After 15 years of being a solo singer-songwriter, releasing five CDs, and even gaining some attention with some locally focused songs about Highway 17 and the Starlite Drive-In, Michael Gaither decided it was time to find some “New Best Friends.” Initially, he just liked how fun this inclusive name was for a backing band, but after a year-and-a-half of being in his new group, Michael Gaither and His New Best Friends, he’s finding that the name is actually quite true.
“We see each other every week and we trade Christmas gifts. We check in even when we’re not playing,” Gaither says. “It’s been a really nice experience to get to know these people better, and to have four new best friends.”
The band is essentially playing the same material that Gaither played as a solo artist. Before, he would play alone, or with one or two musicians backing him to give a little bit of depth to the songs. Now it’s transformed into a full-on, Americana-rock outfit.
“Now I can add a great lead guitar player and a full rhythm section and a female harmony singer. So it gives the songs a whole new sound and breath,” Gaither says. “It’s still mellow enough for a brewery, and big enough for a venue or a festival.”
One of the biggest unexpected benefits of the group is that it’s broadened where Gaither is able to perform his music. Even with the brewery scene, for instance, he could play some of the smaller ones before, but not the larger ones, like Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery. This year, he’s hoping to get out there as much as possible with his new best friends—and hopefully make some more.
For those taking a break from alcohol during “Dry January,” there is a light at the end of the tunnel: San Francisco Beer Week returns on Feb. 1 with a week of craft beer events that spill down the Central Coast.
There will be 14 distinct events at breweries and beer-centric businesses in Santa Cruz County to showcase special suds through Feb. 10. Here are a few highlights. The full list of events for the “coast” region can be seen at sfbeerweek.org.
Saturday, Feb. 2 – Sabado Gigante at Lúpulo Craft Beer House: Local personality Tom Lopez and his alter ego El Borracho will host his infamous Lotéria card games, aka Mexican Bingo, throughout the day at Lúpulo, where a special menu of select beers will be on draft.
Tuesday, Feb. 5 – Santa Cruz Brew Cruz Hazed & Confused Tour at Burger in Aptos: Local craft brewery tour company Brew Cruz is hosting two public tours during SF Beer Week. The Hazed & Confused Tour starts at Burger in Aptos and travels through South County, stopping at Corralitos Brewing, Elkhorn Slough Brewery and Ranch Milk to taste some truly dank IPAs.
Wednesday, Feb. 6 – Good Time Lady Friends Tap Takeover at Aptos Street BBQ
Friends and brewery owners Fran Fitzharris of Brewery Twenty-Five, Adair Paterno of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales and Emily Thomas of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing will bring beers from their respective breweries for a tap takeover at Aptos Street BBQ.
Friday, Feb. 8 – Twisted Tasting 2019 at Santa Cruz Civic
The Grand Dame of local SF Beer Week events, this year’s Twisted Tasting promises to blast guests’ taste buds into outer space with a galactic theme. Breweries, beverage businesses and local food purveyors bring their most twisted, creative brews and bites for an always-spectacular event that benefits the Arts Council.
If you’re still in the mood to expand your taste buds after Twisted Tasting, head over to Shanty Shack for their annual release of a mulled ale heated with butter and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Yes, it’s served warm. They promise that it’s good!
Sunday, Feb. 10 – Pucker Up Sunday at Lupulo Craft Beer House
For those who like a beer that bites back, you won’t want to miss this competitive lineup of funky, sour and tart beers.
One morning at the Live Oak Farmers Market, Carin Fortin looks me in the bleary, coffee-sipping eyes and says, “Good things take time.”
Her eyes are a leveling gray blue; a lifeline, if you need it, to an oasis of calm. And like any village herbalist worth her salt (and that’s what I’ve come to think of her as), her slips of wisdom can always be traced back to a garden somewhere. Fortin is a grower and producer of biodynamic herbal remedies out of Corralitos, and I’ve come to her Blossom’s Farm booth to blast myself in the face with vetiver molecules and hover. It’s how I like to get my bearings on the world.
Like many, I was attracted first by the hydrosols—plant distillates made on the farm in an alembic, or copper still, an alchemal method that dates back to the 1st century. The finished product is an atomized spritz of plant molecules small enough to enter the lungs and pores, along with each herb’s varied spectrum of beneficial properties, from antibacterial and anti-inflammatory to aphrodisiac and stress-reducing, to name only a few.
Slowly, I discovered Blossom’s evolving line of bitters, tinctures, tonics, salves, and most recently, skin care products like the popular comfrey face creme.
“I call it skin food,” says Fortin. “Whatever you put on your skin you have to be able to eat, because the skin eats it and your body digests it.” Unlike drug store brands with long lists of ingredients that include questionable if not outright toxic fillers, Blossom’s ingredients stand out for their wholesome simplicity.
Good things do take time. Fortin and her husband Delmar McComb, a longtime biodynamic farmer, farmed for six years at two different locations in Bonny Doon before establishing their Corralitos farm seven years ago. They founded Blossom’s in 2010. But it wasn’t until two years ago that they deemed their products ready for market.
In biodynamics, each growing season is an opportunity to grow healthier genetic stock, as seeds from the strongest, most vital plants are saved. “It strengthens the immune system of the plant, so over generations you will eventually have a plant that is from the place, of the place,” Fortin says. “It’s like terroir in wine.
“Do you have any CBD?” a man at the market asks Fortin.
FARM LIFE From left to right, Kaleigh Berry, Alyx Miller, Keeba Drake, Maira de Leon, Carin Fortin and Popeye (the dog) at the Blossom’s Farm outdoor kitchen. Not pictured: Annie Boheler, the Downtown Farmers Market face of Blossom’s since December 2016. PHOTO: MARIA GRUSAUSKAS
Over the past few months, I’ve begun to linger here, because eavesdropping on Fortin means access to a world of medicinal plants long studied for their effects on the human system, yet largely unknown to the mainstream. It is here I learn about jiaogulan, for instance, “Herb of Immortality,” an adaptogen and powerful blood pressure control agent. And ashitaba, one of the most antioxidant-rich plants on the planet, which Blossom’s received a grant from the Raphael Medical Foundation to grow. Also known as “Tomorrow’s Leaf,” ashitaba has been shown to protect DNA from free-radical damage and increase nerve growth factor (NGF).
Blossom’s grows more than 75 different herbs, and cannabis isn’t one of them.
“It’s beautiful for epilepsy, it’s beautiful for pain,” Fortin tells the man. But, aside from the stigma she holds around growing a plant just for money, she sees the attention cannabis is enjoying post-prohibition as an indicator of society’s thirst for instant gratification. The idea that one drug, one superfood or one plant can be a cure-all is not realistic, she says.
“Healing is a process,” says Fortin. It’s diet. It’s what we are going through emotionally—as individuals and as a society. It’s how we move through the world. “It’s so many things that are all connected. And it’s always changing.”
