Spammity spam!

Received in my inbox a few days ago:

Heya K....

I'm not guaranteed if I am even going to pass you this message, though I should write it or I will go nutts....I dont understand how else to write it..... I have a crush on you. been dreaming about you all the time and I am worried to show my feelings to you...you'll know why if you learned who this is. I may regret this another day, however I know I need to tell you now. I wrote a private blog letter for you ...here it is
private blog for K.
I truely believe I'm not making a stupid mistake however after planning this I know I have to click Send

The link goes to a blogspot account with one entry. This:

Secret Blog for You

Last Updated: Today

You...

If you're reading this I guess you got my e-mail. I'm still not completely sure about this but I can't hide my feelings any longer. I want you to guess who I am and approach me yourself. To help you out with your guessing I made a few pictures and videos with You written on my body. Theyre kind of risque photos so I had to make a profile at http://www.newfriendly.com and post them there. My username in the members area is ILuvYou09. Its a free website but you might need a CC or Debit to verify your age because I had to. Sigh. But anyway sign up at http://www.newfriendly.com and once you are inside search for me. I want you to guess who I am and then approach me yourself. Im shy and this is the bravest thing Ive probably ever done but you need to do the rest.

Posted by Secret Admirer

The link goes to a pay-for-porn site, as might be expected.

Moral of this story:
Dude. If you can't spell and/or use proper punctuation, get out of my inbox. I am not going to call you.

As an aside, a couple of years ago I sang a piece written by a local composer that had text from a number of spam messages that were much more ridiculous then these. He wrote the music to match the ridiculousness of the text.

"If you don't create the life you WANT, you'll end up with the life you expect." -Me.

This was my revelation after a recent slightly-cathartic-yet-excellent weekend involving lots of solid Khrysti-time, an Amanda Palmer concert (I met Neil Gaiman!) and a couple of wonderful conversations with my sister and two truly good friends, and closed with a difficult but very good "capital-T" Talk with Tim where I was finally able to let go of a few more major chunks of psychological wall.

Ever get that feeling you've learned this lesson before?

BEST. JOB. EVER.

Well... it could pay a little better, and start a little later in the day (and maybe also have horses), but otherwise a job can't get much better than this in my book.

I am officially going to be playing with dogs for a living.

I am the newest Pet Attendant at Crate Escape doggie daycare in Belmont, MA, and I'm SO FRIGGIN' EXCITED I can barely type! I went in there this morning for a 2-hr trial run, and I think I was probably glowing when I left. Something about interacting with animals just sets my soul aright.

This certainly bodes well for my hopes of having another dog in my life soon, since they not only can come to work with me, but that will entail (hehe... tail... get it?!) a day full of playing with 20-30 other dogs AND a 3mi. jog/walk/bike ride to and from work.

This is one of those "this is where I'm supposed to be" moments, and it's been too long so it feels so good. :D

Khrystiism #42 amendment #1

A good friend and I went out for dinner and some really good beer on Friday after a few weeks of grueling back-to-school rush working at a college bookstore and we had an AWESOME great fabulous wonderful conversation. It was fantastic for both of us because neither of us had done that in a while, and both of us needed it. I know I needed it desperately.

In an email to me the next day, she suggested a concept that I think deserves to be included in the discussion of Khrystiism #42: We all need an emotional detox every so often, and one of the best tried-and-true ways to get it is to have a long talk over good food and drink with a kindred spirit and true friend.

I have a lot more to say about this (Surprised? Nah.), starting with the realization that a lot of people search out professionals to accomplish this emotional detox (psychiatrists, etc.) and it can certainly help, but it's not the same and you'll still feel like something isn't finished or that something is lacking. In the same way that there can be no substitute for real ice cream, there can be no substitute for true friendships. We are inundated every day with tons of cultural marketing that suggests that we can, but it's all avoidance of the true reality that you can't live a fake life or a half-life and feel fulfilled.

Related to that is reinforcing our own ability to listen to what we need and moderate ourselves. Self awareness and self control. If we are craving real ice cream, then hold yourself responsible for your own desires and health and have some, but don't eat the entire thing if all you want is a bite or two (there are times for eating the whole tub of ice cream with 10 different kinds of awesome toppings, of course). Healthy minds and bodies come from allowing ourselves to live IN our bodies and minds instead of some detached place next to them.

I see this as exactly the same as letting ourselves live IN our relationships with others. We encounter so many people in passing every day, but it is crucial to be present in the true friendships we have and to distinguish those from the hundreds or thousands of people we know and see regularly. It can be really scary to let people into your heart like that, and of course we've all been hurt some time or another, but we are hurt more by NOT experiencing true friendships.

And of course, that which we have to say is often exactly that which we have to learn: I know a LOT of people, and most of them only marginally, but one of my big lessons to relearn lately is to remember how important my few very close friends are to my soul (and therefore my mind and body), and to nourish those friendships by giving them more attention than I do the people I may simply see more often.

If you want an easy life, you have to do the work.

It wasn't the beginning, but it was a beginning...

Hi friends!

I've decided to start a blog. So here 'tis. In it expect to find a plethora of Khrystisms, musings on eco-conciousness, animals, music, ecology, metaphysics, philosophy, and whatever else I'm inspired to share with you. (And, apparently, a lot of commas.)

To begin with, I will share with you the Khrystism I'm reminded of most often.

Khrystism #42: Illumination
Whenever someone is worried about an issue between themselves and someone else, no matter how small, and they put it "away" rather than dealing with it, it sits in some small, dark corner of their mind and festers. The longer it's left there in the dark, the bigger and bigger the balloon of worry and insecurity and fear and other muck-o-evil grows around it and the more worried and tense the person, and therefore the relationship, becomes, even though neither person might realize exactly why. As soon as the issue is addressed, that is, it is illuminated, all of the inflation of fear dissolves and you are both able to see the issue for the relatively small thing it really is. Even if it is something very important and even if we are fearful of the potential outcome, the reality is never as bad as our minds may twist it to be.