S8EP10: Welcome to New Geistopia

Hey, gang! Welcome to my life – where anything is possible and nothing is as it seems. I’m Freedom and I’ll be your host, coming at you from within the depths of Geistopia.

DOC: Velcum To My Life ees a prochect, un experiment in Life unt ART. A living storyboard, if you will. Its premise ees zat life ees experiential, unt zat you can, unt do, experience ze life you choose. It ees based on Ze Veel of Life unt Ze ARTs for Ze New Millennium as life building tools. Ja, it’s true!

WALT: Welcome to my Life is an I T.V. Studios/Geist…House Players Production, in association with the Center for Creative Inspirationalism. JustUs Productions, the parent company, would like to give a ‘Shout-Out’ to the following for their ongoing, and oft-times unknowing, inspiration and support:

Princess Cuddlebug

Princess Sunshine

Company

The Shaman

The Pillar

F’n Bob

The Entire Putt-Putt-Putter Clan

The Warden

FaeriePrincess

Professor Siggy Chong

Sparky Wentz-eclaus

The VanMan and General Ralph Glossop, and Craze (may they R.I.P.)

The Messengers of The Galactic Federation

Looch

The Bassett Hound

Bert-On

The Baker of the Cornbread

Andy Pandy

The Mudder

Zason

St. Diane & You (3)

Brother John & Sister Jen

Spooky Queen

Boom-Boom Snuffbox

The Nameless One

Tim-Bo

The Cousins

The Rox

PDT

Sir Richard Slouch

The Mechanic

The Wix-ians

The Socialite

The Village of Idiots

Piz-Niffer

Dancing Queen

Downtown Encyclopedia Brown

Chicken Witch

Dick Pointer

Soup, the Son

The Legendary Pink Elephants

Baby-Mama Rabbit

Wisconsin Belle

The Babes

Aaaand, of course, a very generous sponsor who (not-so-much) wishes to remain anonymous.

It is…Sunday, January 8, Two-Thousand and Twenty-Free. Time...Beginning

Theme – Sometimes You Just Gotta

This really was a Theme this week. It came in a few shapes and sizes. For instance, I bought a new printer. The one I have was giving me problems. It is quite possible that it just needed new ink all around – even though the black was fairly new. Well, it was a year old and may just be dried up. Nonetheless, I tried a few maintenance things and I just could not get the printer to print. I had thought about going and getting a pack of new inks. But, ultimately, I decided to go and just get a new printer. It cost me quite a bit more than the inks, but at least I knew it would work when I got it home. The other printer was like 6 years old. It was obviously having issues. This one is brand new. The print quality is nice [and I’m even getting 6 months of free ink with it.] Sometimes You Just Gotta. That’s how I felt. I think this is especially true with tools and equipment and such. You can fiddle around with the old stuff all you want, but Sometimes You Just Gotta go out and buy a new one. Call it a day. I also saw this in my days themselves. Despite my drive and desires to just work, work, work I found myself at the house quite a bit this week. A lot of that was actually health related. But then, Sometimes You Just Gotta take care of yourself first. Fortunately, being forced to be home also gave me the opportunity to get caught up on some things. Because, Sometimes You Just Gotta take care of all the miscellaneous crap.

Lesson – Careful the Magicks You Weave for They Just Might Work

I was coming into this week feeling nervous and a bit anxious. Mostly in regards to my finances. I wasn’t as concerned about the week itself, or even my bills for the month. What was on my mind were all of these miscellaneous debts that have accrued here and there, such as The Mechanic. I was feeling a bit adventurous so I thought I would put together a little ritual to maybe boost my income and put some of these things into balance. Step 1 was to make a list of all the things I could think of that I wanted to balance out. [Of course, this was a tiered list – as they always are.] It was quite the list. All in all, if I remember correctly, the total amount was something like $2800. I then wrote across the paper in red Sharpie, ‘Pain in Full.’ I added a bit of magickal scribing to the paper, in which I basically said, “And then some.” I put together a mixture of herbs and I burned all of it in a cauldron. Within just a few days, I had received word from one of my credit cards that they were increasing my credit limit by $3000. This is not really what I had in mind. It is not ideal at all. But it is what I got. Careful the Magicks You Weave for They Just Might Work…and there will always be a catch.

