Life transition « To Drink the Wild Air

Re-connecting

April 17, 2011

I took the opportunity to participate at the 20th anniversary event at Scuderia West because I wanted to re-connect with my fellow motorcycle riders after having drifted away from that scene for so many years. To be exact the last time I was breathing and living the true biker vibe was in 1995. Right after I blew up the engine of my Kawasaki KLR 650 and shortly before I moved to Mexico City. Ever since life somehow let me drift further away and I finally had lost touch with the biker crowd altogether.

Yesterday I spoke to so many people of all age ranges with different levels of experience or with the burning desire to start either riding a bike or even racing, which reminded me very much of my own humble beginnings when my mind was set on motorcycles and nobody was able to do anything about it.

With all the information I’ve got yesterday in talking to people I will continue to re-connect even more. There is so much to discover and even though everything has changed in that scene nothing has changed at all. I felt good in this crowd immediately. No words have to be exchanged in order to be understood. In my “old” life I had moved on and have discovered many new exciting things, and now this felt like a homecoming. It was a nice and fuzzy feeling.

To continue with the journey, my book launch party on May 7 will be another stop where the past fuses with the present and will help to shape the future.

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Radio, Newspapers and new events

March 27, 2011

On Thursday of last week I had a wonderful conversation with Lisa Zimmer on her Radio Show Unlimited realities. This show was rewarding and inspiring in itself. Feel free to listen in.

Archive link – Unlimited realities with Birgit Soyka

I am looking forward to do more radio shows but before I do that first I have to put my attention to local issues.

Newspaper interviews, photo shoots and an invitation to the open house event of the local motorcycle dealership Scuderia West located in the heart of San Francisco. I am looking forward to be part of this event because this is what I did in my years at the motorcycle magazine “mo”. Talking shop! After all these years away from motorcycles – am I still able to talk shop?

I am definitely able to talk about “To Drink the Wild Air” which will lead inevitably to conversations about my time in racing and therefore shop.

There is a lot to discover on my journey of transition.

April 16 2011 will be the date. I will announce it with more details in the upcoming two weeks. Scuderia West, 69 Duboce Ave, San Francisco, CA 94103 ( Aprilia, KTM, Bimota, Vectrix, Brammo).

This event will be a good taste for more to come in May 7 2011 which will be the

“ To Drink the wild Air” launch party.

So – I am NOT running out of things to plan but it seems I am running out of time to plan everything…….

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Life transititon

March 21, 2011

Dont forget the radio show with Lisa Zimmer where we will talk about the book itself and the stories beyond. I am really looking forward to this conversation. Thursday March 24 @ 9.30 AM (Pacific Standard time) blogtalkradio.com/unlimited-realities-with-lisa-zimmer

Now there is no denial anymore. The shift is underway. Still in the recent past I felt that I needed to go back to this structured secure working environment, I have left already twice. I went back because I didn’t know of anything else to do or I didn’t feel comfortable with any “insecure” alternative.

Today there is no doubt anymore. My inner resistance just doesn’t allow this boiling inner doubt anymore. I need to move forward, look for new challenges, look for new environments I fit in again and look for people with different ideas. There is no way back anymore. The bridge is burnt. I feel like I am standing on the other side of the river and just look back to my life as it once was. In front of me there are only dreams, visions and the horizon but other than these abstracts there are only some little building blocks of my new life representing my actual future. I have to pave my new path and construct a new life altogether.

Three years ago, after the burn out I still was confused in what a life transition actually is and how it would manifest itself, now I know. I can feel it. It is this “oh so familiar” irresistible inner force pushing me forward, exactly the same way it did 25 years ago with my motorcycle adventures to do things I only thought possible in my mind. Nobody was able to stop me then; nobody will be able to stop me now.

Many good things are already on the horizon and it just takes determination and perseverance to follow them. What I am trying to say here is that nothing is the same anymore– everything has changed and I am finally on the road of new discoveries. Stay tuned for all the stories yet to come. There is a lot in the planning and I will talk about every issue when the time is right.

