Tacos and Tiaras

I'm just being all-zen-and-shit

Sacred Rebel

You Don’t Have Forever (Sail on, Mary Ellen)

Divine Orchestration, Friendship, In Media Res, Intuition, Kindness, Love, Mindfulness, Reflection, Sacred Rebel

“‘Cause you never think that the last time is the last time. You think there will be more. You think you have forever, but you don’t.”

– Grey’s Anatomy
Only four days ago (9 November), I shared this quote from my Facebook memories. In my comments I honored the birthday of my friend, Connie, who died five years ago. Today this post came back to me when I learned about the death of another friend, Mary Ellen.

I intended to use this quote about final times on Monday, but when I remembered it was Connie’s birthday, I felt the nudge to write, LAUGHING. The timing was there – everything I noted in the post itself.

Since the full moon on 31 October when I did my release ritual then set new intentions, I’ve been going with the flow… allowing, not chasing… letting the universe align everything and following its calls and nudges for my actions… I clarified some of those intentions on 11-11-2020, which I touched on in REMEMBERING.

I had no topics planned for writing blog posts, but they came to me:

So yeah, that brings us to today, Friday, 13 November. When I look at my list, I see that once I unblocked what I needed to by releasing what was just taking up space, I received an abundant flow – inspiration from people who raise the vibration, meeting new people, ideas that flow from one to the next.

I see the meshing of past and present but without knowing the future. Your future will arrive as you design it, and you can get a glimpse of the future simply by knowing the typical cause and effect, action and consequence… y’know, a logical flow.

Sometimes things seem to come from out of the blue – receiving Facebook friend requests that turn out to be your friend you didn’t know you needed, getting an impromptu invitation to a gathering, making new connections at the event, finding old and new connections are more than you expected, receiving opportunities that seem to fall in your lap – and all of this happened for me since the last full moon.

Even with as much logic there is in all of it, I also see and FEEL the magic of the universe delivering what I asked for, with gratitude for all it already delivered, and with an open heart and mind of not knowing how or when more would arrive but with trust that the universe figures it out for me and delivers. Divine orchestration. Coincidences do not exist.

This morning I got home from a meeting with one of my new connections, feeling elated about more than one opportunity to help each other. I sent messages to a pair of my beloveds to tell them the good news. Call it an answer to each others prayers or manifesting what I asked for, but I felt so much gratitude that I felt compelled to say out loud, “God is good. The universe is so good to me.” And then I noticed it was 11:11. Thank you, angels.

I felt the pull of sharing all of it in a blog post as I just did in the preceding paragraphs, but my login was being a shithead and locked me out, advising me to try again in five minutes. So I went to see what was on Facebook. This was only MINUTES after I thanked the angels, and that’s when I saw an R.I.P. post. I felt my vibration drop at the rate of the fuel gauge needle when the tank is three-quarters empty. Yes, my heart sank, but coming from a high vibration, the news didn’t bury the needle.

Dear Mary Ellen,

Well, this sucks because I was going to tell you that you came to mind this morning when I was in a meeting. While I was talking to a potential new client about their documentation, memories of working with you on SOPs popped into my head. I mean, yeah, that seems natural, so I dismissed it.

I even delayed texting you because I wanted to get this post out and ask you to read it because you’ve been one of the kindest and most supportive friends anyone could ever be blessed with in one lifetime. I wanted you to know you were with me in my thoughts in that meeting! I reckon you already know that and are giggling because you’re already doing some guardian angel shit… I’ll listen for the bell.

I can’t remember what date or even what year it was that you met me and Lala at Martinho’s to have lunch and catch up in person. I guess it didn’t occur to me to write that shit down because I thought we’d meet up again.

As much as people these days are saying how much they hate Facebook because of so much nonsense, I found myself loving the availability of viewing our friendship as documented by posts and comments or searching my timeline for “Mary Ellen”. All of the birthday posts you wrote on my timeline. All of the “thought of you” memes and videos between us. And they’re still pretty fucking funny even while I’m sad to know we won’t have another meet up at Martinho’s.

You knew me well, and I feel so grateful for our friendship and everything that I guess you are literally taking to the grave. You can count on me to do the same. You were more sister to me even though our age difference could have made us mother-daughter friends. (Writing in past tense about you doesn’t feel right.) You and Lala didn’t get to ride horses together, but at least you spent time together. She’ll remember you. Fondly too. You get her. You were so proud and supportive of my Marine even before he left for Parris Island, but we let opportunities to get together slip by… and I never got around to asking you how you know his BOOT brother, the one who I suggested he go and visit up in Quantico soon… and maybe this is the nudge he needs to remember that we don’t have forever.

