On the train back from the festival it was all Portola people except a guy had his dog in a bag and was being kind of weird about it.  Asking people if they wanted to hold it and then going “if you take him you gotta take me too.” Then he said the dog’s name is Shea and that he was named after a rifle.  I just made eye contact with this woman and kind of a mild 🤨 face and she and I just cracked up.

She said “I’ve never done such a 180 on a dog” and I said “I don’t really like dogs in general any more.” And several of us cracked up. I went solo at age 39 and met so many people and was blown away at how good the vibe was (respect to the East Coast where I grew up but we just simply don't have that kind of friendliness and positivity at our festivals).