It’s that time of year again… the Relay for Life Kiosks are up, events are starting to be advertised and the teams are plotting and planning for the big Walk in July.

This is my second year participating in RFL.  Last year the Crown had a team of it’s own.  We started way late into the process and I had NO clue what I was doing.  Between Prad and I though we got stuff built(Ok he built, I watched and ran around getting stuff to be raffled off) and got people from the Crown involved.  We didn’t do too badly all things considered.  We raised money for a good cause, that’s what matters.

I don’t know too many people who haven’t been touched by Cancer.  I know my family has.  It’s an awful disease but we keep raising money and we keep fighting for a cure.

This year Dazy decided to get a team together in Midian.  Midian as a city has never participated before, at least not that I’m aware of.   Well, she got it together and created a team that I think represents all the factions in Midian.  At the end of the day, Midian is RP and IC drama should stay separate from OOC(I say should but that is another post).  Well we had our first event on the sim a week or two ago, and wow it was a success.  We raised over $100,000 lindens.  Not sure what that is in dollars but it’s a decent effort for only a few hours of time.  We crashed the sim, not hard to do in Midian and had a lot of really good, fun roleplay as well.  The best part, was seeing all the "citizens" of Midian getting in on it.  No one but the sim admins and team/participants knew about this and everyone got into it.  It was loads of fun!

There are more events planned, I’m not going to say what or when, cause that wouldn’t be fare.  Just hang around Midian, you’ll find out. 

There is a store on Angel Square selling RFL items made by members of the team.  Pretty cool stuff too so come down and take a look.  There’s a kiosk to donate too as well if your so inclined.

The team had a meeting last night.  We’ve raised a lot of money for a first year team.  Dazy is doing an amazing job!  Stay tuned for updates here and hopefully look forward to a Catwalker blog coming soon.

Time rolls on, people change, circumstances change.  What was once important to someone no longer is and it’s replaced by something else.  Friendships made change and evolve in time. 

I’ve seen a lot of changes in the past few months, some wonderful, some just odd and some that make me sad for the way things were.

I think the hardest change to deal with have been the people who have disappeared.  People change yes.  Priorities change yes.  Commitments are made and taken back, promises made and broken.  Bonds formed and wiped out.  It happens, I know that.  It doesn’t mean I have to like it.  If someone I’ve known for 2 years suddenly disappears without another word, I’m going to be sad.  Especially when I’ve been there for them when no one else was.  I end up asking if my friendship meant so little to them.

Why don’t I contact them you ask?  Well yeah, I could.  But when you realize every communication with them was started by you… yeah you realize they obviously DON’T want to hear from you.  So you start to wonder what you’ve done when you realize so many people you thought were friends are gone. 

It’s then that you decide that it’s time for a change and a change you find.  You find someone you love who loves you.  You find a new group of friends who are happy to have you around, and new activities which you are totally enjoying. 

So, what’s wrong with all of this?  Maybe I’m too sentimental but I don’t like losing people who were close to me.  One thing I realized however, I can’t keep blaming myself for not having spoken to or seen them.  The lines of communication go both ways.  If they had wanted to hear from me, or were curious about what I was doing, I would have heard from them.  I can’t continue to beat myself up.  I’m busy too.  I have feelings too.  So I’ll just close those chapters and move on….

I’ve seen sims that were beautiful and strange disappear leaving us with only our pictures and memories.  I miss some of these places.  They gave me a sense of peace whenever I’d visit to take pics or to simply just wander around enjoying the beauty of them.  Some disappeared before I ever had a chance to see them and now I have to be content with the flickr streams of others.  My own sim, BaileysReach is gone.  I thought I’d miss it but I don’t.  Being up there on that island made me too isolated.  I like people, I like to be around people.  Sitting on that big sim alone made me lonely so I rarely was there.  So I moved back on to Angel Square.

