Sickness and sadness

I don't know if it is a function of how many people I hold dear (which is a good amount), or my age or the water, but a lot of peeps have been coming down with major sicknesses/illnesses/accidents lately.

- A good friend was just diagnosed with ovarian cancer
- A friend of a friend was just diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to her lungs and bones
- My 12 year-old nephew just fell in the river and gashed his calf and calf muscle so badly he has to have the muscle stitched up
- My friend fell in her kitchen and hit her chin on her counter, which caused her teeth to go through her bottom lip (6 stitches) and fractured her bone above her top teeth, which had to be reset and can only eat a liquid diet for 6 weeks!
- My good friend was diagnosed with Lupus and is being treated with chemo
- A friend just passed away from Lymphoma, he found out in December.

Egads! I'm normally a positive and upbeat person, but it's just sad to think of how transitory we are on this earth and the thought of physical suffering stinks. I mean, why are we here? Why do we eat well? Why do we exercise? Why are we nice to our neighbor or the person who cut us off?

In order to answer that question and to perhaps get closer to coming to terms with death and dying, I bought a book, "The thing about life is that one day you'll be dead." I'm hoping it helps. I plan to read it this weekend when I am up at my friend's cabin relaxing.

How do you deal with bad news about a friend's or your health?

It's that time......Prepare for the Playa, part deux

Craig and I are vending at the next Prepare for the Playa (this coming Sunday) and in August at Cafe Cocomo. Come out and support us! or just have a drink! Oh, and treat of all treats, Isa aka GlitterGirl from Temple of Poi will be performing and teaching a class there! Bonus!

Prepare for the Playa is an amazing event filled to overflowing with creativity and community, including vendors, how-to clinics, performances, connections and creativity. You'll be sure to leave revved up for Burning Man and beyond!

Hope to see you there! Craig and I won't be attending Burning Man this year <gasp> so purchase a costume from us to take a little piece of us to the playa with you this year!

This time we'll be outside in a cabana and I'll be showing some amazing art from a friend, some of it black light reactive...I'm positive you'll be just as excited as I am about this art! www.sizzleart.com.

If you are interested in custom clothing or hair pieces, contact Craig (www.strangeattractorfashions.com) or myself (www.melzdesigns.com).

We are also looking for a few flamboyant male models for the August 17th fashion show, so contact us if you are interested in that:)

Cheers, Melinda aka MelZ aka FireCracker aka Mistress Mel
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Prepare for the Playa Continues...
Sunday July 20th, 2008

Connecting you to what you need to be prepared for the burn! Fashion shows, Music, Performances, How to Clinics + so much more

35 + Playa Specific Vendor Designers
Lucid Dawn * Sinthetex * Black Lotus Clothing * Annieland * Fati Beloved * Fire Fly Style * Wild on the Inside * Kayo * Wild Card * Sparkle Plenty Creations * Jan Hilmer * Tawapa * Strange Attractor Fashions & MelZ Designs * Miss Be * Dreamtime * Micheals Light Toys * FurrPlay * Minerva's Antenae * Manipadma * Miranda Caroligne * Hipstirr * Wild Ponies * Twisted Traveler * Podbelts * Ayya Wear * Space Turtle * Cinder Garden Designs * Foxy Monster * Super Sugar Ray Ray * Chacabraka * Urban Warrior * Lasers and Lights * Shawna Hoffman * Gadgitron's Masks & Goggles * Sol Man * and more...

Three Funky Fashion Shows at
3:30pm, 5:30pm and 7:30pm!!!
Showing the funkiest, most eclectic, unique and hard to find playa products and fashions to get you ready for the Burn! Pictures & Videos from June on the website - Check them out!

Live performances Hourly by hoop dancers, poi spinners, belly dancers, acoustic musicians and more!
* Glittergirl of Temple of Poi Performance * Lucid Dawn - with the XOX Burlesque * Kippy Marks * Ambassador of Trouts and more!

Playa 'U' How to Clinics and Demonstrations all day - Learn from seasoned burners in a series of how to's and demonstrations from:* Burning Man Earth Guardians * Solar Power * El Wire * Lasers * Fashion Turbans * Enlivened Massage * Temple of Poi Spinning* Blue Jean M.O.O.P. Bag conversion * Camp Shower construction * Hair Imagineer and more!

