Sunday, July 30, 2017

Witchcraft Goals

written: July 29th

Photo for the day:

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Aren’t these so damn cute? They would be perfect for small spell bottles! I’m not sure I need 100 of these little bottles, but seeing as how they are only $24, it would be a good deal. I didn’t get them, but I’m keeping them in mind.

Seriously, nothing makes me more giddy than shopping for Witchcraft items at Hobby Lobby. ::cackles:: I ended up going with some larger jars that have screw on lids. I needed little jars to divvy up the Red Fast Luck Oil when it’s set and ready to go. I plan to give a small jar to Hazel and to Linda (a local Witch Journal friend), and possibly a few other people. And I bought some small baggies to put the jars in, to hopefully contain any accidental spillage when I ship these out. I seriously am quite giddy over sharing this oil with friends. Hmmm, I need to type up my notes as well, as I plan to include that with the little jar. That way, if it works well for them, they can make it themselves as needed.

I swear this class is so damn dangerous. Beforehand, I had never thought to make my own oils or use herbs and the like because I just didn’t know enough about it to be comfortable doing so. But now? Oh geez, if I were to win the lottery, I would be concocting all SORTS of spell and deity and sabbat oils. Like, oh my damn! My room would be a true apothecary! I would have herbs and essential oils and resins and gemstones all over the damn place. And god, it would smell so amazing. So yeah, learning more about essential oils, herbs, and gemstones is going on the Witch Knowledge wish list. I guess I need to dive back into DoTerra and start learning about essential oils. Luckily I have a lovely friend, Betsy, who does DoTerra that would be more than happy to help me out. I just need to slow down and figure out what I want to learn about specifically.

There is just so much I want to learn and see and do. I could live 500 years and still not accomplish it all. ::chuckles::

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Anxiety & Oils

written: July 28th

I’m writing today’s entry in pieces. A Before piece and an After piece…the dividing line being the Fast Luck Oil class I’m attending in about an hour.

Today has been all about heading off my anxiety. I’ve been taking the CalmNow pills that Brandy suggested and I can certainly tell a difference. I can manage this level of anxiety. I just stick with my positive mantras, reminding myself how much I’ve been excited about this class, all the amazingness I’m going to learn, and the fact that I can then share that knowledge with my Pack. And I have been doing a lot of deep breathing exercises to help alleviate the lingering anxiety. I’m just really tired of my anxiety ruling my life. And I don’t think I really recognized how much it was smothering me and how much of an utter recluse I had become. Sure I have a healthy, larger-than-life presence on-line. But in the real world? I go outside of my house only when required. And I didn’t use to be this way. So, here’s to my first step towards liberating myself from that.

Photo for today:

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Isn’t this Red Fast Luck Oil GORGEOUS? It’s the herb Alkanet that gives it this stunning red color.
So yeah, needless to say, I did go to the Fast Luck Oil class. It was super awkward at first because everyone else knows each other and I’m just super awkward in situations where I don’t know people. But eventually the awkwardness dissolved (mostly) and the class was great. The oil smells amazing. And Sekhmet really perked up at the red color of the oil. So I’m thinking I may pick up some of the herb for her. I’ll definitely need to look into the magickal properties.

The oil needs to “set” for three days, but after that, it will be ready to use. I want to pick up some glass bottles. We made the oil in a plastic bottle, but given that there is cinnamon oil and wintergreen oil, it will need to be transferred over to glass, as those particular oils will eat the plastic after a while. I did get a glass roller ball bottle, but the plastic bottle is much bigger. So I’ll have some left over. And I would like to share some of it with friends.

I am so seriously happy I went. I’m glad I pushed through the anxiety (had a bit of an inspiration on dealing with it) and went. The people are awesome and I definitely plan to go to more of their classes.

Thankful Thursday #30

written: July 27th

Photo for today:

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A gorgeous leopard postcard I received today from Hungary (via Postcrossing). The leopard on the postcard reminded me of the pair of Amur Leopards that stole my heart at the Exotic Animal Sanctuary that I used to volunteer at – Mia and Tali. They were two of the most awesome cats out there – though to be honest, there were MANY amazing cats out there. I should go back out there, but given that all the cats that I bonded with have passed on (all from old age thankfully), it is a bit bittersweet going out there.

I am grateful for…
1. Three-day weekend! Even though this is my last one. After this, it’s back to the dreaded five-day work weeks. But for now…I’m LOVING it!
2. All the awesome dragonflies I see while walking Josey. I probably see close to 40 or 50 individual dragonflies in our little neighborhood.
3. Finally figuring out how to use Flickr for my photos here. Photobucket has really crapped the bed and is now charging $400 for said bed-crapping to be “better”. Yeah, fuck that noise. So-long good-bye Photobucket. I am planning to slowly go back and edit in the photos through Flickr. Once that is done, I’ll be deleting all my photos on my two accounts with Photobucket.
4. Celebrating Tech Jennifer’s birthday today – Roni made this amazing breakfast casserole. I’ve got to find the recipe. And Sandy made these amazing brownies. I tell you, that was a damn good way to start off the work day.
5. Beautiful first sliver of the new moon hanging in the evening sky. Just gorgeous.
6. Lots of Jimmy Johns this week. But it’s tasty, and healthier than 5 Guys Burgers. ::chuckles::
7. I am about 80% done checking the iPads for the massive fuck up my previous coworkers did. Just one more pallet and I can move on to something new and different. Haha! Who am I kidding? I’m sure I’ll have to redo the iPads for some reason again!
8. All the happy mail I receive – from postcards to pen pal letters, to a surprise subscription to O Magazine from my mom. I love mail. ::laughs::
9. July is winding down. I get to start setting up my Bastardized Bullet Journal (BaBuJo) for August and I have a few new things I want to try out in it.
10. Being complimented to higher-ups in a different department by a Lead Tech that only walks through my area daily. He said for the Security Officers not to bother me because “she’s a super hard worker”. It was nice because that particular Tech doesn’t actually work with me…he just sees me working as he passes through to other parts of the building, but it’s nice to know that even in passing, he recognizes my hard work.

Challenges

written: July 26th

Photo for today:

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It is a chest feather from a Red-Tailed Hawk. I found it on my walk with Josey.

So I’ve spent most of my post-work afternoon and evening working on fixing the damn photo issue with my blog. Seems Photobucket is really earnest about NOT allowing people to share their photos from Photobucket on any third-party server (including eBay, which has a LOT of the people there up in arms). Seems the ONLY way to be able to do this (that I’ve been able to do for FREE for over a decade now) is to purchase their highest tier of “membership” – yeah, that shit is $400…..ANNUALLY! I know like five thousand things I would MUCH rather spend that money on rather than a crappy photo service that is down almost as often as it is up and functional.

So I’ve made the switch over to Flickr. Hopefully that will resolve all the photo hiccups. It’s amazing how much the photo snafu was blocking my writing ability. But hopefully I’ve got that all figured out so now the words should be able to flow once more.

I’ve been slowly working my way back, updating the entries with their respective photos. Holy hell, that is going to be a HUGE task to go back through the whole year and add in the photos. ::sighs:: Hopefully, I’ll chip away at this year’s entries. But I always like these huge, daunting challenges apparently. Because I’m actually relishing the challenge a bit at the moment.

Apparently, David had a rough day at work, so he offered for us to go to 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. He NEVER suggests that on a non-Friday, so it must have been a really, really rough day. But hey, I am not complaining. I adore 5 Guys Burgers – I get the cheese dog. I used to get BBQ on it…but after they’ve forgotten to do that a number of times (even though we paid for it), so instead, I put my own BBQ sauce on it when we get home. And then we used the homemade Caine’s sauce for the fries. Yeah, NOTHING healthy about that meal. But it makes for some truly awesome comfort food. ::smiles:: And sometimes, that’s truly all that matters.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Dragging Ass

written: July 25th

Photo of the day:

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A beautiful postcard I received today from Belarus.

Man, today just got completely away from me. I was headed up to bed at 11 pm and had to check that I took a photo of SOMETHING for today. ::laughs:: Luckily I received this postcard and I always upload photos of the postcards to Postcrossing and to Facebook. So I at least had THAT.