Blossom’s is one of the only biodynamic operations at the market, and over the years there have only been a handful of others, says Nesh Dhillon, Director of Santa Cruz Community Farmers Markets. “I don’t think people really know what it is,” he says, “Or they have a funny, mystical perception of what it is.”
Living Organism
On a crisp October morning, beehives come into view as I drive through the gates of Blossom’s Farm in Corralitos. The place is thrumming with birds singing in the oak and eucalyptus trees around its perimeter, and a distant rooster crows. It’s only upon visiting this 17-acre slice of paradise that I fully grasp the concept of a biodynamic farm as a living organism.
Its expansive herb garden—where medicinals embraced by various traditions, from Western to Chinese Medicine to Ayurvedic, reach toward the sun—includes blessed thistle, maca root, yakon, burdock, angelicas, elecampane (an expectorant and lung healer that also helps with grief), and tree kale, where companion-planted onions keep the aphids away. Prayer flags flutter in the breeze around a circle of hops, which Blossom’s turns into one of its most popular tinctures that promotes restful sleep and eases tension, muscle spasms and painful menstrual symptoms. But there are also ducks, chickens, rabbits and several plump Scottish Highland Jersey cows.
“They are an essential part of a biodynamic farm,” says Fortin. Manure is harvested from the cows every single day and added to the compost, which Fortin calls the “digestive system” of the farm.
“All waste that’s created is transformed and then used on the farm again,” she says.
In a world where people often take “organic” to mean sustainable—a preposterously false notion, given that “organic” food found in supermarkets is often coming from thousands of miles away—biodynamics may just be the sustainable ideal we think of when we think of organic. Indeed, the book Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism by Dan McKanan reveals that the term organic was coined by Lord Walter Northbourne, to express ideals he had learned from Rudolf Steiner’s original teachings on biodynamics.
And the fat, happy cows that fuel Blossom’s ecosystem are different from what you’d typically see at a large-scale organic dairy operation: they all have horns.“Horns are a cosmic antenna,” says Fortin. Most cows in America are dehorned, which Fortin likens to an amputation. “The horns are part of their metabolic system,” she says.
MOOOVE OVERSophia, a Scottish Highlands Jersey cow at Blossom’s Farm, where cows are an essential part of the farm’s ecosystem. PHOTO: ANNICA ROSE
Fortin is a student of biodynamics and anthroposophy—a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner in the 19th century concerned with human life, spirit and humanity’s future evolution and well-being. She is an active member of the BDANC (Biodynamic Association of Northern California), as well as a planning committee representative for the International Biodynamic conference in Switzerland, where she grew up. Healing is in her blood: her grandmother founded a hydrocolonics spa in 1928 in the Swiss pre-Alps.
Standing near a row of lemongrass stalks, she explains that the herbs Blossom’s grows help on physical, metaphysical and spiritual levels. It’s important to see plants, she says, as more than just a substance.
“As long as we stay on the scientific reductionist level of plants, we can only heal so far,” she says. “Every illness, disease, is an expression of a body out of balance. We are more than a physical body, and if you only address the physical body when healing then you will not heal the whole human being.”
When I arrive, Fortin and her helpers are just finishing a harvest of tulsi, or holy basil, in the late morning sun. The sacred healing herb embraced by Ayurvedic medicine will be distilled into hydrosol that has immune-boosting properties and helps with adrenal fatigue.
“We harvest roots normally in the evening and afternoon hours, because the Earth is breathing in, and then the chi is actually in the roots,” says Fortin. “Right now, the chi is in the plant parts and in the flowers, so that’s why we harvest them in the morning.”
Not only is there more oil content in the plants at this hour, calling for a richer hydrosol, but the moon is waxing, which means it’s a perfect time to make a hydrosol, says Fortin.
“Part of biodynamic farming is consciously working with planetary rhythms. Depending on when we work with certain plants, we look at what the moon is in,” says Fortin. “Biodynamics is very much about rhythm.”
The outdoor kitchen might just be the heart of Blossom’s. This is where the copper still lives, and it’s the gathering place for the farmhands to check in each morning with the day’s tasks, but also with how they are doing physically, emotionally and spiritually. This matters, says Fortin, because it helps them team up. “If somebody is feeling weak, they shouldn’t be hauling hay bales all day,” she says. “In our Bonny Doon garden, we had a lot of helpers, and a lot of these young people had substance abuse problems. Gardening by itself is healing, because you work with all kingdoms—you work with the soil, you work with the plants, you work with animals, and you work with human beings, which is totally healing by itself.”
A mural in the outdoor kitchen depicts yarro, valerian, dandelion, chamomile, and nettles, and the planets that each herb corresponds to.In the middle is oak bark—an important component of a biodynamic preparation that involves a cow skull. And though my interest is piqued, it isn’t until I speak with McComb that I better grasp the biodynamic concept of working with “formative forces” to increase the health of the farm, and planet, as a whole.
Cosmic Clues
On a Sunday morning, just after the Camp Fire smoke cleared from the air, McComb and I sit at a table in the middle of the bustling Live Oak market. Our conversation shines a slice of daylight onto my darkened outlook on the future of humanity. If ever there were a time that synergy between humans and the Earth could benefit the health of each, it is now—though it appears there is much work to done.
The tall, blue-eyed farmer commonly seen wearing a hat and hanging around Blossom’s Farm booth (he also loves to eavesdrop on Fortin, he admits), is fresh from the National Biodynamic Conference in Portland, where he gave a talk on his work transitioning Suncrest Nursery in Watsonville to biodynamic methods.
Demeter International, the world’s only certifier of biodynamic farms and products, defines biodynamics as a holistic regenerative approach to farming.
“Yeah, that’s true,” says McComb, “but what the hell does that mean? What about the cosmos? It is really hard to distill biodynamics into a few bullet points, because you have to understand the big picture.”
For McCombs, that understanding began in his early 20s, when he was working as a horticulturist and a former apprentice of Alan Chadwick gave him a copy of the book Secrets of the Soil by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird.
“If you’re trained like I was in science, you know you apply fertilizer, certain parts per million of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and then you control pests by spraying this or that,” says McComb. “But then you’re reading this book about these guys around a circle of cow horns in the ground—it’s like ‘what?’”
The book that opened McComb’s eyes to anthroposophy and biodynamics presents holistic thinking around climate, health and various types of farming, “including Vedic farming, where you burn cow dung, rice and ghee in a certain ceremony, and it’s thought to enhance the energy of the land,” says McComb. “So there are all these systems out there, and science can laugh at it, but a lot of these are thousands of years old.’”
After 30 years, McComb says he’s seen these systems work. When the co-founder of Blossom’s, who sings opera in his spare time, became the director of horticulture at Suncrest Nursery, he decided to steer the then-fully conventional operation away from chemicals toward a more holistic and biodynamic approach, which hadn’t really been done in a nursery setting. Slowly, he’s transitioned the nursery to more sustainable practices—they now make their own potting soil and compost, and treat plants with organic pesticides only as a last resort—and he established a whole new Demeter-certified division of the nursery, making it the only biodynamic nursery in the country.
