Fresians are large creatures :) My little girlfriend took me up north to visit her friends-- the Fresians on Tuesday. These horses are so beautiful. Sometimes she amazes me at how unafraid she is. These animals are so large and gentle yet they can kill you with a swift kick."Reike" the Fresian she rode that day, is pregnant or "with colt". It would be interesting to watch a mama horse give birth. I am amazed by birth. "Magic" The horse she usually rides was sick and had to have emergency surgery due to eating gravel. I hate when that happens--when you eat gravel and then you have to have surgery. I watched her ride and took some videos and photos. If I was lighter-- I'd love to ride, but for now I'll just watch.

After the ride, "Reike " needed to have a bath-- so Tomi bathed her and I help dry her off. Her muscles and body was so solid and impressive- yet scary and intimitating at the same time. I massaged "Reike" as I dried her and stood in awe of her strength and bigness- she pushed her head against mine and licked it--I felt connected. I wasn't afraid anymore.

 

// posted by Red @ 5:41 PM

  Margaret Cho is rocks my Asian world I am a lucky person. One of my packing clients treated Tomi and I to Margaret Cho's new Revolution Show last night at the Berkeley Community Center. We sat 7th row center. Margret rock's my world. When she's on stage I feel like screaming. I feel her in so many ways. I'm Asian, but I don't feel Asian most of the time. I'don't even have that many Asian friends. She spoke of going to school all day and coming home to another country. Being bi-cultured is a gift and an enemy at the same time.

Her raw ability to "go there" as she would say, puts me in awe of her. She has no shame and no secrets . The theme of her show was very political as well as hilarious.
She spoke of her notorious self loathing body issues and told us a story of how many diets she has been on. She looked very thin and it seemd to me as if she was tweaking on "something" as I listened to her speak and try to hide her body in her uncomfortable body language. She told a story of how she was driving on the road in L.A. and how she shit on herself. The story was excruciatingly painful as well as hysterical-- something she is a master at. The whole time she was telling a story I just kept asking myself "why would she tell us something so personal-- so horrible?" I realized she was telling this unbelievable story to illustrate and educate us on how we all hate our body in some way-how sad it was-and that she hated HER body so much that she was sitting in her own shit. Her body image issues had brought her to this point. It was so funny, yet the saddest thing I had heard in a long time.

We all have body issues, culture issues, and identity issues. I think about each and everyone of my friends and family and what "issue" they have. I realized we are all tortured in our very own personal way-- but I love you all the same.
Everytime I hear her or go see her in concert-- I get reminded of being Asian and how I also love my culture in the face of "trying to fit in" my entire life.
 

// posted by Red @ 7:36 AM

  Shopping the new disease I went to Target today and instantly felt overwhelmed by all the stuff in the store. It's funny how easily we are all sucked into shopping. With the mass quantity of goods-- it's like we are slowly being summoned "You have to buy this 5 lb bag of M and M's because it's only $2.50. We buy things because they are cheap-- not because we need them. This is how we accumalate all these things in our houses.

Another interesting thing is how for such a communicative society-- we don't communicate. When we shop through the aisles there is always a point where we can't move through because someone in in your way-- and instead of saying excuse me-- we stand there and stare at the person as if they know we are behind them waiting. I witnessed 70 percent of the people who were in that situation do that and only 30 percent speak up. Which are you? Please tell me why you are a waiter if you are. Inquiring mind want to know. I'm a speaker cause it seems silly to wait and wait.

Another interesting thing is the packaging of products. $ boxes of Kraft mac and cheeese with oreos and chips ahoy cookies? Why? We spend so much time and so much money shopping for crap we don't need or want, but continue to buy. Shopping makes me feel powerless. Are Targets and Costcos the new addiction? I get excited and scared when I go shopping. Is this normal?
 