I opted to try a new-to-me gas station to pick up Gatorade and a snack for my afternoon shift at the Tech Job. And I was THRILLED to see they had the cinnamon and sugar pita chips that I was hooked on ages ago, but that THAT particular gas station (one of two I use during the school year) stopped carrying. Thankful this new-to-me gas station isn’t super convenient so hopefully I won’t eat too many bags of those pita chips. ::grins and winks:: But it’s super comfort food during my MoonTime, so I’m sure I’ll put in the extra effort to get them at that time.

I got my very sore, very tired ass on the elliptical today and through sheer stubbornness managed to bang out 20 minutes on it. Holy hell, that was BRUTAL. I am not sure I’ll do the elliptical again this week because the entire lower half of my body just ACHES. I swear, it’s like I was in a wreck…just that achy feeling. ::shrugs:: Work has been significantly more physical recently…tons more lifting and carrying of heavy boxes laden with iPads than sitting on my butt cleaning iPads, so I’m sure that’s partially to blame. But I refuse to complain too much because I’m starting to see some definition in my arms. I’ve told David we have to set up the weight machine (it’s been in pieces since we moved….LAST April!) because I don’t want to lose this head start once the Tech Job is over for the summer. Hopefully we can get that set up at some point SOON and I can add to the elliptical time AND walking Josey.

I love our evening walks, even though we are both hot and sweaty by the time we get back. It isn’t a massive walk…about 25 minutes. But doing that walk in 100+ degree weather? You definitely feel it. I’m hoping that once autumn rolls around, I can either double our walks, or add to them. I want to walk her a mile to two miles daily at some point on a regular schedule. We both greatly benefit from it and we both really enjoy them. And if David could get up in the mornings before work and walk her as well (he’s expressed interest in doing this, it’s just that his sleep schedule is so completely fucked up currently)? That would be extra awesome for the Pup.

Pitbull Punches & Sticky Notes

written: July 24th

Photo for today:

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That’s what being punched by a 55-pound pit bull looks like. Luckily I was wearing a shirt and shorts, so I didn’t get the full brunt of the claw power. And luckily, it was only a one-paw-punch.

You have no idea how much I waffled about posting this photo as I’m not super-model material and I was fearful of nasty remarks about my pudgy midsection. Finally, I just said fuck it. The people I love and care about won’t be cruel over it. And the assholes that want to be cruel? Well I’ve been looking for an outlet for aggression, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Today was a nice and quiet morning at work. Honestly, I beat everyone in, which is a first. It actually gave me pause when my car was the only one in the parking lot. I had to double check that it was indeed Monday. ::chuckles:: I didn’t see another coworker until I had been working for about an hour and half. It was weird because I actually WANTED someone around. So rare for me. ::laughs::
But eventually they all showed up and I was happy for an hour and then wanted them all to leave. I swear sometimes I’m a cat instead of a Wolf. ::chuckles and shakes her head::

So one of the challenges I created for myself back on my birthday (I have a tradition of making goals on my birthday, to be completed in the upcoming year – one goal per year I am old; so 35 goals for this year) to write three things I’m grateful for each day. I’m keeping track of them in my Bastardized Bullet Journal (BaBuJo), but sometimes I get a bit behind and it’s a struggle to catch up. Until I came up with the idea of using sticky notes. One sticky note per day. It allows me to hit all the top gratitudes for the past few days before filling in the others. It also allows me to write as the inspiration hits instead of having to finish a day completely before starting on others. This doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but holy fuck, it’s a GODSEND. I was a week or so behind in my gratitudes, so I made a sticky note for each day that I needed to catch up on and put them in my planner. This allowed me to look at anything I already had written down for that day and gave me a visual on when that day occurred (because Mondays are different from Wednesdays, lemme tell ya!). I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to try it out, but holy crap, I LOVE it! I’ve even gone ahead and made a sticky note for each of the rest of the days in the month of July. The only reason why I haven’t set up a week or two for August already is because I want to use a different color sticky note. ::laughs:: Gotta love that crazy, creative-yet-obsessive brain of mine.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Feral Lessons

Photo for the day:
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Looks like Josey’s left me quite the “offering”. ::chuckles:: SIX of her bones around my work table. It doesn’t even put a dent in the bone bucket she has. Which reminds me, I need to go through her extensive bone bucket and pitch the ones that are really old. I try to do that once a month, but haven’t done it in a while.

Josey is back from the vet. Everything came back normal on all of her tests. So we’ve got probiotics and special diet for the next week to even out her gut issue. Hopefully this will set it all back to “normal” and we won’t have to worry about this for a while. I just wish we knew what caused her issues so we could make sure to avoid it in the future.

I’ve spent most of the day catching up. Catching up on my daily entries. Catching up on logging my 365 photo challenge photos. Catching up on my Tarot Challenge. I’m not sure what the hell I did this past week, but it wasn’t any of the above. ::laughs::

For this Moon Cycle, I’ve decided to focus on Forgiving Myself from Past Mistakes. Regardless if I made those mistakes with my eyes wide open or from a place of super naivety, I do need to stop beating myself up for them. So instead of focusing on what I did wrong, I’m choosing to let go of the self-flagellation over this, I’m going to focus on what I ended up learning from those situations. I’m not buying into the whole “oh this horrible thing happened to me to TEACH me something”. No. Seriously fuck that logic to hell and back. That is utter bullshit that muffles that person’s PAIN and SUFFERING they endured.

But, because I am a feral creature, when I do fuck up or wind up in a bad situation, I do my damnest to learn from it. I try not to repeat the same mistakes – besides, there are so many OTHER mistakes to make, why repeat? ::chuckles:: I can learn from it in hindsight, but don’t ever tell me I somehow WANTED to go through that to learn a lesson. It will take every ounce of willpower not to punch you in the fucking throat and then ask you what lesson you learned from ELECTING to say that horrible bullshit to me. ::snarls::

So yeah, I’ll do the actual ritual aspect of all of this tomorrow. Because, fuck calendars. That, and my husband’s home today and I just honestly prefer to do my personal rituals completely solo, so I would prefer for him not to even be home. ::chuckles:: Silly, I know. But it is what it is.

Gut Instinct

written: July 22nd

Photo for today:
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David and Josey cuddling. Josey isn’t feeling so well and was needing a little extra love. She’s headed to the vet tomorrow as this is the second weekend she’s had major bowel issues. She’s currently being fed white rice and boiled chicken breast today, hoping that calms her stomach issues down.

I got SLAMMED with a headache way out of left field. It hit like a ton of bricks with zero warning. We all ended up taking a long nap in the early evening and didn’t wake up until 9 pm. ::laughs:: So, sadly, Josey and I missed our walk today. But given that it was 107 degrees at 6 pm, we probably wouldn’t have walked anyways. And it’s just one missed walk in about 30 days now, so I refuse to beat myself up over it. We all needed the rest it would seem and a break from the heat.

Tonight is the Dark of the Moon – the day before the New Moon. And I got to thinking….I don’t care for when the “traditional” time of the New Moon is. To me, the true New Moon is when I see that first, tiny sliver. THAT is the NEW Moon. Right now, nothing of the Moon can be seen, so why is this considered “new”? To me, this is the death of the moon, the time of the Crone, the time of Darkness and banishing. There is no light from the moon until that first sliver. So I think that’s how I’m going to judge Dark Moon / New Moons from now on. I swear, my Path of Witchcraft is all about Rebellion and Contrary. I seem to be challenging everything, from all sorts of angles. Maybe I should call my Path the Gut Instinct Path because that is what leads me 90% of the time. I’m learning to listen to and TRUST that gut instinct of mine. I’m following my Spirit on this. And honestly, I feel so much freer, stronger, so much at peace with my lot in life at this point.

I am no guru. I am no peace, love, and light. And I certainly do not have all the answers. I see my Path more akin to standing in the eye of a hurricane. All of life and magick and all that jazz is swirling around me, beautiful chaos, and I am currently standing in the center – in my own version of calm. I like it here, in the eye, with the Harpies swirling around me, Sekhmet watching over me from above, and the Great She-Serpent beneath me – I stand upon Her back. And this all the way I like it. I work best in the Feral areas of the world…half-way tame and half-way wild. ::toothy smile::

Firestone Crap

written: July 21st

Photo of the day:

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Josey is trying out a new, wind-swept look. ::laughs:: She had her ears flipped back for quite some time today.

