Manea Update
Time for another Manea update…
Ok… how about JUST this past weekend! For starters!
1. Friday Night Steel Magnolias: I got off of work went to Steel Magnolia’s for the last time and Jennifer (one of the cast member playing M’Lynn) made EACH of us these cute little memorabilia books! Each page dedicated to a character on the inside and on the back were the production cast, the flier and a place for autographs… I was really touched. We had a pretty decent crowd… and Julie was there(one of my friends from the Denver Women’s group(DW)) was there…
2. First Friday: After the play Julie and I headed for First Friday at Tracks. The place was packed by the time we got there… a light snow was falling and it was cold but it was not hurting business for sure! Saw Myann & her GF from DW, a couple of folks from the other groups I am in, and made the circuit around the rooms to give Julie a tour of a night in the life of a Manea… (she did ask for it!) Julie commented that she noticed that it wasn’t just that I wnet up to people and said something, but that other people approached me also… re-ran into a girl I made friends with in Feb…Kaly. She introduced me to her friend who is pagan and jewish, fondly refers to herself as a Jew-witch. We talked about DF and going this year… Kely & her friends are all nursing students. Then Julie and I ran across some cute gay boys doing a little improve runway show… turns out that they were the managers of Tracks and also the woman joining them was the promoter for BAD (Babes Around Denver). So I gave them my card and they were happy to find out that I am a chalk artist. Seems that they want to do a Japanese/Tokyo theme party for PRIDE and I suggested Godzillia coming through the floor in chalk art… one of the boys squeeled in delight and said they would be calling me… NICE!
3. Saturday Malvira the Prophet Rehearsal: It was on campus, Laura gave me a ride which was a huge help and I got to have lunch which was nice. We got done just in time for me to catch the lightrail back home and get ready for the LARP.
4. Saturday Night Dark Mirror LARP: SO the big game was Carnival, a 13 year re-occurring party for the Toreador Vampire Clan that was put on by the Denver Kindred. Julie wasn’t sure if she was going to go or not but she slept in all day and was ready to drive me over there. We had dinner at Sunny’s and I got “dressed up”. Normally my character “Jane Doe” dresses in goth black pants and a tye died T-shirt. Now she was in a black pant suit… totally NOT her. Jane is a Brujah fighter character… not a diplomat… but she’s very friendly even though she has fangs that won’t retract and a scar on her left cheek that is permanent. Well things went FABULOUSLY… she made a very cool contact who is going to make weapons for her by a master sword maker! Things ended around midnight, we went to the Village Idoit after wards and got home about 3am.
I made a deal with my body… If I wake up with-out an alarm in time to make it to sacred circle… I’ll go.
5. Sunday Morning: 9am- I had some really cool dreams, but in the end I had parent’s who were trying to take away 2 toys from me and my sibling… and I was maybe 7 or 8 years old in the dream… and I got so mad at them for trying to do so that it woke me up. I looked at the wall… 9am… and I could hear Laura getting around upstairs. I was wide awake… I guess the universe decided I was going to go sleep deprived for the day.
6.Sacred Circle at People House: It was a larger than normal attendance. There were 3 new faces, the rest were regulars for the most part. And PETE was there. Now Pete is not always there but he’s been coming for a long time. He’s quite a character. Normally I just laugh at how people in the circle react to him, or groan myself depending on the day and the mood I’m in. To a new person, Pete sounds somewhat enlightened, intellectual, deep even… to a person who is a bit more sensitive to energy and knows how to read people, he is obviously arrogant, with superiority issues, and completely out of touch with his ability to empathize with other human beings. BUT this group is the kind of place where he is welcome, warts & all… this is true for everybody… because one of The Circle’s main tenants is that no one tries to “FIX” anyone else. There is an acceptance for which I love the group as a whole and People House. So… Pete was in fine form and was stomping all over people’s personal buttons, for which several of us had to stew quietly and deal with ourselves and our emotional responses to Pete’s diatribe of the day. My way of dealing was to write a poem. I had energy building, and it needed to GO somewhere and the poem was a perfectly safe place for it to go. When I was done Rick, who sat to my left, asked if I was going to read it, to which I replied, simply & firmly…. “No.” Twice. So Pete pressed me again, in a way which the question was to “see” if I COULD be in the present with an off the cuff no writing, just speak it poem… My internal thought was not to throw pearls before swine, but my answer was a lot more nice than that, with a story about loosing poetry and I didn’t really want to do that. Someone pointed out that I was sidestepping… and I didn’t disagree. THAT’s when the bomb was dropped… Dave… who is an older man who’s hard of hearing… scoffed at me and Pete and everyone in the circle and said that he felt that people weren’t being real or genuine. I really didn’t expect my response. I totally emotionally lost it. I had to leave and go cry down the back hall by myself. I pride myself on being genuine and talking about the death of my poetry and how I felt about it, and how magickal it is to me is very serious. To hear from a friend that to was essentially crap… (even though it was a general statement, not a personal one) was taken personally. It was like I had no shields. I let out all the tears as silently as I could until I was able to speak and breath somewhat normally. Then I came back and sat next to Rick who patted me on the back, Laura fetched tissues, and I was asked how I was doing… I expressed how much the comment hurt and why. Pete went back to asking questions and the group was very supportive, protective… I was thanked for being so vulnerable. Funny how that subject has come up a lot for me recently. Later on Dave hugged me but we said nothing. Pete never looked at me nor sought me out afterwards. I didn’t really expect him to.
