be careful what you walk for

Ah. Life. Yesterday I said to Natalie, You never know how the day is gonna turn out when you wake up in the morning, do you? Nope, she said back to me, It's pretty much a surprise.

Yesterday was the day that my car bit the dust. All this talk of walking the neighborhood. For the time being, I don't have much choice.

I went to a motivational seminar after church on Sunday. Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the endless and everywhere Chicken Soup for the Soul series, gave us listeners a little talk on how to manifest our financial desires. I went through my big self-help phase about ten years ago. That's the phase where you buy and read all these books, attend all the talks and seminars you can afford, subscribe to O-like magazines, and take in as little of it in as possible. Because what you are really addicted to is the seeking. Not the answers. I still, however, firmly believe self-help has its place. And because I didn't have any plans for Sunday after church and am looking to kick hermitude to the curb whenever appropiate, I went. The seminar was free and good. There were hints that we should sign up for some of Mark Victor's paid seminars so we could learn how to become One Minute Millionaires (the title of his new book) et cetera et cetera. But I am sharper than I was ten years ago and I know that if I just follow what he said on Sunday (mostly the kind of common sense that we all struggle to apply because it would make life just too darn simple and we'd be free to embrace the happiness we're not sure we deserve: return phone calls in a timely fashion, never think "I can't," honor your ideas by writing them down along with your goals, practice staying in the moment, join up with people who are doing the things you want to do. In other words, Hey, try taking yourself seriously) I can have all the money I want. Sunday's talk was chicken soup enough for me. Lately, in my own life, I have seen specific examples of many of the things he discussed. Like this:

What we think is meant for our harm is most often meant for our good.

How many times did I think of myself as "suffering through" a walk to The Grove? But now that it's a necessity, I'm already used to doing it. That's handy. And living here at Chez Hotspot, which I wasn't too sure about at first. The building might be hot but so's the neighborhood. I can sneaker pimp all this: Fairfax library, Pan Pacific Park, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Citibank, Washington Mutual, Office Depot, Staples, Ralphs, Rite Aid, Walgreens (don't go to the photo department. There's a surly kid there named Lacoste, yes, like Izod, who will screw up your photo disc and not be the least bit sorry), Koo Koo Roo, Kinko's, K-Mart, Ross, Smart and Final, The El Ray, The Grove, IHOP, Suss, 2 post offices, the LaBrea Tar Pits, Baha Fresh, the SAG office, LACMA, Mani's Bakery, 20/20 DVD, the Goodwill, and Clover Nail Salon. I could go on, but you get it. Everything's here.

And so I am grateful. If my car had broken down while I was living in Hollywood like a fatted calf, walking would've made me feel like I was indeed headed for the slaughter.

I haven't forgotten my promises of talk of WeHo SnB. Mama needs to be able to post links to some of the fabulous people she's met there, and she don't know how to do that. So Mama's good friend Summer is going to help Mama out. When you start seeing links and buttons on this page, you'll know it was Summer to the rescue.