Quiet Day

written: July 28

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Close up of my Mini Sonic M&M blast. So tasty.

I was supposed to go hang out with Hazel Nut today. But she never text, and I didn’t feel like pushing the matter either.

I finally got to see the beautiful red full moon rising this evening. Yesterday had so much cloud coverage that I didn’t see her at all. Glorious.

Other than that, it was a nice, quiet day at the house. Didn’t accomplish shit, but some days that’s exactly what you need.

Divine Fire

written: July 26

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Sekhmet and a bottle of Sekhmet Anointing Oil. I’m going to draw up a small roller ball bottle of the Anointing Oil for April, who’s recently been claimed by Sekhmet. The oil was made at the Sekhmet Temple in Nevada, and I just love it. I use it in ritual and dab some on the forehead of Sekhmet’s statue as well. I’ve put some in the red 7-day candle beside Her, so the aroma is released when the candle is lit.

I am missing my deeper spiritual connection with Deity and Spirits. Full moon is tomorrow. It’s the Thunder/Buck Moon. And of course, me being me, I haven’t even begun to set up my altar to reflect that. Man, I have really let my spiritual practice slip these past few years. And now that Hazel Nut has converted to Hinduism, I can’t lean on her to light a fire under my butt spiritually. Which is fine. I honestly am just now realizing how lazy I’ve become in this department. Now I just have to light my own fires under my own butt and kick it into gear.

Honestly, I just need to get back to the basics again. I need to get back into meditation and shamanic journey. I need to spend more time AWAY from electronics and the internet and more time outside with Josey pup and all that makes me happy. Why is it always easier said than done? ::chuckles and shakes her head::

Leviathan

written: July 25


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Lil Miss Leviathan, chillin’ on her new skeleton hide. It’s on the warm side of her tank, where there wasn’t much coverage. I was hoping that by having a hide on that side, she would be more inclined to enjoy the larger tank and so far, it seems to be working. Yay! Prior to this, she would just stay in her cave on the cool side of the tank and never come out. I suspected she felt very exposed with all the wide open space in the new tank. ::smiles::

I’ve been falling down the rabbit hole on Pinterest, looking at custom reptile enclosures people have built. Talk about tank ENVY! ::laughs:: I wish I had the time, money, skill set, CONFIDENCE to actually try my hand at making a more custom enclosure for Leviathan. There are a thousand and one tutorials out there on how to do so. I just have a thousand and two excuses why I “can’t”. ::chuckles::

Journal Swap

written: July 24

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Sharmila’s journal arrived from the Kingdom of Bahrain! Yay! Let the journal swap begin!
Well, it doesn’t officially begin until my journal arrives with her, but that should take a while yet.
But I’m working in hers already and I’m loving it. I might have to pick up this type of journal for myself.

I really did not want to go back up to work, knowing I had this awesome journal waiting for me at home. It arrived while I was home on my lunch break, so I didn’t even have time to thumb through it. thankfully, the last half of the work day flew by and I was able to scramble home and read through what she had written thus far, and write my first entry in her journal. THIS is what I love about journal swaps. They are the best creative kick in the pants for me. I usually get a bit bored writing the same way day in and day out. But then I do a journal swap with someone else – I get to see their method of journaling, their way of viewing things, their creative spirit – and it just rekindles my own creative spirit again. So, while Sharmila wrote this BEAUTIFUL page about how I seem to have a knack for knowing when someone is struggling and reaching out in the best way at the best time…really it’s far more selfish than that. I was/am struggling right now and I know that journal writing helps me with that. And I know that doing a journal swap is even MORE helpful for me. In the journal I sent out to her, I’ve swapped with three other people. And since she hadn’t worked in this journal yet, I immediately thought of her. ::smiles:: I’m just happy that it’s working out for her as well as for me. Now I just need my journal to reach her and we can really get this party started! ::laughs::

Bone Yard

written: July 23

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A tiny, tiny fraction of Josey’s bone collection. I swear, one of these days, I should get all of her bones together in one spot and take a photo of the mountain. Hell, I’m pretty sure we almost have enough bones to build our own cow. ::chuckles::