“I think there was a lot of skepticism initially, especially at a nursery that had been pretty chemically orientated for 25 years,” says McComb. “But fortunately we’ve won some converts over, and a lot of support for the idea.”
FIELD TRIP Carin Fortin and Delmar McComb of Blossom’s Farm in Northern India near Nepal last year, while on a trip to attend the Organic World Congress in New Delhi and visit biodynamic farms in India. PHOTO: COURTESY OF BLOSSOM’S FARM
But what about the cosmos? In biodynamics, “There are nine herbal preparations that have mineral, plant and animal components that are considered medicines for the land, or enhancers of certain processes,” says McComb.
This is my cue, finally, to ask about the cow skulls.
Oak bark is extremely rich in living calcium, says McComb, the best form of calcium according to Steiner. In one biodynamic preparation, oak bark is packed into the brain cavity of the skull, which represents a mini version of the cosmos.
“It sounds weird,” he says, “but you’re creating medicine. The rhythms of the cosmos are going into the skull, and back out, and back in, and each time it’s making the calcium more alive and more powerful. That finished product is then put in the compost. So the use is to enhance calcium, which is very important in farming.”
But the purpose of this alchemical processes is not actually to apply calcium or other substances physically to the land. It’s to enhance the natural, ethereal processes, says McComb. “Where does calcium come from?” I look into the sky, as if the answer is written in the clouds. “It streams from the universe somehow, and it’s also in our bones, it’s everywhere. There’s a pathway that calcium comes into relationship to the Earth, and ourselves,” says McComb. “So you’re enhancing the pathway for calcium to come into being, so that the plant and the soil actually are able to get the calcium they need.”
It’s the homeopathic opposite of a chemical fertilizer, which McComb says makes plants explode in growth, but also makes them dumb to the cosmos. “Which is a problem,” he says, “especially over time, because seeds get weaker and weaker rather than stronger and stronger, so it’s just this whole different paradigm.”
But McComb admits he’s always been a skeptic, which may be why he looked at me sideways when I told him I felt the energy of the farm long after I’d left it. “When you’re working with energy, there are a lot of people that say, ‘Oh, I feel it.’ And I don’t feel anything, but when I see the results and then I can verify it from years of working with it, I’m good,” he says.
But biodynamics and the larger concepts of anthroposophy are not a return to ancient practices, as I originally suspected. Steiner’s cosmology that spirit and matter are interconnected, says McComb, is a world vision that we’ve been severed from. “It’s not to go backwards to an ancient time, because you can’t do that. There is no de-evolution. So the task of our time is reuniting the two streams, but in a conscious, free way,” he says. “When you’re free, you can make all sorts of choices. You can pull out a gun and shoot people for no apparent reason, you can make GMO crops, so that’s the other side of freedom, but our task is to really understand freedom and the moral responsibilities that come with it, and move forward with this understanding that everything’s connected.So it’s not going backwards, it’s going forward.”
It Takes a Village
It’s 2019, and the day of the village has arguably flown, but farmers markets may be the closest facsimile. These weekly gatherings are the lifeblood of local sustainable ag, and the source of the healthiest food on (and for) the planet. But when Blossom’s brought their tinctures, tonics and endless ethereal delights to market two years ago, they fit in like a missing puzzle piece. Now, it’s hard to imagine the market without them.
In July, when McComb suffered a heart attack followed by several days in the ICU, the farming community rallied to help. Ken Kines of New Natives organized a GoFundMe account, which is still active, to help pay for the couple’s astronomical medical costs. “People sent us food from the markets, and helped out, basically everyone was there for us. It was like all of the farmers stepped up to help,” says Fortin. “The biodynamic community seems to be hammered—we have a lot of farming friends who are either ill right now, or whose barns burned down—but it’s beautiful how we help each other.”
Blossom’s is also providing a unique service to the community—one, it turns out, that people have a real thirst for. Fortin acknowledges that climate change, fires, shootings, and political turmoil are inflammatory to our well-being, even if customers’ main complaints are physical in nature.
“I was really impressed with the vertical integration of their business, because it’s not common,” says Nesh Dhillon, Director of Santa Cruz Community Farmers Markets, recalling his first contact with Blossom’s a few years ago. “They were totally committed to local agriculture and using local ag as the raw ingredients to create their tinctures. It’s such a high-quality product, and there’s a lot of potential with that model … I’m excited to see what they do in the next five years.”
On the cutting edge of a growing biodynamic movement, which is spreading rapidly in India and other parts of the world, Blossom’s founders have reached a new chapter. In addition to quarterly CSH (Community Supported Herbalism) shares of herbal remedies, and five local markets, they’ve just begun selling wholesale. Pregnant cows aside, they look forward to just a little more downtime to pursue what comes next.
“Education is important to us, sharing it with people is important to us, transparency is important to us,” says Fortin. Blossom’s participated in the EcoFarm Conference Bus Tour on Jan. 23, and will host on-farm study groups on biodynamic farming and herbalism this summer. Workshops and other farm events for 2019 will be announced on their website and in their newsletter.
“At the end of the summer, and many times up in Bonny Doon, I was really close to burnout,” says Fortin. “And I think now in history we’re at the point where we’re starting to have people on the farm, where I finally can step away from the organism and Delmar and I can do the needed learning to bring us to the next level.”
It’s 10:52 on a cold and blustery Sunday morning, and I’m seven minutes late for my first-ever hot Pilates class. I’ve arrived at Hot Yoga Aptos (HYA to the regulars) in my knock-off Lulu’s and Big 5 compression wear on a mission: to sweat and suffer and grit through the pain to understand what exactly is behind the scorching-hot trend of extreme-heat fitness. I get my first hint that it’s not just a fad when I realize that the 80-person class I planned to attend is already full.
What began with heated Bikram yoga just a few decades ago has morphed into a full-on, high-temperature movement. Hot spin, barre, boot camp, and Pilates workouts are popping up at studios across Santa Cruz and beyond. Nicole Duke, 42, is a yoga and Pilates teacher who has owned and operated HYA for nine years. “Three years ago, I went from 1,000 members to over 3,000—and it’s growing every year,” says Duke, who charges $130 a month and up for unlimited classes, or $20 for drop ins. “I could schedule a class at 2 a.m. and people would come.”
I had no clue what Pilates was all about when I wandered in—let alone why you’d want to do it in a room heated to 100-something degrees. But here I was, staring into a sparkling, mirror-lined room the size of a high school gymnasium at four rows of 20 barely clothed, tanned, glistening bodies powering in unison through an elaborate core workout. It turns out that to get one of those coveted spots, you usually have to arrive at least 15 minutes early.Barnacles.
