abundance · courage · dating · joy · letting go · love · performance · responsibility · self-care

weekend update.

yesterday, I went to a “meditation & creative writing”
workshop with a friend from school, and although we both agreed we were ready
to leave at the lunch break, i got out some writing that needed to get out. my
friend said afterward that her qualm with workshops like those is that they
continue to bring people back into the very story they’re trying to let go of,
but for me, like I said in the “Excavation” blog, my writing isn’t about
spinning my wheels or wishing it were different anymore. I’ve found traction
on this stuff, but for me, for my process, it still needs to come up and out.
My friend/spiritual teacher lady said to me today that in
Buddhism, they talk about those things as blocks, things that are solid and we
knock up against and then back away from – and that they must become diluted
for us to move through them. And so, I hear what my friend is saying – and I
have certainly been there, simply hitting up against the bricks of my “story”,
but  – it feels different lately.
It doesn’t feel as solid, weighted, or shameful. There are still pieces that
need processing, but on the whole, I do feel I’m getting through to the other
side – the side where there is freedom and levity and possibility –
and action. To update on another item this week, I’ve scheduled phone conversations in the next week with those two working actors in SF I
mentioned – indeed giving not only voice to my desire to perform, but also
giving traction to that as well by actually putting in some action. Sure, I’m nervous
to head in this direction, as uncertain and as fraught with nay-sayers or
“realistic” people as it is (esp. when those people live in my head) – but it’s one of those internal nudges that hasn’t
gone away, and the longer that I listen to myself, the stronger it has become.
Sure enough, my electric guitar came out of the closet this
week. The bass came out with the amp a few months ago, the acoustic is out
always, as is the small keyboard that mainly gets used when i’m plunking out
notes for my singing class– but, they’re here. and like the performance thing, “singing in a rock and roll band” is not going away either, and it too is just getting
stronger. That’s another one I feel retarded talking about – like, who am i, i’m too old, too square, and what have i done and i don’t know that much music and i don’t
have enough tattoos. … but, sure, be ALL of that as it may – i still want to sing
in a band. i can fucking taste the metal of the microphone. do i know what kind
of music? – it’s becoming clearer – it’s not “pretty” singing. i don’t want to
sing pretty, I want to sing passionate – and if they intersect, which to a
point i imagine they will, then all the better, but i’m not looking to do
pretty – i’m looking to do raw. I wrote an email to a girl friend/acquaintance
lady about a year ago because i read some of her facebook updates and watched
her go through the same thing, and she emailed me back echoing that her teenage
rock girl just wouldn’t go away – and at some point we listen.
or perhaps we don’t, but that’s not my story – anymore.
so, true to CITO, my closet is getting cleared and
organized, and an entire drawer is now empty – because “the universe abhors a
vacuum”, so if you build it – or clear it – they will come. plus, I feel
mentally freer in some way, like how you feel when you go away on vacation and
know you’ll come back to a clean apartment (it was once suggested to me to put
dirty dishes in the fridge so they won’t rot when you’re away – and sadly, i
have done this!). or like in feng shui where you’re not supposed to have
anything under the bed, because even if out of sight, it is taking up “room” …
energetically 😉
to close out my updates for the week, i will also tell you
that I finally wrote that “renegotiating old agreements” letter to the cousin
this morning on my way into the city – and about an hour ago, I wrote the last line on one of the petals from the flowers I bought myself, and let it go out
the window (burning didn’t seem the “right” thing with this).
and finally, yes, I went on my blind date today – it wasn’t a disaster, and there
might be a second one. but in the meantime, i’m going to continue taking
these itty bitty actions: moving the instruments out, talking to people in the
field I want to be in, and completing exercises that help me see myself, my
blocks, and my gifts more clearly. 
Cuz, one month into being 30? Eat It, Saturn Returns! ~ I’m totally
learning my lessons on this go-round! 😛
Plus, I started those hand-made holiday cards I said I would too 😉
coffee · dating · integrity · love · self-care · sex