Speaking of Angel Square… I’ve had the pleasure of owning the sim for over a year now.  I don’t regret buying the sim for a minute.  Oh I regret certain things that were done in the beginning but buying the island… never.  I think it’s time to celebrate this.  I’m going to be making some changes to the blog (I hope) and the sim in the next couple of months so stay tuned….

I want to thank everyone who participated in the Charity Auction yesterday at C2P.  It was a lot of fun and best of all we raised a good deal of money.  I believe we had about 150,000L last night so a HUGE thank you to everyone!!

There will be a donation box out at the Crown and Pearl for anyone who wishes to donate but couldn’t attend yesterday.  Remember, last year we raised over 1 million lindens!!!!!

Every little bit helps and counts so if you can spare some lindens, put them in the box.

Thank you to Prad for DJing and assisting with the auction.

Thank you to Lands for all the notices and promotion of the event.

Again, thank you to everyone who donated or agreed to be auctioned off!

LOL I know, silly title but what else would say it quite so well?  See, nothing so there you go.

As my lovely friends will attest I’ve been suspiciously absent from the Crown and from their IM windows.  I haven’t even bugged them for new Gallery photos although they will get that poke later when I get home.  Hint hint

So, where have I been?   I’ve been roleplaying in Midian  and I’ve been hanging out with a very special neko that I adore and who adores me.  We partnered last weekend and I couldn’t be happier.  We talked that night about having a wedding ceremony, he said he’d do it if I wanted it.  He offered, is this guy great or what….  So, we’ll be having a wedding and a christening at St Michael’s parish in Midian.  Details will be forthcoming when I know what they are – lol.

I know I said I’d never get married again in SL but this is different.  He’s different.  I’ll spare you all the soppy details.  He knows how I feel about him and that’s all that matters.

The Crown and Pearl Charity Auction is this weekend.  We’ve had quite a few people sign up to be auctioned off.  It’s a good cause, Cancer Research so come out on Sunday and bid on someone or just dump some lindens in the donation box.  The Auction itself is Sunday at 1pm SLT at the C2P on Angel Square.  Join the Crown and Pearl group for updates on the auction and all the other great events and DJs.

The Gallery of Light theme should be changing this weekend.  The new theme is Respect.  The artwork I’ve seen so far is amazing.  We have a new addition to the gallery; Elise Capalini.  Welcome Elise, we’re happy to have you join the family.

The Angel Square market/mall is open and starting to fill in.  If you are looking for store space let me know.  Come down and take a walk through the gallery and the stores opening, there’s some truly cute items there.

So that’s what’s new and notable in my world for now.

Quick update:  I’m 3 days without a single complaint!  Woohoo Go me!

Well it’s that time of year again.   Time for the Crown and Pearl’s annual charity date auction.   That’s right, the regulars and staff are putting themselves up on the auction.   What do you get if you out bid everyone else and “win” one of these awesome folks?   You win a one hour date.  What you two do on your date is up to you.   We don’t wanna know.  No, really we don’t. 

So how does it work?  Well if you’d like to be “auctioned” off, then contact me by Thursday and I’ll add you to the list.   The you need to come to the C2P(the underground club on Angel Square) Sunday February 8^th by 1pm.   You’ll go up on the auction block and the winning bidder gets a date with you by paying the donation box.  

The event is always a lot of fun and we raise a lot of money for a good cause.  Last year over the course of a week we raised over $1million lindens for Cancer Research.   The event was dedicated to DeeDee Fadoodle, a regular of the Crown and Pearl and resident of Angel Square.   We lost DeeDee last year and she is sorely missed. 

If you can’t participate in the actual event, the donation box will be left up for a few days and you are welcome to throw some linden love in the box.   All the money raised will go to Cancer Research UK, we aren’t keeping a penny of it.

So you wanna know who is being auctioned off right?  Well, we’ve got 2 of SL’s hottest Male Avs, I’m not saying who.   I hear there is a rather sexy cat or two up for auction as well as a several other lovely regulars and staff.

If you want all the details you need to be in the Crown and Pearl group so sign up if you aren’t yet.   You’ll get all the details and notices about the event.