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Birds, Modeling, and a book reading…. an interesting day

October 8, 2010

I always was a high level multitasking individual. This is the exact reason why companies love me. Efficiency, speed, and getting a lot of stuff done within one workday are the pre-requisites to be a good employee. I don’t blame them at all. This is also my personal work culture. In my new life, I expect a lot from myself and I deliver. Most of the times I am satisfied with my results at the end of the day when reflecting back the same evening, sitting on my sofa with a glass of wine in my hand, utterly and rightfully exhausted. I definitely had an interesting day this week, when all elements of my “new” daily routine played a role during my productive 10 hours. Here it goes:

7 AM : jumped out of bed

7.10 AM: took care of 6 bird cages with 9 birds

Changed the newspaper at the bottom of the cage
Talking to my guests, playing with them
Cleaned out the food and water bowls
Preparing a number of fruit and vegetable Cocktails

8.15 AM: preparing my own breakfast – a power bar and a cup of hot tea

8.20 AM: administration – checking E-mails, regular mail, starring in disbelief at another bill!

9.00 AM: getting ready for the scheduled audition for a print commercial I was invited to.

Taking a shower
Out of my Bird clothes ( Workout pants, T-shirt and sweater) into business casual
Styling my hair, putting on make- up, jewelry and grabbing my portfolio.
10.30AM: leaving the house to arrive at the audition in time. Another stop at Starbucks. My first breakfast wasn’t enough

11.15 AM: found the location of the audition. Filled out paperwork, posed for the photo-shoot and left again.

11.45 AM : found four Voicemails on my phone. My friend Florence from Paris was in town. Took care of the logistics for the evening the same day – took two more bird bookings- returned several calls from my office on wheels (my car) .

12 PM: connected this trip with stopping by at Target. My Vacuum cleaner (22 years old) blew up some time ago. A Bird Hotel without a vacuum cleaner – unheard off – impossible. Bought vacuum cleaner and a microwave (which I never had).

1.30 PM: Arrived at home again. Changed back into bird care clothing, unpacked the microwave, assembled the vacuum cleaner, and cleaned the house, which was a mess, since the vacuum cleaner was out of order for several weeks.

5.00 PM: Exhausted from the house cleaning gig- still with the modeling make up in my face-I went on to do my second run of administration – checking E-mails. Received E-mail from the organizer of our writers group ”interested in reading tonight?” (at our monthly Literature meeting) . I replied with an immediate – YES. No reading material was prepared – checking the manuscript of “ To Drink the Wild Air” for suitable material to present.

5.30 PM: read the material at home and had a late lunch simultaneously. Took care of some more phone calls.
6.00 PM: changed cloth again, to go out to the monthly Literature event. Before leaving, I waited for another bird guest to arrive.

6.40 PM: new bird flew in, everything was settled, and I was ready to leave the clean house and happy guests.

7.00 PM: met up with my friend Florence at the Café Royale in down town San Francisco.

8.00 PM: the reading went well. It was fun and a good practice run

9.15 PM: dinner with Florence in an Indonesian Restaurant, catching up

10.30 PM: took Florence to her hotel and drove home.

10.45PM: tucked in all my guests – said good night and went to bed myself!

Not one day is ever the same.

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San Francisco

September 9, 2010

The other day I was thinking back to May of 2004 when I’d arrived at the Bay Area. To that time, still living in Miami, through the Internet, I had rented an apartment at the Bay Area peninsula, close to the office, and arrived there with a huge moving truck packed with all my possessions and the three birds. In a way, it was kind of a home coming after all my time in Los Angeles, and California in a way still gives me this innate feeling of being at “home”.

The first year of my return I didn’t have much time to explore, discover or develop – but I knew that I will stay here , settle down, grow (shallow) roots and integrate myself into local society and create a lifestyle. In 2005, I moved to the West side of San Francisco into a house I liked immediately and I still life exactly there, across the street of the gorgeous Golden Gate Park and two miles away from the beach. I have never lived five years in one place ever since I had left Germany where I still was living with my parents in 1985. Six years in the same geographical area is an eternity but also a good stretch of time to have explored, discovered, created, and developed.