I spent part of my morning at Firestone, getting an oil change. I remember now all the various reasons I don’t like going to Firestone. I had to listen to Fox News for 2 hours while I waited on the oil change. Thankfully, I had “Devoted To You” by Judy Harrow, and was able to read quite a bit in it and thus escape a lot of the Fox News crap.

And like clockwork, the guys at Firestone told me about all this stuff that is wrong with my car that needs to be fixed IMMEDIATELY and wanted to get started on it right THEN. Um, no bitches. We discuss what is actually wrong with the car and the price that you are going to charge me to fix said things. And then, because it is the shitty ass Firestone on Main Street, I will NOT allow them to fix anything. I will take it to another Firestone in the next town over, that has a good track record of being honest, not tampering with cars so that you have to bring it back to get something “new” fixed, and that does a great job of communicating every cost BEFORE they start working on your car. I merely go to this Firestone for oil changes because it’s 3 minutes away from my front door.

I was reminded of all of the above, as there were THREE….count them THREE….irate customers in there during the two hours I was there, complaining about something shady this place did to their cars. Yeah, I think from now on, I will just suck it up and go to the Firestone in F.M. from now on. The Main street one has one of the LOWEST ratings (2.3 out of 5.0) of all the Firestones in the AREA. All the other ones are up 4.0 and higher. Hell, the really shady/scary one over on 121 (the one that I always carry a knife when I go there because it is THAT scary) has a significantly higher rating. So yeah, next Friday, I will be taking my car to one of the other Firestones and get a second opinion.

The rest of the day was pretty lax. I love having Fridays off. Too bad once August hits, my three-day weekends disappear. ::sighs:: I ran over to Kinkos/Fed Ex to print out some photos I wanted to send to my two pen pals. One of them had sent photos of their newest dog, so I thought it was a good opportunity to share photos of Josey and a nice one of David and I. I would have also included a photo of Leviathan, but I will be sending them Leviathan’s 11th Hatch-day cards in August, so I figured I would just wait until then.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Thankful Thursday #29

written: July 20th

Photo for today:
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Feathers I picked up during my walk with Josey today. Blue jay in the center and doves on the sides.

I am thankful….
1. For apparently being super attractive today. ::shrugs:: I had THREE men flirt with me today. I have no idea what’s up with that, as I’m grungy as hell from working in the warehouse, but hey, it made my day. ::chuckles::
2. Daily walks with Josey. Even when my neighbors (as I call everyone who lives in my neighborhood) bug the ever-loving shit out of me, I still do like the walks we take AND that Josey is getting better and better about them.
3. The amazing information I can find on the internet – especially in regards to plants that turn out to be TOXIC, so I know NOT to use them. ::chuckles:: Damn oleander plant – a neighbor cut this GORGEOUS branches that would be perfect for wands….if only oleander wasn’t SUPER toxic.
4. Choosing to give myself this week off from using the elliptical. It’s my MoonTime and I’m usually in a lot of pain the first two days and then just super tired for the rest of the week. So this time around, elected to just go with what I was feeling at the time instead of trying to soldier through it.
5. Sloth Boy’s last day at the Tech Job was Monday. I really do wish him all the best with his new job.
6. Watching a dove family teach its fledglings how to fly in our mulberry tree. Josey sits in complete rapture watching them blunder around and I watch as well, to ensure should one of the fledglings fall into our yard, that Josey does not eat it. ::chuckles::
7. All the dragonflies in the neighborhood. They are quite inquisitive and seem to really enjoy zipping right past my nose when I walk through their areas.
8. My new Louisiana pen pal is really on top of her game. I swear she writes me back the day she receives my letter. ::chuckles:: Which encourages me to do the same.
9. Enjoying these three-day weekends while they last. Come August, I’ll be back to a standard 5-day work week.
10. Jimmy Johns for dinner while watching Blue Bloods: Season Seven.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Bears, Moons, and WTF

written:  July 19th

Photo for today:

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I get these flyers every so often and they help rekindle my dream of seeing the polar bears in the wild. One of these days. Hopefully for my 40th birthday, if not sooner (hopefully sooner, but by my 40th if all else fails). I should hang this up in my room…somewhere I would see it every day. Maybe I could even make some sigil magick to aid in achieving this dream. Would be a good bit of magick in time for the New Moon. Might even try out the “abundance checks” Derrie (an online witch friend) has talked about in the past. I figure, why not? What could it hurt?

A neighbor a few houses over did some yard work and had a lot of tree trimmings out by the curb. They are from an oleander plant and I was so tempted to grab some of those branches. They are beautifully straight and of a wide array of thicknesses. Thank goodness I did some research on the magickal properties of the oleander…I found out that they are incredibly toxic/poisonous. So yeah, guess those branches, no matter how pretty and straight they were, are just going to be picked up by trash collection tomorrow. ::sighs::

The more I work for the school district, the less impressed I am with it. We’re ALL familiar with how they flat out refuse to fire anyone for anything less than a law suit or a felony charge. But it apparently goes even beyond refusing to fire shitty employees. Apparently, the school district will also go out of its way to hire them back.

Thankfully we are talking about my newest coworker at the Summer Tech Job and not one of the absolutely SHITTY employees I’ve had in the past at the After School Program. So Cameron started working today with me, on a super fun project of going through all the iPad chargers and cleaning, sorting, and counting them. Super exciting. I had gone back to the little warehouse (I work in the Big Warehouse) that’s just down the hall from us to get some more boxes. Michelle (she runs the high school kids’ Tech Internship Program) stopped me in the hall to ask how Cameron was doing. I told her he was doing well (shit, he’s a ton faster at processing stuff than Sloth Boy was….though I have to repeat myself a LOT with Cameron). She said that was good. Because apparently when he worked with her last year in the high school internship, he liked to bitch and moan and complain and whine all the damn time. So she told me if he started doing that, I should just ignore him.

What the fuck? We KNEW this guy was a shitty employee during the Internship, which he phased out of when he graduated high school…but we fucking HIRED HIM BACK this summer? Why the fuck would you hire BACK a shitty employee? I am beyond flabbergasted right now.

Makes me so thankful that I am not getting my school librarian degree so that I can say PEACE THE FUCK OUT once I get a non-school district job. But, on the flip side of it? If I DID become a school librarian for this school district, I know I wouldn’t be fired for a damn thing short of burning down a school or two…. Maybe three school, knowing my school district.

All Sorts of Babblings

written: July 18th

Photo for the day:

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Apparently, this is The Place ™ for cicada molting. ::laughs:: I just happened to notice this as Josey and I walked by (Day #24 in a row now – woohoo for us!). We typically pause around this house for Josey to get a drink. I bought these collapsible dog bowls for our walks. Even though we’re walking at 7 pm or later, it’s still up in the high-90s and Josey gets so pink from the heat, I really worry about possible heatstroke. And I have ZERO desire to have to carry this 50 pound dog home should that happen. So I bought a 2-pack of these bowls for around $6 and I carry a bottle of water with us. I swear, I just need to get a small knapsack to carry all the crap we require for our 25 to 30 minute walks. ::laughs::

I am waffling on releasing my current wand. I know, I know. I smudged and cleansed and officially released the wand from my service. But now, when I touch it or look at it, I get this “hopeful” feeling. Maybe the wand just needed a reset? So I’ll try using her in the next few rituals and go from there. I do adore this wand – she’s truly gorgeous. Maybe she just required a little extra attention and TLC.

I need to contact Jennifer K. about the possibility for her making ritual robes for Hazel and I. I would love to have them made and in our hands by December 1st. I’m not sure why that date is so important, but it really sticks out to me. so I’m just going with it. We’d have to coordinate a time for Hazel and I to go to Jennifer’s house so Jennifer could properly measure us and tell us how much fabric we need to buy. I could then run the fabric over to Jennifer at a later date and also pick up the finished robes as well. So yeah, quite a bit of moving parts that I need to get MOVING. Hopefully I can do that soon!

Shit, I just need to sit down and write down all the things I want to accomplish. And then I can start assigning time lines and steps towards those goals. I am TERRIFIC at making goals….actually accomplishing them, though? Yeah, I tend to drop the ball more than make the goal. ::chuckles::

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Fingers & Canes

written: July 17th

Photo for the day:

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The story behind this photo of my finger. ::laughs:: My husband sent me a photo of his toe and text the following “Toe pic. It’s a nonthreatening way to say I like u.” ::dies laughing:: So I sent him a photo of my finger to say “I like you too”. This is my husband’s “new trend against the dick pic”. ::chuckles and shakes her head:: I don’t claim to understand the things my husband comes up with, but they sure are hilarious and unique.

Today was Sloth Boy’s last day at the Summer Tech Job. We spent the last hour or so just bullshitting and swapping After School Program stories (he works the same program I do, just at a different campus). It was nice because it reminded me again that, even though he’s slow as a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter, at his core, he’s a genuinely nice guy. And it’s really easy for me to lose sight of that when I’m so focused on being pissed at how little work he does at the Tech Job. So I do genuinely wish him the absolute best with the new job. I genuinely hope it works out the way he wants it to work out.

I came home and had a big ole glass of wine. ::chuckles:: I even got a bit tipsy off of it. Luckily, Josey was content to let me nap for an hour before demanding we go for her walk. I almost didn’t go, but I’m glad I did. I honestly feel better after these little walks, no matter how hot it is, or how ADD Josey is being on the walk. Twenty-three days in a row now, we have not missed a walk. Some have been shorter due to heat or loose dogs, but we’ve gone out on at least a 15 minute walk for the past twenty-three days and most days we’re out there for a good 30 minute walk.

The walks, honestly, would go SO MUCH BETTER if people would just stay in their damn houses. ::laughs:: If they were just shut-ins and Josey and I didn’t have to deal with them, the walks would so oh-so-blissful. And yes, I know that isn’t too realistic…so how about they just keep their GODDAMN DOGS ON A FUCKING LEASH????? Huh? How about at least doing THAT??? ::grumbles:: I have no idea what it is about this area, but NO ONE keeps their “cute little pooches” on a fucking leash. People are going to get seriously upset if I ever get around to buying a damn stun cane. I’m going to shocking dogs left and right that come up to us off leash and/or without an owner. I am so tired of it. Maybe I should use the stun cane on the dog and THEN on the owner as well? ::devilish grin::

Goddess

written: July 16th

Photo for the day:
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This is the “Goddess Flow Oil” by Sage Goddess. I’m getting more into using oils instead of over the counter medications. So this oil is supposed to help with the emotional and physical symptoms that come with the monthly cycle. Even if it does nothing to ease the cramps and what not, it smells AMAZING. Warm cinnamon with the earthy herbs of clary sage, palmarosa, and neroli.

Poor Josey is a sick puppy today. All about the liquid poo-s. And she’s grumpy as hell. Which I understand, but we cannot tolerate her snapping and growling. We’re giving her a bit more time before taking her to the ER clinic. Hopefully, it will run its course and she’ll be back to her normal grumpy self once again. ::chuckles::

I have started reading “Devoted To You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice” by Judy Harrow today. I was enjoying the first chapter, written by a devotee of Anubis…up until the guy said Sekhmet was nothing more than a persona of Hathor. Um, that doesn’t fly. I’ve been a devotee of Sekhmet going on 21 years now…She is not a merely “persona”. And from what I’ve read in my various years of study, Sekhmet is an ancient deity…She is one of ones who came before the gods. Depending on the myth, some say that Ra CREATED Sekhmet when he cast his right eye down to earth to destroy the humans that had forgotten to worship him….other myths say Ra called Sekhmet to come destroy the humans (meaning, she was already formed and doing her own thing until he called upon her). I prefer the latter telling of the myth…as does Sekhmet.

So I’ve stepped away from the book for a moment until I could process why it irked me so much that the author (who really does not matter to me or my practice, to be honest) would say that. I’m taking this as a not-so-gentle reminder that other people’s opinions and interactions with the gods do not matter to my own practice. I shouldn’t let other’s opinions cloud my own inner Path, my Journey, nor my way of interacting with Spirit (no matter what form it may take). So the devotee to Anubis is more than welcome to believe that Sekhmet is merely a persona of Hathor. That is fine, as Sekhmet does not play an important role (if any role) in his own Path. But for me and my Path? The White Lioness of the Desert, the One Before Whom Evil Trembles, the Scarlet Lady….she is self-contained and tolerates no shackles (be they of the mind nor the soul).

Work It

written: July 15th

Photo for the day:

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A very hot and sweaty Wolfie. I had just taken Josey for a walk (man, it’s still in the high 90s at 7 pm) and decided since I was already super sweaty, I might as well hop on the elliptical. I only banged out 15 minutes because Josey had a bathroom accident (a TON of poop) and David was madder than a wet hen! And lemme tell you, NOTHING is madder than a wet hen! And all his anger and cussing and just being so pissed off…man, that guy can throw energy like you wouldn’t believe. I was able to shield myself from most of his energy cast off, but holy hell. His anger just rolls off of him in big black-red waves. So anyone who’s even remotely sensitive to energy or is an empath, his anger will just steam roll you. ::shakes her head:: So yeah, the 15 minutes on the elliptical was brutal because I was expending so much energy shielding myself from his waves that it ate up so much of the energy I require to actually RUN for 20 minutes.

I need to take my husband to some meditation classes or something to show him how to Zen the fuck out and control his energy a bit better. And no, I’m not in any danger here. He’s not physical and he’s verbal only to himself. Besides, he isn’t the type of person to lay hands on another…and even if he was…he knew I would make him disappear if he ever dared to lay a hand upon me. ::laughs:: Having 100 acres out in the MIDDLE of the boonies, full of feral hogs (hogs eat EVERYTHING…except teeth)? Yeah, he is right to be concerned about “disappearing” should he royally fuck up. ::feral grin::

I really wish we had the space for a decent pool. I would love to have one to relax in with these crazy hot days. I haven’t heard a peep from the Robinsons, so I will probably not be house-sitting for them this summer. Bummer, as I love using their pool. ::chuckles:: I just got really spoiled with that. Maybe once I have finished grad school, gotten a “big people’s job” (as I call it), and have paid off the bulk of my debt, I can realistically look into getting a gym membership that includes pool time. One of these days….

While we are on that subject, Krav Maga is off the table for now. ::sighs:: It never fails…when I have the FREE TIME, I do not have the FREE MONEY. But when I have the MONEY…I do not have the FREE TIME. ::grumbles:: Maybe once the school year starts up, I can see about doing Krav Maga once a week?

Brandy (my Canadian Twin) mentioned an herbal supplement called “Calm Now” for anxiety. She says it isn’t a “wonder drug” but it does aid in taking the edge off of anxiety. So I’ve ordered a bottle of that and will give that a go once it arrives. Dude, anxiety SUCKS ASS. So much.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Full Thunder Buck Moon

written: July 14th

I swear I should just toss out the calendar when it comes to my rituals. ::laughs:: So yeah, I finally got around to doing my solo Full Moon ritual today. ::chuckles:: Just, what? FIVE days late? ::shakes her head:: I swear, “Better late than never” will be on my tombstone.

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So blessed Full Buck/Thunder Moon. Full Thunder Buck Moon? I like that.
Left to right on the altar:
Horse hide drum (created and painted by Brandy)
Drum beater (I still need to finish the last touches on it)
Athame (black-handled ritual blade)
Antlers (gift from my brother)
Sacred Feather
White 7-day candle
“Faith” card from the Dreams of Gaia signed by Ravynn Phelam (it was included in an order)
Black glass jar (to contain the burning bay leaves I use in ritual)
White selenite sphere
2 slices of deer antler
Triple Moon scented oil from Sage Goddess
Wand
Slytherin pen (that doubles as a wand as well)
Antique Sandalwood incense (from Oakheart Creations)

I wrote down my goals on bay leaves and set those on fire. I also drummed to awaken the Railroad Spikes and set all of that in motion. And I cleansed the big wand and released her from my service. She’s made it very clear our time together is over. So I’m donating her to a friend who runs a store for her coven. The money will fund any of the big projects the coven is doing, so I feel good about that. Now I’m just going to start saving so I can purchase one of the wands by Shamanic Wands – Simon. I hope to commission one of his beautiful wands.

Post ritual selfie:

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Post ritual altar:
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Friday, July 14, 2017

Thankful Thursday #28

written: July 13th


Photo for today:

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Promising buds with a decaying rose blossom in the background. My rosebush is entering a second blooming phase that already promises to outdo the first phase majorly.

Onward to the Thankful List!

I am grateful for…
1. Four-day work weeks. Seriously, these three-day weekends are THE BEST. Having Friday off means I can run whatever errands I want to, but that David wouldn’t enjoy. AND it gives me time to do things I want to do without taking away time with my husband.
2. New pen-pal from Louisiana. Sadly, it seems my California and Chicago pen-pals have dropped off. ::shrugs:: Eh, it comes and it goes. I’m not going to pine over loosing pen-pals. We’ll see how things go with the Louisiana one now.
3. Sloth Boy got the sales job he was wanting. I’m pretty sure now that Monday (July 17th) will be his last day with the Tech Job. Woohoo! Joking and celebration aside, I do hope it works out well for him. He’s a great guy…just slow as shit. ::laughs::
4. Homemade bread (the “easy” bread recipe sure did deliver) fresh out of the oven. Best way on earth to lightly burn one’s tongue. ::chuckles::
5. The plethora of dragonflies I’m seeing all over the neighborhood when Josey and I go for our evening walks. To me, they embody Summer. ::smiles::
6. Finished up the Railroad Spike protection/blessing charm AND got all four spikes placed in the four corners of our property WITHOUT drawing attention of the neighbors. Woohoo!
7. Finally get a video that accurately captures the rapturous JOY Josey feels and shows when David comes home. I should probably put it up on YouTube (along with the videos of her chasing Red Dot). I have zero videos on my YouTube Channel. ::laughs:: Might as well put my goofy ass pit bull on it.
8. Randomly deciding this week to play pagan music/chants while using the elliptical. It certainly made the run better and damn did I get some inspiration in the process. I’ve also toyed with the idea of recording myself reading prayers, so that I can work on memorizing them while I run as well. Still fleshing out that idea.
9. Reconnecting with Hazel and having an utter blast with that. Who’d’a thunk I would ENJOY being social and shit? ::laughs:: But seriously, she’s a blast and her Path is a bit different from mine, and I love how it challenges and stretches my own Path to make it better and stronger and deeper.
10. Beautiful full moon I’ve been watching most of the week. I try to make it a point to see her each night and just salute her. It’s the little things that keep one grounded in their spiritual practice. Those are typically the ones that mean the most as well.

Liquid Diabetes

written: July 12th

Photo for the day:

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Mmmmmm, I baked to more small loafs today. I’m trying it out with the strawberry cream cheese spread on the right and the “Liquid Diabetes” on the left (though, I think I MAY have figured out where I went wrong with that recipe – I’ll have to test it again). Of course, with the impending Shark Week (aka, Moon Time), I’m all about that Liquid Diabetes! ::laughs:: Though, to be serious, I am seriously limiting how much of that shit I eat – it really is THAT sugary. And if the tweaks I make to the recipe don’t work, I’ve found a few other ones that are similar, but slightly different. I’ll give some of those a try.

Speaking of which, can we just take a moment to express our unending gratitude to the awesomeness of the internet? I LOVE being able to find all these awesome recipes that I probably would not find any other way except through the internet. And then there’s the awesome people I’ve met as well. And all the awesome, thought-provoking stories as well. I mean, damn. How small would my world truly be, if I did not have the internet? Just blows my mind sometimes to just stop and think about that for a second or two.

So I’m kicking around the idea of going to see Dr. O – she’s my general health doctor that I go to randomly, whenever I actually NEED a non-gyno doctor. I know, that sounds kind of odd, but seriously, I’m typically pretty damn healthy, so I see a general doctor maybe every two to three years, while the gyno, I see once a year. Anyways, back to Dr. O – I’m thinking of inquiring about some anxiety medication. My anxiety isn’t bad, until I am supposed to go somewhere, and then it sky-rockets. Even if it’s somewhere I WANT to go. Like all the various pagan classes I want to take through the various pagan shops or that various public rituals hosted by the local pagan groups. I WANT to go. They sound like a lot of fun. But my anxiety will sky-rocket and I’m having borderline panic attacks. ::shakes her head:: And Dr. O really sits and listens to me. I’ve been seeing her since 2005, I think? She knows how my body likes to latch onto those super rare side-effects. She knows all the medications I’ve been on since 2005 and what my reactions were to each one. And did I state that she LISTENS and genuinely CARES about my thoughts/feelings on things? I can’t even articulate how awesome that is (given the two psychiatrists I had didn’t listen to SHIT).

I dunno. I’ll probably kick that idea around for a month before I’ll make a move. Because that seems to be my standard MO at the moment. ::chuckles::

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Achievements

Photo for the day:

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I’m not sure if a screen shot counts as a photo, but I’m saying it counts. Look at me! The super achiever! ::laughs::

Yeah, love how I was seriously dragging ASS all day yesterday. But of course, once it was time to actually GO to bed? Yeah, couldn’t fall asleep until 2 am. ::sighs:: Damn asshole brain. It wanted to play the whole…hey remember this stupid shit you did back in middle school? Even 4 Benadryl didn’t slow it down.

So yeah, dragging ass again today. BUT, I went for that 2nd coffee right after lunch, and that seemed to help (though we’ll see how well I sleep tonight). Plus, Bruce (he works in Security) came through with candy – blowpops and atomic fireballs (cinnamon jawbreakers).

Yeah, ya know how I was saying how peaceful and all around Zen I was yesterday? Yeah, that shit was nowhere to be found today. I fucking HATED Sloth Boy today. He kept disappearing for 30 – 50 minutes randomly. He did even LESS work today than yesterday. Like, how the FUCK is that even possible?

So I completed my railroad spike protection and blessing spell today. I put the spikes in place, though I will have to check the South one. I’m not sure it is quite deep enough. I had to place the South and the West spikes at night. I’ll double check them tomorrow and make whatever adjustments I have to.
I did 20 minutes on the elliptical. I decided to listen to some various pagan songs/chants. Best. Decision. EVER! I had only intended to do 15 minutes, but once I got some good songs going, I was in the zone. AND that’s how I figured out how I would place the last two spikes – water to make the ground softer, and to use my body weight to drive into the ground. I used a hammer for North and East, as they are on the backside of the house, but the sound was really loud even though I attempted to muffle the hammer with a washcloth wrapped around it. That didn’t dampen the sound much at all.

And then I also came up with the words to a new part I’m adding to my personal rituals. I actually have two versions. One to use with Hazel or another other public rituals in which a magick/Craft name can be utilized. The other version is to be used only in my solo rituals…with my non-public Craft name. I’ll fine tune it….probably tomorrow. ::smiles:: For now, I’m headed to bed.

Unicorn

written: July 10th

Photo for today:

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UNICORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Little known fact – I’m all doom and gloom and working with the Harpies….and I utterly adore unicorns. ::chuckles::

So this is the “Light” card from the Magical Unicorns: Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue. I bought these from Brandy (my Canadian Twin). They have such a fluffy feel and I just love them. Hopefully this weekend, I can spend some time getting to know them. Hazel has this deck and she says it’s a good fluffy, light-hearted deck for sure. I am thinking that this would be a good deck for use during a depression episode. That’s when I need the kid gloves. I need gentle guidance. I do not need the cards to call me a whiny bitch and kick me in the ass (as the Gilded Tarot tends to do).

Man, I was so groggy and sleepy all day. Sandy (Tech Boss) wanted Rubin (Tech Supervisor), Evan (sloth coworker) and me to destroy one of the projector boards we received damaged. The supplier didn’t want it back, but said if we would destroy it and send them photos proving that it is 100% unusable, then they would refund us the money for the board. So here I was being given the ability to take a hammer to a white board, and I just said “Nah” and went back to working on iPads. I was too tired to be violent!!!! That’s unheard of! ::chuckles::

Not only that, but I was too tired to be pissed at Sloth Boy (aka Evan). Hell, I even let him have the easier iPads to put into cases….most of which I had already CLEANED. So he literally just had to pop them into their cases, easy-peasy, and box them up. And I wasn’t even upset over it. Weird. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight and be my normal grumpy ass woman tomorrow. ::laughs:: I don’t know who this peaceful, zen, groggy person. It’s so weird. It’s interesting.

So this is what it feels like to NOT be a Warrior. Interesting, but not my normal state of being. I am an Agitator. I am an Instigator. I push buttons when they need to be pushed. I am the Cage Rattler. I am the One that will Not Be Silenced. ::smiles toothily::

Monday, July 10, 2017

Full Buck/Thunder Moon

written: July 9th

Photo for the day:

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Yet another AWESOME flower in the neighborhood. You can see the weird looking green buds above the blossom. I’ve been curious what flower was going to pop out of such an odd looking bud. Holy crap. Talk about the ugly duckling transformed into the graceful swan!

So tonight, I headed over to Hazel’s house for the full moon. I brought some deer antler slices I had – this is the Full Buck Moon, and also called the Full Thunder Moon – which the thunder did roll through during the ritual. So much fun!

We kept it super low key. Her family was still at home, so that did muck up the energy from time to time, but overall it was a nice ritual. Since she had her baby in Circle with her, she asked me if I wanted to Cast the Circle. I almost brought my athame along, but in the end decided against it. Instead, I was wearing my polar bear claw necklace (totally on a whim, as it’s not my standard ritual necklace), so I used it to Cast Circle and call in the Directions. It worked out very nicely. So I’ll make note that it makes a very trusty stand in for my beefy athame. It would make a good travel athame. I should write down the information about that particular necklace (I had a dream of something similar and then stumbled across that necklace a few days later) for my Grimoire. Honestly, I should do that for all my Tools.

I Cast the Circle and called the Quarters. I had also brought over my vial of Triple Moon scented oil by Sage Goddess. We anointed our foreheads with the oil. It something I enjoy doing in my own private practice. I should ask Hazel if she would like some samples of some of the oils I have.

At that point, Hazel lit her Spirit candle. And we wrote things we wanted to banish from our lives on bay leaves. Then we wrote things we wanted to bring into our lives to replace the things we were banishing on another bay leaf. These were then burnt in the Spirit candle. And it was so interesting, because the things we were banishing, the bay leaf would take a long time to burn, and even then it didn’t always burn away completely. But the things we were calling it? Holy fuck, MASSIVE fire, sparks, and that bay leaf would then burn up the lingering banish leaf.

Fire scrying on that was telling me that the things we wanted to banish aren’t things that are going to disappear overnight. They are going to take some time and some leg work to accomplish. But the things we were calling it? Spirit/Divinity was telling us, that is what we needed to pursue. That is where our next steps lay in wait. It’s up to us to step up and seize what it is we want.

For me, I burned away my block when it comes to writing in my Grimoire due to my perfectionism. And I’m calling in successful Grimoire writing. I am keeping an electronic Grimoire currently (like brand-spanking new one) that is set to private. I’m trying this version to see if will get me around my block. Wish me luck!

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Saturday Babblings

Photo for the day:

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One of my small, but adorable rose blossoms. Most of the blossoms are three times the size of this lil guy. ::chuckles::

Today, I am declaring my Railroad Protection spell complete. It just feels….done. So all that is left now is to put them in the corners of the property. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow evening.
I tested out a bit of the bread dough…cooked a small loaf. The bread’s pretty good, especially given that it took less than 10 minutes to mix up. ::chuckles:: The Texas Roadhouse copy-cat butter recipe didn’t turn out so good. Wayyyyy too much sugar. Which, a CUP of powdered sugar and a CUP of honey? Yeah, it takes like liquid Cinnabon Cinnamon roll WITH the icing on it as well. It hurt my teeth. So I’m thinking next time, I’ll cut the sugar content in half, but keep the butter at the same level. Maybe that will make it less like Liquid Diabetes.

Tomorrow is the Full Moon – called the Buck Moon and the Thunder Moon. And it was just fitting that today a NICE thunder storm rolled through in the afternoon, but cleared the skies in time for the damn-near Full moon rise. Tomorrow I’m headed over to Hazel’s for ritual. I’ll bring along one of my deer antlers to adore the altar. No clue what we’ll be doing, but even if we just sit and bullshit the evening away, it will be nice to just hang out and talk witchcraft.

I finally finished “A Witch Alone”. It started out very weak, in my opinion, but really grew over the course of the book. And while I’ll always be critical of any book that touts the whole “Wicca is an ancient religion” line of bullshit, the author did have some nice little gems of wisdom in there.
I also finished up the Daily Candle project that I talked briefly about on Thursday (July 6th). Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to use it. ::chuckles:: Guess I need to get on that as I intend to begin tomorrow.

In keeping with the cosmic slap upside the head I got from an Oracle card a few days back (that I still need to write up), I’ve decided that I’m going to keep my Working Grimoire online. As much as I love physical journals, I just can’t write fast enough to keep up with my mind. And I tend to jump around A LOT – so an electronic version of a Grimoire would allow me to type swiftly to keep up with my stream of conscious writing, add in photos easily, and edit to make the entry make sense. I’m not sure where I’m going to host it, but it will be set to private. Maybe then I can actually document my Path for myself. And who knows, I can always print the information out and then hand-writing it into a physical Grimoire if I so desire. Or I can simply print it out in color and keep it in a binder. Either way, I think this is the correct direction for me. Because, what I’m doing now (which is NOTHING), just isn’t working for me.

Food Babble

written: July 7th

Photo for today:

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Seriously, this is some of the absolutely BEST spinach and artichoke dip I’ve ever had. I picked it up on a whim on my trip to Walmart today. I almost ate all of it. And honestly, I was sad when I was too full to keep eating. ::laughs::

I’m trying out a new bread recipe. I want to make homemade bread for Lammas (August 1st) but don’t want to try out the recipe that day. ::chuckles:: So I figure I have plenty of time to try out a few recipes to get a good one for ritual use. Plus, who doesn’t like bread? ::chuckles:: I’m supposed to let the dough sit in the refrigerator for a few days. But I’ll probably try some of it before then. I also plan to try out a copy-cat recipe of the honey butter that Texas Roadhouse uses. If the recipes pan out, I’ll add them to my recipe binder. Besides, for the public Lammas ritual Hazel and I will be attending, we are encouraged to bring a spread or dip for bread to share with the group. So I would like to try out a few spread and dips before then to figure out which one to take to share.

I thought I was in the clear on the whole allergy thing. I’d been subconsciously scaling back on the amount of allergy medicine I was taking because I didn’t require the medicine as often. But damn, my left eye started swelling up again, like it did back in March. Thankfully I recognized it swiftly and thus popped a lot of allergy medicine and iced my eye. Hopefully I caught it early enough that it won’t swell up as bad. And thankfully, I know what’s going on so I won’t be taking a trip to the ER clinics. Just weird that both times now that this has occurred, it is always late at night.

Seriously, I just need to win the damn lottery so I can get treatment for all the various health ailments I am experiencing. ::chuckles:: It’s probably the only way I could afford to get surgery on my knees, plus physical therapy, and to do the allergy treatment to get rid of my allergies.

My special stamp order for Leviathan’s hatch-day cards arrived and they turned out great. Zazzle.com has a place where you can put your own photos on postage stamps for a fairly reasonable price. So I ordered special ones with a photo of Leviathan on them and they turned out so awesome. I’m super excited to use them. ::chuckles:: Now I just have to be patient and wait until the right time to mail them out. The overseas ones will be mailed out next month.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Thankful Thursday #27

Photo for today:
 
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Today’s witchy AND creative idea. See, I came across this idea in “A Witch Alone” where the author talks about the correspondences for each day of the week and gives ideas on specific things to pray/spellcraft/contemplate on each specific day. And I thought this would be a fun idea to do to bring in a daily aspect of my spirituality into my life. So yeah, I’ve got the day, the planet, and the planetary sign for all seven days of the week. The little glass cups (they remind me of communion wine thimbles and it just cracks me up that I’m using them for witchcraft) are left over candle holders for this adorable candles I got a Tuesday Morning ages ago. So I’m going to stick the daily tag to each candle and put the appropriate colored chime candle in the candle holder. Still haven’t quite hashed out how to use this daily practice, but I’m pretty good at just winging shit at the time. I do have dreams of making little prayer cards to go with each one (printed/created on cardstock roughly the size of a standard playing card). So yeah, we’ll see if I can follow through that far! ::chuckles::

Alright, it’s Thursday, which means it’s time for my traditional Thankful Thursday list.