7. The Ordination of Clyde as a People House Reverend: Initially when I woke up… I had completely forgotten until I was in the Sacred Circle and it was brought up. GOOD THING THE DREAM WOKE ME UP! I really love the universe as my secretary sometimes. It was a beautiful ceremony… there was a particularly awesome pert where everyone participated in the apostolic laying on of ands. It was so cool, touching, amazing. Later on in the ceremony people were allowed to add blessings and I read my poem called Dignity & Grace (see my website for the poem @ www.poetrypoem.com/manea ) and added Clyde’s name in it. I think he was a bit overwhelmed! Then there was food, and conversation & merriment. Clyde mad a passing comment about cutting hair… but he meant shaving it with a buzzer! After a bunch of people left his wife started buzzing him, people too turns and I had to finish off the job since I do my own every week. It was a bonding moment for sure. I shared the poem with Mark (because he asked). Sat with him and Wendy… and have been enjoying getting to know them better. Then I FREAKED when I saw the time and realized I only had 30 minutes to get to the theater. I promised to help clean up in exchange for a ride…
8. The END of the Day, Malivra The Prophet, a Staged Reading by Bill Thompson:
It was a very deep and dark reading fill with poets, street people, sanity, insanity, prophecy, etc. I was overjoyed to see two of my classmates in the front row. Turns out they were confused as to if I was at the reading or at poetry, and wound up at the right place afterall! (thanks for coming ladies!) It was a very intense play.(staged reading actually)
Ok… how about JUST this past weekend! For starters!
1. Friday Night Steel Magnolias: I got off of work went to Steel Magnolia’s for the last time and Jennifer (one of the cast member playing M’Lynn) made EACH of us these cute little memorabilia books! Each page dedicated to a character on the inside and on the back were the production cast, the flier and a place for autographs… I was really touched. We had a pretty decent crowd… and Julie was there(one of my friends from the Denver Women’s group(DW)) was there…
2. First Friday: After the play Julie and I headed for First Friday at Tracks. The place was packed by the time we got there… a light snow was falling and it was cold but it was not hurting business for sure! Saw Myann & her GF from DW, a couple of folks from the other groups I am in, and made the circuit around the rooms to give Julie a tour of a night in the life of a Manea… (she did ask for it!) Julie commented that she noticed that it wasn’t just that I wnet up to people and said something, but that other people approached me also… re-ran into a girl I made friends with in Feb…Kaly. She introduced me to her friend who is pagan and jewish, fondly refers to herself as a Jew-witch. We talked about DF and going this year… Kely & her friends are all nursing students. Then Julie and I ran across some cute gay boys doing a little improve runway show… turns out that they were the managers of Tracks and also the woman joining them was the promoter for BAD (Babes Around Denver). So I gave them my card and they were happy to find out that I am a chalk artist. Seems that they want to do a Japanese/Tokyo theme party for PRIDE and I suggested Godzillia coming through the floor in chalk art… one of the boys squeeled in delight and said they would be calling me… NICE!
3. Saturday Malvira the Prophet Rehearsal: It was on campus, Laura gave me a ride which was a huge help and I got to have lunch which was nice. We got done just in time for me to catch the lightrail back home and get ready for the LARP.
4. Saturday Night Dark Mirror LARP: SO the big game was Carnival, a 13 year re-occurring party for the Toreador Vampire Clan that was put on by the Denver Kindred. Julie wasn’t sure if she was going to go or not but she slept in all day and was ready to drive me over there. We had dinner at Sunny’s and I got “dressed up”. Normally my character “Jane Doe” dresses in goth black pants and a tye died T-shirt. Now she was in a black pant suit… totally NOT her. Jane is a Brujah fighter character… not a diplomat… but she’s very friendly even though she has fangs that won’t retract and a scar on her left cheek that is permanent. Well things went FABULOUSLY… she made a very cool contact who is going to make weapons for her by a master sword maker! Things ended around midnight, we went to the Village Idoit after wards and got home about 3am.