San Francisco is an interesting place and as much as it is a tourist magnet with all the famous landmarks displayed in the touristy Web sites or sightseeing attractions there is a broad range of grey shades to be found and eventually the grey turns into the darkest shades of black. From ultimate glamour to sobering homelessness; from the yuppie success stories of the financial district to despair and anger of the drug addicts in the Tenderloin; where on parts of Market or Mission people rather lay on the street then walk, from the dive bars in the Mission district to downtown’s Palace Hotel. It is nothing short of a well balanced eco-system. Everybody lives with it. It gives the city color and a certain vibe; it makes it interesting and dangerous to the same time; there is excitement and opportunity. It attracts many interesting people and interesting lifestyles. In the six years of my stay, I have seen it (almost) all and the opportunity of meeting new people and discovering new things every day besides enjoying the marvelous outdoors never seizes. It is like a big and never ending party. God only knows how my journey will continue here in San Francisco but for the moment, it is just fine. My freelance lifestyle is contributing and in turn creating – on a daily basis- and is the backbone of personal growth.

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Change and transition

September 2, 2010

Over the last two week’s I was talking about the Bird Hotel and my involvement in modeling. I treat both things as an integral part of my life transition and deal with them as they come along. The other thing I am spending my time with is the book production itself. I am not going to talk about it in detail because the outcome will be publicly available soon and than people can judge for themselves.

Though a day (when structured) most of the time seems extremely short, it also can be long and productive. Many things can be put into 10 hours of daylight and many things can be accomplished (or not accomplished) depending on mood, level of energy and discipline.

I try to discover new things every day and combine them with the more familiar things in my life. It can be frustrating and confusing at times but eventually rewarding. In order to do this it is necessary to have the answers for two questions readily available. 1) What is my goal ? and 2) How am I going to get there? Indeed easy questions – but the answers to them are damn hard to articulate so the brain can grasp the concept to convert ideas and thoughts into productive action leading us to the desired goals.

It is so much easier to just do whatever we do like robots, day in and day out in order to avoid the challenges to create something new. If there would be a specific change formula I probably already would have gotten it but unfortunately there isn’t and every individual is in charge for their own change and terms of the how and why. On the other hand it would be boring to have a change formula because than the journey would be most probably be boring. Like this, every day is different – every day has its up’s and down’s.

There is never a straight road to reach one’s goals, instead, there are twists and turns, surprises, disappointment, anger, frustration, joy and sadness. But with every new day there are two very important components contributing to the individual change formula and that is faith and hope.

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Birdshit and Nail polish

August 26, 2010

Last week I introduced the one and only Four Star Bird Hotel in town. Again, some happy guests went home this week with another firm return booking in my calendar.

But this is not what I want to talk about in this week’s post. Another new and exciting venture I took on is Modeling – yes you heard right – Modeling. This came together once again when chance and opportunity presented itself and I was able to draw from my past involvement in runway/photo modeling which actually and honestly can be considered as ancient history. But I took the chance to get back into it for the opportunity to learn and grow in an (again) unfamiliar industry, connected to an extremely steep learning curve. I am working with the professional team of Steve and Laurie Cozart of Steele Model and Talent Management who provide the necessary education, photography services and their expertise to make the best out of this journey.

Check out Steve’s Blog: Cozartphotos./sneak preview/Birgit

In June, we took the pictures posted here and put together my portfolio of 2010 and one of my modeling involvement in Los Angeles in 1986 for comparison. In July, I sent out my pictures and my Resume to 15 Talent agencies in San Francisco and got two interviews out of it. This week I signed an exclusive contract with Models Inc. Talent Agency in San Francisco. Whew! Now the game can begin.

I already went to an audition for a highly compensated photo shoot, which was a fine experience. I am looking forward to future gigs and the opportunity to create important synergies with the Book PR campaign that will be launched very soon. More about that in next week’s post.

Between cleaning cages, interacting with my bird guests, Book PR campaign, regular life, and keeping up with the harsh requirements of modeling my level of discipline and creating efficiencies are tested to the utmost – sometimes it is even too much for me!

This one is from 1986, Los Angeles…