~*...going to church...*~

randnorm sunday event in black rock city 2005

quaker meeting for worship
9:00pm-10:00pm
unprogrammed quaker meeting for worship. members and non-members of the religious society of friends welcome. starting an hour before the temple burn. hosted by: automatic subconscious @ esplanade and 6:30


photo by anna kadysheva


randnorm mind grenade
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:16

randnorm pikcha


normdate 5.28.6

anke picked me up this morning around 11am and we headed to whitewater for some end of may shredding. the weather was cloudy and drizzly in town, so we were hoping that meant it was snowing at whitewater. hey, we can dream can't we?



the road to the hill was dirt, mud, and full of potholes, so we slowed things down and took our time. we even had to stop and let a few deer cross :) to our dismay, raining in nelson meant lots of rain at whitewater. the cloud cover was dumping rain on the hill :( so anke and i decided to chat with each other in the car for a bit and see if we could wait out the storm.

i was glad to see that there was still lots of snow on the hill, even at the end of may \m/^_^\m/


i love chatting with anke. she presents such a new and different perspektiv for me. german kultcha embracing western kultcha...and she's also very easy on the eyes ;)




the rain had stopped, so anke and i decided to throw the frisbee around in the parking lot.


its so good to be a guy. yes, i take pix of everything :p

as the sun began to break through the clouds, we noticed a krew of three snowboarders descending the mountain. anke and i cheered in celebration of both the sun and the dedication of the true purist riders coming down the mountain.


we ended up celebrating spring tracks with them by burning some locally grown herbalizms. daam this place rawkz.


with the sun shining (sorta), anke and i seized the opportunity to hike up the mountain to shred some spring snow.



the melting snow created a river at the base of the mountain and you could hear the water flowing beneath us.



because the silver king side is in direct sunshine (when its sunny), there wasn't enough snow on that side to ride. it was actually pretty barren. but the summit side, which is in the shade, still had enough snow to shred.



less snow on the mountain does not mean less of an incline. hiking up a mountain is still hiking up a mountain, no matter what season you do it in...and it takes a lot of strength and endurance to meet that challenge. gaia makes you work for it.


halfway up the mountain we decided to take a little break. we could see all of the silver king side from where we were. its so wierd seeing the mountain that i spent the entire season shredding, but without snow on it.


as we listened to the mountain melting, hearing the river it created flow beneath us, anke asked me what i thought a sin was. inspired by a local dvd by bill heath filmed at whitewater called sinners, anke was confused by the film title.


she believed that a sin was any act that broke the rules laid out by the church. she could not understand why skiing powder could ever be considered a sin. it brought up the question of what is church?

as we looked around at magnificence of nature that surrounded us, anke said to me "norm, this is my church."


i had to agree. walking up a mountain is like a difficult and steep path to heaven. there is no place higher in the world that you can walk to than the top of a mountain. and seeing as it was also sunday, it was quite appropriate that we were at church together.

it got me thinking of what a church is to me. if god is the creator, then she must exist in all that she creates. to me, church is any place where people praise and worship divine creation, and that was exactly what anke and i were doing today as we hiked up the summit peak of whitewater. some people worship creation through song, some through prayer, some through random acts of kindness...and there are those of us who worship creation by shredding the shit out of snow!



if church is any place where people praise and worship divine creation, then a sin is any conscious act that fucks with creation. as a little tongue in cheek, i can undersatand why the dvd is called sinners: its so good its bad, or perhaps gaia didn't cover mountains with snow so we could shred it, so riding it is fuckin with creation. either way, it was still difficult to explain the wittiness and humour of the dvd title to someone who has only been speaking english for a year.

i had my poi with me, so anke and i spent some time tuning into the prana of the mountain for one last time together.


it actually began to snow on us (wet snow), so anke and i decided not to walk the rest of the way up to the peak and ride down instead.


the snow was very sticky and slow, but we didn't care. we just pointed straight down and let momentum carry us through the stickiness.


this place is a gem. those who know are here. we're still riding at the end of may, fuck! the best snow falls here at whitewater, and there are always fresh tracks to be made if you're willing to walk to it. there's always a jump to hit if you're willing to build it...


i'm so glad i got to ride with you anke. jonas, we thought of you as we hiked (i used your poles). frederic, thanks for a great season. this place fukkin rawkz! i'm definitely coming back.


those who know are here, those who don't are somewhere else...and that's just fine with the people who are here.



best season of my life. fuck yeah!

~*...normaste...*~

~*...a ho that volunteers...*~

randnorm saturday event in black rock city 2005

celebrate the dawn
5:30am-8:30am
gather all spiritual warriors to this place; give thanks on this day for all things. feed the firewith artifacts and symbols of the old world. offer medicine and magic for the new world. celebrate this dawn of fires that will open spirit doors. hosted by: lavender girl & moonfire

photo by tim timmermans

randnorm mind grenade
i wish i was a glow worm 'cause a glow worm's never glum. how can you be sad when the sun shines out your bum?

randnorm pikcha


normdate 5.27.6



i woke up early today and headed down to the post office to volunteer at the nelson food and bottle drive. the sun was shining brightly, though not very warm that early in the morning.



