California Trip Thus Far
We're taking a day of rest, since the trip thus far has been wonderful, but also exhausting - the last 3 days have been more down-to-business days, so today we're just relaxing in Sausalito, and possibly going a-clubbin' later tonight.
Friday:
Flight was uneventful, even easy! My mom drove up to meet us at O'Hare and had lunch with us at Gino's East (we had 3 hours to kill before the flight). Then we flew to SFO, hopped on the BART to the Civic Center, where Linda picked us up outside on the street. The sun had just set, so the city was hopping. I thought it would be stereotypically super-hilly everywhere, but not where we were. Market St. was all flat. We drove around downtown and had dinner at a restaurant on Pier 39, then drove across the lit up Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. It's been raining there a while, and Sausalito is bright green, that wet spring eucalyptus smell everywhere, everything built vertically, up on hills. Linda's little 1-bedroom is so nice and comfy, with enormous windows opening to a porch overlooking the Bay, with San Francisco lit up on the other side. We went to bed early.
Saturday:
The next morning I awoke fresh and early at 7am (must be jet lag, heh). Linda and I got dressed and took a long walk down Bridgeway St., along the water. We got some croissants from a bakery and talked about life, relationships, philosophy, California, etc. It was a glorious morning, smelling the lush greenery everywhere, the bay on one side, colorful unique houses on the other. When we came back I brought a croissant back for Nikki, who was just getting up. We drove to a Safeway and bought groceries. Then, we drove to San Francisco, snapped some pictures of us in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, and then went to Pier 39 to do the tourist-y thing and watch the sea lions. There are all these little docking rafts, and hundreds of roly-poly sea lions come there to sleep and bask and play. Some of them fought and rolled and walked on top of one another. The loud barking bounced off the concrete walls. It was so funny and cute. We drove around, hungy and looking for a place to park, but there were no spots, so we drove back to Sausalito and had a wonderfully fresh and tasty meal at an Italian restaurant. Then we came back to Linda's and watched some Ab Fab episodes, then went to bed.
Sunday:
Photo shoot with Cactus Jack! Linda drove Nikki and I to Pinole, where Jack's studio was. I packed some lingerie and schoolgirl outfit. When we got to the studio and met Jack, the first thing we decided to do was play some music. He brought 2 guitars and a bodhran, and I had my harmonicas. Nikki, Jack, and I played Wagon Wheel a bunch, all of us singing and harmonizing. When we perfected the song, we finally recorded it on camera. When I get back home, I'll put it up on my music link page. Then, we had a quick lunch at a Burger King (Pinole is kinda suburb-y), and chatted about the awful Kink.com article and the psychology of bdsm. Jack is a cool guy - very intelligent and fatherly. When we got back we set up for the shoots. We shot for 3 hours and did 3 "episodes" with me as schoolgirl, sent to "St. Michael's School for Wayward Girls." It was fun, because communication with Jack was easy; he was concerned about my safety and comfort, and his main thought was to have a good time. one thing he did was a little 15 minute interview with me, to get to know Maya the Bondage Model. He likes doing a more documentary style to his shoots. I was so incredibly flattered, because Jack treated me like a celebrity. He said he was so honored to work with me (he was familiar with my work), kept praising me, telling me how impressed he was with my work, and everything. It's funny because I don't normally receive any direct feedback from customers - Keith once said that at one time I was #2 on Steve Villa's site, but usually I'm not aware of these things. I really gave it my all that day, getting into character and dialogue. We did typical scenarios - he'd come in, we'd bicker, then he'd tie me up, gag me, and leave me to squirm around and cuss him out. I was paid a whopping $250 for this work, and at the end he took us out to dinner at a restaurant and drove us home. He is just starting out, so I told him if he would like me as a reference to other prospective models, I would be that for him. He is a fun photographer with a real sense of humanity in it all. I'm glad I made a new friend!
Monday:
Trip to JFK!
Nikki and I got up at 8am (blegh), caught a bus from Sausalito to the Civic Center, then the BART to Pleasant Hill, then the 109 bus to the university. What a long-ass trip - 2.5 hours. Despite the constant rain, the university is pretty, small, modern, with a lush pond area in front. Nikki and I sat in the front lobby at a table playing Hangman. The one grad student, Megan, I planned tentatively on meeting never showed up. However, she never confirmed my email so I wasn't really expecting it. At 1:30pm I went to the classroom to sit in on Mary Schmidtt's "Issues in Science and Consciousness: Synchronicity" class. There was a guest speaker, Sheri, who lectured on David Bohm's "Implicate Order," or the universe. Mary came up to me and held my hand in hers, smiling as she introduced herself. She was this incredibly sweet old lady, and she wished me well. I also talked to the girl sitting next to me, Tammy, who was an undergrad. When the class was over, I went to go talk to Marilyn, the director, about being a student at JFK and the practicalities of life there. We talked about jobs, transportation, and finally, the classes I would take, prerequisites and all that. Marilyn is awesome - middle-aged woman with short blond hair who really looks in your eyes when she talks. We got along well. Then I met briefly with Megan, the grad student I was supposed to meet earlier. We sat in the cafe and chatted a bit, but then it was time to leave. I got Nikki who was playing WoW in the library, so generously being my emotional support and waiting for me, and we began our long trek home. I lost it a bit on the BART, just all this newness was overwhelming, but Nikki was there to calm me down and let me rest my head on her. It was getting so late that Linda picked us up on Market downtown and drove us back to her place. Hurricane rain pummeled the car that night and it was really scary. We settled in with some popcorn and Ab Fab, and went to bed early.
