April 24th, 2004.

Oberlin Ohio, as has been related, is absolutely beautiful, though perhaps too small for my taste. It’s bigger than California (7 numbered streets and three cross streets named after fruit), but not by much.

Our host, Aaron, gave us a patch of floor and a tour and then let us loose, as he was neck deep in preparations for the upcoming festival… all of this was actually in the couple of hours before Sharif made it up, so we got to be all knowledgeable at him when he arrived.

Aaron took us on a tour of he Oberlin campus, which is filled with an eclectic collection of buildings, many of which resemble churches, but aren't.This is "Fairkid" Chapel. — Aaron took us on a tour of he Oberlin campus, which is filled with an eclectic collection of buildings, many of which resemble churches, but aren’t.This is “Fairkid” Chapel.

Another beautiful Oberlin building. This has a big domed observatory on the other side.

Oh, the insolence of those nutsy college kids.

The Beltane Festival itself was fantastic. Smaller, perhaps than I had hoped, but all in all it was an awesome time… so many moods over the course of the day. Aaron has yet another house-guest on his floor for the night, and we’re rehashing the festival, rehashing the moods. We’ve both retreated back to the house, tired of all the people… Miriam is crashed on the OTHER side of the floor (I explained that THIS patch of floor was the ilyAIMY side) with Aaron’s little cat. She has latched her claws in to Miriam’s sleeping bag and has decided that YES – this is where she shall clean EVERY part of her body. (the cat, not Miriam – all of that made sense, right?)

Sharif and I celebrate the grass and the overwhelming yellow of dandelions. Both of us ended up dusted in pollen and attacked by bees. We spent most of Friday night like this, wandering around before heading over to the drive-in. We lead a particularly good Life at the moment. We’re not QUITE worried about money, balancing on a fine edge between scraping by and… not. I could very much Live the rest of my Life like this, but am worried that I won’t be able to in a couple of years – that I’ll be too old for people to let me get away with it. But by then, I hope to be moving on to better things… hrm.

Anywho, the day started with sunshine and COLD. It’s SO cold up here, which just isn’t right, I mean – it’s not like we’re North enough to warrant Arctic freeze – but here we were, well into shriveledge temperatures, making me SO glad I’d not gone with Aaron’s style-sense – i.e. wearing a kilt. He came to really regret his wearing of such garb, or at least he came to regret wearing it in the traditional matter, as I wrassled him a bit after the show and …. well, I let his dangly bits free. They got all over. It was very sad and I scared some of the locals permanently, I fear.

The festival in full swing. Numerous booths of candles and books and jewlery and knives. No food though. Sigh.

We played okay, considering I couldn’t hear anything… but we had bellydancers, and that generally makes everything better. They breed them beautiful in Oberlin.

Our sound check gathered a huge crowd, and we should’ve figured a way to start our show then, but we waited till our assigned slot – still drew a crowd (perhaps everyone who was there), but the bulk of the peoples had meandered home.

Aaron, all disheveled after the dangly bits freedom moment.

Knife throwing - unfortunately, it was just a demonstration, rather than a come one come all sort of situation - and Sharif had to sit on the side-lines and watch, his knife wiggling eagerly, but sitting ignored in his pocket.qKnife throwing - unfortunately, it was just a demonstration, rather than a come one come all sort of situation - and Sharif had to sit on the side-lines and watch, his knife wiggling eagerly, but sitting ignored in his pocket. — Knife throwing – unfortunately, it was just a demonstration, rather than a come one come all sort of situation – and Sharif had to sit on the side-lines and watch, his knife wiggling eagerly, but sitting ignored in his pocket.

In the future, we suggest squirrel-throwing as an amusement. They've got a couple big fat ones in the park there, and a couple of albino ones which should be easy to catch, easy to hold, and easy to chuck a pretty good distance. — In the future, we suggest squirrel-throwing as an amusement. They’ve got a couple big fat ones in the park there, and a couple of albino ones which should be easy to catch, easy to hold, and easy to chuck a pretty good distance.

Squirrely squirrely - you can't tell from the pictures how orange he was. His fear is unrelated to Sharif and ze knife. — Squirrely squirrely – you can’t tell from the pictures how orange he was. His fear is unrelated to Sharif and ze knife.

Poor Sharif, wants to be in Heather and will take her any way he can get her. Whoa – I didn’t mean that. This is us just sprawling in the dandelions together. Then we were ALL pollenated, and we were ALL attacked by bees. Sigh. So sad.