My Pilates dream thwarted, I decided to stick around for the noon “Barefoot Boot Camp,” a combination of high-intensity aerobics, weights, stretches, and poses performed in sweltering heat. I got a preview of my fate when 36-year-old Jeff Hicky emerged from the hot Pilates class like an apparition, sweat dripping from every pore. “It’s like going to war,” Hicky says. “This is some of the hardest shit I’ve ever done. I’m using muscles that I never use.”
Most people associate hot exercise—yoga, specifically—with women. But there are plenty of men who flock to classes at HYA. “Guys should take these classes,” says Hicky. “There’s no better way to get in badass shape than in hot Pilates and hot boot camp workouts. It’s hard, but I feel so calm and peaceful when I get out of here.”
I certainly didn’t feel calm or peaceful as I laid down on my (borrowed) yoga mat for the next class. Like clockwork, men and women rushed in to get their favorite places 15 minutes before start time, marking their territory with water bottles, mats, towels, and articles of clothing. I looked around curiously at the tan, fit people filtering in, dreading the things to come and feeling a tad self-conscious about my non-beach-body. A merciful woman named Molly noticed that I didn’t have a water bottle (a huge no-no for any hot workout!) and rushed to the lobby for a dewy liter of Crystal Geyser—my first taste of the community at HYA.
The Drill Sergeant
The energy in the room was already frenetic when Carina Reid, our punky, beach-blond instructor covered neck to ankles in tattoos, skip-jumped to the front of the room and cranked the music up to 11. “What does it feel like to be a badass?” the 45-year-old fitness instructor yelled in her relentlessly peppy way. Even though there were 80 of us in the sticky-hot-mess of a workout space, Reid seemed able to personally reach every one of us with her booming voice.
And we were off—with stretching, aerobics, weight exercises, push-up-like-things, and oh yes, the dreaded squats.The soundtrack was an eclectic mix of hip-hop (Nelly’s iconic “Hot in Herre”), ’90s alternative (Bush’s “Adrenaline”) and other block-rocking beats. The whole class doubled as an elaborate strip tease. I shed my Lulu’s after only 5 minutes, then my shirt, until I was in nothing but my skivvies.
The temperature Duke prefers for her off-the-charts-hot yoga, yoga fusion and hot Pilates classes is between 100-105 degrees, with added humidity and fresh air pumped throughout. Barefoot Boot Camp takes place at a slightly-more-bearable 98 degrees. A sauna, by comparison, is usually set to around 160 degrees.
Proponents of hot exercise offer a long list of benefits, arguing that heated workouts allow you to burn more calories, lose more weight, detoxify your body, and reduce your risk of injury by increasing flexibility and loosening your muscles. Hot fitness evangelists call heat the perfect “accelerator” for workouts like Pilates, Barre, and yoga. They argue that elevated temperatures speed up your heart rate, thereby intensifying a workout and making it more challenging. “The heat brings something out of you that you don’t normally have,” says Reid. “It’s a new beast you’ve never met before, and it challenges and changes you. You just drive harder.”
Super-hot classes aren’t without their potential drawbacks, though. People with heart or lung problems, pregnant women, and people taking medications that affect body temperature are all advised to consult their doctors before taking a heated class. Jason Zaremski, an assistant professor in the University of Florida College of Medicine, has written that overheating and dehydration are the two major risks for anyone participating in strenuous physical activity in high heat: “The major concern is that your body’s core temperature will begin to rise and you put your internal organs and central nervous system at risk.”
As for “detoxing,” the jury’s still out. Technically, you’re sweating out calcium, potassium, and sodium—nutrients your body actually needs. Motivated or comforted by the heat, some people also stretch deeper than they actually should, which can lead to ligament and tendon injuries. Anyone doing hot exercise for the first time needs to be cautious, letting instructors know of any existing injuries. Hydration is crucial.
Still, manyhot fitness regulars contend that the mental benefits of hot exercise can outweigh the physical. They say that the connection you develop with your body during a hot exercise class is drastically different from non-heated classes. More spiritually-attuned enthusiasts say that heated workouts help tame fluctuations of the mind, strengthen the physical body and soften the emotional body.
It only took me a few minutes to forget that I was drenched and almost naked. I was overcome by a strange sense of oneness, comradery and mutual respect. It didn’t feel like anyone was judging me, or really even paying attention to me or my gyrating flab. Each of us seemed to be lost in our elemental selves, where it was okay to just … be.
The details of the never ending high-intensity drills quickly became as blurry as the notes I tried to scrawl in my damp, yellow notebook. My hands slip-and-slided across my yoga mat as I tried to push through the mountain climbers and extreme-yoga poses, weighted squats, and burpees. (If you are unfamiliar with burpees, you are blessed.)
“This is a safe place to get ugly!” Reid yelled. By the end of the class we were ugly, but we felt beautiful. The workout itself was one of the most challenging and rewarding things I’ve ever done. And the heat did add something real and intangible—magical, one might say.
Hot Friends
Reid, who got into fitness as she overcame drug addiction, says that one of the best things about hot fitness is the community that has developed. “It’s a movement—something totally unique and not done before in Santa Cruz County,” she says. “It’s a family that grows stronger together.”
Ultra-marathoners Eisha Carroll and her husband Gavin Sanford are hot-fitness converts. They agree that the “heated workouts help you relax, sweat, detox, and strengthen your cardiovascular system”—an extension of the heat training that elite athletes have long employed to prepare for races in hot environments. The risk of dehydration gets lower because athletes will start to sweat sooner to cool down, losing less sodium.
Carroll and Sanford have been frequenting HYA for almost seven years to train for a long list of marathons in extreme-heat environments. Carroll just finished the Marathon De Sables, a 240-kilometer race through the Sahara Desert. She says that the classes she takes at HYA are essential for her core strength and stamina—for “the center of your essence,” as she puts it.
If training for desert marathons sounds extreme, there’s really nothing “regular” about any of Duke’s offerings at HYA. That’s the point, she says, as the fitness industry expands: “People don’t just want a regular, run-of-the-mill workout. A huge part of our culture is people looking for something that’s not a pill to swallow. They want an experience, and a connection.”
In my boot camp class, there were times during the near-constant barrage of aerobics, gyrations and squats—oh, those dreaded squats—that I didn’t think I could push on. My puny, 3-pound weights morphed into almost-immovable watermelons around the halfway point, and my heart raced like a jackrabbit on steroids. What got me to the finish line were my fellow soldiers.
It seemed fitting that at the 52-minute mark, Aretha Franklin made an appearance. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T/Find out what it means to me,” the soul queen belted. By that point, the mutual respect among the 80 of us in the room was palpable. We were doing something together. Something special. Somehow, it even made me want to come back and do it all over again. Next time, I’ll be early.
At Felton’s Doctor Auto repair shop, Teena Flacco is wondering if and when her customers who work for the government will be back. In Watsonville, Second Harvest Food Bank is bracing for a rush of CalFresh food assistance recipients whose budgets have been thrown off schedule. In Santa Cruz, businesses from restaurants to beauty salons are offering running tabs or free services to locals among the estimated 800,000 workers who went unpaid during a record 35-day federal government shutdown.
