He said.
And his wife added, “have you done this before? Even my kids were riveted, they didn’t even look on their phones!”
I will take that, especially since it was coming from local rap legend Big Rich.
He’s going to be one of the people sharing a lecture at “People Who Usually Don’t Lecture.”
I met him today and another of the speakers.
We did a rehearsal at Project Level, which is a place for kids in the Fillmore to make music, it’s Big Rich’s personal project.
He’ll be the finale of the show and he’ll be doing a freestyle version of his famous ode to San Francisco.
There will also be the Design Principle at Form4 Architecture, John Marx, my patron, and friend, who will be speaking on his experience with kindness.
There will be a woman talking about her eating disorder and how she dealt with it.
There will be a secular Muslim woman who decided to go back to her roots and start to wear the hijab again and what that experience is like for her in todays political climate.
Another man who is deaf will share his experience being normalized by his family and forced to act like he could hear growing up. He’s now big in tech.
There will be a man in a wheelchair who is paralyzed from the neck down. He experienced a car accident at the age of 19 that paralyzed him. He’s now finishing a Master’s degree in Engineering at Berkeley and he designs machines and technology to help people who need assisted living mechanisms.
And me.
Little old me.
I’ll be speaking about my running away to San Francisco, finding myself in the party scene, losing it all and getting it back and how it happened.
Or something to that effect.
I was super happy to do the rehearsal today, albeit a bit nervous, to perform in a small group in front of people I really don’t know, but I went to the bathroom and did a little praying and got right with myself and asked to carry the message, to be a conduit and, well to not fuck it up.
And I did pretty damn good.
If I do say so myself.
I did forget one part of the lecture, but remembered it half-way through and was able to join it into the material without too much distraction. No one noticed but me and one of the producers who had seen the narrative and I had practiced three times in front of her the lecture this past Monday.
Otherwise it was seamless.
And both the producers had tears on their face when I finished.
That felt good to see, that emotional connection was made and I was able to do the entire lecture in the time permitted.
I feel really positive about it.
I was linked to the page today and sent invites out to folks.
Come by if you’re in town!
It’s going to be interesting as well as the venue will be hosting a private Christmas party for the owner of Uber, who will be having Kaskade play.
I mean.
Fuck.
Kaskade’s playing Bill Graham at the end of December which is a gigantic show, the capaacity there is 8,500. And. He’s going to be at the same event I’m going to be at?
Um.
Ok.
That’s going to be a party.
Seriously.
I just checked The Chapel’s website and so far nothing’s been posted about that date, but the tickets for the lecture series are available through EventBrite.
What the hell am I going to wear?
Good grief.
I’m really excited to get to be a part of this experience and super grateful that I get to show up in front of friends and community and just really tell my story, some of the dramatic parts of it, anyway.
And getting to share it with not just people in my recovery community, but friends from Burning Man, former employers, school mates and even one of my professors is going to come!
It means a lot.
And in other news.
I decided to not freak out and not try to cram all my 3,000 hours into the next three years.
After a really insightful group supervision today at my internship I got a lot of super good information about the process of tracking my hours and to take the damn pressure off myself.
Instead of trying to cram every single hour I can into my week, I’m going to relax, to let things happen, to accept that I could, although I probably won’t, take the full 6 years the BBS (Behavioral Board of Sciences) allows one to take after graduation.
I would rather be a little slower, slow down, enjoy my life, enjoy the process, to the best of my ability while I’m still working full-time, and just let the hours accrue without having to be anxious about getting them all in the next three years.
I just switched over to the “new” BBS standards on track my hours.
And yes, I “lost” some hours, but ultimately, I believe, I gave myself some breathing space and some allowance to have a life.
Getting all 3,000 hours in the next three years would mean doubling, at the very least, my current client load.
Going from 8 to 16 a week.
It would be a lot for me to carry 16 clients a week and work full-time.
A fucking lot.
And that’s what I was entertaining in my head without really looking at it.
I brought it up in group supervision and got some very sound advice and suggestions from the group, especially from the two interns who went through the same program I am in at CIIS (California Institute for Integral Studies), so yup, I changed over and I have to say, I feel really positive about it.
It’s like taking an unnecessary pressure off myself that I didn’t even realize I was laboring under.
I want to get my hours as fast as I can, don’t get me wrong, but I also, at least currently, have to work full-time to support myself living in San Francisco.
Unless that changes, I don’t need to kill myself trying to get the hours.
I don’t want the next three years to be a miserable grind.
Especially as I’m also considering applying to one of the PhD programs at the school.
I do like how Dr. would sound after my name.
Oh yes.
But.
I also have discovered that I am really good at academia and I have had a tremendous amount of growth, personal growth, by being in the masters program, I think that I would enjoy getting my PhD and really letting myself go for it all.
I mean.
Why not?
It’s just a few more student loans.
Ha.
Tags: BBS, Behavioral Board of Sciences, Big Rich, California Institute for Integral Studies, CIIS, EventBrite, Fillmore, Form4 Architecture, full time work, Kaskade, licensenture, Marriage Family Therapist, MFT, People Who Usually Don't Lecture, PhD, San Francisco, self-care, The Chapel, therapy, Track My Hours, Uber
Auntiebubba 
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