Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
Trip Out Category
I like to go places. Sometimes far (annual expat experience in France) and sometimes near (I bounce up and down the Left Coast several times a year). This is where you can read stories about my travels.
Unplugged Night #28: Shambhala Music Festival
12
Aug
2008
In: 52 Nights Unplugged, Happiness & Health, Trip Out
I spent this last weekend at my favorite festival in the whole wide world: Shambhala. The sad news this year was that Dre couldn’t go due to having used all his vacation time with family this spring. The good news was that I was there with over a dozen of my closest beloveds so while I missed my MOST beloved, it was still a great time. Plus, I got to ride in style, making the 8+ hour drive to the festival in a friend’s RV. Classy!
The RV was extra awesome because on the way home I came down with the worst stomach bug I’ve had in years, and it was really convenient to be able to barf in the RV rather than hitting every rest stop between Nelson, BC and Seattle. Ug. If this past weekend was a high point of the year, the two days since have been the low point. Barfing and crying is a really pathetic combination.
Thankfully, I’m finally on the mend and managed to eat half a bowl of pho and keep it down this evening! Then I left the house for the first time in 48 hours, leaning on Andreas and creaking around the block like an old man missing his orthotics.
- 3 Comments
- Tags: canada, health, shambhala
Every summer, Andreas and I go out to Wildhorse Island in Montana’s Flathead Lake. Dre’s mom has a rustic cabin out there, and each summer we make a pilgrimage to go sit and read and talk and walk and enjoy the lake.
So, last weeks’ unplugged night was actually an unplugged two days … which I figure is a great way to celebrate being half-way done with my year of nightly Unplugging.
And now for you … photos.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
- 4 Comments
- Tags: 52-nights-unplugged, family, montana, travel, vacation
Meadowfabulous 2008
29
Jul
2008
In: Trip Out
Most of the weekend
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
Another year of Meadowfabulous! What can I really say other than that I love being with my friends in the woods? I love it when the only thing separating the people I love are forested paths. I love it when mornings start with a stumble into a meadow. I love it when whichever way I turn there’s someone to hug.
Meadowfabulous was different this year, though: no soundsystem. We had an ipod hooked up to a speaker, but the focus was less on dancing and freaking out than it was on sitting around the campfire and catching up. I think we just lost 5% of our last remaining raver cred.
We also had about a third less people, which was a very conscious decision, and very difficult to enforce. Anyone who’s read my book knows how hard it is for me to play bouncer. I hate it, and this year I got some practice saying things like “I’d really rather you not bring that person because I’ve seen them perhaps once in the last year and I don’t really know them.” But it was worth it to have a gathering where everyone fit around the campfire. I suppose this means I’m in a social contraction right now.
Ariel (if she were a Japanese tourist)
Originally uploaded by Andreas Fetz.
Last weekend Andreas took me to Victoria, B.C. for a late Birthday getaway. We had a great time being tourists and taking photos and enjoying the friendly Canadianess of the city. O Canada: It’s where everyone’s nicer.
Anyway, here are my pics, and here are Dre’s. Not captured: me barfing on the Clipper.
- 8 Comments
- Tags: canada, vacation
Hard at work
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
This weekend I got sent to Portland on assignment. My task? To try a specialty cocktail at a place called Mint.
I brought Cienna along, and she decided to write something for The Stranger about the restaurant, so we tag-teamed the owner/mixologist Lucy Brennan with questions.
It was one of those charmed trips where where there just happened to be a street fair when we arrived, where the hotel had our dogs’ names on a welcome board when walked in the door. Where the public transit took us exactly where we wanted to go in no time flat. Where, once we got to Mint, it felt like I’d stepped into the Portland set of the L Word — where every single server was a hot woman with a great smile, where the drinks were all magical and earth-shatteringly good, and where the food just kept coming.
- 11 Comments
- Tags: freelancing, portland, writing
Ziploc of fluids
8
Apr
2008
In: Trip Out
I’ve been traveling a lot these past six weeks, which always seems to happen to me in late winter/early spring. I come out of this not-unpleasant seasonal affective disorder hibernation and all of a sudden trips appear out of the blue and it’s all HURRY, HURRY YOU’RE GOING TO MISS YOUR FLIGHT ZOMG WHERE’S MY ZIPLOCK OF 3 OUNCE FLUIDS AND WHAT DID I DO WITH MY CLEAN UNDERWEAR? Granted, I’d had SXSW planned for several months, but the two random trips to NYC in late February and then early April were both total surprises that came out of nowhere. And now we’re headed to Missoula this weekend for my sister-in-law’s baby shower and the whole family going to an Elton John concert. (!!!)
