Michael freakkinn Franti

On Tuesday night I went to my 5th Michael Franti and Spearhead concert with tickets graciously provided by my mom. I've been in love with him and his music for a long time, he's a reggae/ rock mix and his lyrics are beautiful. He's an incredible entertainer and by far my favorite to see live. The concert started out amazing as usual and for his last song he asked all the kids to come up on stage, my mom and I rushed to the front only for to security to stop us, but I yelled, "I'm a kid, thats my MOM!" and pointed to the lady next to me. We were let on stage and next thing I knew I was dancing next to Michael Franti himself singing "I got love for you". It was amazing, the hott guitarist kept walking by and squeezing my shoulder, my "you're a free card" look wasn't acknowledged. Damn.
After Michael finished singing I told him how great his music was and blah blah blah using very big Alli Suvanto arms to show how great he was (she talks very ascetically with her arms) and he totally gave me a hug, NOT initiated by me. His sweat leaving behind my whole right side of my body as I said more and more compliments and then said "you know who got my stoked on your music? my mom" He said I know I recognize her, you have a rad mom, and gave me his guitar pick. AHHHHHHH! My karma is insane as of lately!! By the way that was my moms 15th MF concert. Insane.

loving love lovingly

I don't know about you, but I often check the date and think back to what I was doing a year ago. I love doing that because it shows me how much my life changes from year to year, it's exciting, sometimes sad but mostly humbling. A year ago I was living downtown near PGE park with my room mate Lyndsey. I had dropped out of school and was only working about 15 hours a week. I think around this time I had bought myself a present being the iphone, I was most likely snowboarding and drinking some type of alcohol. I was organizing my upcoming adventure with my two best friends for that summer and then my next for that fall being Australia. I was pissed off at the world for not going my way so I was making it go my way. Now I'm back from my rant around Oregon, California, Australia and Fiji and ready to calm down just a tad. But with some new obtained life knowledge.
Unpacking my boxes was an experience. I hadn't seen my photos, art, books etc in almost a year and they told me stories about the Claire that had last seen them. My life continues to drastically change from year to year and I love it. I love being in a constant state of chaos, I think that's one of the many reasons I'll make a damn good nurse.
Cliche sayings, we tell each other are cliche because they are true. "Time will heal" and "it can only go up from here", I just wish it was easier to believe those quotes during that time. I'm feeling those quotes at the moment and it feels damn good. It feels good for things to be actually going my way. And you know what, to some extent we CAN choose life to go our way. And ironically (or maybe not) the class I'm in right now, my professor just agreed with me, and now is lecturing about "mood conditioning". Things like this keep happening to me and its kinda freaking me out.
I'm a science major, a realist and believe what I study. But through science it explains a lot of beauty in life.

My main man Mr.Issac Newton said:
"Energy can't be created nor destroyed" which is the first law of physics and my first proof to myself in not only God, but the power of karma and positive energy. Before you move your cursor to the "x" button because I said the "G" word, hear me out. God in Claire's definition is much different from your average Christians opinion. God to me is every God to every religion and not every God at the same time. God is loving all people and experience the world. God is loving your ex-boyfriends new girlfriend and wishing them the best. God is forgiving your mom for putting you second as a teen. God is spending spring break in Haiti rebuilding homes. God is love. When we make the choice to put love first, truly truly a new world opens. I believe this karma I have had in the past 10 months has been because of this new attitude I managed to acquire. Being positive does wonders. When something bad happened, I gave myself 30 minutes to cry and feel bad for myself and then I forced myself to believe there is purpose in this negative happening. whether it be a lesson to myself, another person or another reason I can't comprehend.

God to my doesn't isn't religious. Actually I think religion is crap. It's man-made therefore flawed. God should be unique to every person, because every person is unique. My mom is a big inspiration to me. life is hard sometimes and for her, it got pretty hard about 2 years ago. My step dad was my mom's significant other for 10 years and also employer, as an ophthalmologist she worked in his office. Last winter he had left her for another woman, so at 55 years old she found herself jobless and house-less. It makes me look at my worries and realize there are much greater dramas in life, being selfish creatures, its hard to solidify that fully unless it hits home. At 55 years old my mom is happy and doing things for herself. She has let go, moved on and dating someone new. I could not imagine being 55 and suddenly finding myself alone. But she found the strength to let go, love and accept. She a different person in such a good way and our relationship is on a whole new level. This is major proof to me that bad things that happen in life have reason, we just have to find it.

and once again another cliche quote, because its true. "Love is everything"

Drive a manual: a check off the bucket list

Its official.. I CAN DRIVE A MANUAL.

Working as a nanny in Australia I was forced to drive a manual to take the girls to school. I had driven a manual a hand full of times before coming to Australia and I knew the general idea, but definitely didn't feel comfortable on the road! After driving on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road and shifting on the wrong side, I felt pretty comfortable driving my grandpas manual truck yesterday. My mom isn't exactly the best driver anyway, but I decided to give the passengers a break from her stop and go's. I'm stoked because this is yet another thing I can check off my bucket list.

