Berkeley's Blog

My Kitty and Spellmaker's Top Model, Monk

I want to tell you about my obsession with the charms, but first I need to tell you about my cat, Monk. 

I honestly did not particularly want a cat. 

I had (and still have) a big dog.  He loves cats, and we had lived with a cat for the first 4 years of his life.  But his other cat didn’t move out here with us, so it was just the two of us.  I lived with cats, but I can’t say I really have loved a cat since I was 7. 

About four months after I moved out here I started dating my current fella regularly (see last post about CH).  CH's close friend, Steve, works at a restaurant and on weekends he tends to stay after and drink after closing time with the staff.  Steve lives about 9 blocks away from the restaurant and on his way home this particular night, he noticed a cat following him.  Steve was charmed immediately by what he described as the “coolest looking cat”.   As soon as Steve made eye contact the cat ran to walk next to him and started meowing and talking away. 

Now I should probably mention that Steve is very allergic to cats.  Here he is, fairly drunk, walking home being stalked by a very cute cat, with his eyes watering already.  The cat walked him all the way home.  All 9 blocks.  That seems like a long way for a cat and that impressed me.  Steve called us at

1 am

to tell us about this wonderful cat who at this point had broken into his home and fallen asleep in the bathroom sink.  You see, when Steve went to unlock his door the cat ran inside.  Finally he got the cat out of the sink, and then out of the house and fell asleep himself.  The next morning CH and I went to Steve’s house, where we found the small guardian still asleep on the porch.  The cat immediately stood up and started talking away.  Steve was right, he was cool looking. 

Since he was allergic, Steve could not keep the cat.  He looked at me with puppy dog eyes, and said “Um Berk, do you think your dog might be able to maybe like living with a cat?” 

This cat had the gumption to follow him all the way home, I felt like I just could not turn him away.  But at the same time I was not really sure I wanted another responsibility, though small.  In the end I could not resist this cat’s talkiness or Steve’s puppy dog eyes.  So CH named him Monk, and the kitty came to live with me. 

Oh, and the doggy and Monk love one another as if they were long lost litter mates!

My Voting Rant

Hi Guys
I have had this weird series of conversations with different people over the last week regarding the US and some of the things going on right now.  I am not trying to preach about the war in Iraq, or the increase in censorship, or anything like that.  But I do want to talk about things on a personal level. 
I want to have a baby sometime.  I realized that I will not be able to give my kids the same things my parents gave me.  This is not because I am lazy, or have made bad decisions. Yes, everyone has made bad decisions but that isnt the main problem.  I studied computer science, I went to college, I try to pay my bills on time.  I have done everything that I was told was right to make my way in the world, but I cant seem to get ahead.  And then I look at things and  I have it so much better than a lot of people.  None of us are making great strides to get ahead.   There is just cruddy stuff going on.  There are layoffs all over the country,major car manufacturers are having trouble, and the freaking mortgage companies are going belly up. We have very little stability to our economy.  This is not directly our bad decisions, but the decisions our elected leaders are making.  I want people all over the world to have jobs, but supporting so much outsourcing leaves trained US people jobless.  Forget the immigration issues, we are losing white collar jobs that we need to pay these damn mortgage companies.   Bankruptcy rates are up to an all time high in the US, prices keep increasing (yeah dont get me started on gas).   
So here is finally the point to my rant.  I have never voted in my life.  I am 32 years old.  I have always felt like why should I?  My vote wont make a difference.  But I realized this week that everyone who doesnt vote feels that way.  Elections are coming up and we need to all make an effort to vote.  We need to.  I dont care who you vote for, but please consider registering to vote.  You can do it online here.  If you hate rockthevote then find somewhere else, but please think about it!

   That page is  http://www.rockthevote.com/rtv_register.php?ms=googlevr1&gclid=CMjP2pPe644CFRFjYAodYlFhNA

Spellmaker's YouTube Video

Hey
Mambo Sam and Matt made this kickass video!
Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAWbIrpSteo

My Fella

He is pretty private, but I do not want to keep referring to him as simply a pronoun throught out my entire blogging life.  I am going to refer to him as CH - for Cuban Hottie throughout my posts.  He will kill me if I put up a picture, but I find him to be very nice looking!  As of right now he is scheduled to talk at the convention, where all attendees will get to see him and know his real name :)

I was dating CH already when I started working at TVB.   I told him the day I talked to Mambo Sam, and got hired.  He knows what we do, the common recommendations, everything.   He has met Mambo Sam and Matt, and he and Matt have a lot in common, which for some reason is really funny to me.  CH is completely ok with everything.  One of the reasons he is so okay with everything is that his mother was  a practitioner of  Lukumi.  He will never admit to this phrased this way, and I hope he is not reading, but he technically did spellwork on me before I even thought of doing any on him.

