When I went to Balboa Park last Sunday (gods, it's only been a week?! lol) for the Pride festival, one thing that was NOT a pain in my tuchis was parking.
I went to the Old Naval Hospital, parked, and lo! a shuttle took me to the event. While the shuttles were only for Pride itself, the park does provide tram service from the parking lot into the park itself, smack dab in the midst of the museums. Cost - you're gonna love this: FREE! :-)
A part of me said, last Sunday, I'm coming back next weekend.
The feeling only got stronger as I moved through the week. It hit especially hard Thursday...
I realized I had almost lost the memory of how content I could be in my own company.
I was all but aching to jump out of my routine, if only for a little while.
So, giving myself the space I needed...
Friday night, showered by candlelight. Yes, bathing by candlelight is totally soothing, but don't knock showering by candlelight either. Just make sure they're big candles, and not too close to the shower curtain.
Saturday, rose fairly early, for me. Breakfasted, dressed, slathered on sunscreen, pulled a few things together, including my digital camera - and I was off!
I had so much fun there today, I'm already checking my calendar and planning a return trip! :-)
What did I do? Obeyed my instincts! Sought out Nature!
Visited the Botanical Garden exhibit, which is totally free. Sat for a time listening to the waterfalls and soaking in the beauty.
Walked a bit over to the sculpture garden, also free. Pondered what exactly what the artist was thinking when he shaped the rock into something I have no bloody idea what it is. ;-)
Walked a bit more to the Japanese Friendship Garden, where I'd also lunch. Total cost: $10 plus change. Then again, I'm totally biased towards Japan.
I let my camera be my eyes...
Lotus blossoms called to me.
Koi fish called to me.
Bonsai trees called to me.
Gates & gardens called to me.
I took a gazillion pictures. Managed to whittle it down to less than 75.
I'll choose the best & post them, once I've uploaded them.
In the meantime, I've already promised myself a visit to the Rose/Flower Gardens next time. And to stay longer next time.
And to avoid Hawaiian Ices for dessert next time. The amount of sugar that's in the flavored syrups they use is deadly. It nearly did me in!
ps - didn't get sunburnt, either. yay me. :-)
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The next slices of Beyond Awesome, now being served
Especially for my SoCal friends, or any friends looking for a good excuse to visit! (ya know ya wanna...) ;-)
1) The next Big Glow retreat: October 23-25 in Joshua Tree, CA.
Not quite in my own backyard, but really close!
I am very excited to be a "Co-Executive Feline Wrangler" for this event. ;-) I've been to two of these experiential retreats so far and they've both been beyond awesome! They've also produced huge shifts within me and are taking me in bold new directions! Be warned: you won't be the same person afterwards - but this is a totally good thing!
Total cost for the retreat: $270.
This gets you lodging & uber-yummy vegetarian cuisine, along with the aforementioned beyond awesome experience. A deposit of $75 reserves your spot. :D
Early Bird Registration: if your deposit is received between 7/23 & 8/1, you can take a 10% discount! PLUS, you'll get a free giftie if this is your first retreat with us! How delicious is that??
Your lovely link to all the fun, and to register: http://www.thebigglowretreats.com/
2) YES, I'm presenting a "workshop" at the Well Within on Saturday, 8/8! This is a done deal! :-D
Delicious Details:
An Evening of Energy~Play with Victoria SkyDancer
Saturday, August 8th - 7:00pm to 9:00pm
$15 suggested donation
Originally scheduled for July 11th, this new "workshop" will provide information about the beyond awesome experience that is the Big Glow. In addition, Victoria SkyDancer will evoke the Voice of Shekhinah to guide and support participants in a vocal journey through the chakras and into the deepest sources of their own Authentic Power. The insights that emerge may be life-changing! Reservations recommended, for space is limited.
RSVP to the Well within or to Victoria directly: 760.489.2492
3) Poway Garden of Healing: 8/22-8/23 ~Save This Date!~
Okay, I'm going to take a moment to gush about my friend, Miss V. I was honored to be one of several spiritual doulas who gathered this past April to help her birth this new site of healing, sanctuary, and heart-centered communing. I am blessed to be a part of this event that she is planning. When I receive further information about this event, I will joyfully pass it along!
Now if I can get my new comp to cooperate with me in burning CD's for these lovely events, I'll be a happy woman indeed! (lol)
1) The next Big Glow retreat: October 23-25 in Joshua Tree, CA.
Not quite in my own backyard, but really close!
I am very excited to be a "Co-Executive Feline Wrangler" for this event. ;-) I've been to two of these experiential retreats so far and they've both been beyond awesome! They've also produced huge shifts within me and are taking me in bold new directions! Be warned: you won't be the same person afterwards - but this is a totally good thing!
Total cost for the retreat: $270.