Tuesday:
Trip to the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto!
Another long trek, this time straight south to Palo Alto, near Stanford University. Nikki was a little sick, but she wanted to come with again - I felt a bit guilty. We packed some lunches of chicken sandwiches and Ho Hos, and schlepped through the rain to the Caltrain. The train had pretty views, but smelled hospital-sicky. Nikki slept on my lap, while I reviewed my interview notes. The second I got to ITP I realized I left my cell phone in the cab. It was ok though, Nikki took care of it, and hung out in a KFC while I did my interview. For the first part, Ann came to the lobby to meet me and took me on a tour along with three other prospective students. ITP is kind of like a labyrinth, and oddly laid out. When I first entered the lobby, I stopped and went, huh. It was completely silent in there, like you felt you were in church and couldn't misbehave. But later, when i went into an actual classroom, there were 10-15 students all in a circle, being loud, cracking jokes, and flinging their stuff everywhere, so that was a little different. Initially I got an extremely holier-than-thou condescending air from the place, but when i sat in on a class (couple's therapy), everyone was friendly, genuine, and open, so then my views on the place changed a bit. I did my interview last, with Dr. Patricia Sohl, and she was nothing but awesome and friendly to me, sincerely interested in what I had to say and wanting to know more about my ideas. I felt totally comfortable talking to her. I do get the idea though, that most people at ITP are wealthy. I don't get the sense that I would be welcomed as a barely-sustainable-financially-type student. While you're there, you have to pay for your own psychotherapy, for instance. I simply cannot do that - it'd be what, like up to $200 per hour, in Palo Alto, CA, which is a wealthier area in the bay area. So I'm thinking ITP doesn't quite fit what I want. JFK seemed more down-to-earth, with plenty of financial assistance.
So, a lot packed into the last few days. We're planning on taking it easy (Nikki's still a little sick) and just hanging out and doing more tourist-y things the rest of the trip. Stay tuned for Part 2...
Friday:
Flight was uneventful, even easy! My mom drove up to meet us at O'Hare and had lunch with us at Gino's East (we had 3 hours to kill before the flight). Then we flew to SFO, hopped on the BART to the Civic Center, where Linda picked us up outside on the street. The sun had just set, so the city was hopping. I thought it would be stereotypically super-hilly everywhere, but not where we were. Market St. was all flat. We drove around downtown and had dinner at a restaurant on Pier 39, then drove across the lit up Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. It's been raining there a while, and Sausalito is bright green, that wet spring eucalyptus smell everywhere, everything built vertically, up on hills. Linda's little 1-bedroom is so nice and comfy, with enormous windows opening to a porch overlooking the Bay, with San Francisco lit up on the other side. We went to bed early.
Saturday:
The next morning I awoke fresh and early at 7am (must be jet lag, heh). Linda and I got dressed and took a long walk down Bridgeway St., along the water. We got some croissants from a bakery and talked about life, relationships, philosophy, California, etc. It was a glorious morning, smelling the lush greenery everywhere, the bay on one side, colorful unique houses on the other. When we came back I brought a croissant back for Nikki, who was just getting up. We drove to a Safeway and bought groceries. Then, we drove to San Francisco, snapped some pictures of us in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, and then went to Pier 39 to do the tourist-y thing and watch the sea lions. There are all these little docking rafts, and hundreds of roly-poly sea lions come there to sleep and bask and play. Some of them fought and rolled and walked on top of one another. The loud barking bounced off the concrete walls. It was so funny and cute. We drove around, hungy and looking for a place to park, but there were no spots, so we drove back to Sausalito and had a wonderfully fresh and tasty meal at an Italian restaurant. Then we came back to Linda's and watched some Ab Fab episodes, then went to bed.