Sex of Rockstar and Death Rattle Varieties

Tomorrow I go on a b l i n d date. As in I really have no
idea what the guy I’m meeting looks like. He’s a friend of an acquaintance who emailed me on facebook to go out to coffee, and his photo is one of those
cartoon/sketches of a photo – and the rest of his photos are private.
That said, I have to be in the city tomorrow anyway – I have
mild suspicion about the suitability of this person judging from my
conversation with our mutual acquaintance – and he may or may not have an
addiction to adderall – but that’s based on circumstantial evidence – or that’s
the term they’d use on t.v.
And secondly, in favor of coffee with a stranger, why not?
It’s good to keep my dating muscles toned or at least not atrophied – my last was a date a few months ago with a near-friend. You know, that person you run in to
at shows or gatherings and always seem to flirt with obscurely in one of those
“*wink* we’re totally flirting but so totally covert about it that I’m not
actually sure if we are but I think we are and isn’t this charged ambiguity
totally exciting” kind of ways (!) – but one or the other is always in a
relationship, or you don’t want to ruin the quasi-friendship with the quagmire
of sex, or neuroses.
My date with the quasi-friend went well, but in terms of
continued romanticism, it was a case of mutual “i don’t think this is gonna
work” and luckily we both said as much a few days later, and so we still get to
be friends.
So, tomorrow’ll be my second date in … a lot of months. It’s
cool. I have a pretty good idea that I’m marinating – getting seasoned for the
right time. – I almost wrote “right now” – which is also true – as I’ve said
before, I tend to believe that once I have x y or z in place, I’ll be really
ready to be in a relationship. But, I got out of a long term one in January
that had a few death rattle trysts through August, so until I was ready to stop
beating a dead horse – or beating off an ex – just kidding – I haven’t really
been available to date anyway.
Although, about a month ago, around the time I started doing
the Calling in The One exercises, along with the Cousin contacting me out of
the deep blue, an old SF fling contacted me to say what’s up. It’s a good thing
I’m convincedly sure he’s a bad idea, because, have.mercy. that sex was awesome.
He and I “saw” each other for about a month about two years ago, and it was
like the kind of stuff you read about or see in “movies” or just fantasize
about – I actually said to him, Do you ever forget how great sex can be? (He
said no.)
But, alas, said hipster (who really wanted me to wear his
torn skinny jeans and loved that my dishware was all in some “state of decay” [I’ve recently tossed all chipped dishware…]) is not a viable option for me –
rockstar sex or not. Well, not right now at least. 
abundance · action · coffee · finances · love · self-care

Asian Hipster Abundance

This morning as I was trudging up from the dungeon of Montgomery Street BART, there was an asian hipster dude a few paces in front of me,
and he’s bobbin to his music, and then he’s really swaggering it, and then he
begins to bark out some phrases, and then he begins to clap with wide arm
gestures. With every increasing jaunt of his, my smile begins to get wider, and
I follow him for about a block or so, smiling to myself as a few short stints
of sunlight shine through the buildings onto my face. And I ask myself to
remember this feeling – at least for a little while.
I’m now working 3 days a week in SF as a temp at an interior
design firm. And sometimes it’s sort of cool, and I’m looking at massive design
books of ridiculously fancy homes and touching pretty fabrics from a new line –
but mostly, it’s the same admin work any admin anywhere does – cataloguing,
entering, organizing … mind-numbing, I think my eyes are bleeding work.
That said, I’m tremendously grateful to have this job.
Firstly, the people are quite excellent – at a former temp job, I had a very
“that’s my stapler” cubicle tenant adjacent to mine, and it was always a fine
line between being immensely entertained and alarmed – particularly when the
continuous murmuring monologue included sudden bouts of loud expletives.
Secondly, I’m a graduate student, living off student loans with absolutely zero
savings, and much like unemployment, student loans pay you almost enough, but really not enough. Well, not enough for
a studio apartment in the Bay Area at least – which, yes, was a conscious
choice I made rather than have roommates.
And so, when this temp job was offered to me, despite also
being a full-time student, it was like manna from heaven. I worked with this
company over the summer – it was like manna then too – and they asked for me
back. So, I’m back. I’m also babysitting, catering, and … well, yeah, that’s
it for now (although artist’s model auditions come up in January again – I
missed them last time. I auditioned with a different company once before and it
wasn’t as weird as it was simply difficult to remain super still for 20
minutes!)
So, suffice it to say that today, after a few mind numbing
hours in front of a computer screen, it was hard for me to maintain the jaunty
optimism of the asian hipster, but I’m glad to remember him and his yellow
backpack right now.
I’ve been tracking my income and expenses much more closely,
but with purpose, since August. Prior to that, about a year or more ago, I
started to track my expenses, but just got pissed at myself that I was spending
so much money on coffee. And thinking self-flagellation was not a mile-marker
on the road to serenity, and not really having any idea what to do with that
information, I stopped keeping track. But, then it was August, and I’m
contemplating ramen, canned tuna, and an empty fridge – again – it was time to address
this – again. So, I reached out to people who do this sort of thing (this
frighteningly adult sort of thing) called “having clarity around finances”, and
started to keep my numbers again. ~ and I was amused to note that in August, I
spent $8.00 on coffee. Not the omigoditmustbelike$100 paranoid number I’d
imagined!
After tracking my expenses, I work with these folks to create a spending plan. It was
surprising to learn from my friends that I was “underspending” aka depriving
myself in all sorts of categories like food, clothing, and personal items
(apparently $1.34 a month-for a toothbrush-is not an act of self care!). And
so, I’ve begun spending within my newly clarified means – confirming abundance, and also confirming the
fact that I actually *do* have this money. I just haven’t known where it is, or
where it goes, hence my whole “binge and purge” financial routine.
The advanced part of this exercise is the income plan. This means that yes, YAY! I get to buy
the fancy shampoo that is kind to my chemically straightened hair (bad idea), but
that I have to earn the appropriate income to support a habit of self-care. And
I
like this new habit of
self-care – this month I actually added in a category, modest though it is, for
flowers. And there they are, right here on my desk. 🙂
So, yes, I work in a job that is more exhausting by how sedentary it is, and yes,  I
woke up this morning at 6am to write a paper and went directly from work to
class until 9:30pm tonight, but a) it won’t always be like this, b) I’m grooving
patterns of responsibility and evenness (not the mania of “how am I going to
pay my rent???”), and c) … well, I really like coffee.