I am grateful for…
1. The storms that came by in the evenings (yesterday and today). I got to see a rainbow yesterday, and today it was just drenching rain.
2. And because of said drenching rain, I’m glad I skipped out of work 15 minutes early (with the boss’s blessings) because that meant I got home just before the downpour! ::chuckles::
3. Crazy, creative witch-related things my lil heathen heart comes up with. I am having a BLAST with it!
4. My FitBit buddies who walk crazy amounts of steps. So even though I have NO hope of beating some of them, it does inspire me to walk more than I normally would. And honestly, I like the weekly challenges because it tallies my steps for me (so I don’t have to any work), and I just try to beat my previous week’s step total. ::chuckles::
5. Getting our Starbucks order last night COMPLETELY FREE! Jasmine didn’t make us pay of them. We just adore her…for so many reasons!
6. I decided to use my “Medicine Cards” deck (by Jamie Sams and David Carson) for the July Tarot Challenge…and holy crap, did those cards call me OUT yesterday. I’ll write a whole ‘nother entry on that.
7. My husband being sweet and buying me two frappuccinos from the gas station because he knew I like to have one in the morning when I go to my job. It’s a nice treat to reward me for getting my butt up at 7 am. ::chuckles:: So I had one today and hopefully, I’ll have the willpower to save the other for Monday…but I wouldn’t go holding my breath on that. ::laughs::
8. I’m on a 12 day in a role streak on walking Josey. Some of our walks are shorter than I would like due to the heat and high humidity (I have ZERO desire to carry a 50 pound pitty home in that heat/humidity combo), but we are at least getting out there and WALKING some. She’s doing a lot better, though we still have a way to go. Baby steps, but forward steps.
9. The internet and its ability to let me do so many things that I enjoy, that I probably couldn’t otherwise do. I love the information I come in contact with, the artwork, the companionship, the wisdom, the challenges, and the friendship. It just means the world to me. And has allowed me to connect with people who are similar to me in some way. And even those that I’m not super similar to, I do enjoy the ability to see things from a new angle that the friendship affords me.
10. I’ve signed up for a few classes and I’m really putting my foot down and making myself go. I need to put aside the money required for the classes and pay for them. Once I’ve paid for them, I won’t back out because there’s no refund. ::chuckles::

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Stormy

Photo for today:

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A rainbow! I wish I could have captured the second rainbow, but it was really difficult to see, even with the nekkid eye. And this rainbow did NOT stick around all that long either. Long enough for me to spot it, race inside to grab my phone, and to take 4 photos. And then poof! Gone.

So yeah, running on about 6 hours of sleep. Not too terribly off from what I normally get during the week, but still. Ug. Surprisingly, I didn’t drag ass at all today. I honestly felt pretty damn good. I had plenty of energy for work – though, honestly, that doesn’t require a whole lot out of me. It’s just tedious, repetitive work.

Once I came home, I got my butt on the elliptical. I was only able to do 15 minutes. I really need to get my knee checked out. It was doing it’s “clicking” again…where if I bend it too deeply and then straighten it out, the tendon across the knee cap “jumps/pops”. The way I am describing it sounds so much worse than it is. It’s really painful…just annoying. But that will have to wait until September, when my insurance kicks back over. No sense in spending my deductible if it’s just going to reset in September. And it’s not like it’s killing me right now anyways. Sooooo, I’ll put it off another year most likely (though I did originally injury it right about this time in 2010…so what’s a few more years?). ::chuckles::

So yeah, I did 15 minutes on the elliptical and then took Josey for a walk. I did it early because of the incoming storm and Josey really NEEDS these daily walks. This makes 11 days in a row now that I have walked her and I want to keep that going as long as I can. We managed to do a decent walk. It would be so much better if there just weren’t people out and about. ::laughs:: But that applies to most areas of life…I would seriously rather there just not be people involved.

Storm was gorgeous. So much lightning and wind. Very little rain, but beautiful and stormy and grumpy all the same. ::chuckles::

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Red Rockets & Fae

Photo for today:

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My Red Rocket crepe myrtle is finally well on its blooming game! ::chuckles::

I just ADORE that brilliant red blossom:

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AND our lil miracle Basil plant (must have re-seeded itself last year, 100% on its own) is doing damn good in all this sunshine and heat we’ve been “enjoying”:

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I finally got in touch with Hazel. Holy hell, her house is infested with Fae. Every time she’d walk through a doorway, her phone would die. And she kept fading in and out on her phone as well. But for whatever reason, she refuses to banish them out of her house. ::shakes her head:: Needless to say, when I head over there on Sunday, I will have an iron nail in my bag and I will have one on my person as well. Fae hate iron and it keeps them at bay and keeps them from messing with your stuff. Hence the nail in my bag (so they have to leave it alone) and on me (so they have to leave ME alone).

Hazel is just too nice of a person when it comes to the Fae. I would have banished their damn asses AGES ago. Hell, that is exactly why I HAVE banished them and warded my house against them. And the same goes for spirits, even if they are spirits of my Ancestors. Unless formally invited, none of them are allowed inside my house. Hazel feels like because they are “family”, she isn’t allowed to banish them out of her own home. I don’t know how she tolerates the mass chaos this brings her. And maybe this makes me a very cold-hearted bitch, to turn away the Fae and Ancestor spirits. But this is MY abode, MY home, MY sanctuary. And it is NOT open for just anyone and everyone to come strolling through and just hang out. I wouldn’t tolerate that with humans and I certainly won’t tolerate it with paranormal entities either. And it just boggles my mind that some people are completely ok with entities coming and going through their home.

As for the 4th of July, we had a nice quiet one, here at the house. A few of the various neighbors are shooting off their own firecrackers. We can’t see the ones the city is shooting off this year – they changed locations. And we aren’t about to go out in that crowded mess of one way streets and streets that are shut down for the fireworks. Yeah, we’ll pass on that. Thanks.

Ug, tomorrow I have to go back to work. ::sighs:: With that, I need to head to bed, because 7 am is going to come EARLY tomorrow morning. ::sighs::

Expose

written:  July 3rd

Photo for the day:

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Reading and some awesome bath salts from Sage Goddess. These are HUGE salt rocks, so a little goes a long way. I am nearing the end of “A Witch Alone” and honestly, I like it so much more than I did in the beginning. The beginning was just way too fluffy for me, but once you get past the whole “oh Wicca is soooooo wonderful, it will just magickally solve ALL your problems and you’ll live this AMAZING, BLISSFUL life” nonsense from the first chapter, the author actually writes pretty damn good. I skipped the chapter on healing because that just does not appeal to me at all. But a lot of her stuff I find interesting and some I’m even planning to put into practice. Once I get my notes written up on that, I’ll share that. It’s nothing vastly earth-shattering nor super personal, so it’s something I have no problem sharing.

So yeah, funny thing happened on my walk today with Josey. I posted the following status on my Facebook page:
Public Service Announcement:
Guys…if you are going to wear a bathrobe outside of your home…and nothing else....the belt is mandatory.
Yeah....in other news, I’ve never seen a guy with a landing strip before....but now I can cross that one off my bucket list.


Yeah, so a guy in his mid-20s was moving his truck so his roommate and what I’m assuming is roommate’s girlfriend, could move his truck out of the drive way. And when Bath Robe Man opened up his truck door to hop out, a breeze blew open his robe. We made eye contact, and I was seriously about to turn Josey loose on him (she’d just love maul him, but he had very little protection from her aggressive love) if I had thought he did it on purpose. But his face was beet red and you could tell he was embarrassed as could be. And he bolted for his house at that point. ::chuckles and shakes her head:: So yeah. How was your day?

Hazel and I have been playing phone tag for a few days now. Honestly, I would just rather go see her in person. She’s way to chaotic to talk to on the phone. And I swear, once I’m on the phone, I go full ADD. Every little sound is amplified to the point that I cannot focus on the person talking. And given that she has three children, one of which is 6 months old? Yeah, so much noise. It’s one of the main reasons I despise talking on the telephone.

Sunday, July 2, 2017

The Harpyiai Alliance

Photo for today:

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Josey, with her EXTREMELY politely bored look, imploring me to play with the Kong bone with her. ::laughs:: She’ll sit like this and just stare at me with these super disappointed eyes until I cave and play. Love that absurd pup!

So I Am The Storm posed a question to me on my previous entry, inquiring into the backstory of how I came into an alliance with the Harpies. ::chuckles::

Even in the most liberal of Pagan circles, Harpies are typically not an entity one works with other than in hex-craft, to be honest. And sadly, this is but a tiny sliver of what they embody. So follow me down the rabbit hole here and learn about my understand and my workings/dealings with the Harpies.
Harpies (in Greek mythology) are children of Thaumas, a sea god, and Electra, an Oceanids -aka- a sea nymph; and Iris (goddess who is the personification of the rainbow and is the messenger of the gods) is their sister. Now, here we will make a break from the patriarchal and Christianize version of what the Harpies are. I have Medusa (another one of those “scary” goddesses, until you peel away the bullshit twisting of her mythology, again thanks to patriarchal/Christianizing) to thank for the urging to look deeper.

Originally, the Harpies are described as half woman, half bird personifications of storm winds. They are even described as beautiful and fair-haired. Originally, they were storm deities, though they don’t much care for the title of “deity” and they don’t behave in the same manner as deities I’ve worked with in the past and present. I see them more along the lines of Nature Spirits, and they are very much tied to the storms.

Celaeno (whose name means “The Dark” – referring to the dark of the storm, not negativity or evil) is the one I work most closely with. Her other sisters, who I’m assuming are Aello (the “Storm Swift”), Ocypete (the “Swift Wing”), and Podarge (the “Fleet-foot”) convene with Celaeno quite often, but Celaeno is the only one who speaks to me. The other sisters are just a wide array of bird calls, from twitters and chirps to screeches and caws.

Ok, yes. I understand that this is just back story and history here, but not how I actually came into an alliance with them. ::chuckles:: Bear with me here. I have to dispel the erroneous notions of what Harpies are before I can explain my relationship with them. So originally, I was working with Medusa, who was showing me how Greek mythologies (specifically hers) have been perverted over the years due to Christianity’s fear of strong women and its ancient hatred of the Goddess and Goddess-based faiths. Once I saw the beauty and strength in Medusa’s tale that had been shrouded like that, I got to looking at other “monsters” and peeling back the layers there as well. And the Harpies took note of that, and like the wild nature spirits that they are, it took a while to earn their trust and to come to an understanding of how they work exactly.

And damn, did they school me when I made the mistake of attempting to barter with them before truly knowing them. An on-line friend and her two dogs were attacked by a pack of bear hunting dogs and I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. So I called on the Harpies, because, even though they are predominately storm spirits, they are still the “hounds of Zeus” and are swift carriers of justice/punishment. We had only established an acquaintance level relationship at this point, and I came to them asking for protection of my friend and for divine justice upon those who had harmed my friend. And in my zeal, I knew I had to offer up a sacrifice of some sort on my part, and so I just agreed to a “sacrifice”. And the Harpies twittered about that for a while among themselves before Celaeno came and asked me if this was what I really wanted. I should have listened to the caution in her question, but again, I didn’t know them very well and so I barged on ahead.

So they deemed I would give up coffee and I agreed, thinking it would be for 30 days. ::laughs:: Little did I know that they would instead take my favorite drink away from me. And I was working at Starbucks at the time and was KNOWN for drinking only White Mochas…an espresso based drink. Now, this was years ago, and even now, I don’t like the taste of White Mochas. ::laughs:: Damn tricky ladies!

So I learned my lesson there. If I must barter with them, I get all the details long before we actually strike an accord. And because I am significantly more shrewd in my dealings with them, I’ve earned a bit of respect in their eyes now. They didn’t screw me over in the original deal just to screw me over. They did it to show me that one does not make deals with spirits/deities/entities that are open ended. They could have really screwed me over if they had wished. Instead, they did it just enough to hurt and to teach me a lesson, but not to completely fuck me over. Does that make any sense?

So now, I mostly deal with them in their storm roles. I can hear them playing as the storms roll in. They appear as winged ladies, or as amorphous ladies – think the way the ghosts in Harry Potter appear. Wispy and fading in and out of sight, dancing and cackling among the thunder, lightning, and rain.

When dealing with the Harpies, I use offerings of incense – typically storm/rain based aromas though they are also a fan of sandalwood. Or, if I need a “stronger” offering, extremely dark red wine – so red it’s almost black in color – and it has to have a bite to it. None of that sweet shit for them. ::laughs:: Feather offerings are made from time to time. And I’m thinking of trying bird seed as an offering to them as well and seeing how that pans out. It would feed the song birds, which feed the birds of prey, so maybe it would work. I will just have to try it and see.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Feathers & Flames

Photo of the day:

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Just one of about two dozen species of feathers I have. And I am only talking about the “special” species. ::chuckles::

Yep, I finally finished sorting and labeling my special feather collection today. I did take photos…but I used my phone and this photo is the only one worth sharing. ::laughs:: So hopefully tomorrow, I can go back through the collection and use my GOOD camera. The colors were all off and the photos were not as sharp as I would like. I have such high standards when it comes to my personal photography. ::chuckles::

Sadly, I finally made the decision to release a number of my first special feathers. See, I had purchased this beautifully hand-made cedar feather box – I wanted to protect these special feathers from bugs and cedar does that nicely. Unfortunately, the cedar was not allowed to properly cure, and so when I got the box and put my special feathers in it, sap was still coming out of the wood. Which then got on these feathers, making them sticky as hell. I am still super pissed over it. The guy should have known better than to use new cedar. And I paid quite a bit for the box. It is gorgeous, do not get me wrong. But it ruined feathers I cannot replace. And I have tried a number of ways to attempt to remove the sticky sap from the feathers to no avail. So today, I finally admitted defeat, and let those feathers go. I really wish we had a fire pit. Burning them to release them seems like a more dignified route. But then again, I am a fan of fire, and a huge fan of burning to release things. :::chuckles::

July is another month of the National Journal Writing Month challenge. Because I am not doing any classes over the summer, I am shooting for the write every day (which, to be honest, is pretty much what I have been doing this entire year thus far, to share my daily photos) AND going for a 15,000-word count by the end of the month. Just got to write 484 words a day to meet that goal.

So it seems I am back on a journal purchasing kick. I bought a beautiful Slytherin one at Barnes and Nobles. I initially went there to purchase an address book, but instead left with the Slytherin journal and a new monthly planner. ::chuckles:: And then at Michael’s, I picked up a big beefy sketchbook – but it was only $5, so I could not really turn it down.

Now I am setting my goal to actually USE the journals. Seeing as how I am going to make myself go to some of these various classes/rituals the various pagan groups/stores are hosting in the area, I figure the Slytherin journal would be awesome to take to the classes/rituals to take notes in. The big gray sketchbook? I have NO idea what I will use it for just yet.

Organizing

written: June 30th

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A little Kestrel feather I found on my walk today with Josey (it’s about 3 inches long). It’s a female Kestrel’s wing feather. Interesting, as I haven’t seen any Kestrels in the area. I love the ruddy orange color. It’s what caught my eye.

While David was at work today, I got a bit of the cleaning and organizing bug. I put on some tribal music and got to organizing part of my room. I got all my candles organized, which is NO small feat. ::chuckles:: And I’ve come up with a way to organize and protect my feather collection. I’ve labeled, photographed, and stored the three I received this week from my German friend. Now it’s just a slow matter of labeling, photographing, and storing the rest of my collection. ::chuckles::

Had a GORGEOUS storm blow in right before I headed to bed. I decided to utilize that energy and charged up the railroad spikes. I also made it a point to bring my railroad spikes to the Harpies’ attention, and asked that they look upon the territory within the boundaries (that the spikes will make) favorably and keep all within the boundaries safe from harm (be it tornado, hail, lightning strikes, or straight winds). And man, I could feel the energy.