After weeks and weeks of 105+ degree weather, this evening was downright pleasant! I’m talking the heat index was down in the low 90s – which, I know, doesn’t sound all that pleasant, but given that the heat index for the past two weeks has been north of 110 EVERY DAMN DAY – a 20-degree drop is refreshing! ::laughs:: So I opted to take Josey pup for a walk. We haven’t done that in ages (because I’m not a fan of heat stroke, ya know). It was really, really nice. I’m seriously looking forward to when I can get back into walking her daily. She was so happy to be out and about, to sniff new things, hear new things, see new things. And I was happy that she was pretty tuckered out by the time we got back to the house. ::grins and winks::

Heat

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Yeah, after washing a full load of bed sheets, my dryer decided it didn’t want to work anymore. So I had to get creative hanging up all the sheets in my house so they could properly dry. And then the a/c kicked off as well. So when David got home from work, he was in a right foul mood. BUT he flipped all the breakers (they are on the neighbor’s side of the house, so they are bitch to get to) and eventually everything came back on.

Nice quiet day at home. David had to work a coworker’s shift today, so he was gone 11:30 am to about 4:30 pm. I’m 3/4ths of the way through Girl In Pieces: A Novel by Kathleen Glascow. I was a little concerned that it could be possibly triggering because the main character is a cutter. But honestly, thus far, it’s been perfectly fine. Good book as well.

Girls Night

written: July 21

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Hanging out with my Hazel Nut tonight and she randomly picked this up for me on a total whim. It ain’t half bad to be honest! ::chuckles:: But with the excessive heat we’re having (heat index has been north of 110F for the past WEEK) and the fact that I’m having more frequent headaches, I seriously limited myself on how much I drank of it.

Hazel Nut called me and begged for me to come hang out for an hour or so. She was all dude-ed out. She’s the sole female in her house – a husband and THREE boys. She was needing some girl time. It was nice to just hang out and talk about witchy stuff and female stuff. Had her laughing so hard discussing porn and various terrible sex things (she had recently heard about the Dirty Sanchez, so I went on to fill her in on a LOT of other ones).

All in all, I was there like 3 and a half hours and just had so much fun. I was worried with her converting to Hinduism, that I would lose my friend, but it just gives us another layer, another topic to discuss when we hang out.

She ended up giving me the Dreamtime Oracle deck she picked up a few ago (but I forgot it at her place). And I did a reading for her with her Toltec Oracle deck that ended up being three animals. So I just went with what I know about those animals as totems before even cracking open the guide book that goes with that deck. It was kind of nice to see how spot on I was with them.

Fantastic Friday

written: July 20

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The “In the Darkness – Wolf” sticker arrived. I bought it from Red Bubble – a medium one and holy crap, it’s some heavy duty vinyl. Seriously high quality stuff that is gonna last the ages. And it’s the perfect size for my witch’s journal. Love, love, love it.

I had my meeting with my academic advisor. And man, I’m SO glad I went. Apparently, I have another required class I have to take that I wasn’t aware of. So I know what I’ll be taking my final semester! And she showed me on our website where it find a HUGE list of libraries who have taken grad students on in the past for their practicum requirements, so I’ll be looking through that soon. And she gave me a ton of information on the End of Program exam. I’m electing to push my graduation back to the summer. That way, I can get through the after school program’s year, the final semester of classes, and whatever hours I have to finish up with the practicum before I even begin to worry about the damn End of Program exam. If I took it in the spring, it would be the first or second week of February – and that is just an insane time. Especially since Jess, my right hand man, will not be working with me at that point – she’ll be doing her student teaching at that point. And given that I only get two attempts at the End of Program exam – I can’t afford to risk it. So now I’m actually feeling pretty damn hopeful instead of stressed the fuck out. ::chuckles::

Then it was off to the post office. I mailed out my journal to Sharmila for my part of the journal swap we are doing. It’ll be a bit before my journal arrives in Bahrain and hers arrives here in Texas, but once they do, then we can get to cracking on each other’s journals. I also mailed out a package to Nicky. Her pupper likes some raw hide treats that Josey can’t have (because she tries to swallow them too soon and then ends up throwing everything up) plus a few things I’m donating her to Coven’s store. AND I also had to mail out one of the Sage Goddess oils I don’t care for. I got it in a trade and don’t care for it, and this lady offered me $20 for it, so yeah. I shipped that out as soon as her payment cleared my bank.