I have stuff around the house from Spellmaker, some of which he has used intentionally and unintentionally.  I have potions, bath salts, oils, herbs, candles, and gris gris bags.   When he is achy, or being snippy I will bring him a Milk of Damballah bath kit, and he has done candle work. 

He has a spiritual path that he needs to follow on his own, and I respect that, but I love that he respects mine as well.  I do not try to shove Voodoo down his throat, nor convert him to Voodoo.  Lukumi and Voodoo do have a lot in common, but they are not the same religion.   For more info come to the Voodoo Convention!

I feel incredibly fortunate to have him in my life.  I like my job, and I like the spiritual path I am on.  I have made some really bad decisions about the people I accept into my life, but he is one of the best decisions I have ever made.    CH completely understands, and I love that, and many more things about him.

Our Myspaces

So almost all of us at TVB have created Myspace pages.  I have to admit for a while I thought myspace was for 12 year old girls and the 55 year old men who love them.  Then some friends from high school recruited me and I realized that a whole lot of grown up people that I wanted to get in touch with were on there.  I have to admit I have been having a lot of fun with it.  Check us out at

http://www.myspace.com/samanthacorfield 

http://www.myspace.com/skytiger25 

http://www.myspace.com/spellmakercaseworkers

http://www.myspace.com/spellmakerbridget

The Voodoo Priestess and My loved ones

How does my family and man feel about me working for a Voodoo Priestess?

How I started working for a Voodoo Priestess

Hi
I currently work as an Office Manager for  Mambo Sam, at www.spellmaker.com.   She is a Voodoo Priestess who grew up in New Orleans.  She is a really great lady, and you can see more about her at http://spellmaker.com/truth.htm.  She also has a blog on here. 
I love my job, and all of our clients are really great people.   My parents are super supportive of the things I do, and both of them seem to get a kick out of telling people that I work for a Voodoo Priestess.  One of the questions I get asked the most is "how did you come to work for  a Voodoo Priestess?"  So that story is going to be the focus of my first big blog entry!  :)
Before I moved to New Mexico I had been working as a Network Security Analyst on the East Coast.  I had job experience, I had been to a lot of network training seminars, and have a few SANS and Cisco certifications.  When I moved here I tried to find a job in the computer field, but I could not to save my life.  I lived off of a savings for almost 6 months and had several interviews that went no where.  I finally decided that I needed a job, period and I had experience working as an office admin from before I went into the computer field.  I looked in our free local paper and found an ad that caught my eye.  It read something along the lines of:
"Administrative Assistant needed for answering phones, filing, computer work.  Voodoo objectors need not apply."
After bursting out laughing, of course, I HAD to call about that job!  I called and talked to Andrew, Matt's brother, for a minute who was answering the phones at the time.  He put Mambo Sam on the phone, who told me I could come by to fill out an application.  An hour later after a shower and change of clothes, I was pounding on her door with resume in hand.  We ended up talking for 3 hours and pending Matt's approval she offered me the job.   It turned out that I was the first applicant who had actually bothered to come in.  It has been almost three years, and we still joke that she hired me on the spot just so she wouldn't  have to go through the interview process again.  It has been a great experience for me and I truly feel that I was lead here.  It is amazing the way things work out sometimes.  When you stop swimming upstream and observe signs and your surroundings things can really tend to fall into place perfectly.
I have grown and healed so much in the past three years, and I am eternally grateful for Mambo Sam and Matt being in my lives.  They are part of my very small NM family.   I am also grateful for all of the life lessons that I have learned by working with our clients.
I did not know much about Voodoo before I started working here.  I had friends who practiced Santeria, so I had at least a small clue, but I was jumping into it somewhat blind.  Not everyone is going to completely by chance find an ad in the local paper that opens the door for them into the world of Voodoo.  So if you want to learn about Voodoo here are some ways

1.  Come to the Albuquerque Voodoo Convention!
It will be held this year from October 26-29 
http://www.spellmaker.com/VoodooConvention/AVC2007REG.htm

2.  Read about it. 
The book Mambo Sam recommends as a starting point is the Divine Horsemen by Maya Deren.  You can get it at Amazon, but we do sell it as well   http://spellmaker.com/books.htm

3.  Try any of our products.
They all have very clear instructions and we also offer technical support.

Thanks for reading!
Love and Light
Berkeley

Welcome to Berkeley's Blog

Hello everyone!  I am Berkeley, office manager for www.SPELLMAKER.com.  Welcome to my blog!  Keep on the lookout here for Spellmaker news and updates, random thoughts and rants, and a magickal good time.

If you want to email me, or have questions please contact me at office@spellmaker.com