Ripple effects are still being felt countywide after President Donald Trump on Friday announced a temporary end to the shutdown that started on Dec. 22, following a budget impasse over his long-promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Dozens of local federal employees have been directly impacted by missed or delayed paychecks, while many more are feeling the effects of altered federal benefits or lost business. Nationwide, reports from the Congressional Budget Office and S&P in recent days have put the cost of the shutdown at between $6-11 billion in lost productivity, some of which may be recouped if the government remains open after a looming Feb. 15 deadline for a longer-term funding deal.
Santa Cruz County is home to relatively small federal outposts for agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Other local residents or businesses rely on income or customers over the hill in Silicon Valley, where there are more federal contractors and research labs for agencies like NASA.
It was late last year when Flacco started to get nervous. Though she and her mechanic husband have steadily grown the Doctor Auto repair business they bought in Felton in 2009, Flacco—the bookkeeper and self-described “worrier” of the pair—was following news about a possible government shutdown. “Immediately I thought, ‘How can we prepare?’” she says.
Though rainy winters are rarely as busy as warmer months, Flacco says her fears materialized when customers dependent on federal income started cancelling appointments or putting off prospective work in December and January. As recently as Monday, the government reopening threw another wrench in the plans.
“We had a customer call out of their appointment today because they went back to work,” says Flacco, a friendly Santa Cruz native who wears a black t-shirt with Doctor Auto’s red, white and blue logo. “We missed out on a couple of really good jobs from over the hill.”
Testing the safety net
On Jan. 25, Trump signed a bill to fund the government through mid-February, after a dive in approval ratings and weeks of back-and-forth about the border wall projected to cost at least $15 billion. Though the President has floated the possibility of declaring a national security emergency to fund the wall, Trump has more recently said that he expects Congress to reach a deal on a wall or “steel barrier” to restore government operations longer term. Congressional Democratic leaders and an array of human rights groups say they still staunchly oppose a wall in any form, leaving open the possibility of another shutdown in the coming weeks.
While the political horse trading continues, Suzanne Willis of the county’s Second Harvest Food Bank says that the short-term deal to reopen the government was crucial.
Now that U.S. Department of Agriculture staff that oversee federal food distribution programs have returned to work, “We definitely have the food,” says Willis, who oversees development and marketing for Second Harvest. The food bank serves an average of 55,000 county residents per month, including many of the 25,000 low-income residents who receive CalFresh food assistance. Already, CalFresh recipients have seen budgets altered by an early allocation of January funds, potentially leaving a longer-than-average gap before the next disbursement now scheduled for March 1.
“We anticipate a significantly larger need in February,” Willis says. “We’re going to feel the effects of this for a long time.”
On social issues like food and housing assistance, the shutdown amplifies a trend toward heavier reliance on nonprofit groups for services once reliably provided by government. In August, an analysis by non-partisan think tank the Public Policy Institute of California reported that Santa Cruz County now has the second-highest poverty level in the state when factoring in high costs of living and reliance on safety net programs, with just shy of 24 percent of households living on less than $34,000 per year for a family of four.
So far, Santa Cruz has not seen the kind of expiring low-income housing contracts or missed rental assistance payments reported in other cities during the shutdown, says Jenny Panetta, executive director of the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz.
“We’re here. We’re open for business,” Panetta said in late January, after monthly rent assistance was paid to landlords of some 4,500 local households that depend on the federal Housing Choice Voucher program, previously known as Section 8 and funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Though the Housing Authority was told HUD had enough cash on hand to pay for February rent assistance whether the shutdown ended or not, the future is more uncertain looking into March and beyond. “We expect they will continue to provide updates,” Panetta says.
Running a tab
Concerns about stunted local spending have been easy to see at businesses like Cafe LimeLight in downtown Santa Cruz, where a hand-written sign on the glass doors informed would-be customers in January that “federal workers may run tab during shutdown.”
At Evolve Beauty Lounge in Capitola, salon Owner Evelyn Durant and her fellow stylists started offering free haircuts for government workers with a valid federal ID in mid-January. A few days after posting the offer on social media, Durant said she had received half-a-dozen calls from workers or their spouses.
“This is one of the first things people stop doing,” Durant says. “It’s a luxury at that point.”
Keisha Frost, CEO of United Way of Santa Cruz County, said the nonprofit’s 2-1-1 service referral line saw calls triple on some days during the shutdown as callers inquired about unemployment assistance or other financial relief. Corporations like AT&T, Airbnb, Comcast and others also offered various payment deferrals or discounts to affected workers, Frost says.
For Flacco, the shutdown has meant making tough choices at the auto shop on Highway 9. While business is “abnormally slow,” she’s also concerned about potential delays for tax returns, permits and licenses currently pending with government agencies. Plans to expand the business and pursue her own car sales license—not to mention non-essential spending, like a rare planned family trip to Disneyland—have been shelved.
“I can’t trust where things are going,” Flacco says. “It’s very confusing.”
United Way of Santa Cruz County’s 2-1-1 hotline provides social service referrals 24/7. Call 211 or visit unitedwaysc.org. Second Harvest Food Bank’s community food hotline operates Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. 662-0991, thefoodbank.org.
Homophobia doesn’t always look like homophobia at first blush.
Sometimes, though, you don’t need to scratch far beneath the surface to see the flaming embers of bigotry. Outright misinformation and stubborn refusals to think critically often fuse together like buried coals, simmering away under an abandoned fire pit.
That’s what happened on Wednesday, Jan. 23, when a photo flashed across Take Back Santa Cruz’s Facebook page showing state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) in a skimpy black leather vest to match a black leather tie and skinny black jeans—none of which had much to do with the true content of the rambling post itself.
The inflammatory post, shared from a California home schooling advocate’s personal page, noted that Wiener recently authored some legislation known as Senate Bill 145. Particular cause for alarm, at least in Santa Cruz’s public safety-oriented crowd, was the fact that the bill’s own language offers certain sex offenders “relief” from registering under Megan’s Law. The post quickly garnered 35 reactions and more than 30 comments.
“Un-freaking-believable” the first commenter wrote.
“DISGUSTING!” wrote another.
Wiener is gay, and his outfit in the posted picture—worn at the 2016 Up Your Alley Fair in San Francisco—did not go over well with the Take Back crowd. The horrifying implication was that Weiner authored the bill to ease sex crime laws and take advantage of young boys, as if he were trying to build some bizarre, real-life Pizzagate cabal from the ground up. (Spoiler alert: He isn’t.)
“Wow, Wiener is a sicko!” one Facebooker wrote. Others made less-than-clever remarks about the names of Wiener and S.B. 145 co-author, Assemblymember Susan Eggman (D-Stockton).
The truth about the bill is that it extends protections to certain gay couples in consensual relationships, which their straight counterparts have had for years. A few users did try to point this out in the comments. Some public safety advocates, meanwhile, called for wider-ranging reforms to an entire system that they generally view as too lenient to start with. But for the most part, those voices got drowned out in the bigger, angrier comment mob before Take Bake administrators froze the comments and then subsequently removed the post altogether.