And now I’m just kicking it at home, hiding from the oppressive Texas heat, and relaxing.

Making an Impact

written: July 19

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The craziest things are printed on my pets’ food containers. Apparently Josey’s food is Kosher. Who knew?

Another Thursday, another new technology deployment for teachers. My after school program boss came through today. I must admit, it was a bit nice to see the shock on her face to see me, doing a fun job, and being on really good terms with all the various techs there. I know I’m being petty, but it still felt so damn good. Honestly, I’m just really burnt out on the after school program and the way it’s currently being run.

But a nice thing also happened – a parent of one of my former students, Caleigh S. (who’s one of the top 10 all-time favorite students of mine) came through and immediately recognized me. She snapped a quick photo to send to Caleigh who’s going to be a SENIOR this year. Wow! Then when Mrs. S. was done setting up her new Macbook and iPad, she came back around to called Caleigh to let me talk to her on the phone. Let me just state here….for the record….I fucking loathe talking on the phone. Hate, hate, HATE it. But I grinned and just went with it and hopefully it wasn’t too god-awful on Caleigh’s end. ::chuckles:: But it is a nice reminder that the work I do at the after school program does make an impact.

So Full of Snark

written: July 18

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Lil Miss Leviathan actually out and about and checking out her new skeleton hide!

Of course, she would do this AFTER I’ve already made and ordered her damn Hatch-day cards. This would have been so cute to include! Oh well! The cards did turn out pretty damn cute…hopefully they translate perfectly from the screen to actual cards. I’m always nervous about that. But thus far, they have always turned out great, so I’m focusing on that and trying to let go of unnecessary worry.

Yeah, so David is working late again. And I’m pissed because it’s not like his bosses are ASKING him to stay late…he is CHOOSING to, because he’s a fucking work-a-holic.

Needless to say, yeah, I’ve been chatting with Keith again. He’s a nice ego boost when I’m really needing it (like now). And he’s “safe” because, no matter how pissed off I am at David, I will not sleep with Keith. Keith seriously was The Worst ™ lay I ever had. Hell, even the guy I was dating that ended up drugging and raping me, was a better lay (up to that unfortunate occurrence) than Keith was. ::chuckles:: Besides, Keith mostly flatters me and I just give him a shit ton of snark, so it’s all good in my book.

I had a minor headache in the morning at work. I’m trying to keep track of them in my planner so that whenever I do actually have the extra money to go see a doctor, I can have some information to share with them about the specifics of my headaches. But until that mystical, magical day, I’ll just do what I can to get through the headaches and document the shit out of them.

An Apple A Day...

written: July 17

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One of 325 Apple TVs I labeled today. Just 394 left to go!

I actually had a good day today working with Mike B. He’s the tech that laid into Tommy (my campus tech) for constantly interjecting into other people’s conversations AND being a fucking Debbie Downer EVERY DAMN TIME.

There for a while it was just Mike and I in the warehouse, knocking these Apple TVs out and we actually had a really nice, long-ish conversation.

And then I’m pretty sure he was testing the waters to see if I was single. ::laughs:: We were talking about food because he’s hyper healthy right now. And he was talking about how John (one of the other Techs) had a “lady friend” to cook for him. But Mike didn’t have that, and was having to cook everything himself. There was a pause before he nonchalantly asked “So…do you like to cook?” And most of the time, I tell myself people aren’t hitting on me or flirting with me, but given how he does NOT do small talk at all…this was pretty clear. Had to break it to the guy that I’m married.

Even if I wasn’t….he reminds me so much of my father that it would just be fucking creepy. ::laughs:: Mike is tall and lean, with a lot of facial features that remind me of my dad. So yeah, that would be a big nugatory in my book.

And toss in that he’s apparently kind-of-stalking someone right now…yeah, I don’t want to invite that into my life. We can work together, but it will never go beyond that, in any realm.

