Friday, September 19, 2008

The Other Side of the Storm

Ike ripped out a big chunk of the Texas coastline.
In Dallas we enjoyed a drizzly, showery day, and then Fall seems to have descended.
The days have been perfect, really just gorgeous.

And everyone is anxious and edgy.
Almost every client this week is dealing with fear, and dealing with being stuck in the perspective of an old story.
Some of them realize it, others are in a cloud of self-deception.
There's plenty of finger-pointing.
Along with the crazy weather, the stock market is doing it's Fall Swan-Dive, I wonder if that's adding to this general miasma of unrest and concern?

Last night was all about love.
Big Love, Funny Love, the End Of Love.
There was much big change and decision-making, also...to divorce, to purchase property, to change jobs.
But mostly it was All About Love.
I adore nights like that, they are fun!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Ike Is On the Way

Our conversation on the way downtown to the Hotel is about a lovely young friend who is excited to be going to a big hair expo in Minnesota- one of those huge extravaganzas of "Concept Hair".
I can't get over how funny the idea of "Concept Hair" is to me. David opines that for some people, hair is only a concept, and we laugh.

Then, we notice the traffic on the other side of the highway.
All of 75 northbound is a clogged-up parking lot, slowly inching painfully northward.
Who are all of these people heading north at 8:45pm?
It's been hot and sunny here, and I forgot about the monster raging down in the gulf, a storm as large as all of Texas.

The hurricane is on the way and folks have been told it's deadly to stay in Galveston.
Even Houston has emptied out.
Gas prices have have shot up in anticipation of the big Houston refineries shutting down during the wild weather.

The Hotel is occupied by plenty of evacuees.
That's the kind of evacuee I'd like to be...holed up in a luxury hotel, suffering through elegant food and spa treatments.
During Hurricane Katrina, we had folks drive up from the south in their Rolls-Royce to wait out the storm at the Hotel.
That's just so Auntie Mame: "Ito, fire up the Royce; we're blowing this pop-stand until the Great Deluge is over!"
It seems to me that money doesn't buy happiness, it doesn't buy freedom, but it does buy choices.
Do more choices make us happier?

Friday, September 12, 2008

9-11-08, Lucky People's Problems

Our nights at the Hotel always begin the same.
The drive there is chatty and optimistic, we joke about the day's events and the "signs" that will reveal our potential for success or failure on any given night.
I read Tarot cards at the Hotel four nights a week, and I work there with my friend.
He acts as a sort of bouncer for me, fielding questions, making change, and distracting disruptive drunks so I have a better work situation.
He makes it all run so much smoother; I'm a much better Reader with him around!

We don't get there until nine pm.
Sometimes there are clients waiting for me when we arrive.
More often, I'll have a little bit of time to read or write before the first client.
Tonight we were barely set up when the first guest inquired about a reading.
She had been referred by another client.

Her reading was really all good news- the biggest issues for her are how to manage "empty nest" emotions and way too much togetherness with the spouse.
These are "Lucky People's Problems".
If you are lucky in this life, your big problems will be all about too much of the good stuff- love, time, possessions, family, passion. The historic events on this date just a few years ago temporarily made this clear to all of us. Most of us are incredibly blessed and tend to forget how lucky we are. I'm constantly reminding clients of the distinction between Uncomfortable and Tragic.

Other notable clients tonight were the Catnip Girls.
The name comes from a ridiculous incident...I told them to do the old-time hoodoo trick of wiping themselves with catnip before heading out to socialize for the evening.
It used to be well-known in the South that doing this will make you irresistable to boys.
Well, they did it and the results were not what they wanted. They spent that evening ducking advances from every unattractive man in every bar they went into.

Tonight, despite the lack of catnip, they're still ducking unwanted advances from some of our establishment's regular patrons.
They take turns getting readings on the state of particular relationships.

Tonight's Theme seems to be "Relationship issues that seem to be about Him are actually really about You."

Thursday, September 11, 2008

This Side of the Crystal Ball

Welcome to my blog!
I've been noodling around with doing this for the last couple of years. It does seem to take about two years for any of my plans to be launched...and that really seems ridiculous!
I wonder if I could just JUMP into the things I'm only just beginning to ponder, could I cut out some of that procrastination, or is it part of the blasted process?

Well, enough of that...

I wanted to do this blog for two reasons.
First, I think this probably will turn out to be the most interesting time of my life, and I want to document it. Nostalgically reading about this time when I'm eighty sounds like it might be fun.
Of course, I'll probably still be doing this when I'm eighty, with little time for nostalgia. Oh, well!

Second, people are constantly asking me to relate stories about what we do and how we do it, apparently there is much interest in our work and what happens around it. I know I am interested in it, and I would simply keep a journal, but for this nearly constant stream of inquiry about our adventures as professional readers and psychics from others.

So...I hope you will enjoy what I write here.

Valentina
The Fortune-Teller of Dallas