I’ll thank everyone in advance for their support for this very worth cause.

The Gallery has been open for a month or so now and I thought it was time I talked about it for a bit.  Why did I allocate space on my island to a Gallery which doesn’t contribute to my tier payment you may ask?  The answer is simple.  There are so many talented folks who are regulars and DJs at the Crown and Pearl that I thought what better way to show that then to open a Gallery for them to show their work.

Each artist displays one piece of artwork based on a theme I determine.  In the future I may ask each of them to choose the theme.  The current theme is *Dreams*.  You know the song from Cinderella.  Dreams are wishes your heart makes…..  Well that was my inspiration.

Every couple of weeks the theme will change.  I’m not telling you what the next theme is.  You’ll have to wait and see. 

Currently the artists on display are:  Ryker Beck , Natalya Homewood , Prad Prathivi , Bailey Dazy, Aribeth Coronet , Landsend Korobase , Hellspawned Xingjian and myself.  New artists are welcome to join the Gallery.  Just drop me an IM or notecard in world.

Stop by and see the artwork by these very talented folks.  If you like what you see, well why not drop them a note and tell them.

The next theme for the Gallery of Light is Dreams.  The pictures will go up this weekend.

I was watching TV one evening and an ad for something came up playing a song from Cinderella.  That song is:

[Written by: Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston]
A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you’re fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep

Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true
So dream…

Cinderella is one of my all time favorite of the older Disney movies.  What girl doesn’t want to meet and fall in love with her Prince Charming, have a fairy godmother watching out for her and a couple mice that are good with a needle and thread.  LOL well maybe not the mice but you know what I mean.   So when I heard the song I KNEW that’s what I wanted the theme to be.  I thought it would be so easy to come up with a pic for the Gallery.  We all have dreams after all.   It wasn’t.  It was quite difficult in fact.  The pic on this post is my entry for the Gallery. 

What occured to me as I struggled to find inspiration for this was that my dreams area all very personal.  Some are silly, some are universal – peace, love, happiness etc.  But my true dreams, the ones my heart makes are all so very personal.  So instead of trying to portray one of them in a picture, I portrayed myself, sleeping and dreaming.  To share those very personal dreams would make them seem less magical less mine. 

How often do we really think about what we’re dreaming of?  Do you have a dream? 

Some of mine have come true.  Some are still there, waiting.  The one thing I realized thru this project is that we should never stop dreaming.  We shouldn’t give up on making those wishes that sit deep in our heart.

Dreams are wishes your heart makes….  No matter what your dreams are, keep them close.  Take them out now and then, dust them off and let them play in your heart.  You just never know when one of those Dreams may come true….

With so many rezz days and anniversaries it occurs to me how much we forget after a year.  So I’m going to collect yours(memories that is ).

The Crown and Pearl’s birthday is Wednesday and I thought what better way to share the memories of the last year than to collect them all in a book that we can all keep.  So… send me your stories.  The funny, the sad, the weird, and the ugly, I want them all.  Please just one per person though!!!  Feel free to send a pic or two along with it.   Keep in mind this book is going to be out for public viewing so if you don’t want someone else to see it or read it, don’t give it to me.

Send me your stories and pictures by the end of the week.  Either send me a notecard in world or leave a comment here or email me at mayfairwtch20@hotmail.com .  Please leave me an IM if you send me something so that I don’t miss it.

I’ll put them all in a book and leave it at the Crown for everyone to see.  If you ask nicely I may even give you your own.

I have so many fond memories of the last year picking just one will be near impossible but I hope that everyone can find one they want to share.  One very special memory for me is a moonlit dance in a very crowded CnP with a very special man and not noticing anyone but him.  It was a beautiful night and one I’m not likely to forget any time soon. 

The new theme will be going up in The Gallery of Light this week as well.  You’ll just have to come by and see it for yourself.

Watch for notices to go out in the Crown and Pearl group later today.