Author: Valerie

What the world needs is another person with loud opinions. You're welcome, world.
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Hereditary Brujas: the psychic link in my family

Did you know everyone has psychic gifts? No? Here’s a story about how that manifested in my family.

My sister was a teen mom. She and her high school boyfriend had gotten pregnant when she was right out of high school and it was pretty scandalous at the time because of who he was and how young they were (18). We kept it secret for as long as we could for her sake. One day while we were at a family function at my mom’s side of the family, my great aunt pulled my mom aside and quietly demanded an explanation about my sisters condition. Even though my sister was not showing any signs my aunt just knew she was pregnant. It took my mom and sister by surprise of course.

This was the first time I learned about my family’s natural Clair senses.

Suddenly things in my childhood started to make sense. Like how I used to have an imaginary friend named Carissa in preschool and when I moved to a new school and started kindergarten I had a real-life best friend named Carissa. Or the shadow people my sister and I saw at our new house. Or the fact that I was obsessed with butterflies as a kid and didn’t know that my great-grandma (whom I had never met but was named after) also was and even named both of her restaurants La Mariposa (the butterfly). In my 20s I started to tap more into this by listening to my intuition more and most importantly, listening to it.

The best example I can give of how my intuition works is that I’ll get a gut feeling to take a different route home from a place, then later find out there was massive traffic or an accident or something I would have been caught in. The scariest one for me was New Years Eve where I was supposed to meet friends in Old Sacramento and was dragging my feet that night to get ready, then decided last minute not to go. There ended up being a shooting outside of the bar we were supposed to be at that night. Close call.

It seems as if my niece Emma has been also blessed with this gift. I realized how strong the psychic link was between the women in my family recently when we had a death in the family recently. My sister was going through old pictures and my niece pointed out a woman in a photo and was like “I know her,” pointing to one of my distant aunts, Lori. Unbeknownst to her and my sister, my mom was thinking of aunt Lori around the same time and had reached out to her randomly, only to find out she was about to go into a routine surgery. Curiously enough that whole day she was in surgery I had the most upset stomach and just bad feeling that I couldn’t pinpoint that went away around dinnertime. It was after that, we all found out that aunt Lori had passed away. This isn’t the only example either.

A couple months ago I was on a video call with a co-worker who happens to be a new mom and her baby happened to be pooping during the call in her arms (fairly loudly lol) and she commented on it and I said “oh in our family we call that planting roses” and explained that my niece Emma’s aunt Becky, who had passed away at a young age, had coined that phrase when Emma was born because she would say that her poops smelled like roses instead of well, you know. It was a cutesy phrase we all caught onto. I mentioned this to my niece and sister the next time I saw them and their jaws practically dropped because Emma had a dream about Becky around the same time.

These are just a few big examples of the way we’re all linked and tapping into our natural gifts. The beauty is that everyone has these, its just kind of like a muscle you have to train and we’re more open to that way of thinking so it comes easily to us at times. It’s something I’d like to practice more, especially communicating with my family, dead or alive.

What about you? Have you had any spooky psychic incidents like this? Tell me your story in the comments.

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It all started with a rock

It was a hot evening in May of 2020. I had just moved back home with my parents due to the pandemic and having my salary halved. I was scrolling through Instagram and a zodiac meme caught my eye. It suggested that the best crystal for a Virgo was pink optical calcite. I was immediately captivated and I couldn’t really explain why.

There are a few things I’m going to be referencing in future posts that you might not be familiar with. Divine timing is one of them. I have always been a “everything happens for a reason” person and this pink calcite impulse buy was no exception. Divine timing, if you’re not familiar with it, means that you’re right where you’re supposed to be at this very moment. I was meant to buy that calcite.

Spoiler alert: want to know what calcite does from a metaphysical standpoint? It clears energy blocks and opens you up to your higher consciousness… I had essentially poured kerosine into the fire that is my curiosity for all things metaphysical and spiritual.