Bottomed Out

written: July 16

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This is the composition notebook that I’m currently doing my NaJoWriMo (National Journal Writing Month) challenge in. I’m not paying for the prompts or following his theme, so am I actually doing NaJoWriMo? I say I am, because I’m making a conscious effort to do MORE journaling, especially by hand, this month, but that’s about all I have in common with NaJoWriMo now. I never was very good at following the herd. ::chuckles:: I do well up to a point, and then I’m off on my own adventure – the herd left in the dust.

Crushing evening depression smothered me today. It came out of left field and hit like a ton of bricks.

Doesn’t help that David has so much more on his plate at work, and thus is working even longer hours. And when he actually IS at home, he’s so exhausted, he just eats and passes out watching tv. By that point, I’ve had about 4 hours or so of downtime and am ready to socialize with my husband.

Doesn’t help that I’m all ready to start ramping up our sex life again…and he’s over there passed the fuck out. Doesn’t help that I work around a handful of really attractive men – lean, beards, tattoos, amazing smiles, funny wit, etc. And it really doesn’t help that said men seem to go out of their way to chat with me (like coming all the way over into my side of the warehouse to do nothing but talk to me). ::shakes her head::

Hubs is seriously lucky that I’m such a deeply loyal creature. So while it’s fun to fantasize…I probably would never cheat on him.

But damn it, I need some attention over here! My tubes are tied. I don’t have periods now. So I need some damn LOVING OVER HERE FUCKING STAT!

At the rate we are going…I’m going to pounce him and just have my fucking way with him…or else, I’m going to pounce one of those coworkers.

Bathing in Blood

written: July 15

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Bathe in the blood of Thine Enemies.
Sekhmet approves of this bath bomb. ::chuckles::

I decided to use one of the bath bombs given to us during Teacher Appreciation week and man, I wish I knew where they got this one. Because I would buy a metric ton of it. It was such a nice mood boost to be honest. ::chuckles::

Nona (a journaling buddy) did link a bath bomb that is specifically called Blood of Your Enemies. It’s a bit darker red than the one I had, but holy crap, batman, the shipping was just as expensive as the bath bomb itself. So of course, that just means I’ll have to figure out how many bath bombs I can buy before it brings up to the new shipping price bracket. ::chuckles:: And the place Nona suggested, makes HUGE bath bombs….like tennis ball sized WITH a charm inside every single one. Once the regular school year starts up and I’m making my regular pay again, I will definitely be picking some up.

In related news…..still no period. Hurray! Could it be that my body finally pulled its “one-in-a-million” shit in a manner that actually BENEFITED me??????? How amazing would that be? Fuck, it owes me that after how shitty it behaved post-anesthesia!

And today is Josey’s 3rd birthday. She got a HUGE beef knuckle bone. I wish I had gotten video of how her eyes dilated the fuck out when David pulled that bone out of the cabinet for her. ::laughs:: Next year, though, I want to do birthday cards for her like I do for Leviathan. But David will have to foot the bill for those as they do get pricey. ::smiles::

Witch Journal

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My journal entry about my Oracle draw I shared yesterday. This is part of my Path’s re-orientation – I’m making it a point to keep up with my Witch’s Journal. I’ve ordered a sticker of the artwork “In The Darkness Wolf” to put on the front of my journal as an incentive to continue writing. And I’ve promised myself the Medusa journal once I’ve filled this journal up.

Re-Orientate

written: July 13

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My Tarot pull for today. Man, I LOVE my Jade Oracle deck. Seriously, that deck was an impulse purchase, as I had just jumped in to support the The Last Unicorn Tarot. But man, I am SO glad I bought this deck as well. I friggin’ love it. I liken this deck to scrying. It’s cloudy in the beginning, but as soon as it snaps into focus, it is crystal clear.

I met up with Hazel at one of the local coffee shops. I got a REALLY tasty chai latte, but their prices are a bit higher than Starbucks. So I don’t think this will become my new go-to place. But it would be fun to go to a few times a month with Hazel to do our Tarot & Tea dates. ::smiles:: I’m hoping to make this a standard thing, at least for the New and Full moons, since we won’t be doing rituals anymore, with her being a Hindu. Which is fine. I realize now that I was relying too much on her for ritual anyways. I need to resume my OWN practice and stop playing in the shallow end.