And of course it’s already time to start blocking out summer weekends for various camping trips, hikes, festivals, vacations, weddings, etc, and Dre and I are going to finally cash in some frequent flier miles and maybe go to Buenos Aires this fall, and ZOMG WHERE ARE MY CLEAN UNDERWEAR?!
- 0 Comments
- Tags: exhaustion, planning, travel
Top of the Rock
1
Apr
2008
In: Trip Out
Tomorrow I’m headed to NYC again. It’s a short trip for work (I’ll be on a panel at Blogher Business), but I’m going to get to see my friend Tim. Here’s a video of the last time I saw Tim in New York — this at the Top of the Rock. We were enchanted by all the motion-sensitive lights and sounds. This video includes me saying “Ooooh!” about 5 times.
Target Breezeway from arielmeadow on Vimeo.
- 4 Comments
- Tags: nyc, tim, top of the rock
It just wouldn’t be fun without a few WTF/oops moments, right?
* The Hampton in Austin not only has no wifi, not only has just one plug in each room, not only has a password you have to enter, but then has the audacity to then change the password every couple of days. Why do you need to change the password if people have to be physically connected to your ethernet?
* Monday night I had a fragrance accident and went out over-drenched in Karma. Comments included, “What’s that hippie shit you smell like, girl?” and “You smell nice” (translation: “Holy shit, I can smell you from all the way over here”).
* At one point I got on a wild rant about a douchebag I’d met earlier. For effect, I pulled out said ‘bag’s business card, joking as I did so, “You probably know this guy.” And yes, he was totally a colleague of the nice people to whom I was talking.
* I missed Henry Jenkins‘ keynote because I was eating a lackluster veggie burger.
- 5 Comments
- Tags: regrets, sxsw
All in gerunds! (Side note: it still gives me great pleasure to think about how I was laid off from one of my first paid editorial gigs for overuse of gerunds. It’s telling that, at the time, I didn’t even know what a gerund was. HA!)
- Singing one word of karaoke in the RVIP. The one word was Xanadu. Over and over. Plus I think I sang the word “in” a couple times.
- Getting a sunburn while chewing over authenticity, oversharing, politics, rapture, transparency, agents, etc with Baratunde.
- Having the opportunity to share this story at Fray Cafe.
- Enjoying a fabulous dinner with The Hearns at a chain restaurant that shall not be named.
- Hours of late night chatter with Alison in the 2-acre king sized bed we shared
- People watching at Mohawk
- Sleeping 9 hours almost every night. (Sleep deprivation stopped being glamorous for me around 1998.)
- Smelling like dryer sheets with James
- Finally getting to meet a whole ass-load of people who remember reading my website when it looked like this.
- Mis-recognizing Jenville (I knew her face, saw the black bob and thought “Is that Diablo Cody in town for SXSW Film?”)
- Sitting on the floor for 20×2 — which had an enforced two-minute time limit that I really appreciated
- Pulling faces during a photoshoot with Rannie.
- Finally using Twitter the way it was intended.
I took approximately 10 photos, half of which didn’t turn out. I also managed to stay out of many other people’s photos, which makes me feel like I lucked out since everyone joked about “What happens at SXSW stays on Flickr.” Be glad there are no photos of me, bug-eyed and sweating during hour 8 of that late night alcohol/caffeine binge.
I head back home today, and then will be deliciously unplugged tonight with the fabulous wünderspousen.
- 11 Comments
- Tags: bloggers, conference, networking, sxsw
![Spritual [sic] Path](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2266/1893506730_50327a768e_m.jpg)
This weekend Dre and I went on a little retreat to Harbin Hotsprings, a hippie hotsprings resort a few hours north of SF. We have a friend who lives/works there with his partner, and we figured what better excuse to visit than having a hippie host to show us the ropes?
We had a most delicious weekend filled with soaking and hiking and talking and sitting by waterfalls and laying naked in the sun and just generally enjoying ourselves. If you’re a particular kind of person, you should DEFINITELY head to Harbin immediately.