You see, my family has a long history with being blessed with spiritual gifts. The women in my family on my moms side have this really strong psychic connection as well (a whole other post coming on that). Maybe its a culture thing or a my family thing but the occult and metaphysical never really scared me because in Mexican culture those things coexist with Catholicism and we generally embrace the spiritual world and honor our dead. My mom, a born-again Christian disagrees with this but she’s been trying her best to understand what I’m going through and where I’m coming from when we have our morning coffee chats.

With the rise of #witchtok on Tiktok during lockdown, I was no exception to this and fell in deep. But the irony is that these were things I had already had interest in and led me more towards my spirituality (less so witchcraft, although many people would label me a witch now). By the fall I had decided I want to try my hand at tarot reading, mostly so I could connect in a more tangible two-way communication method with my spirit guides (more on that later).

By November, the messages were coming in super strong through my tarot and other synchronicities like repeating numbers, animal friends, relationship changes. I could no longer deny the pull by the new year and it showed up in every area of my life including work. I ended up being fired from my job because my heart was no longer in it and it showed. Unfortunately for me, this happened literally a day after I had been approved for my first-time homebuyer loan.

But now I’m in a safe space to grow, I have a solid savings, I have skills, I have drive, I have a purpose. Now its my full time job to figure out how to move forward for my higher purpose and I finally have the means to do that. So here we go, join me while I reinvent myself for the 48579th time.

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My dog and I met with an animal psychic.

So today I met with an animal communicator named Lilly Ludwig of Animal Intuitive. Basically, she’s an animal psychic medium. So not only is she able to communicate with living animals, but also those who have passed on (as well as humans).

I booked a short 30-minute session with her so I could connect with my pup Odie and get some insight into some of the random pains he’s been having lately. Before you go there- I have already consulted his vet, multiple times, and even paid for an expensive x-ray that showed nothing but a little constipation. Lilly is not a replacement for a vet or a diagnosis, and also this wasn’t the sole purpose of our meeting either. I also wanted to know how he’s been coping with the move back to Sacramento, as well as the recent breakup between me and his pup daddy.

As for his pain, she was able to ascertain that he’s experiencing daily bloating and gas and that he suspects, yes HE suspects that it might be something like IBS. He also told us that beef does not agree with his tummy and he absolutely hates vegetables. Good to know, pup, noted.

As for the breakup, I won’t go into many details as to respect my ex’s privacy, but she did say that my pup was happy that things are settled between us and that he wants to help me process everything. So sweet. It also explains why when I was down the other day he spent all day by my side despite being bored as hell (he’s still got that puppy energy).

Lilly also mentioned that Odie is still processing a lot of his own trauma from being a rescue dog (she picked up on that I never mentioned a word about it before) and that he just needed a lot of words of affirmation that he’s ok and safe now. She also mentioned how he wants me to do the same for myself. (Ok universe, I am listening ok!) I asked how I can better support him during his healing and she advised me to just hold space for both of us to process our traumas and reassure him he’s ok and not invalidate his feelings. He also wants me to work on being more alpha in our relationship by modeling the behaviors I want to see out of him – less reactive. My sweet sensitive pup is so insightful.

He also expressed how much he likes when I talk to him and to try to make more of an effort to do that. She also recommended that we unplug for a few minutes a day and just spend time with each other kind of like meditating to allow emotions and feelings to transfer through.

Overall I really enjoyed the experience, I felt like it was a really accurate reading of our relationship and bond as dog and caregiver. Lilly’s insights were really authentic and not at all gimmicky (for those skeptics). I would highly recommend booking a session with her if there’s a pet you want to connect with, living or otherwise. I’m really looking forward to bonding better with my pup by providing him with what he needs emotionally and checking back in with her later on to see how that makes him feel.

So what do you think? Would you pay someone to speak to your pet or a passed pet?
Let me know in the comments below!

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To hell and back in a year

Where do I even begin? Like most, 2020 has been a doozy. 2019 really kicked it off for me though, so we’ll start there.

In the later half of 2019 we uprooted and moved to East Oakland so I could be closer to my new job in SF. The apartment was fantastic, but the neighborhood was rough as expected, our cars were broken into, people shot in the street in front of us, the whole stereotypical East Oakland experience. Then around thanksgiving my boyfriends mom died suddenly, and I was laid off by my job (with severance thankfully). New Years Eve 2019-2020 I found myself wishing that 2020 would bring in a new year for my personal growth.

