Good Friday

Yay for a day off of work due to Good Friday.

But apparently, the bill came due on me having a nice period day yesterday. Today, I have been down for the count for most of the day due to a damn migraine. Holy fuck. It’s been ages since I’ve had one that bad, that was refusing to respond to typical medication. Didn’t help that today the lawn care guy came with all his loud machines. And given that he does our yard and three of our neighbors’ yards at the same time, he’s here for quite a chunk of time. And then, because he hasn’t been here for a while due to “winter months”…Josey was barking every time he went by the door. ::shakes her head:: I was dying. Luckily, he was done by 2 pm and I headed immediately to bed.

I got up at 4 pm – migraine was not even PHASED by the medicine and a nap. ::sighs:: So had to bust out my husband’s headache medication and a frappucino I had left over from yesterday (my aide Emily had bought one for me as a surprise for our LONG ASS DAY). So now, the headache/migraine is mostly gone, but now I’m nauseous from the frappucino. I swear, I’m about sick of all these weirdo things my body has started doing here recently. I should probably just do the Whole 30 challenge, and clean up my eating for an entire month and see how much better I am at the end of it.

I know it’s going to suck in the beginning, but I think one of the challenges I’ll set up for myself for April is to go completely coffee free for the entire month. Really, the only coffee I get is just the fraps at the gas stations before work. And I’d say 75% of the time, I don’t finish the coffee and I feel mild nausea afterwards. So why am I tossing money away on that? ::shakes her head:: Gatorade or water instead for the month of April. We’ll see how I’m feeling at the end of that month to decide if I’ll continue with it or not.

A friend shared a video of Bad Wolves’s cover of “Zombie” originally by the Cranberries. And holy mother of god…it’s been ages since I’ve lusted over someone, but the lead vocalist, Tommy Vext? I straight up wanted to just hump-tackle him. Dem arms, dem voice, dem tattoos, dem MOHAWK?!?!?! ::full on swoon:: I was a goner. I’ve always heard the phrase “my ovaries exploded” but never directly experienced it. Until this damn video. I was actually SAD I couldn’t give this guy a baby! ::laughs:: I listened to and watched this video 4 times, WITH THE HEADACHE of DOOM raging because I was so infatuated with Tommy Vext. He reminds me of Ricky Whittle – he plays “Lincoln” in The 100 and holy crap, that’s another completely lust-worthy man. Now I want to re-watch The 100. I almost wish I had cable, because Season 5 starts next month on the CW. So it’ll be a year or so before that hits Netflix.

So with April swiftly approaching, I need to finalize a few things. I’m launching a new round of the 101 Goals in 1001 Days. But, I’m not posting those goals for the world to see. I came across this meme and it just really resonated with me:

 

And it’s not that I’m really worried about someone out there hexing my goals. But I’ve noticed when I make it public, it’s almost like my contrary personality comes out. and since I’ve made it publically know that This Is My Goal….now, I don’t want to fucking do it. ::laughs:: And I get weirdly anxious about it. Like not all of my goals are World Changing ™ or anything. And some, I really want to do, but I know they sound insanely dorky, so I get super self-conscious about them. So, instead of sharing the list of goals publicly, I will simply report on the ones I accomplish. ::chuckles::

And April is another round of the NaJoWriMo. I was kicking around the idea of writing every day (which I already do, so that’s kind of a moot point). I thought of challenging myself to write 500 words a day…but we’re moving steadily into the homestretch of the semester, and I know I’m going to be stressed the fuck out, so why heap on more obligations and effectively set myself up to fail? So instead, I’m making it a point to try out JRNL.com for my grimoire. For the month of April, I am going to focus on transferring my various grimoire private entries over to JRNL.com and getting comfortable with that site. Hopefully, I will maintain it for the rest of the year and can have them print my grimoire as a hard-bound book. I don’t have to write an entry a day, but I do have to do SOME sort of grimoire-based work every day for the month of April. That could be writing down the entries (dates and titles) that I want to transfer over. That could be uploading various artwork (with credit to their creators). It could be research notes, or photos I’ve taken. Just SOMETHING witchcraft-based for every day of April.