Observation – The Past Has No Place in the Future

Once again, this seems fairly obvious. I mean, let’s be real, there is very little point in pushing forward if you are only going to continue to remain rooted in the past. It is not just about releasing the moments and things of the past, but the feelings and thoughts as well. This is what really caught my attention and brought me to this Observation. My life has shifted dramatically. I currently find myself sitting in a world which no one really believed I would ever get to. I certainly didn’t. Not anymore. I had resolved myself to the notion that I was going to live out my days, and hence die, in my car. So, now I am here and I think of all those doubters and haters. All those people who put me down and kicked at me. Criticized, ridiculed, humiliated me. These were people that had been close at one time. Yet, years of friendship did not matter to them. They didn’t like my life and so they treated me as less than them. They treated me as good as nothing at all. [At best, they treated my presence like a plague on their lives.] So, now, here I sit in a life they would have never imagined for me. There is a part of me that just wants to look each of them in the eye and say, “Fuck you.” [Ego based, of course.] But, why? It doesn’t matter. They don’t matter. Why should I entertain those feelings, engage in those thoughts? At this point, it is all irrelevant. Those people from the past have no place in my future life. Nor should any thoughts or feelings towards them. All that can do is work to hold me back from a future that I deserve.

The Post

This seemed like the longest week of my life to date. But, before I get into all of that, just let me say…

Welcome to New Geistopia, Fellow Travelers. A new home. A new era.

I have officially spent a week here now. Of course, I have been here much longer. But – for me – this was the first official week. I have spent a lot of time contemplating the home. I have come to the conclusion that we are sort of kindred spirits. The house and I are pretty much alike.

If you were to pass the house on the road you probably wouldn’t take much notice to it. It’s plain. Simple. It is kind of ordinary and commonplace. It looks very much the same as the house next to it. Sometimes, this is how I feel. A great part of the world passes me by every day and never takes notice to me. I do not stand out.

However, much like the house, once you come inside you find a warm, comforting and welcoming environment. There is certainly personality and charm about.

Also, the longer one spends in the house, the more quirks and flaws one can find. There are all sorts of little imperfections, things that one might consider ‘wrong’ with the house. For instance, most of the windows do not actually work properly. This or that outlet may not work right. Just a bunch of little things that might annoy you if you let them.

Just like me.

Of course, you can let these quirks and flaws annoy you, or you can embrace them and consider them to be part of the charm and quaintness to it all.

Just like me.

I’ve known for about 3 ½ weeks that this was going to be my home. I didn’t make official announcements about it in the blog until Christmas and I waited until New Year’s to make the official public announcements. Even with all of that time under my belt, and all the time spent here prior to that, it is still a very surreal experience.

It is very odd having my own space. I’ve dreamed of it and imagined it so many times and now here it is. One way it leaves me feeling odd is that I dreamed of it for so long and now I don’t know what to think about or dream of or hope for. So, I am In-Between. I feel; accomplished and satisfied and somewhat complete. But I am also feeling just a tad lost and empty. I have no clue what could possibly come next in life so I have no clue what to what I can look forward.

I go through a range of emotions on a daily basis. Obviously, I am elated. I am also very grateful. I had very little to do with this actually working out. This was a gift from The Universe. And, I do have random, occasional breakdowns when I just cry. I’m not sure why I cry. Perhaps it is just relief and release.

Very often, I just kind of walk around the house absorbing it all. It is uncanny to me just how precise and perfect the home actually is. It is Just Enough of everything I ever wanted [or needed] in a home. I suppose it only makes sense that it would take so long to create or manifest it.

Not to mention, Timing is Everything. This particular home, at this moment, is so perfectly timed – not just for me, but for The Princesses as well. For me, a lot of the timing seems to revolve around the driving work. It has me positioned so perfectly. I am so close to pickup points in all directions that I can actually wait for orders in my living room if I so choose. Of course, this also makes it easier to pop in and out throughout the day, as needed. I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons, of which I am still unaware, why it is timed perfectly.

For the Princesses, some of those reasons are a little more obvious. Cuddlebug goes off to college in the fall and it is basically a straight 10 minute drive from here to her campus. Also, she needs to move out of her mother’s anyway, so this gives her a place to go. Sunshine, is interested in getting a job at the ice cream stand up the street. So, this actually gives her the opportunity to apply.

I look back at last year and it strikes me how the whole year was geared towards this. I mean, I know I said it last year [and early on at that.] I just felt like I was being prepped for a home. And every part of last year was leading me in this direction – including, and especially, the accident.

That’s a hard one to wrap the brain around but, looking back, it becomes so obvious. If I still had The Vantasm, I would still be making payments. Hence, I would never be able to afford the house. The very same reason I wasn’t able to find another car, until I could find one that wouldn’t require financing.

