House Of Many Colors

House Of Many Colors, originally uploaded by Catherine Jamieson.

It was a fun weekend.

Sara called last minute on Friday to say she was having a belated birthday party. Could I come over for some lasagna and merriment? Um, could I and how. I haven't seen Sara that much in the last month or two, so it was good to hang out and see her and hear about new things going on in her life.

The party was full of bikers. Not motorcycle riders, but road bikers. Mountain bikers. Guys who said, I kid you not, that they wanted to be buried with their bikes. That if they went down on a trail their main concern was not if they hurt themselves but if their bike was okay. So cute.

Sara's boyfriend is a Bike Guy to an Nth degree. He had stories of "importing" bike parts into many South American countries and of riding his bike 17,000 feet down the Andes.

"You start 17,000 feet up," he said, "and by the end of the day you are at 1,000 feet in a rain forest."

Wow!

Saturday night I went with Dan to an Epiphany party.

The party was full of bikers. Not peddle your own types, but motorcyle riders. Guys who had riden bikes througout Europe, throughout Africa, who knew the ins and the out of roads and engines. And it was filled with truly interesting folk.

"How do you know Clem?" I asked Jim, an older gentleman who told me of taking photos while stationed in Okinawa.

"I met Jim in Lhasa, while on a tour of Asia."

Can you imagine? A motorcycle tour through Tibet? It took him into both India and China as well and he had fun stories of riding in the Himilaya.

Another guy told me stories from the five years he lived in Saudi Arabia. And though he met his wife there, he said he was there for six months before he saw a woman other than a flight attendant.

Another gentleman, 92 years old, is a famous biker. He is one of the (real live) characters in a new movie with Anthony Hopkins that should be coming out soon.

After the party wound down, the last stragglers, of which me and Dan were a part of, ended up in the guest house for more wine, blues and torch songs and a big raging fire. The guest house was amazing and filled with artifacts from Kenya (which they pronounced as Keenya). "Pillows" which were more like head stools (wooden contraptions that cradled your head), and bags, and yoke for oxen. It was great and I took a bunch of photos but the light was really too low to do any of the photos justice.

My second NY's resolution is to get outside my social circle comfort zone. I'm two weekends for two weekends now. Complete success. :) Though, it's only January, so maybe I shouldn't get too excited. Still, a great way to start the year.