integrity · letting go · love · recovery

The Cousin.

When I was 19, my brother’s best friend’s cousin (got that?)
came to visit NJ from Ohio. His name was Ben, like my brother, so we just
called him “The Cousin” for clarification.
And, oh, how we fell. I wrote a poem about that too. (pasted
an excerpt below). The cousin and I have been each other’s… well, he’s been my
“if we’re single and 40” contingency plan. I said to him once that if I were
willing to let myself fall into the painting of the white picket fence
with him, I would. We were very good painters.
He was the first (and only) guy to send me flowers on
Valentine’s Day. He sent me a poem about my hair (that it was “everywhere” ~
not like that! ~ like it’s so unruly) and it had little hand-drawn cartoony
pictures of me with my unruly hair. Enclosed was a “self-portrait” he’d done in
Microsoft Paint or something, with a backwards cap, because that’s what 16 year
old boys did back then.
Yes, 16. He was 16; I was 19. Be grossed out – but that’s
how it happened. My best friend dated my brother’s best friend that summer
– of course it was summer – and the 4 of us were a raucus ball of Summer
Lovin’. We had a blast. I was his first. And although it sorta sucks to say, I
think part of what has kept our link for so long is that the fiery kindling of
that summer romance never had time to extinguish. The summer ended, he went
back to Ohio. But for the next five or more years, we kept up semi-regular
correspondence, lots of meandering, poetic, off-kilter emails. Jokes, and
references, and randomness – a randomness that almost, well, it made sense
between us. Our individual off-kilter-ness made sense to each other. We felt
understood; I felt understood. (I’m sure you understand) 😉
Last I visited him was on my drive out to San Francisco in
2006; we had another lovey weekend together – sensitive, understood, silly –
and drunken. Last we were both in New Jersey, I was no longer drunken, and he
couldn’t remember the mildly offensive things he’d said the night before. Then
it’s 2009 and he says maybe he should come out to California … and I tell him
that California didn’t fix me – I had to do a lot of work to get out of the
mess(es) I’d been in. And he says, Oh, and we hang up.
And I hadn’t heard from him in two years … till a month ago.
I was in New Jersey and I get a text from him. He hadn’t
heard that I was in town, he just decided then (cosmic Universe oo-ee-oo sound)
to text me. Remarkably, a “Calling in the One” exercise of that very week was
“Renegotiating Old Agreements.” 
(“Marry you when we’re certain we won’t find anyone else & are done
doing everything else” Agreement ring any bells? ~ cue music again.)
So we talk on the phone the next day, and I play “friendly”
catch-up because, really, what is there to say? … What is there to say when I’m
standing at the threshold of letting go of a promise written in gossamer? How
can I say, I’m getting “over” you. Because that’s not the truth either. I will
always be that 19 year old in NJ August heat in my best friend’s bed with my
hair strewn across his vibrating body. I will always be her, but I will also
always be the every-other-age-woman that I’ve been, including today’s ~ and
that woman is very desperately sorry to disappoint her 19 year old, and to
disappoint The Cousin ~ but I am available for a different kind of love now.
One that isn’t a painting of a picket fence, but one that breathes, is adult,
is still random and off-kilter, but, frankly, is no longer available for “if I
can’t find anything better” ~ because everyone is worth more love than that.
I still have a renegotiating letter to write and likely
burn, ceremony-like. And a potential conversation to have. Or maybe, as has
been suggested to me, a promise written in gossamer will simply fade when I
stop re-writing it.
***
(from “Love Poems”)
There’s a
voicemail I’ve pressed 9 to save for two years—it’s a joke, without preface, 
and he just hangs up when it’s done—and there’s a text poem about a porch and twilight
and hands I can’t yet erase, and there’s him, 16, in August heat, on the bench seat
of my 
dad’s cutlass.
***
acting · action · Jewish · letting go · love · performance