Four days ago I shared that Grey’s quote about “you think you have forever but you don’t”. Today I grabbed the picture of us from NMLPW 2006 or 2007 when we served together on the committee. I put it together with my comments from the post. I feel sad that it all fits together, but I sincerely feel comforted knowing that as much as we thought we had forever to have another meet up, we never missed an opportunity to shine for each other and that we didn’t let our last lunch together go without saying “I love you” while we could still hear each other. Until we meet again…

Luceat lux vestra.

Against Rick Springfield’s Advice, I DO Talk to Strangers

Confessions, Friendship, Gratitude, Happiness, Kindness, Leadership, Music, Sacred Rebel, Warrior Woman Wednesday

stillshot from the latest TnT Tuesday Tune on TikTok, Wonder by Natalie Merchant, and yes, I intentionally make sure that “She believed she could so she did” displays in my videos

I mentioned in an older blog post that my last manager called me a collector of people because I talk to strangers. I unintentionally network! LOL It comes naturally, and I’ve been “running into people” who have become a supportive network that flows in both directions. We help each other.

Quick recap of the past month and a half:

  • I posted my first TikTok on Talk Like a Pirate Day with only single-digit followers.
  • By the end of the first week of October, I wrote about self-promotion and how YOU have to be YOUR Own Cheerleader First. Since this post, I have had daily traffic to tacosandtiaras.com! I feel happy that I opened a flow that comes in even when I haven’t published a new blog post.

When I published my previous post,, I was close to 2,000 followers on TikTok, and on Monday I passed it. That means more people to reach with humor, music, and positivity as well as to support for THEIR creations. “Follow for follow” or F4F in TikTok-speak. I feel overwhelming amounts of gratitude for the kindness and encouragement or words of “relatability” I receive, just as I am happy to like and comment on their posts. I see so much appreciation, not validation, going back and forth between creators who are technically strangers. And THAT is a beautiful thing.

And yes, I still have a TikTok blog post in the works, but for today, I have something else to say about talking to strangers. And it’s still Cybersecurity Awareness Month!!!

Aside from awareness of scams on social media, you have to be careful in general when it comes to connecting with people. Stranger danger! I know I expect everyone is a “good person” until I get the bad vibe or they do/say something that seems off. Then there are the people who seem to treat it like a dating service as if it should be TinderTok or InstaGirlfriend. To each his own… good luck to them.

Aside from the Tacos and Tiaras site, I have public accounts on social media because of the business analytics, and I use them as you might expect. As for my content, I am careful about my personal information whether it’s in writing, a picture, a video, or even in correspondence with a connection. My personal Facebook remains private although I have a few public posts, but I keep my settings pretty “locked down”.

As for my friends list, we either know each other personally or met through mutual friends…on Facebook. I find truth in the joke, “We went to Facebook together!” lmmfao You know how it is! I have ONE exception very recently. I sent a friend request to a random “People You Might Know” even though we have no mutual friends. This was one of those “felt a nudge” things because his profile reads “positive vibes only”, but this brief connection ended up yielding a reminder that Facebook is different. He accepted my request, and we communicated on messenger – no pickup lines or shit like that – I even joked that this must be my social distancing equivalent of chatting with strangers in the grocery store. On my other social media accounts, “getting to know you” with new connections is normal, but on Facebook, maybe not so much. We were mid-conversation about a Halloween post when he blocked me. LOLOLOLOLOL Again, no pickup lines, no digging for info that scammers try to obtain… sigh…

I was thinking of Forrest Gump when Forrest and his bus driver learn each other’s names so that they’re no longer strangers. Interactions on social media is often between strangers, but we connect anyway. We simply need to stay safe and smart about what we share.

More than a dozen years ago, I met my “Buffett Phamily” through the BuffettNews forums when we organized meeting up at tailgates for Jimmy Buffett’s shows. Big groups of people in a public setting proved to be safe, and I stay in touch with many of them. Through the magic of Facebook, we have connected with more friends of friends, and for me, I feel eternally grateful for the true friends I met. All from talking to strangers.

When I post social media content, the majority of my audience is “strangers”. When my content gets a smile or a laugh, I’ve done what I set out to do. If my posts help someone to think and take action whether it’s to improve their mindset, get going with a project, try something new, overcome a fear, or anything that helps them to make their life better, then I am succeeding on my path. My content is what it is – not intended to be compared or critiqued, but to improve lives by letting my light shine. And it feels pretty fucking magickal to be able to do that for a stranger. I am enough. YOU are enough.

Luceat lux vestra.