Fiji: reminding the world to live simply

Booking my flight back to the states, almost all the layovers where in Fiji. So Ben and I said screw it and decided to pay a few extra 100 to stay in Fiji for 6 days. After talking to other backpackers who had made their way through Fiji they recommended not booking anything until we got there. Other then the first night, I listened to my fellow travels. The hostel we were staying at was what is considered a backpackers resort, so its really nice. We booked a standard private room which would be very basic double, but the reception messed up on reservations and was forced to give us the ocean view suite! I was stoked. The Canadian guy I had met in the shuttle came up to me and said there was another guy from Portland here, stoked I finally met someone from my rad city. Ben and I talked to an English guy that had been in fiji for a month, he recommended going to mana island so we booked it.
Arriving to Mana we were greeted by guitars and people of all colors singing us a welcome, I loved it. our room was very minimal but we didn’t care. The power was only on from 5pm-8am and breakfast lunch and dinner served a certain times as well, food is included when staying at Mana because there are no restaurants and supplies are limited. The first few days Ben and I ventured around the island which takes about a hour to walk all the way around. Tom Hanks Castway Island was viewable on the other side of the island, Wilson and Tom say hi.
Later that afternoon we went fishing with the locals. Moses is a big Fijian men with the most hilarious laugh, we picked up Eleanor on the way who is a cute lady that lives in huge holiday house. The family that owns it only comes a few times a year and she looks after it when they aren’t there, nice deal! We fished for about 3 hours, Ben caught a nice size tuna and myself catching only a small rainbow colored fish, at least it was pretty. We were rained on about half way through, but that didn’t stop the islanders. Our success with the amount of fish was minimal, the Fiji experience maximum.
Later that night was the crab races, Ben’s crab ended up winning and as a prize got a free snorkeling trip the next day. we drank a stupid amount of wine and hung out with the other backpackers, Mana definitely has a more personal feel then most hostels, obviously because we are on small island.
The next night was “Fijian Night”, the staff did some amazing tradition dances, followed by the Kava ceremony. Kava is a plant that they grind up and make a drink out of it, the effect of the Kava is unexplainable. We moved all the tables together and everyone got to know one another, it had been one of the English guy’s birthday and he was sharing his chocolate cake with everyone. Good thing because Ben and I were having a serious chocolate craving and almost considered buying a block a chocolate for $16. The taste of Kava is not enjoyable, but not hard to get down. I decided I wanted to chat with the Fijians, so we moved to next to the kava bowl. Juno, Marie, Tony, were extremely friendly, we ended up drinking kava till 3am. Juno played the guitar, we all talked about life and I taught the Fijians how to play “bullshit”. Ben and I were the last to bed, it was an amazing night.

I got to know Juno pretty well and found him fascinating. He is a very confident 24 year old who’s profession to just simply live life. He has had every job under the sun, but prefers a low paying activities director job on small Mana Island, one of those people that I found myself listening a lot more then talking. When Ben went to the bathroom, he told me “I’ve met a lot of people, from all over the world, he’s a good one Claire” I smiled and agreed.
me: “you need to shave.. whats the evolutionary advantage to facial hair?”
ben: “to shield us from the elements, while I go and hunt wolly mammoths to being back big steaks for you to cook. And youre at home gathering berries and watching after 5 kids”
me: “you really think that would be me?”
ben: “actually no, you would be the witch of the town, talking about equal rights nonsense and being burnt to the stake.”
me: “hahaha yea that sounds about right”

The next morning we ventured to “survivor beach” were the show was filmed. A hurricane a few years ago destroyed most of the buildings, but the ceremonial building and circle was still there. The beach was extremely small and the buildings for the “staff” lined almost the whole beach. The walk was only 10 minutes from the village, so I’m sure the “survivors” could have ordered some fries at Ratu Kinis if they really wanted to. Not overly surprised that TV falsifies a majority of what we see, it was still cool to see where it all went down. Also to see the “authentic” stone chairs and building where made from styrofoam.
I was sad to leave Mana. The staff was amazing and the nights were insane, none the less I was stoked to leave knowing I got the island experience and not the tourist resort. Anddd guys, Fiji is CHEAP. Go there not Hawaii. Bula!!

5 months 29 days later from my first night in australia..

The last night in Australia couldn’t have been any better. Ben and I had met up in Tanilba Bay near Newcastle on Saturday then made our way to Sydney on Sunday for our flight the next day. We went to grab some dinner and found that there were a lot of gays wandering the streets, not out of place for Sydney but stoked to find that Mardi Gras was still in full swing. It was a beautiful night in the harbor city, Ben hadn’t been before, so his American girlfriend showed him around haha. After I played tour guide around the opera house, we decided to follow the sound of techno, knowing rainbow flags and half naked bodies would soon appear. Sure enough on the other side of the botanical gardens on the harbor was the “recovery dance party”, the parade had been the night before and what other way to get rid of a hang over then drinking more and dancing. Tickets were $140 and not exactly in the budget of Ben and Claire, instead we watched the glitter coated bodies drunkenly dance on their yachts, truly loving life. We walked around to the other side to get the view from the hill and sat and people watched, also taken in the pure positive vibe. Ben and I played “who can find a girl first” and “who’s not gay”, while doing so an Asian man with broken English asked what was going on, and we replied with the name of the party assuming he knew that Sydney is well know for the Mardi Gras. Confused by the name “recovery dance party” he suggested a new name of “friendship party”. Ben laughed and in his aussie voice said, “no mate, it’s the Mardi Gras”. The little Asian men squealed with embarrassment and ran up the hill sheltering his family from the scary gays. I found it quite hilarious, what is it about Asian tourists that make them so damn funny? They take photos in front of EVERYTHING and if a peace sign is not accompanied in the photo, a stern face is.
I decided to have my last aussie beer at the rocks, which is a well known area near the harbor where the workers for the harbor bridge lived during construction. It’s a rad place with an old time feel, laid back bars with live bands, my kind of style. I had a James Squire amber and drank it happily, but paying close attention to the bitter after taste if you know what I mean.
*side note.. ummm best day ever. My lap top is an old dog and that battery doesnt communicate to the charger so it always has to be plugged in. after literally a year it just started working. I’m beyond stoked right now. Wowowowowwww. I’ve had some seriousy good karma come around in the past month, Thanks world!