// posted by Red @ 11:09 PM

  Bio for Rabbit Ring Ring!!!! Hello? Are you asleep? No. Can you write a bio for me? So Beth aka the rabbit, needed me to right a bio for her for her job-- So I put my book down-- Self enlightenment could wait, I guess. I wrote her bio. It was quite funny-- maybe she'll let you read it-- if you're good.

That's so funny because today Tomi asks me "When are you going to write a book?" A book? Can I write a book? Maybe I can-- would you buy it? Who would buy it? A book that will help people-- Beth use to call me the oracle-- or was that oragel-- no I'm pretty sure it was oracle. I wanna write a book-- but only to get rich-- not cause I really want to help humankind-- just kidding. I do want to help humans as we are oh so small and pathetic. I like to feel like I make a difference in this world-- sometimes I do. The book will be called The world according to RED. 

// posted by Red @ 12:52 AM

  Ahhhh 850 bryant I went down to the courthouse today because of the stupid muni citation I got. I just love 850 bryant-- my favorite people hang there-- Cops, lawyers and loud, tweaked out people with problems. That was bitchy huh? Oh well. As I stood in line-- this middle aged african american lady yelled at her husband across the room-- in my ear-- "Come here and stand in ths damn line!" He rushes over and says "the PO--Lice says I shouldn't even be talking to you cause a that stay away order!- see what you did by callin the PO-lice in on our business?! But you didn't tell 'em you was kicking at me and how bout when you threw the refrigerator at me you didn't tell 'em 'bout that did you, mama?" She starts to laugh and they both laugh. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Ahhh marriage-- what bliss? I hope someone loves me enough some day to throw a refrigerator or at least a small appliance at me.

When you are witness to these subtle life experiences-- you just feel pretty good about your life-- at least I did in the moment. The woman behind them was "dancing as fast as she could" When she rushed into the room and toward the line -- she was runnin' so fast I though she'd slam right into me. I was panicked for a moment--cause I'm so dainty you know. She was on the "crack attack or the smack attack" I don't know but somethin was attacking her body and brain. Remind me to never get addicted to drugs -- it's just not glamorous-- I mean can you imagine a massage therapist on crack-- the massage would be over in a minute. --not conducive to building a returning clientele. Yes, nothing to make you love your life like a trip to 850 Bryant. Ahhhhh. 

// posted by Red @ 12:31 AM

  Packing the eccentric We packed the most interesting woman today. The truth is she probably didn't need to be packed as she had hardly anything. It was refreshing. The fact is-- she had probably not bought a thing in 20 years. Her home was decorated with 50's-70's knick knacks and the dust bunnies were highly populated in each room. She did however have 2 felines -- they were so cute-- My favorite was Rufus--he was really fat- She said Rufus was attacked by a dog who bit into his stomach area when he was a kitten and that the dog must have eaten the part of Rufus' tummy that tells him he's full because he never stops eating--She locks his food up -- Poor Rufus :( She definately was not materialistic -- yet she was such a full person, I found myself wanting to ask her all sorts of questions about her life-- I was sure she had many great stories. She wore jeans and a white button-down shirt-- Her face-- interesting-- wrinkled and well worn with age-- her hair lang in a pony tail and hardly any sign of gray-- but she was a young old person. Think Barbara Stanwyck in Big Valley, but not as glamorous.

She was a distinguished looking woman in her early 60's. She was so interesting to talk to-- A retired criminal justice professor and DID she have stories to tell. She spoke of being a woman working with the good ol' boy in the police department in the 60's and all these cops that wanted to date her. "Cops are strange, they're aggresive and like aggresive women." . I laughed and conversed with her to the point where it didn't seem like work at all. She was definately a people person-- like myself. She made me realized how much I love older people. We packed her files and I couldn't help but snoop-- stacks and stacks of police research on subjects such as Satanism, witchcraft, pedophilia, etc. I wanted look through all her papers, It's the researcher in me.