Pulling a Carmen

So, following in the footsteps of my friend Carmen, I’ve decided to post a blog a day, cuz why not. I thoroughly enjoy reading hers each day, or a few in a row, like catching up with a friend – and keeping up with people in this busy world.

So, can I admit that I just wikipedia’d adam levine – that maroon 5 singer, after watching some of charlie day on SNL (on hulu; no tv ~ not a california thing, just a … don’t have a tv thing). And lord, have, mercy. My god. That is one hot jewish man. And god save me, there are actually hot jewish men in this world.

Now I know you can’t chose (particularly) who you fall in love with, but boy, would it be nice to find a tall, handsome, jewish man. … and while we’re at it, employed. It’s been interesting – as a semi-result of reading Carmen’s blog, I bought and started to do the exercises in this book “Calling in the One”. Now, gag if you must, but I did a lot of browsing in the “preview” on amazon, and it seemed like it was up my alley – very Artist’s Way-style exercises and readings, and hey, why the f. not.  Now interestingly enough, I’m asked to look at what ways are my relationships with men a reflection of my relationship with myself – She, the author, asks, if we’re picking up this book, in what ways is are we not loving, nurturing, or committing to ourselves … and I knew immediately that there are tons of ways in which I am not committed to myself – to my dreams/goals/little internal nudges. And that is certainly mirrored back to me in the real world.

So, I’ve been reading this book, and doing these exercises – and shit you not, the week I was home in NJ was the week on “Letting Go” … I’m not doing it all precisely one-a-day, but reading, flagging, going back, doing the exercises on more than one situation like she suggests. And things are changing. Take a look at my apartment!!

But, also, I recently downloaded from the SF Public Library on eBook (yes you can do this now!), What Color is your Parachute? It’s a book about careers, career advice, how to figure out what you want, what you’re good at. And so I’m now doing the exercises in this as well. Because, no, I am not committed to my dreams. I am always embarrassed to tell people I sing. No one’s heard me (well, except Carmen actually, who once told me [after I’d just sung with a band in front of an audience of a hundred people…] that I was really good, and when I said “Really??”, she said, No I’m just trying to sleep with you) 😉 But more than just sing, I want to perform. I want to act, be on stage, riddle you with emotion – I wrote a poem about it once. About throwing you off the edge of a cliff and gently reeling you back in – about steamrolling you with emotion – and the fucked up thing is that I really do think I can. I really do believe that I have it in me to possess myself so completely that I might possess you too.

What a powerful thing is that?

Now, the advanced portion of this exercise, is to let myself head there.

This blog, I suppose, is a part of that. Emptying out my childhood home is a part of that. Finally completing the art project I began in July is a part of it ~ and I’ll tell you something, It Looks Amazing. Even I’m proud of myself.

I’ve been realizing I have a pattern of thought/behavior lately, which states that I can only have happiness when I have success. I can only have love when I have a job. I can only have a career when I … when I let myself take the hideously frightening action steps – even the baby ones, like call these two working actors I know in SF and set up coffee dates/informational interviews. So, putting up my artwork yesterday was part of spitting in the face of that belief – the art doesn’t have to be perfect for it to go up (that was actually the purpose of that project – was to let myself paint it, no matter how it came out – and when it was done – it was done, no finnicking with it). The art doesn’t have to be perfect to make me happy. I don’t have to be perfect to be happy, because let’s face it – that would be never. So, I’ve set up for myself a system of belief where I can never have love or joy in my life. And, in realizing this, I’m realizing how ultimately retarded it is, and I’m beginning to take action in the opposite direction.

Because maybe there’s another Adam Levine out there just waiting for an actress/writer/singer. … bass player 😉

(source: huffington post via Cosmo UK)