As for what kind of person that might be, I’ll repost the review I just wrote on Yelp … partially in response to some of the other reviewers who were like ZOMG GROSS - HIPPIES R NAKEDZ!!11!!!1@!! …
Unplugged Night #28: Shambhala Music Festival
12 Aug 2008 In: 52 Nights Unplugged, Happiness & Health, Trip OutI spent this last weekend at my favorite festival in the whole wide world: Shambhala. The sad news this year was that Dre couldn’t go due to having used all his vacation time with family this spring. The good news was that I was there with over a dozen of my closest beloveds so while I missed my MOST beloved, it was still a great time. Plus, I got to ride in style, making the 8+ hour drive to the festival in a friend’s RV. Classy!
The RV was extra awesome because on the way home I came down with the worst stomach bug I’ve had in years, and it was really convenient to be able to barf in the RV rather than hitting every rest stop between Nelson, BC and Seattle. Ug. If this past weekend was a high point of the year, the two days since have been the low point. Barfing and crying is a really pathetic combination.
Thankfully, I’m finally on the mend and managed to eat half a bowl of pho and keep it down this evening! Then I left the house for the first time in 48 hours, leaning on Andreas and creaking around the block like an old man missing his orthotics.
- 3 Comments
- Tags: canada, health, shambhala
Every summer, Andreas and I go out to Wildhorse Island in Montana’s Flathead Lake. Dre’s mom has a rustic cabin out there, and each summer we make a pilgrimage to go sit and read and talk and walk and enjoy the lake.
So, last weeks’ unplugged night was actually an unplugged two days … which I figure is a great way to celebrate being half-way done with my year of nightly Unplugging.
And now for you … photos.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
- 4 Comments
- Tags: 52-nights-unplugged, family, montana, travel, vacation
Meadowfabulous 2008
29 Jul 2008 In: Trip OutMost of the weekend
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
Another year of Meadowfabulous! What can I really say other than that I love being with my friends in the woods? I love it when the only thing separating the people I love are forested paths. I love it when mornings start with a stumble into a meadow. I love it when whichever way I turn there’s someone to hug.
Meadowfabulous was different this year, though: no soundsystem. We had an ipod hooked up to a speaker, but the focus was less on dancing and freaking out than it was on sitting around the campfire and catching up. I think we just lost 5% of our last remaining raver cred.
We also had about a third less people, which was a very conscious decision, and very difficult to enforce. Anyone who’s read my book knows how hard it is for me to play bouncer. I hate it, and this year I got some practice saying things like “I’d really rather you not bring that person because I’ve seen them perhaps once in the last year and I don’t really know them.” But it was worth it to have a gathering where everyone fit around the campfire. I suppose this means I’m in a social contraction right now.
Ariel (if she were a Japanese tourist)
Originally uploaded by Andreas Fetz.
Last weekend Andreas took me to Victoria, B.C. for a late Birthday getaway. We had a great time being tourists and taking photos and enjoying the friendly Canadianess of the city. O Canada: It’s where everyone’s nicer.
Anyway, here are my pics, and here are Dre’s. Not captured: me barfing on the Clipper.
- 8 Comments
- Tags: canada, vacation
Hard at work
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
This weekend I got sent to Portland on assignment. My task? To try a specialty cocktail at a place called Mint.
I brought Cienna along, and she decided to write something for The Stranger about the restaurant, so we tag-teamed the owner/mixologist Lucy Brennan with questions.
It was one of those charmed trips where where there just happened to be a street fair when we arrived, where the hotel had our dogs’ names on a welcome board when walked in the door. Where the public transit took us exactly where we wanted to go in no time flat. Where, once we got to Mint, it felt like I’d stepped into the Portland set of the L Word — where every single server was a hot woman with a great smile, where the drinks were all magical and earth-shatteringly good, and where the food just kept coming.
- 11 Comments
- Tags: freelancing, portland, writing
Ziploc of fluids
8 Apr 2008 In: Trip OutI’ve been traveling a lot these past six weeks, which always seems to happen to me in late winter/early spring. I come out of this not-unpleasant seasonal affective disorder hibernation and all of a sudden trips appear out of the blue and it’s all HURRY, HURRY YOU’RE GOING TO MISS YOUR FLIGHT ZOMG WHERE’S MY ZIPLOCK OF 3 OUNCE FLUIDS AND WHAT DID I DO WITH MY CLEAN UNDERWEAR? Granted, I’d had SXSW planned for several months, but the two random trips to NYC in late February and then early April were both total surprises that came out of nowhere. And now we’re headed to Missoula this weekend for my sister-in-law’s baby shower and the whole family going to an Elton John concert. (!!!)
