Welcome to Chaos !!

This afternoon I had tea with a friend at a place in Beaverton called the ClockWork Rose Tea Emporium. A steampunk tea room. Very nicely decorated with lots of eye catching stuff in every corner of the room. I will definitely return for the two hour afternoon tea experience. Today I enjoyed a London Fog, it was delicious.
I highly recommend this place if you enjoy tea, the beautiful tea room is an added bonus. I love tea so I can't wait to go back for more.





















Tea with a friend or tea alone - such a lovely thing to do!

Sitting here at night and feeling nostalgic. Looking at online rave pictures from the past. This was Together As One 2004. New Year's Eve. Me and Julia. (Middle row to the left).



The memories I have from my rave days.....SO MUCH FUN. The raves in Southern CA back in the day.....late 90s through before EDC moved to Vegas (so before 2011) were pure magic.
I went to my last rave in LA in 2010. It was Monster Massive. My first rave was Narnia, late 90s. All that mattered was the music. The dancing. The feeling of togetherness.
I remember wearing large pants and small tops with a butterfly, a glittery fairy or something Hello Kitty on it.
Tennis shoes. Cute bracelets and colorful rings. The energy was amazing. Everybody was the same. No such thing as way too expensive bottles of alcohol, roped off areas and not being allowed to sit down at a table unless you paid for it (that has never been my thing anyways). Hours of your life going by way too fast while lost in a wonderful rave world, feeling the rhythm of the bass not wanting the night to end. I am so grateful I have those memories and experiences. Also a bit sad because those days are gone.....LA Sports Arena, LA Coliseum, National Orange Show San Bernadino, plus places I don't even remember anymore. I just know I danced and that I felt alive.
More nostalgic feelings earlier today. I went to the mall and had a latte from Nordstrom . Going to the mall was like my weekend activity for a while back in the day in Vegas and I would usually start off (if I went to Fashion Show mall) with an enorme iced vanilla latte with whipped cream. Like this one. I usually did this with Julia.



I am going to sit here in the quiet of the night and continue searching the web for rave pics from back in the day.

A few months ago.....back in August I think? Maybe end of July....I can't recall exactly.
But anyhow, a few months ago I walked in a fashion show. Initially it was supposed to be a couple of shows but the designer I walked for withdrew from Portland Fashion Week and opted to only participate in the last show of the week at a mansion located on a golf course outside of Portland. Nice location.
I arrived and had hair and make up done. And when I saw the result of the make up I was NOT happy. I looked better when I arrived with NO make up on. It was pretty bad, I looked like a white geisha (fitting for Halloween actually). That would be the best way to describe it. So I had to endure looking like this for the rest of the evening. Quelle horreur!



Hair was pretty bad too.



Racks of clothes.





And some pictures. TropiCouture by Suzanne B is the brand. Nice stuff.

I've had a quiet week so far. No work all week until tomorrow. I volunteered Thursday and had a London Fog latte.



I did not do much besides that and eat and sleep and it felt so nice. Thinking back of the two shutdowns last year that lasted about three months each time - I ate, slept, read, walked a lot, watched random stuff on Netflix and it was good. I kind of want another three month shutdown. I don't like having to do stuff and having to be places that are work related. I have been reading about the 'Great Resignation' and I totally get it.
Made a large pot of soup, the second one this week.



Briefly thought about going somewhere this evening but decided not to. I am going to continue relaxing on the couch, reading until I decide it is time for bed.

I have been through lots of stress lately and feeling sadness, sadness related to the stress and also unrelated to the stress. BUT the stress is over. And it was one of the worst experiences that I dealt with so far and it was because of other people, not me. Just more proof that (some) people are shitty people.
Anyhow.....I have spent hours in this room in the last two months. And I collected my first paycheck in a new (for me) field. A field I am not sure that I will pursue. I might or I might not. Right now my feelings towards this field are far from positive. I will give it some more time and gather some more experiences before I decide. But what I really want to do is....write, read and care for animals. Things related to that. That is who I am.



Fall is here. The leaves are yellow, red and orange. They are covering the ground.
It started raining too. Like everyday.





And the sadness....it is deep. I feel sadness for life and the world. I want to help ALL the animals in need. I see so much misery. I want it all to go away. WHY does it have to be like this? I feel like the character in Edvard Munch's painting 'The Scream'. I tear up several times a day, if I see something sad when I am out driving or when I start thinking about all the misery in this world. Yes, I know there is beauty too but the state of the world and all the suffering, the collective encompassing suffering is deep.
Yesterday I was downtown. I saw Lucy and her human. Lucy gets food from us at Pet Pack on Sundays. Lucy "lives" with her human, well follows him around on the streets of Portland. He is homeless and is hoping to get somewhere to live. Lucy is sad and cold.
I can tell that the constant noise and chaos bothers her. I want to save her. She is 6 and should sleep inside where it is warm on something soft every night. My heart aches. Maybe one day, maybe if I win a lot of money (and I rarely gamble) I can help animals and deserving humans. Maybe. Or maybe a wealthy individual wants to share their wealth and allows me to allocate that wealth to the needy. Like Lucy. And many more like her.

Like everything in life....things come to an end eventually and so did Burning Man.
Time flies at Burning Man. I tell people that never been before but are thinking about going to try to go for as many days as they can because once you are there.....you are immersed in a magical place and everything is amazing and then it ends, so you want to make sure you soak in as much of that magic as possible.
The last day I went mooping. And I found a Swedish fish wrapper. How fitting!



A sunset at Black Rock Desert.



Thank You for this time....I will be back next year! (I hope). ❤️





Stopped in Gerlach for a latte.



Hundreds of miles to drive.....



Next year's art theme was announced the other day - Waking Dreams. The Man burns in 322 days!