This weekend has been one of the best conferences I've ever attended. It was painfully cold at the warehouse venue, but I've never walked away with just a concerete experience of collaboration and partnerships discovered and strengthened.

Some people might eventually get tired of me saying this, but I really do love geeks. This weekend fulfilled my geek love in so many ways.

Here are some highlights from the weekend (things I want to remember):

• The magic of connection. Today I met a guy who has 125 acres in Tilamook county that's free and clear. A little slice of paradise that he and his wife are wondering, "What do we do with this?" I started scheming with him a bit about my dreams of an ecovillage, and hope to explore the connection further. It's quite possible that I just found the site and strong partnership for my ideal home/community! And, even if it will not become the site for our ecovillage, there are two things I'm excited about: (1) How freaking amazing it is to experience the magic of the universe giving you what you ask for, and (2) The coolness of having someone to scheme about community living and how it could work.  This is just one example of the wonderful connections made.
• I feel that I've finally connected with Mike inside of our own friendship / way of relating to each other. He and I haven't always communicated well - mainly because I can be opinioned and loud - and I feel that the tension we've experienced in the past few weeks has cleared; in its place is a fun sort of sibling relationship and the relatedness to communicate well even through stress. I am so proud of him and what he's accomplished and how much he's put himself out there this weekend. Yay, Mike!
• We finally have a good, exciting plan for how to collaborate with people, SourceTree and Open Guild.
  
• Seeing karaksindru (and remembering to give him hugs!)
• Voodoo Donut has insanely weird and good donuts. They're at 22 SW 3rd Ave, and according to Mike have the best apple fritters ever. (besides the fact they're as big as your head)
• keturn introduced us to Nicholas Restaurant, located at 318 SE Grand. They serve inexpensive and wonderful middle eastern food, including the biggest pita I've ever seen - I'll go there again, for sure. 
• Speaking of keturn, the bastard tracked down my live journal without telling me. I figured it out because I was tracking down his live journal without telling him. Does that me a bastard, too? Yes, yes, I suppose it does... :P

I think that's it for now. I don't have to leave until Tuesday, and I'm looking forward to spending more time here before going home. Yay for open space and geeks and people's hospitality and good ideas.