Saturday, January 16, 2010

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I am leaving on a jet plane to India where I will be taking language and culture lessons for a week of sightseeing, and then volunteering at an orphanage for two weeks. I will fly a one-way ticket to the Philippines and live there for at least a year. No return ticket. No money set aside either.

Join me for my travel tales and travails at

http://www.solitarypanda.com

The Ways We Are In the meantime, my new virtual home has a special guest blog series while I am in India. Please check it out and remember to update your rss feeds.


This is my last post at blogspot.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Love Affair

If you haven't already, please update your RSS feeds. I have moved to www.solitarypanda.com









5 more days...

XO,
Floreta

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

All I Know Is I Don't Know

The Solitary Panda has moved to its own domain:
www.solitarypanda.com please update your rss if you'd like to continue receiving updates.


I don’t claim to have it all figured out, you know. Not a Goddamn thing. The way people are. The way love is. Communication break downs. That’s all I know. I know that the sun rises and sets and that the moon shines its moon-sun reflection on cold, wintery nights. I know that when my parents hem and haw and hover over computer screens like spacecrafts, under low voices and hushed tones while dad indulges in online affairs and mom tries to control him, that my stomach crawls on the inside and I have a harder time loving. I’m an alien here, and I want to fly away.

Once, I think I walked in on my mom masturbating; just a quick glimpse of fingers underneath silk nightgown, nothing graphic, but enough to put a scowl on my face and walk off, trying to shake the image away.

I’m a walking contradiction on most days. A cynical romantic. A slutty prude. An Agnostic that prays to God for hope. The conflicts in my life are minimal; all in my head. But they are enough to show me my mortality. No more enlightened than Buddha or Christ. I am only human after all.

So, when the topic of love comes along, I just want to hide in the recesses of my own cocoon. And whisper, I’m not ready, I’m not ready, I’m not ready. Entanglements of the heart by my track record leave me codependent, and hovering like spacecrafts over computer screens. Like mother like daughter, they say. The similarities sicken me. I don’t want that. I don’t want this. I’m not ready.

The way an ex lover and I said goodbye was on my hands and knees and doggy style. Backdoor. I screamed loud. The loudest I’ve ever screamed. Top of my lungs, back of my throat, guttural screams. Not because it felt so good, but because it didn’t feel like anything at all, except maybe hurt. Void of emotion. I screamed to make me feel; to make the fake seem real. Communication break downs. That’s all I know.

Despite it all, I still have Hope. Hope that I won’t end up with someone like dad, who has a tranny fetish and a penchant for porn, online relationships, escorts. Hope that there’s something better for this cynic who freezes at the thought of marriage, because why cage a freebird, but wants a life partner just like the best of them? Hope for something healthy.

In twenty-ten, I will love myself, continuing on the barrel of self improvement that was 2009. If 2009 was sworn celibacy then twenty-ten will be openness for opportunities and new experiences; a meditation on impermanence, of the sexy kind. I will unravel spirituality through sexuality by cherishing those magic moments and letting go of attachments. Like me on all fours, screaming at the top of my lungs. Letting go. One big exhale. I will unravel layers of love.

No, I don’t like casual, but I am determined to find that love doesn’t have to come in boxes; in things called “relationships” and “commitment” and “romance”. Maybe I am too broken. I don’t know. But it’s all I can handle for now and I want to learn about love. The healthy kind. Not the codependence. Not the meaningless sex, but somewhere in the middle. I’m not sure what that looks like, how far my boundaries can go. Is it merely friendship? Friends with benefits? I don’t know. Is it blow jobs and practicing deep throat and strap-ons? Is it wrestling and choke holds and practicing martial art moves? 2am sex after an amazing day learning how to swim, hiking to hot springs, and sharing a banana leaf umbrella under tropical storms? Or maybe just a good ear, belly laughs, and mango ice cream? I don’t know.

And so I write. Write my fantasies. Write my life. Write somewhere in the middle.

I’m willing to find out. Live my conflict. Like a bohemian, changing and bending. Never set in one way. It’s all I know.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Open Book: In Which I Liken Myself to Bjork

NOTE: This is cross posted at my new home, solitarypanda.com. Make sure to subscribe to the new RSS feed in order to continue receiving updates. I will cross post for two weeks to ease the transition, and abandon this blog for good. I will still keep it up for archival purposes.



Hello friends, journeyers, bohemian souls,

I need your help!

I need you to ask questions! Anything you'd like to know about me or this blog. I'll try to answer them on my next post and gather the best in a collaborative FAQ that will be part of "the panda" (about me) section.

What's in it for you, might you ask? I will personally link/credit each person who asks a question! Think of it as an interactive interview. Anything, and everything! I'll try to answer as best as I can.