I think that’s why Nicnevin (Scottish Witch Queen Fae/Goddess) has popped back up. She isn’t one to play in the shallows, or suffer fools who do. So I’m having to re-orientate myself back on my Path. Better I re-orientate before I GET re-orientated. Man, I’ve learned that one swiftly. Gets a little old getting knocked upside the head by a Deity because I’m being a knuckle head. ::chuckles::

Migraine Ramblings

written: July 12

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Finally a selfie.
Don’t hate. This was taken 14-hours into a migraine. I wasn’t feeling overly photogenic, but it turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself.

I know it’s Thursday and I’m “supposed” to do a Thankful Thursday list…but I already write a list of three things I’m grateful for every single day. And it seems to be a huge challenge to come up with another, fresh set of 10 every Thursday. I know, I should make the push to do so, because, as everyone tells me, “the attitude of gratitude” is life changing. Yeah well, I say that if I fucking hate doing it this damn much, it isn’t changing my life for the better.

Yeah, so migraine today. Wasn’t a bad one – I wasn’t overly sensitive to light or sound, and I wasn’t throwing up from the pain. It was a medium level one – it just didn’t go away. It’s been years since I’ve had one that has lingered on past the 6-hour mark. This one lasted until hour SIXTEEN. Holy hell – not fun. I did just about everything I could to make it go away, but in the end, it just took TIME.

Maybe when I graduate and I get a full time job with full time pay, I can afford to go see a doctor about my headaches. But NOW is not that time.

My insurance FINALLY passed their decision on if they were going to cover my surgery….thank god they decided that YES they would pay for it. I hadn’t even thought of the possibility that they could say no because it was an “elective” surgery. BUT, thankfully they are footing $36K of the bill, which leaves me to pay the remaining $4k. Which is WORLDS better than paying all $40k…but still takes a major chunk of my pay at this point. So yeah, I will not be seeing a specialist for my headaches anytime soon.

Brandy, my Canadian twin, mentioned magnesium supplements, so I’m going to try that out. She also recommended a combo of feverfew and ginger supplements as well. I’m not sure I can swing all of those right now, so I’ll start with the magnesium for now and add the others as each paycheck rolls around.

Like a Boss

written: July 11

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A Josey doughnut! Gods, my dog is so damn cute during my lunch break. Makes me really not want to go back to work.

Tommy completely and utterly bitched out today. He ended up wrapping his wrist in an ace bandage and showing it off to anyone and everyone who even glanced in his direction. We finished up the laptops this morning and then moved on to computer monitors. They aren’t heavy, but they are bulky. He was moving so slowly in getting the tags stuck to the monitors, that I stepped in and started helping out. This little BITCH BOY steps back and just watches me do his damn job. He says “Wow, you are so much faster than I am at this”. Like are you fucking kidding me? I turned around and snapped at him, “Well, you know what makes it go faster? If TWO people are working on it. So just because you suck at it, doesn’t mean you aren’t going to still do the work.” He opted to go to lunch at that point.

I was angry for a while, but found a different perspective. This is my time to shine. I don’t need any stinking males to help me out with my job. I can do this job on my own. I can unpack the pallets. I can open, scan, tag, and rebox these monitors. And I can move them to a new pallet. All on my own. Like a motherfucking BOSS.

Tower of Babel

written: July 10

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I know. Today’s supposed to be my selfie day, but Josey just looked too damn adorable, curled up in my recliner, during my lunch break today. Eh, I’ll get my monthly selfie done sooner or later. ::chuckles::

MAN, this morning was INSANE at work. I walk in, 15 minutes early, haven’t even opened my Frappuccino and I’m getting bombarded by a thousand questions at a mile a minute from about 20 Techs. I ain’t even clocked in YET and they are all up in my “territory”, all chattering at once. I set my stuff down, go clock in, and come back to attempt to sort out why the fuck they are here. ::laughs:: Turns out they’ve come for my laptops. East and Central Zone pick theirs up and leave within an hour.

