RFL Weekend-- The Sound of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains within the sound of silence

 Opening Ceremony was on June 6th  at 10 am. Although I might not be fully able to do as I wished this weekend  my heart is always  here  during this very special weekend. At 11:00am on Saturday is always the caregiver/survivor lap then at noon is the Teams lap. I didn't have the time this  year to join a team like  I normally  do when this  weekend does come around. Do I regret not  joining a team of course I do. I lost so many important  and special  people  in my life due to different types of  cancer. People  told me  that  the darkness that comes with  grief from losing  someone  gets easier with time but  I disagree. I feel like time  stole away  family, mentors as well as friends. If you ever watched someone  going chemo or radiation its a draining on the caretaker as well as the patient. I was a caretaker for my grandmother for years. When she passed it felt like I had not only lost my grandma but a friend.

So light 'em up, up, up

Light 'em up, up, up

Light 'em up, up, up

So this year the Luminaria is set to receive donations starting at a donation level of $L 50.  You can light a luminaria at any time once the regions are open right up to and through the ceremony itself (and until relay ends). When a donation is made by paying the luminaria,  you will have the opportunity to enter the name of the person you wish to remember. This is optional.  The luminaria will change colors based upon the amount donated according to the following levels:

 Yellow  50 to 499
Green 500 to 999
Blue 1000 to 2499
Orange 2500 to 4999
Pink 5000 to 9999
Purple 10000 and over

When donating to a luminaria, a box will appear asking if you would like to dedicate In Memory or In Honor. Once you choose one if you want, another  box will appear on your screen where you can type the name or message.  Once you have completed, you will see the text hovering above the luminaria.  Default amounts set on the luminaria can be typed over so you can choose your donation level.Please note that the Luminaria will accept any donation amount, but will only light up with a minimum single donation of $L 50.

I for one would rather spend all my Lindens this weekend lighting up Luminarias than  having  the newest  and latest  outfit to wear, a home on Second Life  that I can show off to all my friends or even a brand new Second Life Car that I want to learn to drive because I can't drive in RL. None of that really matters but what does matter  the most to at least someone like me is seeing the track all beautifully lit up by  closing ceremony on Sunday at 10am. 

As always I do not nor will I ever own  the songs  I used. I would love to be the one to say I had written "Sound of Silence" or "Light 'em up" by Fall Out Boy. If anyone who knows me knows that I prefer Disturbed's version of "Sound of Silence" over the orginal. As always my friends share your thoughts with me. I love  hearing stories,  thoughts and being challenged on writing topics.

Challenge Accepted - How SL helped or didn't help durning Covid

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

#shareyourthoughts 

As the article title states I had asked one of my many readers on  what they thought I should write about. This person suggested to me that I should  write about how SL helped or didn't help durning this  pandemic.

 So just before the pandemic happend I had just recently came back to  SL due to my own whims. On March 14th the day the news broke here in the US I was just dealing with the wanderlust thoughts of what I hadn't yet accomplished here on SL.

I've been told that I need to  write my truth and trust me  not all of it is pretty.  The truth is at this time I would rather be  around those close to me than to be around a bunch of people  who don't get or understand where I'm coming from. To my small circle of friends here  I want to say thank you for always being available   to listen  before this  had happend as well as after. Especially thank you to all of those who I talk to almost every day since  things  had gotten worse for me due to my RL job had cut my hours and I am spending so much  of my free time either back here on SL. As some of you know I am an essential worker in RL  which meant I  didn't lose my RL job when everything  took place it had meant that  I was working insane hours dealing with rude customers for 15 hours a shift when my boss decided that  she needed me full time  there at the RL job as a Shift manager.

 I've been almost everything  that one could ever truly desire except  well  famous or even a designer.I've  started SL as a dancer and from there  my job career went from stripper/escort all the way to model. While as a model I discovered my worth as a writer and that people wanted to get to know me as a person not as the perfect barbie I  wanted to be back in 2007. SecondLife created a safe haven for me and in return this safe haven allowed me  to speak out about what it was like to have Bipolar Disorder and it allowed me to make friends who didn't judge me on whether I was going to have a manic or a depressed episode unlike Real Life. So to whoever  out there  is reading this  know your worth. Don't settle for anything. I never let myself settle even though there were many times that  I didn't think that I could or was good enough to work for someone as kind and generous as LoveCat Thei. 

Shortly after the years I model I started taking  my writing seriously and really started blogging. I blogged for  +FacePalm+, +HeadDesk+, Dark Passion-Koffin Nails as well as Heydra and NailMe.I  felt at the time that I  was selling myself for less than what I was worth because even thought I loved the outfits and that I would go into full details of carefully planning  every little detail of the full outfit  and all the locations  I was not happy so for now I write for myself as a freelancer. Maybe one day I will consider being  a blogger with sponsors but  for now I am enjoying writing as I see fit.

 So I do think that  SL has helped  durning this harsh time of where  many are depressed and feeling alone but if you really think about it you can just sim hop or  go to a new event area   or even  adventure  off to a hunt  there  is  many things that can be done in a day.  Like I said earlier  that the whole mania/depression feelings that are so new to others due to Covid I've experienced these  rollercoaster emotions since I  was 16. So when my friends don't want to hang out  on SL right now and would rather talk from a distance I'm  beyond okay with it because  yeah the anixety can be bad at time especially from the forced amount of social distancing that must be done.

 As you can see from the previous two post that I had spent almost two weeks  over at RFL Fantasy Faire. I know from the pictures  that  I had posted durning that time that I had taken them. It takes alot of time and effort to decide  which pictures I actually  like  and am willing to  post.If someone had seen my flash drive to where I had  moved all my pictures to someone would think  that I'm insane.