He's thinking, "Being a lone wolf is overrated."
Now as a person who has spent many sleepless nights in the Alaskan back country by myself realizing that I am not at the top of the food chain, I am frightfully excited about this. Will my descendants have to backpack through wolf-infested forests in CA? Maybe. Will we humans start realizing that we are edible? Maybe. Will it maybe make us humans HUMBLE in terms of the whole scheme of things? Hopefully! Wolves!!! Exciting!
Hello Ladies, do I look available to you?
It was accusatory. Oh yes it was.
Because why, after months of monogamous bliss, and after months of a profile pic of the two of us snuggling -basically announcing to the web world that we were forever embedded into each other hard drive- WHY oh why would he change it to an old picture of himself, looking dashing as he peered under a heavy fall of eyelashes with a ‘come hither ladies’ look? And WHY would he do it when I just happen to be out of town on a backpacking trip with the girls?
I wish I could show you my pictures, but my camera barely survived the trip.
He was a strong man, big piercing blue eyes, but his common judgement told him that it was too much of an obstacle to safely surmount. We watched his back disappear into the foliage.
There were three of us left now. We looked down the 15 foot waterfall. It is late Spring in Utah and the water was high. What is usually a scramble and a jump down was now a fully-fledged turned on fire hydrant. We were backpacking thru “The Barracks”, a bunch of beautiful rarely-traveled narrow canyons outside Zion National Park. Nothing big or strenuous, just kinda chilling and enjoying the scenery.
MICHELLA
Michella Rivera-Gravage is a film and interactive media producer that spends most of her time buying really awesome vintage shoes that go with vintage-inspired modern blouses. In her spare time she is producing the SAF Seeking Talk Show for the upcoming YOMYOMF Network on YouTube and trying to teach Beverly how to use Google+. She is a SAF seeking the kind of job fulfillment that only come with a leap of faith.
Darn, I was hoping this was a pants-optional day!
A few years back, I was telling a friend about a meeting I was having the next day and he asked if it was a pants or no-pants meeting. “What exactly do you think I do?,” I asked dryly. He chuckled back that since he works from home most of the time, when a meeting is called among his start-up co-workers it needs to be made clear whether the gathering is a web conference or in-person meeting. The former does not require pants but unfortunately the latter does. I thought that must be wonderful, to just hop on the computer and get to work without ever having to get dressed. It seemed like an exhilarating and untrammeled work life, and I was envious of it!
Now a few years later, I am transitioning from working fulltime at a media organization to working on my own projects, to pursue my own dream of the no-pants meeting and making art. Over the last couple of years, I have strongly felt the itch to strike out on my own, but I grew up in a single-parent immigrant household, where financial stability was always the goal. I have had a fulltime job since I was 18 and I have never been the type to couch surf and work in a cafe while I write my script or album. I have always known and admired folks who could do that but I did not understand how they could do it. Needless to say, even now the thought of giving up a steady paycheck for the tumultuous dance of the artist hustle is scary as hell to me. But I did it anyways.
Luddites: the original "Rage Against The Machine"
I know I’ve been stressed lately because I’ve been drinking a lot of margaritas and glasses of wine lately. Let’s face it, I’m so out of it. I try to keep up, but I am technologically-deficient, socially-networkingly dumb, and just plain out of touch. I don’t GET IT. I’m like that ninety-year old grandma who is learning how to navigate Facebook for the first time and truthfully, I really don’t get the new FB ‘Time Line’ profile at ALL.
All my friends complain about it: “Contact me via Facebook!”, “Didn’t you see my Instagram?”, “I texted you 5 whole minutes ago!”
MELODY
Melody Butiu is that type of actor that you see so many times that you stop and say, “I KNOW her! What did I see her in??? I swear, I know her!!!” In addition to playing many roles on television from court reporter to nanny to doctor to E.R. nurse; she is also a theatre actress who originated the role of Jennifer Marcus in the premiere of “The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow“, played to standing ovations at San Diego Rep’s “Long Story Short”, and will be playing ‘Desiree’ in East West Player’s upcoming “A Little Night Music”. As a SAF, she shares a little about one of her old day jobs which deals with lovelorn people and her own search for love.
“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”—Carl Jung
I work for a matchmaking company and I talk about love all the live-long day. It’s not as warm and fuzzy as you might expect, because in talking to people about love, we also talk about fears, failed relationships, regrets, resistance, and doubt. People believe that once they find that special someone, their life will be complete. They want to find that part of their life that’s missing.