But then West Zone shows up. Oh my lord. I have never experienced a more nasty, negative, RUDE group of people. Wendy, bless her heart, was trying to direct them, and man they challenged her every step of the way. I ended up retreating to the back with Roni and telling her about it. And then Sandy joined us and heard about it. And then Wendy came to the back to get Sandy to come back her up on this stuff.

Well apparently people LISTEN to me and take my words to heart, because when I came back from lunch, the West Zone Leader had apparently read his group the riot act on what IS and IS NOT acceptable behavior. He then came and personally apologized to me for how rude his group was. I thanked him but said they weren’t directly rude to me, but they were grossly disrespectful, in my opinion, to Wendy. He thanked me for letting him know and told me if his people even looked at me sideways, to please let him know immediately. ::chuckles::

After that, work was a BREEZE. ::chuckles:: Everyone was working hard. Well, except Tommy. His wrist hurts. And because he’s a creepy lil shit, every time he moved a box, after he set it down, he had to make eye contact with me, wince, and rub his wrist. We did about 400 laptops, and he did this EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Man, I couldn’t wait for 4:30 to roll around so I could get the hell up out of there.

Creepers

written: July 9

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Cute unicorn card from Laura W. (a pen pal). I really needed the cute pick-me-up for today. AND it reminds me that I have a handful of pen pal letters than I need to reply to soon! ::chuckles::

Tommy is getting extra creepy again at work. He practically stalks me during the school year because we both work on the same campus (him in Technology and me in the After School Program). It’s so bad that during the school year, my older students will warn me when he’s coming down the hallway so I can friggin’ HIDE from him. Seriously, if I didn’t have to work with him (and thus be professional) and need his help from time to time with our technology, I would verbally blast him out of the damn water. But then again, single-white-males tend to have a higher rate of violent outbursts and the last thing I need is him going psycho and attacking me. But I think I will make it a point to simply be extra blunt with him during the school year – that I do NOT have the time/energy to entertain him AND run my program. And given that the program is my JOB, he needs to seek entertainment elsewhere.

Man, I’m so ready to finish my final two semesters in my Master’s program, kick the shit out of the End of Term exams, graduate, and get the hell away from the school district. I’m not naïve enough to think that will end my encounters with creepy males, but at least I will not be dealing with THIS particular one.

Bones & Burgers

written: July 8

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New “skeleton” hide I picked up for Leviathan at Petsmart today. I suspect the main reason she stays in her rock hide is because she feels too exposed in the rest of the tank. So I picked this up for about $20 and will see if she starts to feel more comfortable in the rest of her tank. If nothing else, at least her tank doesn’t look so bare.

I checked Alfred’s nest today (the cottontail rabbit) and thankfully there are no babies in the nest. So David opted to fill it in with dirt in hopes that Alfred will choose a SAFER place to build a bunny nest instead of in the middle of Josey’s yard. Josey would have readily killed any bunny she could get her paws on. The hunting instinct is so strong on her. Only Delilah (a husky mix) I had back in high school had a stronger hunting instinct. Man, Delilah was gorgeous. I even had my senior photos taken with her. I should see if I could find those photos and digitize them.

We tried out a new burger place today – Burger Rim. Tasty, but TINY burgers. They are slightly bigger than a slider but smaller than a standard burger. But I enjoyed it and would love to go back. And given how I’m typically NOT a fan of burgers, that is high praises for them. David liked it, but was disappointed with the burger size. But he’s also said he’d like to go back as well. ::smiles::

A Zoo

written: July 7

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Alfred has made a damn nest in JOSEY’S yard. Like how dumb are you lil bunny? Josey LOVES chasing Alfred any chance she gets. ::chuckles:: I don’t know if there are babies in the nest yet, but we are covering the nest with a basket anytime we let Josey out, just in case. I’ll probably check tomorrow to see if there are babies, just so we can start counting down to when they are old enough to leave the nest, so we won’t have to cover it for bunny safety.

We had a second puppers show up today – at the front gate this time. It was an adorable little male Schnauzer named Buster. And he lives a few houses up from us on the same street. I was able to call his owners and they came and got him pretty quickly. Not sure why all these critters are showing up all of a sudden.