Sunday:
Photo shoot with Cactus Jack! Linda drove Nikki and I to Pinole, where Jack's studio was. I packed some lingerie and schoolgirl outfit. When we got to the studio and met Jack, the first thing we decided to do was play some music. He brought 2 guitars and a bodhran, and I had my harmonicas. Nikki, Jack, and I played Wagon Wheel a bunch, all of us singing and harmonizing. When we perfected the song, we finally recorded it on camera. When I get back home, I'll put it up on my music link page. Then, we had a quick lunch at a Burger King (Pinole is kinda suburb-y), and chatted about the awful Kink.com article and the psychology of bdsm. Jack is a cool guy - very intelligent and fatherly. When we got back we set up for the shoots. We shot for 3 hours and did 3 "episodes" with me as schoolgirl, sent to "St. Michael's School for Wayward Girls." It was fun, because communication with Jack was easy; he was concerned about my safety and comfort, and his main thought was to have a good time. one thing he did was a little 15 minute interview with me, to get to know Maya the Bondage Model. He likes doing a more documentary style to his shoots. I was so incredibly flattered, because Jack treated me like a celebrity. He said he was so honored to work with me (he was familiar with my work), kept praising me, telling me how impressed he was with my work, and everything. It's funny because I don't normally receive any direct feedback from customers - Keith once said that at one time I was #2 on Steve Villa's site, but usually I'm not aware of these things. I really gave it my all that day, getting into character and dialogue. We did typical scenarios - he'd come in, we'd bicker, then he'd tie me up, gag me, and leave me to squirm around and cuss him out. I was paid a whopping $250 for this work, and at the end he took us out to dinner at a restaurant and drove us home. He is just starting out, so I told him if he would like me as a reference to other prospective models, I would be that for him. He is a fun photographer with a real sense of humanity in it all. I'm glad I made a new friend!
Monday:
Trip to JFK!
Nikki and I got up at 8am (blegh), caught a bus from Sausalito to the Civic Center, then the BART to Pleasant Hill, then the 109 bus to the university. What a long-ass trip - 2.5 hours. Despite the constant rain, the university is pretty, small, modern, with a lush pond area in front. Nikki and I sat in the front lobby at a table playing Hangman. The one grad student, Megan, I planned tentatively on meeting never showed up. However, she never confirmed my email so I wasn't really expecting it. At 1:30pm I went to the classroom to sit in on Mary Schmidtt's "Issues in Science and Consciousness: Synchronicity" class. There was a guest speaker, Sheri, who lectured on David Bohm's "Implicate Order," or the universe. Mary came up to me and held my hand in hers, smiling as she introduced herself. She was this incredibly sweet old lady, and she wished me well. I also talked to the girl sitting next to me, Tammy, who was an undergrad. When the class was over, I went to go talk to Marilyn, the director, about being a student at JFK and the practicalities of life there. We talked about jobs, transportation, and finally, the classes I would take, prerequisites and all that. Marilyn is awesome - middle-aged woman with short blond hair who really looks in your eyes when she talks. We got along well. Then I met briefly with Megan, the grad student I was supposed to meet earlier. We sat in the cafe and chatted a bit, but then it was time to leave. I got Nikki who was playing WoW in the library, so generously being my emotional support and waiting for me, and we began our long trek home. I lost it a bit on the BART, just all this newness was overwhelming, but Nikki was there to calm me down and let me rest my head on her. It was getting so late that Linda picked us up on Market downtown and drove us back to her place. Hurricane rain pummeled the car that night and it was really scary. We settled in with some popcorn and Ab Fab, and went to bed early.
Tuesday:
Trip to the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto!
Another long trek, this time straight south to Palo Alto, near Stanford University. Nikki was a little sick, but she wanted to come with again - I felt a bit guilty. We packed some lunches of chicken sandwiches and Ho Hos, and schlepped through the rain to the Caltrain. The train had pretty views, but smelled hospital-sicky. Nikki slept on my lap, while I reviewed my interview notes. The second I got to ITP I realized I left my cell phone in the cab. It was ok though, Nikki took care of it, and hung out in a KFC while I did my interview. For the first part, Ann came to the lobby to meet me and took me on a tour along with three other prospective students. ITP is kind of like a labyrinth, and oddly laid out. When I first entered the lobby, I stopped and went, huh. It was completely silent in there, like you felt you were in church and couldn't misbehave. But later, when i went into an actual classroom, there were 10-15 students all in a circle, being loud, cracking jokes, and flinging their stuff everywhere, so that was a little different. Initially I got an extremely holier-than-thou condescending air from the place, but when i sat in on a class (couple's therapy), everyone was friendly, genuine, and open, so then my views on the place changed a bit. I did my interview last, with Dr. Patricia Sohl, and she was nothing but awesome and friendly to me, sincerely interested in what I had to say and wanting to know more about my ideas. I felt totally comfortable talking to her. I do get the idea though, that most people at ITP are wealthy. I don't get the sense that I would be welcomed as a barely-sustainable-financially-type student. While you're there, you have to pay for your own psychotherapy, for instance. I simply cannot do that - it'd be what, like up to $200 per hour, in Palo Alto, CA, which is a wealthier area in the bay area. So I'm thinking ITP doesn't quite fit what I want. JFK seemed more down-to-earth, with plenty of financial assistance.
So, a lot packed into the last few days. We're planning on taking it easy (Nikki's still a little sick) and just hanging out and doing more tourist-y things the rest of the trip. Stay tuned for Part 2...