What is Reiki?: Reiki is an eastern healing modality that works with freeing energy blocks in the body. It is drawn from the Japanese healing arts traditions that suggest one's Chi, or feeling of vitality, is affected by a number of environmental stresses: illness, loss, emotional and physical trauma to name a few examples. This blocked energy often results in some sort of emotional or physical distress experienced as illness or dis-ease.

Your Reiki Session: A Reiki attunement involves the client receiving energy from the hands of the Reiki practitioner either through light touch or with the practitioner's hands a few inches away from the client's body. The session is fully clothed.

Cost: 1 hour Reiki healing attunement: $55.00 (additional 30-minute sessions $25)

Distance healing is available.


My work as a Reiki healer: I am newly moved to the Bay Area and am accepting new clients. I am trained in the Usui, Karuna Ki, and Seichim Sekhem Reiki methods of healing. In addition, I've studied various healing modalities including somatic and depth psychology, vibrational healing, Jin Shin Jyutso (JSJ), and hypnotherapeutic techniques. I work creatively in conjunction with the client to assess what modalities might be incorporated in a Reiki session so as to encourage the self-healing process while increasing the client's overall feeling of well-being.

I'm enjoying my stay here in Emeryville with Penny and Graham's dog, Sammy. Thanks to their kindness, I've been blessed with an operational vehicle to see the sites of Emery and surrounding locale. Berkeley is quite nice. It is a bit confusing to find things and not very centralized, but I imagine the locals and students don't have any problem getting around.

I'm still maneuvering the job terrain. The private teaching gig has been offered to me, but it has a 15 page contract I have to sign. The commitment is for a year. I'm not feeling lead to sign it or to commit my time to it, but I am also still waiting to hear from the private school in Oaksterdam. I would really like to work there and I know that I would do the job really well. After the interview I felt like the position was mine, but who knows at this point. But if that job doesn't come through, than I will probably have to acquiesce on the private teaching gig. I'm also worried somewhat about the reliability of my transportation, two evenings a week, for a year.

I'm getting really frustrated internally b/c I am not working. Why is this incarnation so predominantly about money and work for me? My money for transit is running out, due in part to some unexpected food-buying, and I am aching with the realization that I have no social scene until the job comes into the foreground. The job provides the money to go out, and the network of people to help me continue to acclimate to the city. I will probably have to write home for continued financial support until I have made my first bank. What a nightmare.

I still have a lot I want to see and accomplish in the city, but unfortunately those ambitions will have to remain on hiatus until I can secure some employment. I will audition for Grace Cathedral sometime this week or next; damn I need to get that done. My voice feels shot and I think a lot of it has to do with the environmental change. My voice has always been uber sensitive which is why I opted against an operatic career. It's a beautiful instrument don't get me wrong, it's just persnickety.

My Jess is still on vaca and I hope she is well. The burners are all at the playa enjoying the sand and heat and delicious druggage. I miss them too.

I had a really neat experience yesterday. I wanted to cook lasagna for supper and had gone out to find a bakery with a yummy French loaf. I pulled up along the street at Arizmendi here in Emeryville. To my chagrin, it was closed for the evening. As I walked away, I asked a gentleman on the sidewalk if he could recommend a good local bakery. As it turned out, this guy actually worked for Arizmendi and he was leaving for the day with a loaf in-hand. To my surprise, this kind man then asked if I would like the loaf he was taking home. At first I declined as a courtesy, but he was insistent. He opened the bag and I helped myself to about 5 slices of a wonderfully fresh sourdough loaf. The kind employee's generosity, though simple in design, left me speechless for quite sometime.

When I got home I put the lasagna in the oven and sat down to watch the Democratic National Convention. Ted Kennedy's speech was very moving and poignant, he didn't sound very healthy and I'm sure the chemotherapy has taken its toll on his body. His name and presence alone are an impressive symbol for our Democratic Party. I hope his health is restored fully. Michelle Obama stole the evening. What an orator!!! I cried throughout most of her speech. She is an amazing woman who will be a fine public official and First Lady. I hope she runs for office sometime in the future. Maybe during Hillary's next run at the office: another Obama vs. Clinton maybe? lol

Today I drove around Berkeley and did some people-watching. What a beautiful city. Driving was tight, but it was an overall pleasant experience. I'm back at the loft now watching the DNC and preparing for Hillary's speech. The talking heads are generating so much division between the Obama and Clinton camps. Such a waste of time and intellectual energies. Kieth Olbermann seems unusually uncomfortable with the format of the coverage, and he seems non-plussed by the non-substantive first night of the convention. There wasn't a lot of focus or time spent with making important political distinctions, what makes a Democratic different from that of the GOP. They're saying that Clinton's speech this evening will be what we want to hear in terms of the issues, so we will see.