THEN I had a pair of the resident Crows sitting in the mulberry tree, making a unique vocalization that I can only describe as giggling. Weirdest damn noise I’ve ever heard out of the Crows. Almost feels like a deity or spirit is trying to get my attention. Kind of makes sense that it is using real animals, given that the wards I put in place about a year ago, keep all deities and/or spirits out of my home unless they are specifically invited by name. Honestly, I did that more to keep the damn Fae out of my life, and the spook I was having issues with…but it seems to be doing its job very well, so no complaints from me!

I really do need to see if I can verify that each rail road spike is still in place. Would be world’s easier if I had a metal detector! ::chuckles:: Mostly, it’s just the two spikes in the front yard that I’m wary of hunting for. Can’t weird the neighborhood out too much. ::cackles::

Lavender

written: July 6

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Dried lavender sent to me by Nola (a member of the Pagan pen pal group). She kindly offered to the group that her lavender plant was ready to harvest and that she would be happy to mail some out to the first 10 people who requested it. I was person #10 on the list! Woohoo! I definitely want to make some dream pillows and maybe a bath salt with the massive bundle of lavender she sent me. And now, I really, really, REALLY want to grow my own! ::chuckles:: Maybe I can get my butt in gear and try it out this summer. Or at least, next year for sure!

My lily plants are dying back, as they should. I would love to get a raised planter bed built in the backyard, specifically for them and the daffodils, but that’s a project that will just have to wait until the worst of the heat is gone. So maybe in October? Or November? Oooh, I might be able to talk the Husband into doing it for me for my birthday. ::grins::

Leviathan shed today. And again, I was so busy, I didn’t even notice she had gone blue. At least it was a complete shed. I need to do some work on her tank. It’s so large (like double the size of her original tank), that her décor is completely dwarfed. And I think the reason she stays mostly curled up in her hide is because she feels too exposed in the rest of the tank and thus doesn’t feel safe. So I need to get some more stuff in there to give her a bit more security, so she’s able to better utilize the entire tank as she wishes.

As we were headed out for a late night ice cream run to Sonic, we found a little puppers in the alleyway. She came right up to me and let me pick her up no problem. Her name is Sweetness and I started calling the numbers of her ID tag. Seriously, people should also put their damn address on the tags, but hey, that’s just my personal opinion. So we’re just hanging out with this sweet lil puppers until her owner comes to get her. They live directly behind us, across the alleyway (though, NOT the assholes that constantly mow down the daylilies). It was nice to reunite the pupper with her owners and then go on to get our Sonic Blasts (peanut butter cups for David, and M&Ms for me).

Crepe Myrtle

written: July 5

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Looks like the crepe myrtle is gearing up for another blooming. Love those brilliant red blossoms against the dark green, almost black, foliage. I kind of wish we had purchased two more, one for each corner that of side of the yard. Then we would have three along that fence-line between us and the neighbors with the asshole dogs, and the bright as shit porch lights that shine in our eyes at night. ::chuckles:: Oh well.

I do hope to harvest some seeds from the crepe myrtle. This is the one that David planted in the memory of Holly (Ole Lady Dog) when she passed. And he mentioned a while back how bad it will suck if we move, and have to leave that crepe myrtle behind. So I figured if I could harvest some seeds from this myrtle, while it wouldn’t be THE tree we planted, at least it’s part of that tree.

4th of July

written: July 4

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Cicada shed.

Happy 4th of July. We don’t really celebrate it all that much. We don’t do the firecrackers, and we don’t go watch the city set theirs off – which they did yesterday. And we don’t have a grill or a pool, so how un-American! ::laughs::

I was reminded today just how perfect my husband is for me. ::chuckles::

We did a late lunch at Texas Roadhouse. Hubs got ribs and chicken strips and I got the huge chicken fried chicken. As we were driving back, my husband had his window cracked because he was smoking. And we were talking and joking and he said something about being stuffed with “cock meat” (which is our way of saying chicken, because we are completely juvenile). Well, apparently the guy in the pickup beside us had his window down and HEARD it. And that guy promptly rolled his window up. We died laughing and Hubs said, “Yeah, bet he’s one of those ‘real men’ who can’t handle a bit of cock meat and is scared of gays”. And we giggled the whole way home.