Most of the Facebooking wingnuts probably never realized that Wiener is, in fact, drafting nothing more than a common-sense piece of civil rights legislation. The fact that it was totally lost on them is kinda the point here.
If nothing else, the short-lived, dumb saga is a reminder that when people are too lazy to do their homeworkbefore typing up an angry comment, they can create an ugly mess, leaving administrators no choice but to go back and put out the whole stupid fire.
PAVINGS ACCOUNT
Starting Friday, Feb. 1, we’ll be adding an extra step to our pre-errand routine before every trip we take driving into downtown Santa Cruz.
That’s right, you’ll find us sifting under the couch cushions for loose quarters. Or asking for spare change at the nearest gas station.
That’s because the city is upping the rates for hourly parking, monthly parking permits and most metered spots. It will also start phasing out parking deficiency fees. Hourly lot rates are doubling from 50 cents an hour to $1.
To make sense of the changes, here’s a short list of folks who might actually support these changing parking rates:
The businesses who’ve been whining about burdensome deficiency fees for years, probably since the days of the horseless carriage
Environmentalists, who oppose plans for a brand new combined library and parking the structure on Cedar Street
Also, if you can believe it, many supporters of said parking structure.
That may all sound confusing and contradictory. Supporters and opponents of a development agreeing on a financing structure?
Here’s the thing: If the garage gets built, it will need funding, which is partly why the city is re-structuring these rates. Many environmentalists, meanwhile, will back any disincentive to nudge commuters and shoppers away from driving—especially when it’s such a beautiful day for a bike ride! And hey, the bus isn’t bad, either. (Activists are leaping for joy at the thought of Santa Cruz maybe implementinga robust alternative transportation program, including bus passes for downtown employees.) Not only that, but the anti-garage crowd is betting that steeper rates will cause demand for parking to drop, cutting out the need for a structure in the first place.
Ah, sweet compromise—when foes can agrees on the details of a would-be controversial plan, albeit for bizarre (and pretty much 100 percent opposing) reasons.
But before we close the book on this topic… here’s a short list of folks who will be pissed about the climbing parking rates, which are just gonna keep going up: everyone else.
Before Jeff Horan closed the hissing doors of his charter bus filled with basketball fans, Santa Cruz Warriors employees began throwing out shiny blue-and-gold, Mardi Gras-inspired beads to passengers. Even 62-year-old Horan got in on the action, wearing his new bling proudly as he drove fans to a development league game in Stockton on Friday, Jan. 25.
The Santa Cruz Warriors, the development league (now called G League) team for reigning back-to-back NBA champions the Golden State Warriors, were getting ready to take on the Stockton Kings, an affiliate of the Sacramento Kings.
“I’m definitely a Warriors fan,” Horan said proudly, referring to both the Santa Cruz and Golden State teams. “I mean, who isn’t? I drive a lot of pro teams—the Sharks and Washington Wizards—on this bus, but the Warriors are definitely my favorite. These trips are just plain fun.”
The Santa Cruz Warriors are clinging to the development league’s best record, while Golden State is widely favored to win another NBA championship. So the energy on the fan bus was palpable from the start—but it hit a whole new level when Santa Cruz Warriors President Chris Murphy climbed aboard carrying the team’s 2015-16 championship belt over his head.
Through snarling traffic, Santa Cruz basketball fanatics endured a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride that was made more lively by games of trivia and bingo. Many of the traveling fans were early converts—season ticket holders obsessed since the moment the original squad arrived in Santa Cruz in 2012—and experts on the club’s ever-changing roster, as well as who might get called up to the NBA.
Retired and in their late 60s, Gail and Robert Suhr have been to more Santa Cruz Warriors games than they can count. They chatted each other up on the trip back, dissecting the game and commenting on individual performances.
The Suhrs were sporting Warriors T-shirts from the team’s earliest days in Surf City. “We were so excited about having pro basketball in Santa Cruz,” Gail said. “We were like, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go to all the games.’ We have great seats. It’s been such a great decision.”
This was the second time that the Suhrs travelled with their team to an away game. They told me that the Santa Cruz Warriors’ charity, leadership and generosity makes them want to support the team that much more. “The players go to schools and talk to kids who need role models, and do hundreds of hours volunteering and helping people,” Robert said.
Warriors games have become a family affair. Gail told me that her 37-year-old son Matt, who plays on a basketball team with the Special Olympics, is the biggest fan of them all. Matt, who was also on the trip, could hardly stop smiling or talking about the team.
He’s been able to get autographs and take pictures with all of his favorite athletes. “I get high fives from all the players,” he said. “I see my friends at all the games. I have a lot of fun and feel like I’m part of a community.”
Arriving to Stockton just in time for warm-ups, Sea Dub nation, as it’s sometimes known, wasted no time double-fisting $1 Bud Lights, buckets of popcorn and $2 hotdogs strategically balanced under arms. When their team came out for warm ups, the four-row block of Santa Cruz fans—who were sporting bright yellow “Road Warriors” T-shirts—erupted, sending popcorn flying and drinks splattering.
The game was tense. In the match’s final minute, the 40-plus diehard fans rose as one, filling the cavernous Stockton Arena with their unmistakable fear-inducing chant: “Warrrriors … Warrrriors.”
Despite a career night from guards Kendrick Nunn and Jacob Evans III, Santa Cruz fans watched their team fall just short in the final minutes, losing 105-104 to the resilient Kings. In the first half, the Kings went on a tear behind the arc, hitting half of their 18 three-point attempts. The Warriors kept it close until the final minute, when a three-point dagger from Kings guard Reggie Hearn with 53 seconds left gave Stockton the lead for good.
Even after the rare loss, Santa Cruz held a league-best record. The team got right back on track with a win Sunday over the South Bay Lakers in Santa Cruz during the Warriors’ first-ever Latinx Heritage Night. After the home game, Digital Nest’s Jacob Martinez led a discussion with Warriors forward Juan Toscano about race and being a role model.
On Friday night, the drive home was quiet—the travelers feeling the effects of either the roller coaster loss or the $1 brewskies. Or perhaps it was the $4 buckets of bottomless popcorn. Every few minutes, though, a fan would to chirp up to remind the others on the bus that “We’re still in first place!”
The Warriors play the Oklahoma City Blue, the league’s second best team, at Kaiser Permanente arena on Friday, Feb. 1. For tickets visit santacruz.gleague.nba.com, call 713-4400 or visit the team office at 903 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. To watch, visit live.fb.com.
Filmmaker Federico Fellini once said that life was “a combination of magic and pasta.” Mike Ruymen took that to heart 30 years ago, whipped up some handmade fettuccine with pesto and never looked back.
Now you can’t miss his ever-expanding lineup of Pasta Mike’s products, with their colorful labels created by James Aschbacher, in deli cases all over the region.
