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melenico

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4th haiku '2010	[Jul. 7th, 2010\|05:00 am] melenico
ash moving skyward is far more thought-provoking than its ancestors.
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(no subject)	[Dec. 9th, 2007\|09:13 pm] melenico
Where has the time gone and where is it going now? The term is almost up. I've been so busy, it's crazy. My counseling position is the best job I've ever had, hands down. The staff is really caring and cool. The people I'm helping are lovable characters who have taught me so much in such a short period. It's the most rewarding experience, also an intense one while going to school. It takes a lot of emotional energy to deal with people's stuff and even though I'm built for it, lately I've felt burned out. I have 2 papers due and a final tommorow with zero energy to deal with any of it at the moment because I had a class this weekend. The class was a SAR (Sexual Attitude Reassessment) and it was fantastic. We had a panel of transgendered people come in and talk about their life experiences yesterday which was the best part to me. It's not that I didn't get it before but hearing it from the horse's mouth really added a new dimension of understanding. This morning we started off by covering "zoophila/bestiality"; we watched a long, quite old and actually illegal footage of this Scandinavian farm girl getting it on (orally too) with her collie first, followed by a huge and dirty boar (this is where I almost barfed in my purse) and finally a horse - uh, wow. What a way to start the day. Pretty intense. In the afternoon, we had a panel of people from the BDSM world come in and talk about that community and show us some interesting toys. The last segment was on HIV/AIDS. My professor, Dr. Patti Britton is someone I admire so much - she's very accomplished - so knowledgeable and cool, so warm, caring and bubbly. I had another class with her last spring. She started this section by playing a few clips of Bill Maher joking on the politics of sex education which was very funny. Following, she reads us these journal entries written by a woman dealing with her daughter dying of AIDS and how she couldn't get her into hospitals because of protocol that the patient must speak for themselves as to what's ailing them. At this point the girl had AIDS-related dementia and wasn't capable of that much less taking in any fluids thus she was completely dehydrated. It was was just horrendous to listen to. At the end she told us that it was her daughter. It felt like such a blow - my heart literally broke. But her calling arose from this pain and she's doing the world so much good.
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new bike!	[Nov. 3rd, 2007\|02:20 pm] melenico
During an extremely broke period I went through this summer, I took out a loan against a pair of diamond earrings. Yesterday, I went to the pawn shop and bought them back. My bike totally rusted out beyond repair from the salt air so I haven't been riding in 2 months. Timing is everything because there was an awesome Giant woman's bike (girl seat and all) for $120 in the pawn shop. It's brand spankin' new with shocks too. That bike would normally go for like $500. So I went back and got it this morning. Deal!
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my domain!	[Oct. 30th, 2007\|10:39 pm] melenico
Hmm, so I just got an email from someone wanting to buy my old domain name for the hypnotherapy biz - swiftchange.com. I changed it to swiftchangehypnotherapy.com a while back but held onto the old one just because uh, I thought of it dammit and it could come in handy later, maybe? So, hmm do I sell it? And how much do I sell it for?
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(no subject)	[Oct. 16th, 2007\|11:19 pm] melenico
Wow, it seems like the floodgates of career opportunity have burst open which is such a crazy feeling because I've struggled so much for so long trying to find employment out here. I got another opportunity to work a few hours per week doing hypnotherapy at Healing Bodywork, a small, cozy and super nice spa on 5th street in Santa Monica. Yippee!
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Decompression...Ahhhh	[Oct. 15th, 2007\|01:47 pm] melenico
Saturday was the LA Decompression Party. And man, did I need to decompress! I've been working my tail off trying to get my life in order - career, better living situation (Playa Del Rey is quiet and peaceful!) so I felt I deserved a good party night. And it was one. I made a hat with flowers sticking out of it that said "long-term fx" and got lotsa compliments! We went to 3 different after parties, all of which were really cool and cheap. Met a few interesting heads. Saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in forever because I haven't been out including my old roommate/friend who I made peace with. (Not that I have any plans of letting him into my private world again, but I believe in forgiveness and it's nice to have closure. As things have fallen more into place, I've begun to view past events, even relationships, as preparation). The "Goddess Alchemy Project" was a highlight as far as music went. In any case, I danced and hooped until about 9am and my body is sore in a good way.
