Sitting in the airport right now, sipping on a damn fine cup of Armenian Mint tea from ArgoTea. This is the first that I’ve seen this company, and I’m impressed. I was weighed down by my bags, with way too much time to kill – so I decided that I’d post up and sip on a cup of tea. Starbucks was to the left, and this unknown Argo Tea was to the right. Everyone at Starbucks had a serious look on their faces, all dressed in black. Behind Argo Tea’s counter were hippies with long beards wearing brown and green t-shirts. It was pretty much a no brainer. MmMm, I made the right choice because this tea is damn delicious {I asked for it with warm milk…if you add it yourself then it cools down the tea, bleh}. Right now I am sitting across the aisle, in Starbucks little “seating area”, because I don’t think that Argo Tea can afford the airport space yet for their clients. I’m getting the evil eye from the ladies behind the Starbucks counter who don’t quite appreciate me sipping from an ARGO TEA cup, but I feel like I’ve earned this seat after all of the Americano’s I’ve purchased from this mega-empire over the years. Anyways – lets get down to the nitty gritty details of my final hours on the West Coast…
Monday night singing bowl meditation followed by Nicole + Bri’s “Monday Meditation” threw me for a fucking spin. An amazing, fulfilling but completely unexpected spin. Tuesday morning Nicole and I woke up early and sipped our respective beverages {americano for me, chai tea for Nicole…she’s a good yogini like that!}. Chris stopped over with his dog Sparky to say goodbye, he was heading up to SanFran to hang some art pieces of his.
He gave me a rad t-shirt that he’d designed for Patagonia {one of his sponsors} and a crystal that he’d hunted in Mexico on his most recent surf trip. The crystal is beaaautiful, something that I plan to place on my little ‘meditation/prayer altar’ I’m going to make once I’m back home. Chris is just such a freaking cool person, a genuinely cool person. Speaking of cool people, Nicole joined us after our gift exchange and the 3 of us {+Sparky} did Chris’s signature “Seven Circles” daily warmup. What a bunch of goonies, standing in the yard in our PJ’s circling all of our body parts. I love it. It felt so right. Del Moro had to hit the road so we said our farewells. Nicole and I packed up the truck and headed out for some very small but fun and glassy surf @ Swami’s. Today was redemption day for me – the day before I had gotten caught off guard by a set, thrown over the falls with my LB, and almost killed a poor, innocent shortboarder. Bah. Whatta kook! In the water was just Coley and I, nose walking and trash talking. Short session followed by an epic lunch and lots of errands. Packing my bag is always an adventure, so Nicole and Erin “helped” me out aka watched and were kind enough to be my drinking partners.
Panties for Packing the rails.
what a friggin tacklebox. 7months of stuff.
Later that night we had everyone over the house for a farewell party.
I made babbaganoush, a black bean dip, marinated kalamata olives, and a strawberry/blackberry salad with a balsamic reduction. Nicole made the best wrap that I’ve ever had in my LIFE, hands down. No lie. She roasted a bunch of diced up root vegetables {beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc} in the oven along with fresh thyme and garlic, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and some Bragg’s Liquid Amino. Then in a whole wheat wrap she puts all of this jazz and some peppery arugala for the best wrap ever. Ugh. So good. We sipped wine and laughed our asses off…the chemistry amongst the varied and oh-so-eclectic crew was amazing and the conversation flowed like water. We played some music, chanted a round of “Ohm”, and some of us even indulged in a shot of Patron! Vavavoom!
Sean + Me...patron shots.
Garth, the man, serenading us.
Around midnight I said goodbye to the crew – promising to see all of them sooner then later. Nicole and I ended our night lying in her bed talking to Gray for about an hour – laughing so freaking hard that both of us were crying, I was gripping at my sides and gasping for breath, and Nicole was letting out a steady amount of snorts. HA. Woke up at 6:30 this morning, fully en fuego. Writing out cards, rallying up my stuff, and percolating some espresso in my beloved Bialetti. Bri came by early for some café con leche, and I helped her to start up her blog: Seed of Love. Bri is probably the most amazing raw/vegan chef that I’ve ever encountered. Her ability to make the most interesting, delectable completely raw dishes is outstanding. I beggggggged her every night for her recipes, and eventually forced her to create a blog so I can follow all of the yummy goodness coming out of her kitchen. Joining us for coffee was Kristen Watson {who ALSO gave me a gorgeous crystal yesterday…two crystals from two epic people in ONE day!} and Miss ERIN. We had a little love fest, hugging and hugging and telling eachother how much we looooveeee one another. Sigh. I was missing them already and I was still in the same room as them!
I was dropped at the airport with my tacklebox of a boardbag, was charged $225 by the evil lady behind the American Airlines counter for my tacklebox of a boardbag, and then vowed NEVER to fly American Airlines again…and to never travel with this tacklebox of a boardbag ever again. I sat next to a really nice lady, Sue, on the flight to Chicago – our conversation helped pass the time. Now I’m sitting in Chicago’s airport, enjoying {ahem, loathing} a 3.5hour layover. Actually, with Argo’s Armenian Mint Tea in hand and the computer at my fingertips it’s not so bad. Now only if there was some internet – and I was back in Sunny California…..
side note: couldn't resist...had tea #2 @ Argo Tea. this time EARL GREY with hot milk and it was EUPHORIC. so so so delightful. argo tea, i love you - and you bet your sweet bottom i'll be sending you a hand written letter saying so!
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