I value quality relationships. I love my man with everything that I am. So I don’t begrudge others trying to find love, and I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with asking for help. I just encourage people to look within while they’re on this journey. If you have a string of horrible and failed relationships, you are the common denominator in those relationships, so what can you do to create change? If you only come across “losers,” people you wouldn’t give the time of day to, how do expect anyone else to give you their time and attention? Do you want to feel special and honored? How often do you make others feel special and honored, regardless of whether or not they are date-worthy? What you put out is what you get back, so what are you putting out there?
Who the heck wants to date a mean girl? Like, really.
Her breathing changes. “I’m scared,” she announces.
“You’re almost there!” we yell.
It’s a girls’ weekend and we’re backpacking and rock climbing in Arizona. We’re all seasoned backpackers with bombproof gear in pretty jewel tones. We all dehydrate our own meals. We can tie knots that would make a boy scout cry. And when we go out in the woods, we talk about boys and drink high quality port from a Platypus collapsible drink container.
But this particular friend is new to rock climbing and as hardcore as she is in other things, it is awkward to be hanging from a rope and holding onto a crack with just your fingernails.
“I want to come down.”
DIANE
Diane Tuet is a SAF living in Northern California and making her living as a photographer, artist, Chinese herb specialist, and Food Network follower. She is the quintessential SAF Seeking ‘True Love’. (Other SAFs look for career highs, physical achievements, a really good hairdresser… it all adds up to a certain happiness… but I digress.) Nonetheless, while going through one of her first bad break ups, one of her great lessons of love came from her Chinese mother who came to stay one night with her to help her cope. She wanted to share the lesson with other SAFs, just in case it might mean something to them.
Beds... where the truth comes out.
In the midst of despair, you wonder how you forget all the important stuff your parents tell you.
I awoke from a surreal dream/nightmare to find my mother had fallen asleep next to me. Just a little bit before, she had told me this story in hopes of comforting me from my broken heart.
Mommy always said, “you don’t get to marry the one you love.”
I'll wear a harness with YOU!
“I’m Vietnamese.”
Oh my god, he’s hot.
“So, what brought you down to LA?”
For every women, sexy is different. Sexy for me is the scent of a man (not that cologne stuff, that completely kills my nostrils) and sexy is when a man is completely at ease with himself and doing something he loves. I’m not good at bars. We- men and women- stand around looking like goofs and leer at each other with our eyes saying, “You checking me out? Au contraire mon frere, I’m checking YOU out.”
Oh give it to me. No I was kidding.
Rick and Lisa from Robotech: TRUE LOVE dammit!
I want to see a Disney (or Touchstone or Pixar or whoever is controlling our children’s thoughts now) movie, a full-length animated cartoon featuring top of the line 3-D animation, on HOME REMODELING. I want to see Cinderella and Prince Charming waking up and discussing what kind of flooring is best: engineered hardwood or actual hardwood? I want to see Aladdin and Princess Jasmine discuss how they’re going to cut costs by doing the labor themselves. I want to see Snow White and Prince Charming (dang, that guy gets around) at OSH Home and Orchard Supply fighting over whether or not he got the right gasket size.
"Be unto others as you would want them to be unto you,"... something like that.
The text said, “I feel you’re constantly reminding me that you hate it here.”
I have been CAUGHT!
Funny doesn’t always translate via text. He can’t see me slap my knee and go “Hyuck yuck yuck!” to emphasis the joke. Sucks cuz I WAS being passive-aggressive. The grain of truth stuck out more than the joke.
I didn’t want to go back to LA. I had tried to joke about it via text, “Oh, don’t make me go back to LA!” I had cheerfully written. But he could see right thru my fake-ass facade and called me out on it.
Darn, I thought Southwest had a better safety rating!
“Uneventful flight?” my head started spinning. “Like what kind of events am I being ‘uneventful’ about?” Thought thought thought. “Suicide bomber?” “Plane losing fuel?” “Fuselage being ripped open above me?” By the time my foot hit the pleasantly sliding glass door of Tucson International airport, I was a walking ball of vomit just looking for the nearest plant to empty my coffee lunch.
You see, I have a huge fear of flying. I know, I’m a big fat pussy cat, right? “There is more danger in driving than flying!” “You’re more likely to get run over by Muni than be in a plane crash!” I KNOW!!!!!
