I Host Couchsurfers Sometimes

My loft mate has couch surfers over sometimes. Last week, we had a total of three staying. Here's what I remember of the experience:

One of them has a tree tattoo covering the expanse of her back. I see tree branches holding her shoulders up and supporting her neck though the honeycomb holes in her shirt. Mar makes us curry.

Another has shaved the sides of her head and pulled her mowhawk into a ponytail. Her hair is dyed turquoise. She goes by Tess Aquarium. I think of mermaids.

They have come from the bay area (San Francisco), where they work together on making clothing for a boutique called Spineret, a reference to silk-spinning organ of a spider.

      

I found Tess's look so unique that I had to share it here. These photos come from her Flickr stream.

Here are a few things I learned from the two:

1. Open relationships are okay as long as both partners are in agreement about being in an open relationship. There's no need to get jealous. In fact, it is even okay to be friends with your partner's other partners. In open relationships, most people will have a primary partner and then a few secondary partners. 
2. It is really cool to fashion glasses out of sunglasses. I can't believe I never thought to do that! If large frames are a trend, why not take that to the extreme and use sunglasses as the frames? It looks really interesting! Yes, those glasses pictured above are prescription.
3. Everyone should go to Burning Man once. It will blow your mind. You will learn to be self reliant and feel more creative, in tune with nature, and do many, many drugs. For clarification, Burning Man is a week long event in Black Rock Desert where people of all kinds gather to participate in radical self expression and self-reliance. Self expression because many artists will get together to create really amazing structures to bring into the sites. Self reliance because you have to bring everything you will need for the week with you--including food, shelter, and water--and you're not allowed to buy/sell anything. At the end of the week, everything must be left as it was found. All structures and pieces of art are set on fire (hence the name), and people remove all traces of their short inhabitance. 
4. The reason why Bella Swan is such a passive character is because in Mormon culture, women are conditioned to be submissive and consider marriage their greatest goal. 
5. The combination of curry, rice, and vegetables make for a wonderful meal. 

If you're curious, here's a video compilation of some of the people and typical scenes of Burning Man: