I was staying with Couch 54 for 2 days after Burning Man in San Francisco. I try to see my older brother (Couch 16) whenever I’m in town. While we were trying to coordinate how, since he has a really busy week, he sent me an e-mail informing me that his friend - whom I met last time, and was very impressed by - has been diagnosed with Cancer, has chemo, is losing her hair, and could I do a shoot of her. Of course I got in touch with this girl right away, and we met for lunch (she wanted to see my Burning Man photos), and discussed when to meet the next day for a shoot. I also went eye-lash shopping with her, and had my Make Up Artist, Cymonne, call her…. Cymonne has run in The Race For The Cure many times, and has worked with cancer patients before, and had tips on what makeup to use, what lashes to get, and even what makes them grow back. I was beaming, just knowing that Cymonne (Couch 27) called Suhani. I went and did the shoot with Suhani, who specifically told me she NEVER smiles in photos, it always looks horrible, and I will not get her to smile. Guess what? I think she was smiling more than she wasn’t. I made her laugh from the very start, both with my explanations of modeling, and my stupid jokes– and her smile lit up the room. Her real smile, when she’s happy… We had a blast, and she even told me that this is the most fun she’s had since she was diagnosed with cancer a few months back. I don’t know about you, but hearing that is the biggest reward I can get for my photography skills (5 figure checks once in a while help as well). I had played for her some MashUps I was gifted for shooting this DJ at Burning Man.

Here are Suhani’s photos. Isn’t she gorgeous? Doesn’t she look happy? This is after her 2nd visit to chemotherapy (Supposed to be the hardest). I’m considering setting up a small foundation type thing where as I travel, in each city I do a shoot with a cancer patient to make them feel good about themself. Notice she has the bandage and scars from the chemo, but they’re hard to notice around her radiance.

I had to leave in a hurry to make it to Yahoo Corporate Headquarters to meet Couch 16 for lunch. My brother is awesome… we are complete polar opposites! Seriously! Wait… not to imply that I’m not awesome, as I’m told I am, but … for example: He’s gay, I’m straight, I live on the East Coast (when I’m not couch surfing), he lives on the west coast. I am totally right brained, laid back, and an entrepreneur, while he is a Type-A personality, left brained, and only works for major corporations. I never received a college degree, while he has 3 Ivy-League degrees (one from Harvard, 2 Masters from Stanford Business School). And yet… we get along fairly well. After a workshop I took 2 years ago, I started communicating even better with Barak, and we’ve been even closer since… trying to be more like best friends than just brothers. So… anyways… now he works for Yahoo, and I was heading to see him. It was a riot! I showed up right when he’s ultra busy in a meeting… I typed “Ori B3nga|_” on my name tag, and wore a lot of my Burning Man Bling, a furry top-hat, clear sunglasses, and a smile. Barak saw me and just laughed… he took some photos with his cell phone (which I’m waiting on, so I can show them to you), and we went to his desk. I put down my stuff, and he took me to his meeting, where he introduced me to everyone there. Then it was on to see the whole campus, and be introduced to anyone he recognized. I think he thoroughly enjoyed having me there dressed like that. Everyone stared of course (not just the people he introduced me to), and I got to meet his recruiter, his boss, his boss’s boss, and many many others. Yahoo has a basketball court, a voleyball court, a huge gym, lots of coffee-shops that are totally free (’cept the rice-krispies treats), lots of free food - though if you want a hot lunch, you must pay - and much much more.. It’s no wonder that it is rated in the top 100 places to work. I even grabbed us some frozen lemonades. I sat outside on an inflatable purple couch, and watched Emily King perform. Yahoo Corporate events had brought her in. I went and got more coffee, and went to work on those photos I took that morning. Barak came by to remind me that I had better make sure I have room in my car for him, since I’ll be driving us back. WHAT?? Oh crap! so.. from 2pm-3pm, I spent trying to make some room. It was quite hilarious, let’s just leave it at that. The look on his face, and the trouble we had to go through to get his laptop, duffle bag, and a computer that had just arrived for him that day, in my car. *groan*

Barak and his boyfriend, Massimo, were having their 8 months anniversary that night, and I didn’t think I would get invited, but… Massimo could not get a babysitter, so I was in fact invited. I’ve met him once before, so it was great to see him again. I got to meet his kids this time too. My family can tell you that I don’t eat vegetables, but I’ve made an effort over the years, and Massimo is a great cook. I ate a ton of roasted eggplant, roasted red onions, roasted red peppers, bruchetta, and of course chicken. Desert was superb: figs that his kids had picked off the tree for me! Once the kids were asleep, I gave a slideshow of my Burning Man photos, and of course the Suhani pics. Barak was tired, and so was I… we don’t drink too often, and wine really gets us…. so… Barak gave me a ride (oh yeah… after Yahoo, we stopped off at his place, and switched cars) to the BART (their train system) station, where I took a BART back to 16th & Mission (which I nearly missed)… I made a right, and walked 10 blocks, as Barak had told me… the thing is, that I’m sure that I or he forgot the “Turn right on 17th” part of the directions… ’cause I walked.. .and walked… and felt pretty nervous, which is a difficult thing to do (to make me nervous). I was NOT in a good part of town. In fact, I was in a terrible part of town. I am not racist, but there were hardly any white people around… most people looked pretty grungy (not in a Nirvana kind of way), there were iron bars over every store, graffiti was prevalent, there were people walking around with booze, people with shopping carts, people fighting on the street (really! ok.. well.. on the sidewalk). Cop cars driving by with their sirens… I was not comfortable… it wasn’t even the area… I don’t dress up too fancy, and I can hold my own… but.. I was carrying a laptop bag on one shoulder, a laptop under my arm, a backpack with my camera equipment, and an additional bag that had some more camera equipment and a bunch of Asian Pears that Massimo had picked off his tree for me (They don’t use pesticides even.. these are organic). I was going to call Angela (Couch 44), since we were speaking a little while earlier, and see if she could get me some directions… She had traffic court in the morning though, and would be asleep. I approached a mildly well lit corner that totally reeked of some cheap marijuana, squatted down, turned on my laptop, got on my sprint wireless, and figured out my directions (i.e. u-turn, make a left on 17th). I was 1.4 miles away from Barak’s place. I was walking around with 80 lbs of stuff, and was not too comfy. I finally made it, ate a pear - which was soooooooo good! — and snoozed off to dreamland

I said there was a great quote…. I’m waiting for Barak to send it to me along with those photos… but here’s the story with that:
During Barak’s meeting (which was uber-important), he told his Boss’s Boss that she needs to meet me (his Boss had already met me), and the lady said “Why?” and Barak says “’cause he’s my brother!” (meaning… ’cause he’s wearing a funny hat, so this should be amusing :p ) and then his Boss (or one of the other ladies in the meeting… I need to figure it out for sure, and that’s why I’m waiting on him) said “You should meet Ori. He’s very interesting to meet. He makes you question the sanity of what you’re doing… because he’s doing what people don’t think you should be doing, but having an absolutely great life with it!”

Is that not cool? I’m making people who have pretty high-up positions in one of the USA’s top 100 places to work question their sanity! I keept elling everyone that that’s my message… Be happy! Do what makes you happy! If you have a job just to make ends meet, but you hate it… find another job… or… change things around in that job. There’s always something that you can do to find hapiness. As Zig Ziglar (motivational speaker) says “If you don’t think every day is a great one, just try missing one!”

Ok… this blog entry took me 2 hours to type, and I must drive 14 hours today to New Mexico where Couch 22 will hopefully be around (yeah yeah.. I’m ill prepared) — I have to get to Florida before the 13th, ’cause on the 13th of September, Angela (Couch 44) will be flying in, and we are going skydiving, kayaking, and sailing… and much much more!

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