I love that my husband has the same sense of humor I do. And I love that he doesn’t get embarrassed about it, even if he says something that another person assumes is homosexual. ::chuckles:: And I love that he recognizes that for what it is, and just laughs it off.

Polar Bear Dog

written: July 3

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Here we have an exhausted pit bull. Very rare. ::chuckles:: We played “red dot” (the red laser pointer) game out in the yard for a while. She should sleep for at LEAST 20 minutes. ::laughs::

And we swear she’s getting more and more black freckles. Like her front legs are significantly more black that we remember. We joke that soon we’ll have a black dog with white spots, or that she’s turning into a polar bear (polar bears have black skin).

Work today was SO MUCH BETTER. Still working on the Dell laptops (I think they said there are 3,000 total that we need to get done), but this time around, I had an entire crew to help me out. So Tech Mike (who looks so much like my dad, it’s almost creepy) was in charge of opening up the pallets, opening the boxes up (the people packaging these laptops LOVE tape), and bringing the boxes to me. I just scan them into the system, assign them a Tag number, and then pass them on to a crew of four. That crew then puts the tags ON the actual laptops and then passes them to a crew of six to eight who set them all set up and ready to go to the campuses.

Still a repetitively physical job, but WORLDS better than yesterday. And then after lunch, I had to man the back while Sandy (boss-lady) and Roni (assistant-boss-lady) received a huge shipment – we’re talking 25 pallets of electronics. It was nice to just chill in the back. I spent more time SITTING DOWN (amazing!), and could properly stretch my back out. I barely hurt by the time I got home.

AND, we don’t work tomorrow (4th of July), or Thursday…and we still don’t work Fridays….so I have a FIVE DAY WEEKEND! Woohoo! I ain’t gonna do shit! ::laughs:: David only gets the 4th off, so I’m sure we’ll lounge around and be bums that day.

I do need to clean Leviathan’s tank and get some new photos of her. I need to get cracking on her upcoming Hatchday cards – she turns 12 in September. ::smiles:: I’ve posted on FB asking for people to comment on that post if they are interested in receiving this year’s Hatchday card. The same goes for here – just leave a comment saying so. ::smiles::

Death of a Thousand Cuts

written: July 2

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My poor arm. The death of a thousand cuts. ::chuckles:: Luckily most of these are just welts.

At work today, I worked on the Dell laptops instead of the Macbooks. But holy crap, it was crazy physical. On my lunch break, I laid down on the living room floor to stretch out my back and shoulders – I thought I was going to die. It was so painful. And of course, Josey just KNEW I was down there to play with her. I am so deeply grateful she didn’t get zoomies because there’s no way I could have gotten up off the floor before she creamed me two or three times.

Man, by the end of the day, I was dying. My shoulders, back, arms, knees, and feet were hurting so bad. I finally busted out the heating pad my mom bought me and strapped it to my back. I should have done that in the beginning! ::laughs::

NaJoWriMo

written: July 1

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The beginnings of a cottontail rabbit wallow in the side yard. I don’t understand why Alfred wants his wallow there, where Josey gleefully chases him anytime he shows up. He has the backyard, which is Josey free. ::shrugs:: I don’t understand bunny logic.

So I changed the settings on my FB posts now to keep them hidden from Paula. While I wish I could set ALL of my posts (including past-posts) to keep her out, but I think she would notice that. ::chuckles:: So this is the next best thing. It shouldn’t tip her off, but also keep her out of my business. And when I look through the memories section of my FB, I see she’s been making random, off-hand comments for a while now. Guess it just had to cumulate before I could recognize it. But, limiting what she can see and how she can interact with me has already lifted quite the weight off my shoulders.

July is a new round of the National Journal Writing Month challenge. This round, I’ve decided to go back to handwriting a journal. I picked up a composition notebook for this challenge. I went, hoping to pick up a new planner, but they didn’t have the one I wanted and I’m being super picky on this shit for some reason. But then, I couldn’t just leave the store without buying anything, so I picked up a composition notebook. Weird how my anxiety will show itself sometimes. ::chuckles::