Be careful what you wish for.

By the end of Feb I finally was hired on at a new exciting startup changing the lives of many. Finally, a company with a soul and a clean purpose. Two weeks into enjoying a reason to put on pants and makeup again the pandemic hit and the first major lockdown happened. I was working from home suddenly so I did what every normal millennial does and stocked up on office supplies and a printer for the first time in years.

2 more weeks into that and I get the devastating news that in order to preserve our startup runway funding, we’re all taking pay cuts instead of being laid off. My pay was reduced by 75% and I no longer could afford living in the bay area. So we started making plans to move back to Sacramento with my family until we could get financially stable again. $3600 later and less a couch, we were back in Sacramento squeezing our king sized bed, two humans, and a dog into my parent’s spare bedroom.

To say this felt like a low point would be an understatement. But don’t worry it gets lower. After months, possibly years of deliberation, my bf and I called it quits on our relationship of 4 years. Initially it was mutual and amicable, but as these things go on hurt is uncovered. I’m not sure if we’ll ever be friends again which is unfortunate but I understand the hurt and the why.

So here I am again, single dog mom at 35 living at home with my parents while I am saving to buy my first home because the idea of paying $3600 ever again to a landlord is absurd.

I can’t leave you like this though. There is a huge upside to all of this. Moving back home changed something in me, maybe the pressure of being here without privacy 247 or the pressure of the pandemic which is affecting us all. I discovered a new side to myself. I have spent the last 6 months undergoing the most intense spiritual awakening of my life and for that, I am so grateful for. More on that later.

Also, I’m happy to report my salary has stabilized a bit and I’ve been saving money like crazy for a down payment on a house.

So there you have it. A quick recap on the fuckery that has been my last 12 months. I have no expectations for 2021 at this point.

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The car that changed me – the Corvette Stingray

I figured a post about our rental car life at @weekend_whips is long overdue, so I’ll start you off with a story about red hot love in a removable hardtop.

This isn’t the first sports car we rented, it isn’t even the second or third, but it was the one that made me fall in love with Corvettes. Compared to some of the cars I’ve rented since, the Corvette Stingray is nothing special, but it does hold a special spot in my heart.

It was a warm (hot as balls) summer day in 2018 and we decided after breakfast to swing by our favorite car rental spot, the airport. We had reserved a sports car but the way rentals work, it’s not really guaranteed so when we showed up all they could offer were boring stock V6s. A spicy red Corvette caught my eye as we peeked at the car lot so we decided to go for it even though we had really low expectations of it.

All my life I’ve been told that the Corvette drives rough and has issues that have been dissected by people way more knowledgeable than myself, but I had this impression in my mind of the Corvette experience. Chances are if you haven’t driven one that was built in the late 2010’s that you probably share this opinion too. Well, I’m here to tell you that WE WERE ALL WRONG.

Basically, the C6 and newer models are completely different Corvettes than we thought before. Up until this point, I had only driven muscle cars like Camaros/Mustangs so I was expecting it to drive like a really over-torqued heavy beast. What I actually drove was one of the most docile vehicles I’ve driven to date. 100/10 would drive again.

We ended up going up to our favorite mountain spot, Loon Lake, up and down the best parts of the road one time each driver and then woke up early the next day to explore Amador County too on highway 49. I fully expected it to overheat when we were in the mountains, it was like 105 in Sacramento that day and near 90 in the mountains. We moved the temperature gauge a little but nothing to worry about, although the AC did struggle to keep us cool. I was really impressed with everything for a stock sports car like the Corvette. All in all, we ended up putting a clean 500 miles on the car in just 25 hours and it was a hard goodbye at the rental drop-off, considering we were an hour late.

I don’t know if it was the cool factor of the car, or because I had such low expectations to begin with, but this one definitely left a mark in my mind. I still consider this my favorite car although I’d probably never daily-drive one, even though you totally could if you could afford the regular door ding and rock chip repairs.

Since this rental, we’ve rented again like the Grand Sport, but nothing compares to your first time.