This gets you lodging & uber-yummy vegetarian cuisine, along with the aforementioned beyond awesome experience. A deposit of $75 reserves your spot. :D
Early Bird Registration: if your deposit is received between 7/23 & 8/1, you can take a 10% discount! PLUS, you'll get a free giftie if this is your first retreat with us! How delicious is that??
Your lovely link to all the fun, and to register: http://www.thebigglowretreats.com/
2) YES, I'm presenting a "workshop" at the Well Within on Saturday, 8/8! This is a done deal! :-D
Delicious Details:
An Evening of Energy~Play with Victoria SkyDancer
Saturday, August 8th - 7:00pm to 9:00pm
$15 suggested donation
Originally scheduled for July 11th, this new "workshop" will provide information about the beyond awesome experience that is the Big Glow. In addition, Victoria SkyDancer will evoke the Voice of Shekhinah to guide and support participants in a vocal journey through the chakras and into the deepest sources of their own Authentic Power. The insights that emerge may be life-changing! Reservations recommended, for space is limited.
RSVP to the Well within or to Victoria directly: 760.489.2492
3) Poway Garden of Healing: 8/22-8/23 ~Save This Date!~
Okay, I'm going to take a moment to gush about my friend, Miss V. I was honored to be one of several spiritual doulas who gathered this past April to help her birth this new site of healing, sanctuary, and heart-centered communing. I am blessed to be a part of this event that she is planning. When I receive further information about this event, I will joyfully pass it along!
Now if I can get my new comp to cooperate with me in burning CD's for these lovely events, I'll be a happy woman indeed! (lol)
Monday, July 20, 2009
MIA?
I attended my first Pride festival yesterday, in San Diego.
I found a few places to make further connections with. I drooled over hot bods, of all genders; at the same time, I wondered if anyone realizes some of us queer folk DO think more with the heads atop our necks! Yea, these are the times when celibacy has its advantages...
This, however, is what struck me the most:
I saw the booth for queer Christians. I saw the one for queer Jews. Where on earth was the booth for the queer pagans?
I know I'm not the only one! I know we have just as much to offer those who are seeking Something More, but haven't found it yet!
Ninja, here is a place for Work to be done! And I have just the conspirator to help me do it!
This time next year will be a different story. Watch me, dahlink!
I found a few places to make further connections with. I drooled over hot bods, of all genders; at the same time, I wondered if anyone realizes some of us queer folk DO think more with the heads atop our necks! Yea, these are the times when celibacy has its advantages...
This, however, is what struck me the most:
I saw the booth for queer Christians. I saw the one for queer Jews. Where on earth was the booth for the queer pagans?
I know I'm not the only one! I know we have just as much to offer those who are seeking Something More, but haven't found it yet!
Ninja, here is a place for Work to be done! And I have just the conspirator to help me do it!
This time next year will be a different story. Watch me, dahlink!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Joy Rebel Day - then & now
July 1st was actually the first "unofficial~official" Joy Rebel day. You can read more about it here, and/or in Miss Brandi's blog. I was all set to participate, thinking I would post about my adventures after I got back from North Carolina, for I was flying out July 2nd, very early in the morning!
I put on my lavender tank top, my rainbow-checkerboard skirt, and my gems of all colors necklace. There was grocery shopping. There was going to Kinko's (okay, they're all Fed-Ex Office locations now, but they'll always be Kinko's to me!) to make more copies of the flyer for our co-conspiracy workshop, taking place right after I came home. That was going to be my rebellious act of the day - distributing the flyers!
Well, I dropped them off in Encinitas, and was on my way to my chiropractic adjustment when the water bottle broke open, spilling on the passenger seat and on the floor. Only water, no worries, I thought - until I saw the remaining flyers had pretty well been trashed. Fine; I'll wait till I get back, then make a few more copies and do one big final push. This, of course, was before I got home, logged on to my computer, and found the "major change of plans" email I've discussed earlier. That's when the wheels officially came off of my Joy Rebel Day. Joy went out the window, to be replaced by concern.
My time in North Carolina was beyond awesome...yet I noted an interplay of light and Shadow just beneath the surface. I came back home, scrambled around a bit (again, old news - especially if you look at the entry just beneath this one), and thought I was off again. Yeah, I was off, in a completely different direction. The Orange County workshop went over like a lead balloon, alas; in hindsight, a precursor for what was to come.
My tweet-clouds tell part of the story, but not all of it. This quote will tell a little more:
Coyote teaches much...but his lessons are expensive. The Trickster's wisdom is to lead us down paths right into trouble just to show us why those aren't the paths we should have traveled...(W)hen a path seems attractive, take a moment to ask yourself why it seems that way. It might be that it is the path you should follow. Maybe, though, what makes it attractive is something that needs fixing here. Every path has a lesson for those sharp enough to see it. --"Hosteen Ahiga," from Barry Longyear's story, Turning the Grain.