I made a deal with my body… If I wake up with-out an alarm in time to make it to sacred circle… I’ll go.
5. Sunday Morning: 9am- I had some really cool dreams, but in the end I had parent’s who were trying to take away 2 toys from me and my sibling… and I was maybe 7 or 8 years old in the dream… and I got so mad at them for trying to do so that it woke me up. I looked at the wall… 9am… and I could hear Laura getting around upstairs. I was wide awake… I guess the universe decided I was going to go sleep deprived for the day.
6.Sacred Circle at People House: It was a larger than normal attendance. There were 3 new faces, the rest were regulars for the most part. And PETE was there. Now Pete is not always there but he’s been coming for a long time. He’s quite a character. Normally I just laugh at how people in the circle react to him, or groan myself depending on the day and the mood I’m in. To a new person, Pete sounds somewhat enlightened, intellectual, deep even… to a person who is a bit more sensitive to energy and knows how to read people, he is obviously arrogant, with superiority issues, and completely out of touch with his ability to empathize with other human beings. BUT this group is the kind of place where he is welcome, warts & all… this is true for everybody… because one of The Circle’s main tenants is that no one tries to “FIX” anyone else. There is an acceptance for which I love the group as a whole and People House. So… Pete was in fine form and was stomping all over people’s personal buttons, for which several of us had to stew quietly and deal with ourselves and our emotional responses to Pete’s diatribe of the day. My way of dealing was to write a poem. I had energy building, and it needed to GO somewhere and the poem was a perfectly safe place for it to go. When I was done Rick, who sat to my left, asked if I was going to read it, to which I replied, simply & firmly…. “No.” Twice. So Pete pressed me again, in a way which the question was to “see” if I COULD be in the present with an off the cuff no writing, just speak it poem… My internal thought was not to throw pearls before swine, but my answer was a lot more nice than that, with a story about loosing poetry and I didn’t really want to do that. Someone pointed out that I was sidestepping… and I didn’t disagree. THAT’s when the bomb was dropped… Dave… who is an older man who’s hard of hearing… scoffed at me and Pete and everyone in the circle and said that he felt that people weren’t being real or genuine. I really didn’t expect my response. I totally emotionally lost it. I had to leave and go cry down the back hall by myself. I pride myself on being genuine and talking about the death of my poetry and how I felt about it, and how magickal it is to me is very serious. To hear from a friend that to was essentially crap… (even though it was a general statement, not a personal one) was taken personally. It was like I had no shields. I let out all the tears as silently as I could until I was able to speak and breath somewhat normally. Then I came back and sat next to Rick who patted me on the back, Laura fetched tissues, and I was asked how I was doing… I expressed how much the comment hurt and why. Pete went back to asking questions and the group was very supportive, protective… I was thanked for being so vulnerable. Funny how that subject has come up a lot for me recently. Later on Dave hugged me but we said nothing. Pete never looked at me nor sought me out afterwards. I didn’t really expect him to.
7. The Ordination of Clyde as a People House Reverend: Initially when I woke up… I had completely forgotten until I was in the Sacred Circle and it was brought up. GOOD THING THE DREAM WOKE ME UP! I really love the universe as my secretary sometimes. It was a beautiful ceremony… there was a particularly awesome pert where everyone participated in the apostolic laying on of ands. It was so cool, touching, amazing. Later on in the ceremony people were allowed to add blessings and I read my poem called Dignity & Grace (see my website for the poem @ www.poetrypoem.com/manea ) and added Clyde’s name in it. I think he was a bit overwhelmed! Then there was food, and conversation & merriment. Clyde mad a passing comment about cutting hair… but he meant shaving it with a buzzer! After a bunch of people left his wife started buzzing him, people too turns and I had to finish off the job since I do my own every week. It was a bonding moment for sure. I shared the poem with Mark (because he asked). Sat with him and Wendy… and have been enjoying getting to know them better. Then I FREAKED when I saw the time and realized I only had 30 minutes to get to the theater. I promised to help clean up in exchange for a ride…
8. The END of the Day, Malivra The Prophet, a Staged Reading by Bill Thompson:
It was a very deep and dark reading fill with poets, street people, sanity, insanity, prophecy, etc. I was overjoyed to see two of my classmates in the front row. Turns out they were confused as to if I was at the reading or at poetry, and wound up at the right place afterall! (thanks for coming ladies!) It was a very intense play.(staged reading actually)