Thankful Thursday

written: March 29th

I am thankful…
1. That other than having a student tell me to fuck off, today really wasn’t that bad of a day. ::laughs:: Been years since I’ve had a kiddo cuss at me, it was almost funny.
2. I’ve registered for next semester’s classes! Just TWO SEMESTERS LEFT!!!!!!
3. My rosebush is so close to blooming. There are a couple dozen buds just finally beginning to split open to show off the color inside the green bud. A few more days and she’ll be a riot of color.
4. My new wand. I fucking love it. With as much as I love bones and stones, I don’t understand why I felt so damn compelled to have a wooden wand. It’s just another one of those “Wiccan Standards” that I had internalized without realizing. My new wand is made of bone and stone and she’s just AMAZING.
5. That today should have been the Brutal ™ period day…complete with so much fucking pain and cramping…but it wasn’t. I thank all that is holy for that blessing! I was NOT looking forward to an extra-long day (early release) spent wanting to kill everything.
6. That after a major scare, ProseBox is staying put. ::huge sigh of relief::
7. I’m also grateful for the various suggestions for other journaling sites. I really want to test out jrnl.com specifically for my grimoire.
8. Finally, COMPLETELY caught up on my pen-pal letters! Now watch, I’ll get like seven tomorrow and will be way behind again! ::laughs:: But I love it, so that’s all that matters.
9. That while I wasn’t able to do the Ostara gemstone fortunes (idea originally from Witchy Words) this year, I am already putting things into motion to do it next year. I’ll be mailing out Ostara eggs to Pagan friends with a surprise gemstone inside, and I’m super excited about it. So now, I have a year to compile the stones and their meanings and get it all set up and ready to go for next Ostara.
10. That Lil Niece’s book arrived well in advance of her birthday (Sunday). Yay, for an auntie win! ::laughs::

Bunny Visit

written: March 28

Sharing an amazing photo I shot today of Alfred, the mostly wild cottontail rabbit, who frequents our yard:




I haven’t seen him in a while, so I was happy to see he made it through the “winter” months we had for a little while. And Alfred seems to be his normal bunny self.

Seems SimpleMind has decided NOT to shut ProseBox down…yet. So I’m staying put for now. But a fellow blogger Paper suggested jrnl.com and the more I look into it, the more I like it. The main selling point is the ability to have them print your journal in hardback book format. And for me, I really want to test that out with my Grimoire. It would certainly make it easier, especially with the local Staples store shutting down. I had planned to have my yearly grimoire printed and bound by them, but this would be so much easier. So I will be actively working on that project this summer to get everything written and caught up the way I want it, so then I just have to maintain it through the end of the year and then I can print it out and see if that’s an avenue worth continued use.

Tomorrow is early release day for the students. And I started my period today – friggin five days early (of course). So of course, tomorrow…the long ass day with the kiddos….is going to be the worst day period wise for me. Needless to say, I will be packing the Midol, Ibuprofen, and will be picking up a frappucino and a bag of Flipz (chocolate covered pretzels) and probably some bag of chips as well. But still, say a prayer for all of us tomorrow.

Beautiful Rainy Day

written: March 27

Today was a beautiful, rainy day all day today.  I spent most of the morning with the a/c off and the front door wide open.  Just steady, soothing rain all morning.  Josey was less than thrilled.  ::laughs::  She couldn’t understand why the door was OPEN.  The entire time. 

And then the evening was all about the thunder and lightning show.  Seriously, the only thing that could have made the day more perfect for me is if I didn’t have to go to work.  If I could have just stayed at home, with the door open, listening to the rain, wrapped up in a nice blanket, drinking a cup of hot chocolate – PERFECTION. 

But, alas, I had to go to work.  Which means, all that rain I was enjoying – means the kiddos cannot go outside.  Yay!  ::so much sarcasm::  We had Emily H. out again, which was so nice.  She just meshes so well with the campus, and she knows what needs to be done, and just does it as she sees it.  Having subs that are a major asset to the campus are such a bonus these days – because not all KNOW what to do.  Hell, some don’t even have a clue!  ::shakes her head::

Well Shit & A Good Work Day

written: March 26th

Talk about one hell of a shock – it’s been announced that ProseBox is being shut down.  We have until April 15^th to download/export/save our diaries, and then the website is going dark.  It’s like OpenDiary all over again.  I’ve noticed that PB has been having a lot of issues lately, but I never thought it would close its doors on us.  There are a number of people clamoring to take over to keep it running.  I just hope SimpleMind doesn’t pull a Bruce (diary master of OpenDiary) move, and refuse all help. 

A number of people have returned to OpenDiary when it started back up this year…but I cannot.  The only way I can describe Bruce is as a sadist asshole…so much mental/emotional abuse and manipulation.  I just cannot go back to that.  And to HAVE to pay to use his site now?  Yeah, no thanks.  I did go take a peak, and it’s still glitchy as hell, slow as molasses, and pretty damn plain to be honest.  I’m not paying for that shit again.

So now the question becomes, if PB DOES shut down…where will I go?  I have my backup blog here on Blogger.  But I don’t care for the lay out…and there is ZERO community there. 

Maybe I’ll return to written journals?  But I do like the interaction I get here (most of the time) on my posts and I know I will certainly miss that. 