Suffice to say business plans weren't the only ones to fall by the wayside, recently. 'Sall I'm saying about that. Neener neener.
So Coyote has been showing me what/who needs "fixing," and I've been doing some interesting Work within myself. (Gee, what else is new, eh? lol) Now I feel as though I've risen sufficiently from the Shadows again, and I had a few things to do on my list today (a free Saturday! how bout that!), so I boldly declared a do-over for Joy Rebel Day. Take 2!
This time, I was the "woman in black," and orange and yellow. ;-) Going to the grocery was the same; making copies of flyers was the same; dropping said flyers off in Encinitas was the same. This workshop, though, is more mine. Rescheduled, and shifted in content - yet still true to the bigger picture that is emerging. The day was a perfect SoCal summer day...which is to say, very hot inland, cooler on the coast, and utterly delicious if you run dragon energy like I do!
The sky was crisp and blue; puffy thunderheads arising in the east, over the desert; the marine layer lurking just offshore to the west, but not ready to venture in. The scent of native and exotic plants in the summer sun - I tell you, this is what green smells like.
I drove up the 101 to my second destination in Oceanside; taking in deep breaths of salty ocean air as I did so. Since I can't quite remember the last day I was at the beach, that must mean it's been too long! (lol) Need to put that on ye olde calendar...! Stopped in at a bead store and found what I'd been seeking for a while: a strand of red crystals (maybe garnets, but I don't think so, not for less than $4!) Found a pair of single citrine strands to go with it. Let's see - $3/strand here, vs. $11/strand elsewhere. That's a no-brainer! lol
Meandered a little getting home, since I-5 traffic was bordering on ridiculous. Stopped in at Fry's Electronics en route to get a new mic for my computer...and El Pollo Loco to grab supper. Mom enjoys the chicken, while I have their vegetarian (!) BRC burrito (beans/rice/cheese) and some corn on the cob. Also got a salad to save for tomorrow. And what better way to cap off a perfectly unfolding day than with a chocolate bonbon? (from Trader Joes, of course!)
This was more like the Joy Rebel Day I'd planned!
"Stella" is getting her groove back, yes indeedy!
(note: there won't be any pix of this outing, since I'm not one to try to take pix while driving. I manage to just drive while I'm driving, most of the time, 'mkay?) ;-)
I put on my lavender tank top, my rainbow-checkerboard skirt, and my gems of all colors necklace. There was grocery shopping. There was going to Kinko's (okay, they're all Fed-Ex Office locations now, but they'll always be Kinko's to me!) to make more copies of the flyer for our co-conspiracy workshop, taking place right after I came home. That was going to be my rebellious act of the day - distributing the flyers!
Well, I dropped them off in Encinitas, and was on my way to my chiropractic adjustment when the water bottle broke open, spilling on the passenger seat and on the floor. Only water, no worries, I thought - until I saw the remaining flyers had pretty well been trashed. Fine; I'll wait till I get back, then make a few more copies and do one big final push. This, of course, was before I got home, logged on to my computer, and found the "major change of plans" email I've discussed earlier. That's when the wheels officially came off of my Joy Rebel Day. Joy went out the window, to be replaced by concern.
My time in North Carolina was beyond awesome...yet I noted an interplay of light and Shadow just beneath the surface. I came back home, scrambled around a bit (again, old news - especially if you look at the entry just beneath this one), and thought I was off again. Yeah, I was off, in a completely different direction. The Orange County workshop went over like a lead balloon, alas; in hindsight, a precursor for what was to come.
My tweet-clouds tell part of the story, but not all of it. This quote will tell a little more:
Coyote teaches much...but his lessons are expensive. The Trickster's wisdom is to lead us down paths right into trouble just to show us why those aren't the paths we should have traveled...(W)hen a path seems attractive, take a moment to ask yourself why it seems that way. It might be that it is the path you should follow. Maybe, though, what makes it attractive is something that needs fixing here. Every path has a lesson for those sharp enough to see it. --"Hosteen Ahiga," from Barry Longyear's story, Turning the Grain.
Suffice to say business plans weren't the only ones to fall by the wayside, recently. 'Sall I'm saying about that. Neener neener.
So Coyote has been showing me what/who needs "fixing," and I've been doing some interesting Work within myself. (Gee, what else is new, eh? lol) Now I feel as though I've risen sufficiently from the Shadows again, and I had a few things to do on my list today (a free Saturday! how bout that!), so I boldly declared a do-over for Joy Rebel Day. Take 2!