GT caught up with Ruymen to talk three decades of honing fan favorites, inventions gone awry and how often he eats his own pasta.
Did you ever think it would go on this long?
Mike Ruymen: I love food, which is why I became a cook at the age of 17. I left New York for California and missed my mom’s home cooking. After the first few years the business was going good, and that gave me confidence. I had some obstacles along the way, but in my heart I knew this was my destiny. Now as I look back I’m just like, ‘Wow.’ I really accomplished my vision to bring an honest quality product to the community.
What products have worked best for you in terms of consumer demand?
Ruymen: I have definitely streamlined my products to what people like. My fresh fettuccine with my classic alfredo sauce is a classic combo. Raviolis such as portabella mushroom, eggplant parmesan, and the spinach, feta and olive also sell well, catering to the more eclectic taste buds. There is also a following for my vegan raviolis. One has cashew and roasted red peppers, and the other has pesto with almonds and tofu.
Were there some false starts? Some experiments that didn’t make the cut?
Ruymen: Well, where do I start (laughs)? Somewhere into my third year of business, I was a crazed creative pastaman. I was coming up with some unusual ravioli fillings. There was the New Mex-style ravioli with goat cheese, black beans, chipotle, and mint. I had curried yam ravioli called “Yamosa,” and a Cajun-seasoned filling with smoked tofu.
I created an unusual sauce using caramelized red onions sautéed in a huge amount of butter, then mixed with honey, mustard and gorgonzola cheese. I loved it on fettuccine, although not everyone was on board.
What are the latest innovations?
Ruymen: My seasonal raviolis are my most recent. The sweet potato ones spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and a dash of cayenne are really good with browned butter and sage on a rainy winter day. The roasted asparagus with Jarlsberg cheese used to be seasonal. Now I can find organic asparagus throughout the year. I added my traditional cheese ravioli a few years back, which was my grandmother’s recipe told to me by my elderly aunt 25 years ago. She said so sweet and simply, ‘Ricotta, egg, parsley, and pepper. That’s all.’
Do you eat your own pasta? or do you find yourself fantasizing about other food, for example sushi?
Ruymen: I absolutely eat my own pasta, on average one or two times a week. How could I not after a long day of work and a fridge full of fresh pasta? So easy, so delicious. Having so many varieties keeps it fresh for me. I’ll crave cheese ravioli with marinara to satisfy my childhood memories of my mom’s cooking. Sometimes I need the comfort of carbs with cream and have a bowl of pappardelle with alfredo sauce. My personal favorite is my pesto tossed with al dente angel hair, boiled for one minute only. I’ll also add vegetables or Italian sausage to turn it up.
I’d like to thank all the Santa Cruz pasta lovers for their support. Thank you!
Congratulations Mike on 30 delicious years. And FYI—my personal favorite Pasta Mike’s product is the eggplant and cheese ravioli. Light, easy to fix and loaded with flavor!
St. Brigid’s Day, Candlemas, Groundhog Day, Imbolc, Aquarius new moon—these are the beginning of February’s festivals. All of them have to do with uplifting humanity from the darkness of winter to the new light of spring. These are mid-winter festivals and rituals. Rituals build the rainbow bridge between heaven and earth. Rituals balance us. Monday is the new moon festival, 16 degrees Aquarius. At new moon times, we support and uphold all the unified endeavors (10 seed groups serving humanity) of the New Group of World Servers (NGWS).
Tuesday is Chinese Lunar New Year of the Yin Earth Pig (1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019), a scrupulous sort of character and the 12th (final) of the zodiac animals. Pig is a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Pigs enjoy themselves, while also being very practical and realistic. They work hard and seek security, are energetic and very enthusiastic, and often in positions of power. Earth pigs are friends with everyone. They are happy, fortunate, not very romantic, gentle, focused, trusting and optimistic. Though very knowledgeable, they don’t talk much. Their homes are orderly and organized. Pig loves healthy and harmonious living. Children bring them great joy. So do those born in tiger, rabbit and goat years. Chinese Earth element years are like a pause in the seasons.
This Earth Yin Year of the Pig is an ending year, completing a 12-year cycle. It’s good this year to be yielding, soft and receptive, have fun and be playful, replenishing one’s energy. It is also a time to complete things, finish projects. Look around, gather what is not needed and give it away. Next year, a new cycle begins.
ARIES: Are you dreaming more, feeling more intuitive, sensitive, perhaps hurting and remembering more? Are you inspired and insightful? Prayer, meditation, study, and retreats are good for you at this time, allowing more gentleness to emerge, providing you with compassionate care. These help you integrate when placed within an Aquarian group, when asked to be the leader and invited to visit the future. The world is reflected within you.
TAURUS: You have one important task: to focus on health, tend to your bones, take more calcium and magnesium, and not let yourself get cold. You must use your pragmatism to care for yourself with greater concern. As your life becomes more demanding, you will also have to discern and choose what’s best—to be out and about, leading everyone into the future, or remaining at home nurturing your physical body back to perfect health. Use homeopathic tinctures.
GEMINI: Something beneficent, benevolent and bountiful happens between you and the world, you and your inner life, and those around you. If you allow it, your soul inspires, encourages and guides you from within. With careful study, years of preparation, and viewing the past in terms of your great and wonderful gifts, pathways open, choices and commitments are made, and abundance settles into your heart. Important times for you.
CANCER: A new and different level of life has been given to you, and it’s quite fascinating. It makes you feel generous, and for the first time in a long time, you feel gratitude to be alive. There’s a new exploration into a time or a reality that was unknown to you. Now it’s presenting itself and you in turn want to participate fully. This changes your inner life. You are happy. You share revelations and understandings with others.
LEO: Observe yourself becoming more kind, perceptive and wise, more intuitive and enlightened in terms of others, especially those you work with and care for. Someone or something or some words will assist you in a shift into greater and deeper awareness of spiritual realities. This comes through intimacy, money, resources, art and/or dreams. Love is good. Bring it into the light. The animal kingdom calls.
VIRGO: You will relate better and better with others—especially those close to you—if you allow your creativity to come forth. You will then bloom and flourish, increase, thrive and prosper. Then you will find yourself a greater support to others, giving true and clear guidance where needed. Challenge nothing and no one. Offer compassionate understanding instead. It nourishes your heart.
LIBRA: Think about what you want to be doing daily—what job, career, occupation, work, artistry and vocation your life truly needs to pursue. If you don’t know, ask yourself, and then the information subtly appears. Share with everyone your hopes, dreams and wishes. In the coming year, your health greatly improves, you become stronger and more resilient. For vitality, have a salad with each meal. And for companionship, have a bird, a cat or a fish for a pet.
SCORPIO: Don’t go down the road of regular investments thinking you’re lucky and the economy will improve soon. Don’t take risks with your money and resources. Instead begin serious preparation for a new economy to unfold looking much different than what we’re used to. Don’t speculate. Instead study books on greenhouses and bio shelters, gold and silver, and use your resources to create new era environments that sustain you. Scorpio knows these things. Follow them.