Jess is meeting Allen Ginsberg vis-a-vis Howl and America from my limewire. She's enjoying as I did. I love it. Now it's time for napping. Ahhh...

On Thursday I interviewed at St. Thomas Episcopal day school in downtown Oakland. My interviewer was very kind and seemed to like me. The school is incredibly diverse, and openly accepting of LGBTQ-identified people, which is a major (+). My interviewer Khadijia said "she definitely wants me to come back" so I am meeting the school's headmaster next Friday. Basically a week before school begins. It feels right for me. Then Jess and I jumped back onto Bart and went back to the car.

We smoked a bowl and took a drive. Then I went and auditioned at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Orinda. The director was nice and chatty. I sang a lied for him and then he requested we do some Messiah. I chose the couple I knew fairly well, then he said, "why don't we do 'The trumpet shall sound'?" I thought I remembered it, but I guess not too well. I had to basically sight read the melismas--omg why did he choose that one. But it was a nice time. We talked shop for about an hour.

Then Jess and I took a back-way home to Hayward and I got to see my first redwoods. They were lovely.

I'm home now. I feel more satisfied during the job hunt since I've been in California. I never felt satisfied with the process in the nine months I was unemployed at home. There was nothing that surprised me. Here, there's a lot to surprise me.

Friday was a first: Driving.

I drove for the first time in California. I was high, actually. We drove to Safeway where I spent $7 on a box of Red Rose tea. When I got home I made my first pitcher of sweet, southern iced tea (ty Jon Boldon for the articulate pronunciation). It was yum-nutz. I also watched some Amadeus in my room as well as some Invader Zim with my roommates. It was fun times.

Saturday: I am finally home.

Today I was introduced to San Francisco. The experience was surreal. The roommates and I decided late this morning that today would be the day Maestro was to meet his San Francisco. We jumped in the car and headed downtown.

The commute was long, but we were high so the journey was exquisite. I crossed the Bay Bridge today in addition to seeing the Golden Gate Bridge in spite of the most delightfully cool day and its accompanying fog.

On a bit of an aside, I am so stoked that I got to see Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books at 261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway. Holy shit...talk about history coming alive.

We started in North Beach--San Francisco's version of Little Italy. The parking gods were good to us, for which we were most grateful. We traversed the hills of NB in search of my first slice of SF pizza. Jess remembered a little pizzeria she had visited once while tripping so we dutifully sought out the famed spot. Along the way we encountered a street festival where all sorts of people from seemingly every nationality were eating food and making merriment. We found the pizzeria and enjoyed a big slice of greasy, delicious pizza pie. Pictures are forthcoming.

Then the roommates took me to what proved to be a very special event: Hippy Hill. Can anyone say past lives? I have been there before. No questions asked. It was all eerily familiar, peaceful, safe, but different. I remember it being cleaner. I remember when the hill was taken care of by real hippies and honored appropriately. Today's Hippy Hill was littered, so that was a bit of a drag.

I saw some lovely homes along the route to golden gate park and a lot of amazing architecture downtown. The Palace of Fine Arts was particularly spectacular. It was also pointed out to me that Robin Williams is actually a resident of San Francisco. I'm not surprised. Who wouldn't want to be here?!?

Oh, I got to see the Haight!!! Omg! I have been on those streets countless times. I saw myself, or what I perceive as my authentic self fully expressed, in the Haight-Ashbury district today. Totally chill, laid-back, lots of bookstores and shops, weed dispensaries, cafes. Everyone was a different color and shape, and people were welcomed regardless of what they wore or who they were busy being...it was just chill. I will live there again somewhere along the journey, preferably in this incarnation. From the Haight it was on to the Holy Land: The Castro!!!

Holy shit, sister! I saw my sisters and brothers walking upright and proudly, without fear of recourse. The Mecca of the gay community, with its rainbow flags displayed often and proudly throughout, is a very special place where one can feel and know that being gay is an expression of humanity and that it is our shared humanity that entitles us all to dignity, self-worth, and claims to power. It was a moving and thought-provoking experience. Apocryphally, everything from the restaurants to the shops, was done in the best of taste! At this juncture I don't imagine myself ever living in the Castro, yet I know it will be a frequent rest stop on my journey toward discovering myself as a Californian--a San Franciscan--and discovering myself as worthy of this experience.

I got to try Cuban food for the first time this evening. We went to a restaurant called Cha Cha Cha's where we ate tapas and quesadillas and drank a pitcher of Sangria. The supper was very filling and proved a nice counterpoint to last night's Indian cuisine, which was also quite tasty.

After getting really tired we decided to head home. We got to the house, got comfortable, smoked the vapo, and watched a cool movie we all enjoy. Now I'm just gonna chill and be grateful for finally being able to come home.