this was the 13th annual food and bottle drive for the nelson food cupboard and our daily bread (soup kitchen). canada post donated four post vans to help collect the donations. flyers were distributed to every household in nelson the week before encouraging people to place their donation of empty bottles and non-perishable food items at the end of their driveways for pickup.


i jumped into a minivan driven by a man named ron and headed to lower fairview. the community response to the food and bottle drive was overwhelming to me. it wasn't long before the van we were driving was full of bottles and food, so full that we had to return to the post office to unload because there was no space left.


after unloading he van, i jumped into a pickup truck and headed uphill to gather more donations. once again, we were overflowing with donations...bottles were falling out of the back of the truck we were so full. this community gives, and gives, and gives. it was inspiring, and so rewarding to be a part of it all.


i got to see so many parts of this city that i had never explored before. it just reminded me again how breathtakingly beautiful nelson is, and how community is passionaely embraced by the people living here.


by noon, the parking lot of the post office was full of empty bottles and non-perishable food items. the next task was to sort all of the donations, but that was to happen after our pizza and kfc lunch. man, it had been so long since i had eaten the dirty bird, i forgot how delicious fast food chicken was. it was a pleasant departure from my usual diet of grilled cheese and mr.noodle ;)



after sorting cans for about an hour, i helped marya, the coodinator of the nelson food cupboard, pack up a truck with food donations and headed to the united church to drop them off. it was like christmas, so much food, so many options. our challenge was finding the space at the church to store it all.


marya and i organized and packed the cupboard the best we could with all of the food donations. what an incredible day. it was a high for me seeing the community come together and give so generously. i have never felt community like this before in my life. it is majik.

i left marya at the cupboard and headed to the dancing bear to pick up anke. we were going to a pimp and ho party later and needed to buy costumes at the salvation army. how did the salvation army every get the name sally ann?


turns out the sally ann was having a sale...fill up a basket full of anything you can fit in it for only $9.99!!! talk about a deal. anke ad i were able to grab more than enough gear for the evening, and a few other things too. the biggest score for me was a red adidas jacket that said nelson rep soccer on the front with the name "devine" embroidered on the sleeve. awesomecore! as for our costumes, we scored large. god i love second had stores...now if only the clothes didn't stink like old people ;)

i went home to shower and change for the night. seeing as guys normally play the pimp role and girls the ho role, anke and i decided to switch things up. i had the outfit, but i needed lipstick and eyeliner. this was a bigger challenge than i thought seeing as most of my friends are hippies.


hey, got any lipstick?
no
eyeliner?
no
deodorant?
no

fukkin hippies *lol*

my friend brittany had lipstick, so the plan was for me to drop by the dancing bear to grab anke and then go get brittany. on my way to the dancing bear, i stopped off at brett and reuben's place to say hi. there was a little jam session going on there, still beaming from last night's celebrations.


it had been a while since i was at brett and reub's place, and the creativity was more powerful there than ever before: the walls had become a canvas for drawings, words, art, and majik. it looked awesome.




and even without makeup, i made a good lookin ho.


anke had eyeliner, so i was one step closer to my transformation into a certified ho. anke looked fukkin great as a pimp. red looked good on her. we jumped into her car and headed to fairview to pick brittany up. daam britz made a good lookin ho.



and with some lipstick and eyeliner, i make a good lookin ho too.


our pimp didn't look so bad either...kraazy german pimps!


fluid wasn't very busy by the time we arrived for the party, but that changed within an hour. the outfits were fabulous, one of my favz being a dress made completely out of old ties. not to mention that it was worn by a radiant blonde dreadlocked goddess *melt*


i wasn't surprised that i was the only person at the party dressed in drag. meh, i looked hawt, and i creeped out many guys, maybe because they still wanted to fuck me even after they realized i was a guy *lol* its the goatee that gave it away, or perhaps the hairy legs (wait, i'm in nelson, that's not unusual for girls). personally, i think it was the fanny pack that made me extra fuckable ;)

it had also been a while since i wore my slave collar. the bdsm scene doesn't really exist here in nelson, so someone being pulled around on a leash isn't exactly common fare. then again, neither is a jamasian dressed in drag.


the beatz were a mix of bumpin house and of course some pimp and ho music.

"hey dirty, baby i got your money!"


daam women look good dressed up as dirty, slutty, naughty, goddesses *drool*


the pimps didn't look so bad either


the funny thing about my outfit was that i have never had so many women come up to me, talk to me, grind with me. it was nutz actually. it seems like the secret to gettin bitches is to dres like a bitch ;)


hey, i wasn't complainin. some of the guys had issues, but that was their problem. even had one person i knew refuse to shake my hand as he walked by...he just looked at me with the expression "what the fuck are you wearing?" on his face. meh, can't please everyone...and no matter what the guys thought, i was the one dancing with all the hawt women.

anke and i headed upstairs to the rez avoir to see what was going on there. we definitely were overdressed for the rez, and anke carrying me around on a leash added to the wow factor. once again, it seems that dressing like a bitch brings da bitches to you. me being a bitch went over well with the ladies, the guys were still creeped out.


what an incredible day. from volunteering at the food and bottle drive to skankin it out in drag at a pimp and ho party, there is always something fun to do in nelson.



thanks for being my pimp anke. your pimp hand is well strong ;)



~*...normaste...*~