SAGITTARIUS: So many different ideas flow through your mind. Perhaps you’re thinking of moving again. Perhaps it’s to return home. It’s always good to live near a body of water. There is a benevolence occurring in your home and family life. Interest in genealogy, family tree, relatives and loved ones, the place of early nurturance. These nourish you until the next phase of personal development appears. Things are happening quickly. Take heart. You’re at the center.
CAPRICORN: In the next months, your thinking becomes deep, serious and practical. Questions occur about previous lives regarding the behaviors of others. You shift from vague criticism and unknowingness to intentions for goodwill, which brings grace and goodness to all interactions. You realize you are always doing your best. And others are, too. You help others who’ve lost their way. Begin writing what you do each day. You have many important things to say.
AQUARIUS: This coming year you will seek to have abundant money and resources for the important things in your life. That means being more attentive to the well-being of your finances. Use resources to help others. Pay off all debts, including credit cards. There is something you really want and need—write it down daily. Talk to the angels and devas around you. Tell them of your needs. Ask them to help you. That’s their job. Have faith that what you need will appear in right timing.
PISCES: They say that good fortune, sunshine, blessings, grace and beauty will follow you this year. And that self-confidence and a new sense of self-identity will flourish. These are all good things. In the meantime, maintain and fulfill all responsibilities and obligations, tithe generously and consistently, and be careful with diet. Eat lightly, drink celery juice, raw beets with lemon, and make tea with lemongrass and nettles. This is Pisces preparing for springtime.
Free will astrology for the week of Jan. 30, 2019.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You’ll be invited to make a pivotal transition in the history of your relationship with your most important life goals. It should be both fun and daunting! March: Don’t waste time and energy trying to coax others to haul away the junk and the clutter. Do it yourself. April: The growing pains should feel pretty good. Enjoy the uncanny stretching sensations. May: It’ll be a favorable phase to upgrade your personal finances. Think richer thoughts. Experiment with new ideas about money. June: Build two strong bridges for every rickety bridge you burn. Create two vital connections for every stale connection you leave behind.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You have access to a semi-awkward magic that will serve you well if you don’t complain about its semi-awkwardness. March: To increase your clout and influence, your crucial first step is to formulate a strong intention to do just that. The universe will then work on your behalf. April: Are you ready to clean messes and dispose of irrelevancies left over from the past? Yes! May:You can have almost anything you want if you resolve to use it for the greatest good. June: Maintain rigorous standards, but don’t be a fanatic. Strive for excellence without getting bogged down in a counterproductive quest for perfection.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Be alert for vivid glimpses of your best possible future. The power of self-fulfilling prophecy is even stronger than usual. March: High integrity and ethical rigor are crucial to your success — and so is a longing for sacred adventure. April: How can you make the best use of your likability? May: Cheerfully dismantle an old system or structure to make way for a sparkling new system or structure. June: Beginner’s luck will be yours if you choose the right place to begin. What’s a bit intimidating but very exciting?
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Your sensual magnetism peaks at the same time as your spiritual clarity. March: You want toasted ice? Succulent fire? Earthy marvels? Homey strangeness? All of that is within reach. April: Sow the seeds of the most interesting success you can envision. Your fantasy of what’s possible should thrill your imagination, not merely satisfy your sense of duty. May: Deadline time. Be as decisive and forthright as an Aries, as bold as a Sagittarius, as systematic as a Capricorn. June: Go wading in the womb-temperature ocean of emotion, but be mindful of the undertow.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: There’s a general amnesty in all matters regarding your relationships. Cultivate truces and forgiveness. March: Drop fixed ideas you might have about what’s possible and what’s not. Be keenly open to unexpected healings. April: Wander out into the frontiers. Pluck goodies that have been off-limits. Consider the value of ignoring certain taboos. May: Sacrifice a small comfort so as to energize your ambitions. June: Take a stand in behalf of your beautiful ideals and sacred truths.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Master the zen of constructive anger. Express your complaints in a holy cause. March: You finally get a message you’ve been waiting to receive for a long time. Hallelujah! April: Renew your most useful vows. Sign a better contract. Come to a more complete agreement. May: Don’t let your preconceptions inhibit you from having a wildly good time. June: Start your own club, band, organization, or business. Or reinvent and reinvigorate your current one.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Be open to romantic or erotic adventures that are different from how love has worked in the past. March: You’ll be offered interesting, productive problems. Welcome them! April: Can you explore what’s experimental and fraught with interesting uncertainty even as you stay well-grounded? Yes! May: You can increase your power by not hiding your weakness. People will trust you most if you show your vulnerability. A key to this season’s model of success is the ability to calmly express profound emotion. June: Wild cards and x-factors and loopholes will be more available than usual. Don’t be shy about using them.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: The world may finally be ready to respond favorably to the power you’ve been storing up. March: Everything you thought you knew about love and lust turns out to be too limited. So expand your expectations and capacities! April: Extremism and obsession can be useful in moderation. May: Invisible means of support will become visible. Be alert for half-hidden help. June: Good questions: What do other people find valuable about you? How can you enhance what’s valuable about you?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You’ll have the need and opportunity to accomplish some benevolent hocus-pocus. For best results, upgrade your magical powers. March: Make sure the turning point happens in your power spot or on your home turf. April: You should be willing to go anywhere, ask any question, and even risk your pride if necessary to coax your most important relationships into living up to their potentials. May: If at first you don’t succeed, change the definition of success. June: You can achieve more through negotiation and compromise than you could by pushing heedlessly ahead in service to your single-minded vision.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: A new phase of your education will begin when you acknowledge how much you have to learn. March: Initiate diplomatic discussions about the Things That Never Get Talked About. April: Revise your ideas about your dream home and your dream community. May: You have the power to find healing for your oldest lovesickness. If you do find it, intimacy will enter a new golden age. June: Solicit an ally’s ingenuity to help you improvise a partial solution to a complex problem.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Start a new trend that will serve your noble goals for years to come. March: Passion comes back into fashion with a tickle and a shiver and a whoosh. April: As you expand and deepen your explorations, call on the metaphorical equivalents of both a telescope and a microscope. May: This is the beginning of the end of what you love to complain about. Hooray! JUNE: You’ll have an abundance of good reasons to celebrate the fact that you are the least normal sign in the zodiac. Celebrate your idiosyncrasies!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You’ll have a knack for enhancing the way you express yourself and present yourself. The inner you and the outer you will become more unified. March: You’ll discover two original, new ways to get excited. April: Be bold as you make yourself available for a deeper commitment that will spawn more freedom. May: What are the gaps in your education? Make plans to mitigate your most pressing area of ignorance. JUNE: Your body’s ready to tell you secrets that your mind has not yet figured out. Listen well.
Homework: What’s the kind of joy you’re not getting enough of? How could you get more of it? FreeWillAstrology.com