Prepare for the Playa
July 20th & August 17th
1pm-10pm at

Cafe Cocomo 650 Indiana Street, SF
Free entrance 1 -3pm; afer 3pm $10
*benefiting Playa Artist Peter Hudson!

www.preparefortheplaya.com

Playa DJs:
Laird (Lush Camp)
Dex Stakker (Opulent Temple)

Sneak Peak at our Event Benefactor, Peter Hudson's '08 Playa Art Installation Peter Hudson designer of Homorobourous (Monkey Temple) is bringing his new 2008 Tantalus project to Burning Man. Come listen to his presentation & support his cause www.hudzo.com

BE THE ART!!
Playa wear strongly encouraged!

Prepare for the Playa would like to thank our sponsors for their promotional support to make these events possible:
Five & Diamond www.fiveanddiamond.com
Nitevibe
www.nitevibe.com
Wild on the Inside www.wildontheinside.com
Metrowize
www.metrowize.com
Lotus Vodka
www.lotusvodka.com
Nicole Presents
www.nicolepresents.com
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Love is...

...your boyfriend cleaning up your cat's barf!

the true test of a boyfriend's love of your kitties:)

Happiness is...

...Having a weekend to myself, more or less, to catch up on my house and yard stuff
...going 2 months without needing a chiropractic adjustment or massage
...waking up to 2 kitties purring and loving you
...riding my electric scooter and having no one run me over
...being able to work out hard
...changing my hairstyle
...putting some pink in my hair
...loving my job
...knowing I'm good at my job
...spending quantity and quality time with the bf
...appreciating my friends
...cooler weekend!
...getting a new cell phone
.
.
.
What are you happy for today?

tooth woes

so i noticed my gum was swollen yesterday but thought it might have been aggravated from grinding my teeth last weekend:) however it is still swollen and I'm going camping this weekend! eek. so i called the surgeon who did the surgery in May 2007 and he prescribed me some antibiotics (boohoo, but necessary) and some Tylenol with Codeine (woohoo!).

I'm gonna have a nice camping trip;)

until I come back and have to figure out what the issue is with my tooth.

Have a great 4th everyone! BE SAFE!

The pic is of me after my surgery last year!

I rode my scooter for the first time today!

wooohoo....weeeeeeeeee......

I can park it inside and charge it at work! what a deal.

Now to learn to avoid the crazies on the road!

finished my spin camp!

Woohoo! Finished off a 6-week cardiovascular training program on the bike with a whopping 3 hour bike ride (inside). It was super challenging and my students made such progress over the camp! That is the neatest part. The worst part: riding hard for 3 hours and then coming to work for 8 hours! eek. only 3 hours to go! I got up at 4:00 AM this morning.

Things they learned:
* That we have about 1500 calories of "carbs" in our body at any given time and that will last about 2 hours of training/race. If we don't replenish soon enough we will *bonk*, which is why you should have some sort of carbs while racing.
* Breathing is the key to controlling heart rate (along with focus and form, of course!)
* Saying yes to the universe makes your ride/intense workout possible. Saying no to the universe takes energy away from your workout
* More confidence in their ability to perform any workout!
* Different adaptations occur in our bodies at different heart rates
* What it means to know your limits and push past them
* What it means to acknowledge and embrace your *weaknesses* in order to work on them (goes back to the yes, I can attitude)
* What it means to pinpoint your strengths and add to them by cultivating both the strengths and weaknesses
* Leave your judgement behind
* Utilize self-to-self comparisons over time
* Choose your language consciously

(the last three are from Isa's flowology mindset, and I find them useful in every walk of life, just as the spin camp transcends working out and it's lessons are applicable to all that we do)

hair pieces and campouts and fabulous people, oh my!

My weekend was a good one, filled with camping up at Lupin for SoulStance, madly creating hairpieces and selling them at the Prepare for the Playa event and meeting a bunch of fabulous people at both!

More detail to come later in the week. Just wanted to put some thanks out to the universe;)

Ready to scoot!

I just got my motorcycle license again and bought my scooter on Monday! woohoo

Oh joy! An electric scooter

I'm paying for it on Monday! Woohoo. I will be able to start saving gas and wear and tear on my van. I hemmed and hawed for about 1 month, but am going to bit the bullet! Isn't it cute?

Any name suggestions for her?