And of course it’s already time to start blocking out summer weekends for various camping trips, hikes, festivals, vacations, weddings, etc, and Dre and I are going to finally cash in some frequent flier miles and maybe go to Buenos Aires this fall, and ZOMG WHERE ARE MY CLEAN UNDERWEAR?!
- 0 Comments
- Tags: exhaustion, planning, travel
Top of the Rock
1 Apr 2008 In: Trip OutTomorrow I’m headed to NYC again. It’s a short trip for work (I’ll be on a panel at Blogher Business), but I’m going to get to see my friend Tim. Here’s a video of the last time I saw Tim in New York — this at the Top of the Rock. We were enchanted by all the motion-sensitive lights and sounds. This video includes me saying “Ooooh!” about 5 times.
Target Breezeway from arielmeadow on Vimeo.
- 4 Comments
- Tags: nyc, tim, top of the rock
It just wouldn’t be fun without a few WTF/oops moments, right?
* The Hampton in Austin not only has no wifi, not only has just one plug in each room, not only has a password you have to enter, but then has the audacity to then change the password every couple of days. Why do you need to change the password if people have to be physically connected to your ethernet?
* Monday night I had a fragrance accident and went out over-drenched in Karma. Comments included, “What’s that hippie shit you smell like, girl?” and “You smell nice” (translation: “Holy shit, I can smell you from all the way over here”).
* At one point I got on a wild rant about a douchebag I’d met earlier. For effect, I pulled out said ‘bag’s business card, joking as I did so, “You probably know this guy.” And yes, he was totally a colleague of the nice people to whom I was talking.
* I missed Henry Jenkins‘ keynote because I was eating a lackluster veggie burger.
- 5 Comments
- Tags: regrets, sxsw
All in gerunds! (Side note: it still gives me great pleasure to think about how I was laid off from one of my first paid editorial gigs for overuse of gerunds. It’s telling that, at the time, I didn’t even know what a gerund was. HA!)
- Singing one word of karaoke in the RVIP. The one word was Xanadu. Over and over. Plus I think I sang the word “in” a couple times.
- Getting a sunburn while chewing over authenticity, oversharing, politics, rapture, transparency, agents, etc with Baratunde.
- Having the opportunity to share this story at Fray Cafe.
- Enjoying a fabulous dinner with The Hearns at a chain restaurant that shall not be named.
- Hours of late night chatter with Alison in the 2-acre king sized bed we shared
- People watching at Mohawk
- Sleeping 9 hours almost every night. (Sleep deprivation stopped being glamorous for me around 1998.)
- Smelling like dryer sheets with James
- Finally getting to meet a whole ass-load of people who remember reading my website when it looked like this.
- Mis-recognizing Jenville (I knew her face, saw the black bob and thought “Is that Diablo Cody in town for SXSW Film?”)
- Sitting on the floor for 20×2 — which had an enforced two-minute time limit that I really appreciated
- Pulling faces during a photoshoot with Rannie.
- Finally using Twitter the way it was intended.
I took approximately 10 photos, half of which didn’t turn out. I also managed to stay out of many other people’s photos, which makes me feel like I lucked out since everyone joked about “What happens at SXSW stays on Flickr.” Be glad there are no photos of me, bug-eyed and sweating during hour 8 of that late night alcohol/caffeine binge.
I head back home today, and then will be deliciously unplugged tonight with the fabulous wünderspousen.
- 11 Comments
- Tags: bloggers, conference, networking, sxsw
This weekend Dre and I went on a little retreat to Harbin Hotsprings, a hippie hotsprings resort a few hours north of SF. We have a friend who lives/works there with his partner, and we figured what better excuse to visit than having a hippie host to show us the ropes?
We had a most delicious weekend filled with soaking and hiking and talking and sitting by waterfalls and laying naked in the sun and just generally enjoying ourselves. If you’re a particular kind of person, you should DEFINITELY head to Harbin immediately.
As for what kind of person that might be, I’ll repost the review I just wrote on Yelp … partially in response to some of the other reviewers who were like ZOMG GROSS - HIPPIES R NAKEDZ!!11!!!1@!! …
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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