In the meantime, I guess I’ll work on downloading my diary from here and see where the bulk of my buddies migrate to.

We had Emily H. out on our campus today as a sub.  I adore her.  She’s one of those who has no problem seeing what needs to be done and just doing it.  I got her feedback on my Sub Binder I’ve put together (it was talked about briefly at a staff meeting, and I took notes on what the subs would like to see in such binders).  Apparently, I am the only one who’s done that.  ::shakes her head::  Emily and I are from the “old guard” time, the time when our after school program was more Stand Alone than enfolded into the district, and we are definitely seeing a lot of this “eh, just wait and see” type mentality on a number of issues with the program now. 

It was nice to sit and really discuss not only the problems we see in our program, but ways it could be easily fixed.  And Emily has a very logical head in these things, and has the added perspective of seeing what’s going on at the other campuses as well.

Emily asked if it was ok if she emailed the supervisors, praising my Sub Binder.  It was nice for her to ask beforehand, as those types of praises usually turn into “Oh hey, why don’t you lead one of our staff meetings over it” offers from the bosses.  ::chuckles::  And we all know how much I love getting up and presenting things in front of large groups of people.  But hell, man, this is stuff they NEED to know and it’s crazy easy to just slap some things together.  It took me less than a week to get the bulk of it done.  I just need to add in our various Emergency Procedures and a map of the school and it’s done.  Though, Emily did also recommend maybe a little sheet for the subs to fill out about any concerns/issues they saw on the campus that day, or things they wanted to praise; and possibly a few extra Sub Time Sheets in case they need a copy.  Which, those would be crazy easy to do and add in.

Asses & Ornaments

written: March 25th

Alright. I finished up the Lesson Plan thing for my Digital Citizenship class. It is definitely not my best work, but it is what it is. Half assed is better than no assed. ::shakes her head::

In happier news, I got one of the two books I bought for my niece and nephew wrapped and packaged up. Lil Niece’s birthday is April 1st, so I’m getting that in the mail tomorrow. The other book, I’m holding on to until Lil Nephew’s birthday (August 3rd). I debated sending both books now, but figured this way, I’m already ahead for his birthday. ::laughs:: And hopefully his plastic snakes will have arrived, so I can send those along as well.

I sent in my class requests for next semester. I actually did it EARLY this time around, so I should get the two classes I’ve requested: Story Telling for Information Professionals (the class name sounds like it will be a breeze, but reading the description – I am pretty sure it will be not so breezy) and Information Resources in Culturally Diverse Communities. Hard to believe that next semester is my second to last semester. I should probably make an appointment with my advisor just to double check everything is still kosher. And I would like to get a bit more info on what to expect with the End of Program Exams.

Everyone in the neighborhood is cutting back their crape myrtles – which means there are BUNDLES of beautiful, straight sticks of all sorts of thicknesses just laying around. If I didn’t just get a wand that really captured my heart, I would be sorely tempted to take them to make wands. Instead, I saw these cool rustic “witch” ornaments a while back that look fairly easy to make.



Don’t they look AWESOME???

So here, I have all these amazing crape myrtle staffs just waiting to be picked up by waste management. So why not snag a few and try my hand at making these ornaments? They would be fun to make and send to my various witchy friends and pen pals. And as soon as Michael’s sends me another good coupon, I’ll pick up a little wood burning kit and I can start playing around with it.

Husband is trying to convince me that a wooden dowel would be easier, but I’m actually kind of relishing the challenge of doing this all myself. Other than drilling the hole at the top. I’ll leave that to my husband to do. ::chuckles::

Dinner with James

written: March 23rd

I finished reading The Maze Runner.  It was a very slow read, and all of the characters really lacked significant depth, so it was hard to keep them straight in my head.  But the book’s ending was so much more intense than the movie’s ending.  And I kind of want to read the rest of the books, just to see how the story line plays out…but then I remember how utterly boring the bulk of the book was….so I kind of just want to stick with the movies.  ::chuckles::

Josey and I took a lovely nap together.  She very rarely gets to sleep in my room, let alone on my bed.  But David was busy working on guitar projects, so we hung out upstairs.  ::smiles::

Dinner with James was awesome.  I’ve missed my buddy so much.  And apparently his wife just adores me.  ::chuckles::  James’s wife is very Pagan, and he shares with her the various things I post on Facebook, and she just LOVES them.  And me apparently.  And given that she utterly despises Ken (my psycho ex)?  That makes her amazing in my eyes.  ::smiles::  Hopefully we can all meet up at some point. 

But it reminds me that there are reasons for why I share about my spirituality.  I had gotten out of touch with that.  I am not writing just to document for myself…but to also help other Pagans.  I bring a different perspective from typical Wiccan outlook.  ::toothy grin::