here. I also saw a lot of beautiful and elaborate mehndi online of the sort you're talking about, as well as books of patterns for painting them.
Sarah and
Pet, the henna website I was looking at also warned people, as you mentioned, to be very careful about which kind of henna they buy. Apparently if it's less than body-art quality (sounds like some of the lower-quality versions are full of twigs and leaves and such, rather than being a fine powder), or if it's "compound henna," which may contain metal salts and very little pure henna, you can get unpredictable and undesirable results, especially when using it over dyed or bleached hair (apparently, it can melt or fry your hair
, or turn it weird colors like green!
). They said to beware especially of products labeled "blonde henna," "brown henna," etc.
I was in the herb section of the food co-op here in town the other day, and found an entire henna shelf. The pure herb itself,
lawsonia inermis, is supposed to dye hair red, but I found jars of nearly-identical-looking green powder labeled "copper henna," "mahogany henna," "blonde henna," "brown henna," and "black henna", and the only one labeled lawsonia inermis was the one that was also labeled "black henna!"
Very suspicious! So I just went ahead and ordered the "100% pure body-art-quality henna" from the Henna for Hair website instead. Once it arrives, I'll test it first with a strand of my hair before going any further! So far, I've just gotten my hair cut shorter as a start (as my latest avatar shows), to make it easier to eventually experiment with, color-wise. And yes,
Sandy, when/if I do it, and if the results seem presentable enough, I'll definitely show you all some "photies!"
Bing, that's a wonderful dream, to set up a weekend 11:11 get-together of some sort, and serve some of your mouth-watering culinary creations -- I don't think any of us would mind that extra benefit at all! What an amazing energy vortex would be created with all of us in one place at once, I'd bet!
By the way, I've enjoyed looking at your various cooking links, especially the chocoholics' site! I'll also have to read that Paper 77 in the U.B. - yes, invisible babies, that would be a parenting challenge indeed!
Renee, yes, I do think there's an east-coast vs west-coast rivalry here; lots of people I've met from the east coast would never consider moving to California. But in reality, as you've mentioned, California really is an amazing state, with a variety of beautiful environments: coastline, semitropical rainforests, mountains, ancient towering redwoods, deserts, you name it. Of course I may be a bit prejudiced, being a California native!
Thanks for your favorable comments on my dark hair -- I do like my hair color pretty well too, it's just that it's been that exact same color my whole life and it'd be fun to have a change, at least for a while. My hair grows pretty fast, about 8 inches a year, so if I don't like a particular hair length or style, or now even a particular hair color, you're right, it'll always grow back out again in a reasonable amount of time. I too have read that you may have to henna your hair about every 6 weeks or so, but that each time you henna over previously henna'ed hair, it just continues to build up a richer shade of red/auburn.
Gypsie, that's wonderful that you and
Sandy are going to meet -- you both will have to tell us about the experience!
Sandy, good luck with getting your Aussie driver's license and the Princess Highway roundabout! I believe that'd make me a bit nervous at the outset as well, but since you were brave enough to accomplish such a big overseas move in the first place, I know you can do this too!
On your Abraham-related questions about "focus" and "doing-based effort," I'll address that in a whole other post shortly! Stay tuned! ...
Pet, you always crack me up with your witty, humorous posts! I think I can deduce the meaning of "verdammt" as well, especially since it contains "damm" within it!
Okay, I'll PM you my email address so you can send me the thing
Bing sent you (assuming,
Bing, that you don't mind me seeing it too!). Interesting henna experiences you've had -- I think it's the herb indigo, which is supposedly mixed in with some commercial hennas (and is apparently also used to color the denim used for blue jeans), that causes that egyptian-looking blue-black color.
Okay, this post has gotten pretty long now, so on to the next one!
...
Love and Blessings to All of You,
Debbie
shes even bought tripe, i mean what for... 
)
Aaah, but it sure is GREAT to be alive.., and to be sooo blessed as am I...
I still hold out hopes that someday we all will get to meet in some gathering somewhere. 
Well I guess it was the right thing to do..sigh... 
!!!!! Imagine the number of prompts that we would have. I would really like to meet a Secondary Midwayer in the flesh. I just finished reading Paper 77 in the Urantia Book, which talks about their origin with Adamson and his wife Ratta. It must have been quite the experience giving birth to a baby that could become invisible. " OK, where are you hiding this time"
which is odd for me, I've never met anyone over the nternet then met them in peron....