Nonetheless, I am here and I am ready. The true adventure is just beginning.

I was thinking about how, if my life were an RPG, this would be the save house. Every game has one. This save point that you just want to get to. It is usually conveniently located. It tends to have more than enough storage for all of the randomness you picked up along the way as well as more for the things you find moving forward.

Anyway…the week.

This was an absolutely difficult week for me to get through. I knew before I even got here that it was going to be challenging. In fact, I came into the year understanding that the first few weeks would be difficult. But this week was so much harder than I would have imagined.

I came into the week $158 in the hole. That is pretty much a whole day’s income. This was the week I needed to start working 7 days and making that amount every day. Here I was starting out a whole day behind. I really had no clue how I was going to pull this off.

To make matters worse, I started the week very, very sick. It all kicked in on Sunday. By the afternoon I was feeling feverish and chilled. I asked Cuddlebug if I was warm. She placed her hand to my head and said, “Dad…you’re hot.” After I got the girls home, I came back to the house and soaked in a tub.

Now, when I get sick like that – fever and chills – it always seems to gather in my lower back, where I have ongoing issues. So, Monday I woke up in excruciating pain. It hurt to stand, to walk, to sit, to lay. I spent probably a good hour of the morning, literally writhing in pain on the kitchen floor. I screamed a lot. I prayed and begged for relief. I was given some. I was reminded that I had Advil, which I took many of. I was also reminded of the healing properties of peppermint oil, which I now had in my possession. So, I rubbed a bit of that on my back.

Like I said, it offered me relief. Enough that I was able to get out on the road for work, but not for long. I think I barely made it through a shift. The pain just got so bad that I couldn’t concentrate on driving. My head was so clouded with trying to dull the pain. So, I made my way home and rested. I soaked in the tub again.

Now, here I was, starting out a very important week in the worst possible way. I was already a full day behind myself and my first day of working I was only able to make about a third of what I needed. My only saving grace was that because Monday was considered New Years Day Observed, the banks weren’t processing so I did not go into the red in my bank account as I feared I was going to. [Which would have also cost me money in fees.]

Tuesday wasn’t much better. I had moved through the pain but now I was dealing with the sickness itself. It had me very rundown. I worked on Tuesday, but again, I wasn’t able to get a full day in. Between Monday and Tuesday I made one full day’s income. Which, of course, went to settling up my looming negative balance. So, two whole days into the week were gone and I still found myself at $0.

I immediately began to adjust. I cut out expenses wherever, and however, I could. I eliminated my weekly Dollar Tree run. I cut back groceries to what I absolutely needed to finish out the week. I was able to put off buying wood pellets, because right now I can run the furnace at least long enough to get me by until I can get the pellets this week. I even put my phone on a payment plan. This doesn’t eliminate the need for the money, but it does delay it. Also, it breaks it up into two smaller amounts.

I’m going to be honest. I have absolutely no idea how I pulled it all off. I got through my week with plenty of food to get me through until this Wednesday. I worked all the rest of the days, which meant a lot of gas expense. I not only paid my first weekly rent payment but I added money to it for the electric.

Now, to be fair, it’s not all perfect and pretty. Truth is, I am still ending the week $54 behind myself. Not ideal, but a definite step up from where I started the week. Plus, I just so happen to have $50 extra floating around my budget next week. I guess now I know how it will be spent.

\

I am still sick. It has been a struggle all week long. I am feeling extra run down. My stomach gives me problems on a daily basis. I know it is clearing from my system. It is just taking its good ole sweet time. I still feel bad, but every day I feel just a little bit better. Whatever this was it was absolutely wicked.

As I mentioned previously, I received a credit limit increase on one of my two cards. A substantial one. I don’t really like doing business this way but it has helped. For example, I used it to pay off my remaining debt at The Mechanic’s. Not the way I wanted to do it, but I wanted them paid – for their sake and mine. I have been making weekly payments to them for something like 18 months straight. Now we are settled. [of course, there is already a list of things that need to get taken care of moving forward. But I will deal with each as it comes.]

I also used that credit card to get the new printer. Which is now [finally] set up and ready for action. The printer is important because there is work available to me if I have a way to print.

When people found out about the house, it was suggested that I make an Amazon wish list so people could get me something for the home – or donate what they already had. I went from 2 pots and 2 pans to an entire set, including things I would have never considered. Plus I have some more on the way, along with a set of kitchen knives. Along with the set of pots and pans I also received some plates and glasses. All of this was second hand.