This was by far the best packing job so far. She was free of possessions, but full of life -- "Less in definately more :)" 

// posted by Red @ 10:55 PM

  Packing the Pack Rats My weekend started when I got to the park eat my breakfast before a packing job-- I was sitting on the bench at the park eating my McDonald's breakfast-- the #3 special -- a cute little toto of a dog scurried up my leg and snatched my hash brown out of my hand and ran like a thief in the night. His owner came and apologized profusely-- but did she compensate me for my hash browns or offer to pay for short term therapy for my trauma? No. I was traumatized!

So, I had another few packing jobs this weekend. One woman was great and she was really generous. She gave me a ton of great stuff and I only worked 2/3 of the time I was paid for. The next job was moving a young dyke couple who had just purchased a house. Where do these kids get money to buy a house in SF? Anyhow, one of the girls parents was there helping with you move and went on and on about how much stuff they had aquired. They had so much liquor-- you could open a a small liquor store and when mom asked to take some of the booze home-- all I heard was "NO -- YOU CANT HAVE ANY OF MY WINE!!!" I thought YEAH! what the hell-- you give birth to me and you're entitled to everything I have? Jesus Christ?!!! I thought what a fucking princess-- Sheesh. They had enough plates/glasses and cups for a small army and only two of them lived there-- AND they were moving to a bigger place too!

Are we so empty that we need to shop endlessly to fill these bottomless holes in our soul or are we just materialistic? I mean how many plates do you need? I feel like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City-- You're thinking um more like Red the Outlaw in Transgender City.  

// posted by Red @ 5:37 PM

  Govenor Gropenator Yes, Folks. We had a genuine, misogynistic manly man as the govenor of California. Larry Flint would have been a better choice, at least then maybe we would have gotten some free porn. Well, what else can happen? First George "W" and now "The Gropenator" Rest assure that California is the laughing stock state at the moment. Maybe he'll put pretty women to work be hiring them to grope while he's in office. That'll create jobs, right? Uh, no Arnie-- you're missing the point.
Oh well, I'll just be in denial until he actually has to make political decisions or a nuclear bomb drops. I'm going to eat some Cheetos now.
 

// posted by Red @ 5:37 PM

  Voting Schmoting I voted today-- why? I don't know, cause I have some faith that the system still works. Maybe it does. Who will be govenor? Does it really matter anyway? Politicians are all the same and even if you start out with good intentions you either come out tainted and corrupted or you fail. I like working for myself . I can definately feel a different stress, but at least not the stress of working for some "control freak" or "power tripper" who's entire existence is to needle me about insignificant bullshit that makes no difference in the end. Am I jaded? Hell yes. I have good reason to be-- but at least I can still feel the insanity with a smile :) 

// posted by Red @ 4:19 PM

  Packing for the wealthy So we did this packing job for a woman who had a loft in SOMA. By the time I left- 8 hours later I was physically and mentally drained--more mentally drained, however. If there is a shopping disease, she has it. There was so much stuff in this place - I was suffocating. When I packed her bathroom- there were 4 -- yes, 4 brand new electric toothbrushes new in boxes-- I just asked myself- why?
There seemed to be way more than duplicates of everything-- I though if you want to flush money down the toilet - throw it my way. My class issues were triggered. She had 2 kids who had more toys than any child needs, there were huge boxes or brand new toys unopened- even. It was positively gross. The consumer gluttony was too much. You know those sippy cups for babies/toddlers? There were about 50+ and still more in packages unopened.
When I went down to help her with boxes she had bought-- Yes a van full of MORE STUFF from Costco. OK ummmmmm you're moving tomorrow--- "WHY ARE YOU BUYING MORE SHIT!!!!!!!???" I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs.

Pots and pans, clothes, gadgets, sheets, towels, stuff, stuff, stuff.......... I was really disturbed that anyone could buy so much stuff-- then I started to think about celebrities and how people who worked for them saw and went through each day.
I am exhausted just writing this. I never want to go shopping again. "Less is definately more and more is empty." RED
 

// posted by Red @ 6:03 PM