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Alaskan Adventure	[Sep. 7th, 2007\|03:48 pm] melenico
After an exhausting move from Venice to my new, super sweet and QUIET place in Playa Del Rey (it has been ages since I've had a good living situation), the plan was to get in the car and go to Burning Man. But when the time came, I couldn't bring myself to even think about packing for it, driving all the way out there, staking down my tent with rebar etcetera. It just sounded like way too much work. I heard from people later that it was a frat fest and that someone burned the "man" on the second day so I'm glad I wasn't out there with a buncha cranky hippies, haha. So instead, I went to Anchorage to visit one of my best friends from college, Amy. It's probably been about 6 years since we've seen each other. It was so ridiculously fun. Neither of us have lost our sense of humor so it was pretty much a laugh marathon for the 5 days I was there. We went mountain biking through a place called Hatcher's Pass, went to another spot called Frontage, hiked up to Exit Glacier (holy cow!), and saw a drag show that was in town from Vegas which was really hilarious and random. Cher, Gwen Stefani, and Barbara Streisand were the drag celebs - so funny. One day we took a tram up to Alyeska, a ski resort in the winter, a huge grassy mountain in August. We were laughing about something as it came to a stop and this foreign woman yelled "shut up!" at us. We turned around and looked at her and she was like "I'm trying to hear what the (tram conductor) was saying" which was nothing except for "here we are at the top." Of course this just made us laugh harder and became a running joke the whole entire time I was there (i.e. "my ears just popped and I told'em to 'shuuut up!'"). We layed on the tundra and laughed our asses off about it forever. Amy's fiance hunts and so I got to try some caribou sausage which is sooo yummy. I also ate the freshest salmon I've ever had in my life. They're a great couple. Brad definitely a good match for her. It makes me happy to see her doing so well. I'm going to go back up there next June 21st (summer solstice) for the wedding.
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The Big Three-Oh	[Jul. 20th, 2007\|08:50 pm] melenico
The best part of my 30th birthday: Nitai and I went to a bar around the corner during the day for margaritas. She asked the bartender to pour some extra tequila for the birthday girl. Ruben then came in with a dozen red roses and a balloon that said "Happy 30th." The bartender was like "you are 30?! I figured it was your 21st birthday!" Yep, that's probably the best thing I could've heard that day. My parents, Ruben, Nitai and I went to The Courtyard for dinner, a great tapas place in West Hollywood. I wore a gorgeous mauve Versace dress and felt fabulous. I was really nervous to introduce Ruben to my parents but it went over just fine. My cake was a creme bulee with one candle. I forgot to make a wish which has never ever happened but it's indicative of something - that I'm pretty happy with all that I have! I know it's just a number but I set a lot of goals for myself to be accomplished by 30. I haven't quite reached all of them but hey, I have a whole year of being 30 to carry them out. It feels like a lot of things are falling in place for me. Mostly I feel a sense of relief. I am satisfied with the way my 20's went. I squeezed as much fun and craziness out of them as possible, dated around enough to know what I want in a partner, tried a million avenues and finally discovered a meaningful and fulfilling career path, traveled Europe, took risks like moving across the country to California by myself, made some healthier lifestyle changes, overcame some difficult personal struggles, became more in touch with myself spiritually and artistically and overall gained a wealth of life experience.
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Vending in Venice	[Jul. 10th, 2007\|07:15 am] melenico
Over before it began, R and I tried to sell some of our art stuff on Beach Front Walk to no avail. I've been painting plaster molds of mantle piece carvings which has been so much fun. Ruben was trying to sell prints of his paintings which are beautiful. We did get a couple compliments like "your stuff is too nice to be out here" but no purchases and after hours of sitting there, it became highly frustrating. Venice Beach can be really overstimulating and it isn't wise to expose yourself to it for long periods. There was an absurd number of ugly people out on July 4th too, I swear. Not worth the headache and retina damage. The guy with the "why lie I need a beer sign" did better than we did. We were joking that we should've forwent a shower and smeared dirt all over ourselves. Our other idea consisted of Ruben not shaving for a week and holding out a sign threatening to detonate if no donations. I guess we were barking up the wrong tree because as we found out, it's rare that people fork out more than 5 - 10 bucks out there. Mostly people just look. Some guy said he was just "looking" and Ruben told him to take the 405 North to the Getty Museum if he wanted to look at art. That was a cue that the day should probably come to an end. But fortunately the birds shit all over our stuff - lotsa good luck coming our way!
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The Brain Cactus Part II - Even Grosser	[May. 20th, 2007\|02:21 am] melenico
While living in Malibu, I acquired a lot of plants and cactuses. Now that I'm living in a quark-sized studio apartment in Venice, I have to rotate them so they all get adequate sunshine. I leave some inside and some in the front of the building and routinely swap'em out. The brain sat on my windowsill for longer than it should have. I was reluctant to put it out there because well, it gives people the creeps. Then I guess I overwatered it because part of it got all soggy and started turning brown while the rest took on a fuzzy gray look. It was confusing! I thought it was dying and so I killed it by accident. I thought I'd take it outside and repot it. If it just had room to grow, it'd be fine. There I was kneeling on the concrete with a spatula trying to dig the sucker out of its current home. It wouldn't budge which meant I was going to have to remove it with my hands. I couldn't bring myself to touch it for more than a nanosecond so I got a plastic bag and tried to pull it out with that but I couldn't even touch it through the bag without serious williness going on. I decided that the best course of action would be to delicately dump it out onto the ground, turn it over, then put it in the larger pot. So I did just that but when I turned it over, it just fell into pieces because of its sogginess. Barfarama! Somehow I got it into the plastic bag but I don't remember how - perfect example of how the mind blocks out memories of traumatic events - and laid it to rest in el dumpstero. (There will not be a Part III to this story and I'm very thankful for that.)
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