This time, I was the "woman in black," and orange and yellow. ;-) Going to the grocery was the same; making copies of flyers was the same; dropping said flyers off in Encinitas was the same. This workshop, though, is more mine. Rescheduled, and shifted in content - yet still true to the bigger picture that is emerging. The day was a perfect SoCal summer day...which is to say, very hot inland, cooler on the coast, and utterly delicious if you run dragon energy like I do!
The sky was crisp and blue; puffy thunderheads arising in the east, over the desert; the marine layer lurking just offshore to the west, but not ready to venture in. The scent of native and exotic plants in the summer sun - I tell you, this is what green smells like.
I drove up the 101 to my second destination in Oceanside; taking in deep breaths of salty ocean air as I did so. Since I can't quite remember the last day I was at the beach, that must mean it's been too long! (lol) Need to put that on ye olde calendar...! Stopped in at a bead store and found what I'd been seeking for a while: a strand of red crystals (maybe garnets, but I don't think so, not for less than $4!) Found a pair of single citrine strands to go with it. Let's see - $3/strand here, vs. $11/strand elsewhere. That's a no-brainer! lol
Meandered a little getting home, since I-5 traffic was bordering on ridiculous. Stopped in at Fry's Electronics en route to get a new mic for my computer...and El Pollo Loco to grab supper. Mom enjoys the chicken, while I have their vegetarian (!) BRC burrito (beans/rice/cheese) and some corn on the cob. Also got a salad to save for tomorrow. And what better way to cap off a perfectly unfolding day than with a chocolate bonbon? (from Trader Joes, of course!)
This was more like the Joy Rebel Day I'd planned!
"Stella" is getting her groove back, yes indeedy!
(note: there won't be any pix of this outing, since I'm not one to try to take pix while driving. I manage to just drive while I'm driving, most of the time, 'mkay?) ;-)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Stepping up to the plate
Plans changing in the blink of an eye...
Just before I left for North Carolina, my ninja co-conspirator informed me that he didn't think he would be coming out here to SoCal immediately after the retreat, as we had planned. Having touched base with him over the weekend, I agree with him. Flying with the remains of a sinus infection, along with a new root canal, would probably be very taxing. Send him some warm fuzzies if you're so inclined, please, so he can come out and play later...
So when I got back home and had settled in, it was time to do a little scrambling.
The Well Within will be happy to reschedule us; I will most likely be posting the new details for that very shortly. As for Awakenings, the date is more solid. Rebooking is possible, but not reschduling. Okay, fine.
When I'd initially read Brian's email, my heart sank and I was despondent for about a minute and a half. Then the light bulb went on - if he can't do a workshop, I can! So I kept that card in my back pocket, and will be playing it tomorrow night in Orange County. Yes, this fearless ninja-witch of change will be rocking the house!
So if you are reading this, and thinking of not coming tomorrow night, please do. It will be a different experience, yes...but no less juicy! :-)
As in my Work, so at my work: my supervisor had to leave unexpectedly to take care of a family emergency, so guess who was tapped to fill in for her for the evening? Yup, I was a stunt supervisor! The night flowed smoothly, and all was well, but I don't think I'll be angling to make this a permanent change. My truth flows out of me much more readily these days, and I'm likely to tell it like it is to some of our more "irking" clients if I get an opportunity to! FYI - Scorpio is rising in my chart!
Moving at the speed of Life, and keeping in the center of the flow...
Just before I left for North Carolina, my ninja co-conspirator informed me that he didn't think he would be coming out here to SoCal immediately after the retreat, as we had planned. Having touched base with him over the weekend, I agree with him. Flying with the remains of a sinus infection, along with a new root canal, would probably be very taxing. Send him some warm fuzzies if you're so inclined, please, so he can come out and play later...
So when I got back home and had settled in, it was time to do a little scrambling.
The Well Within will be happy to reschedule us; I will most likely be posting the new details for that very shortly. As for Awakenings, the date is more solid. Rebooking is possible, but not reschduling. Okay, fine.
When I'd initially read Brian's email, my heart sank and I was despondent for about a minute and a half. Then the light bulb went on - if he can't do a workshop, I can! So I kept that card in my back pocket, and will be playing it tomorrow night in Orange County. Yes, this fearless ninja-witch of change will be rocking the house!
So if you are reading this, and thinking of not coming tomorrow night, please do. It will be a different experience, yes...but no less juicy! :-)
As in my Work, so at my work: my supervisor had to leave unexpectedly to take care of a family emergency, so guess who was tapped to fill in for her for the evening? Yup, I was a stunt supervisor! The night flowed smoothly, and all was well, but I don't think I'll be angling to make this a permanent change. My truth flows out of me much more readily these days, and I'm likely to tell it like it is to some of our more "irking" clients if I get an opportunity to! FYI - Scorpio is rising in my chart!
Moving at the speed of Life, and keeping in the center of the flow...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)