I feel as if I am an open book, just writing itself. I've only just begun my new year, new blog, and new journey. I haven't even begun to settle in my new virtual home and I feel as If I need to better introduce myself to all of you. An icebreaker and orientation, if you will. Help me write the book. Help me complete the pages as I travel from place to place and orate my journey on my stage. Yeah, I tried to sound poetic, but all I came up with was rubbish. This Björk video says it all much better than I can.

New here? Even better!
Been around my block awhile? I don't care!

What do you want to know about the panda?

Friday, January 1, 2010

Blog Launch Party



Happy New Year!


You're invited to my new blog launch party! Come celebrate with me! Grab some beers. Tell all your friends! Introducing:

www.solitarypanda.com

And please, don't forget to update your feeds if you want to keep getting updates (prettyplease?)!

See you in the New Year! ;)

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Best of 2009

Friends, 2009 has been a great year. And I am happy to bring on the New Year. I have some exciting news that involves a new domain, new site, and starting "fresh" for 2010. Hope to see you at my new site for 2010 [details soon]. But first, a look into what this year has been about, through blog archives:

January:
I start "Archive Mondays" with an introspective look at Where I Was, Where I am, and Where I'd Like to Be:
[Excerpt: Pilgrimage]
I'd like to volunteer. I'd like to be a confident, grounded, whole, fulfilled individual. I'd like to be comfortable with myself, and comfortable with the idea of sharing my life with someone else. I'd like to be giving. I'd like to travel, or travel to volunteer. I'd like to make a difference in this world. I'd like to write a novel, or be a professional artist, or photographer or... at least realize that I can be anything I set my mind on, and have the tenacity to achieve it.  Read the Rest.
Other January "best of" entries:
February:
[Excerpt: Courage in Patience]
Sometimes, I almost wish I had been sexually abused so that I have a better justification for how messed up I am, or how messed up I sometimes feel. I know that's an incredibly weird thought, and even weirder still, I have had rape fantasies. Something about being submissive and so irresistably sexy that he ravages me with animalistic force, strength and dominance. Read the rest.
[Excerpt: Lost (In Translation)]
My island is calling me. Tempting me to go back. Telling me that I will be found. My island exists and I must go back soon. The Philippines may be my next destination of permanent impermanence. This feeling, this calling, formulatating thought bubbles in my head that are starting to formulate a goal. Read the rest.
March: 
[Excerpt: Listen up!]
It's just a dream, you know. I awake from it in a daze. Reality sinks in that I've been celibate for too long. And that I have promised myself that I will remain celibate for at least a year. That's crazy, maybe. But I need a year long sabbatical from outside distractions. I'm not religious by any means. Spiritual, perhaps. I need this time for myself like I need water. Nourishment. Survival. For now, I just have my imagination, my hands, and my vibrator. Read the rest.
April:
[Excerpt: Karate Kink]
The slight stench of body odor permeates my senses as my opponent approaches me from a choke behind hold. His sweaty body grips me in sticky skin against skin. In a few seconds, I have flipped him on his back, using my leg muscles for power and leverage in a bent over squat. Read the rest.
May:
[Excerpt: Dear Child]
 I haven't met you yet, but I Love you. On this Earth, I will love you with every molecule, cell, atom and soul of my existence. There is no other way. [...]
Follow your dreams. Both waking and asleep. Trust your intuition. The answers you seek are all within you, if you know how to look. Look closer.

Enjoy the silence. Enjoy the spaces in between. This is how you learn to truly see. Read the rest
June:
[Excerpt: Confessions of a Groupie]
Sometimes, I dream of him. I wonder how rock stars fuck. I have waking fantasies. Fantasies like we're cuddling and our lips meet in a passionate dance. Soon, my lips are roaming, tasting every inch of his skin from his neck to his hip bones to his inner thighs. Fantasies like his hands are roaming and entering me with two fingers flicking inside me as if he were finger-picking a guitar. I've never been with a musician but I'd like to think they can play me like music. Each sensuous vibration like bow to string; pure raw noisy sex. Harmonious and interwoven. Read the rest.
July:
August:
[Excerpt: When Did My Life Become So ADULT!?]
Being an adult means making your own decisions. It's not something I've been comfortable doing, but the more you do it, the "bigger" you get and the more confidence you achieve. This isn't just ego gratification or cockiness, it's true inner confidence, and I've seen it happen in my own life. Read the rest.
September:
[Excerpt: India Bound: 2010]
The thought of 2010 is both exciting and extremely scary. I am anxious. I don't know how I will be as a volunteer. I don't know what exactly I'll be doing to help, other than "taking basic school lessons, playing with the children, providing medical support for them and introducing them to activities (such as painting) that they would never otherwise have a chance to do." I don't know how I will get everything together by January, and even the little details of getting everything in place worries me. I am terrified, but I am following through with this. I am absolutely committed and believe this is exactly what I have to do and want to do. Read the rest.
October:
November:
December:
Thanks for being part of a great year.