The list proved beneficial, though it was something I didn’t really want to do. Nonetheless, I have received a 4-slice toaster, which makes cooking for The Princesses just a bit simpler. A small bath mat which has replaced the old towel I had laying on the floor. I have a full set of bath towels – including wash rags and hand towels. [2 of each.] I now have a small lamp for the basement room. It needed something a little different. I also got a set of two pillows. I imagine they were intended for me but I am giving one to each of the girls. And, I also received a hand mixer.

There are still a few things that I know were purchased but have not arrived – some dish towels, some sage, some glue and a small vacuum.

I am also, through the generosity of others, receiving quite a bit of furniture. Brother John and Sister Jen gave us their old couch. They suggested we steam clean it so it is in the garage waiting for me to figure that out. Spooky queen is replacing her kitchen table and chairs so we are getting the old ones. Someone is bringing me a dresser and I may have just found myself a full sized box spring and mattress. [I sleep on an air bed at the moment.] Bert-on also has two dressers as well as two very different entertainment units – one is brand new in a box and one is something he designed and built himself.

Cuddlebug even brought a rocking chair.

All in all it is coming together nicely. It is actually all happening much quicker than I would have imagined and with more abundance and flair than I could have hoped. For instance, the one entertainment unit [the new one] is made to hold a TV bigger than anything I will probably ever allow myself to purchase, but also, it has a built-in electric fireplace. I have already determined that it is going downstairs in the bar room. This actually makes it easier to find a place for the couch, which was a big debate between me and the girls. The unit will shift the set up of the room just enough that I can make the couch work.

Little by little. Piece by piece.

For now, I should be going to bed. But, I still have a few things I would like to get done tonight. Like laundry. Or, I realized yesterday that I have not done any of my administrative work on the phone since before Christmas. So, in an effort to keep myself, and New Geistopia, balanced I am going to sign-off, go down to The [new] MattCave and watch some TV while I fold laundry and get my ‘paperwork’ caught up.

If you’re not already there, go to the Welcome to my Life Facebook page – WTML. Or the YouTube channel – WelcomeToMyLife08. You can also find me on Facebook under Rev. Matt.

Wherever you are and whenever you are – Like, Comment, and Share – we’re on a Journey and it takes everyone to get there.

So, without hesitation, for now and for always, from here in Geistopia, this is your beloved Rev…

WALT: And Walt…

DOC: Unt Doc…

JOHNNY: Aaaaand Johnny…

And those guys, saying, “Stay Tuned-In, Fellow Travelers,” and wishing you Peace, Love, Light…

WALT: And Freakishness, Baby.

The Totems & Archetypes

**from Ted Andrews’ Animal Speak**

I really like this week’s Totems There were only two of them. They were both very abundant in their presence. And, they are counterparts – one is day and one is night.

Hawk - Visionary Power and Guardianship.

Messengers, protectors and visionaries. Visionary power and leading you to your life purpose. There is a message coming. What you eat, you become. Kundalini. Childhood visions are becoming empowered and fulfilled. The ability to soar and glide upon the currents. Great Heights while still keeping your feet on the ground. Attacks by people who won’t understand you - attack your ability to soar. Teaching of higher expression of psychosis and vision. Beauty and harmony in moderation. Lead you to using your creative energy in manifesting your soul purpose. Hope and new ideas. A need to be open to the new or shows ways that you may help teach others to be open to the new. Be observant. Life is sending signals. Careful in expression. Comments and actions will be strong and powerful with the ability to tear and/or kill.

Owl - The Mystery of Magic, Omens, Silent Wisdom, and Vision in the Night

Symbol of the feminine and the night. Ties to fertility and seduction. Bird of magic and darkness, of prophecy and wisdom. Symbolically associated with clairvoyance, astral projection and magic, both black and white. Hints of the light of the sun, alive in the dark of night. Meditation on this alone will reveal much about the magic of Owl within your life. Will be able to see and hear what others are trying to hide. What is not being said. See what is hidden or in the shadows. Detect and pinpoint the subtleties. Unique ability to see into the darkness of others’ souls. And life. Their medicine can extract secrets. If your neck is stiff and inflexible, you are hindering your perceptions to a great degree. Often reflects that you were born very perceptive - with a vision of others that you may or may not have recognized or acknowledged. Unique ability for seeing into the eyes and souls of others. Keep silent and go about your business. Eliminate those aspects that are not beneficial and unhealthy.