Doing the Work

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Well the crepe myrtle has really taken off with blooming.
Is it crepe? Or crape?

I did some more painting on the little buck I have for my god art piece. Now I just need to figure out how I wanted to do the bead dangles. I also got two more assignments done for my mound of Coven homework. Seems me and the High Priestess have very similar opinions on things. ::chuckles:: Should prove to be interesting, if I stick around. Seriously though, if they keep Sara on much longer and she doesn’t make any improvements, I’m out. As much as I like this Coven, I have zero tolerance for drama queens and energy vampires. I’ve been on my own most of this Path anyways. It doesn’t bother me to resume being a solitary.

I got two replies written to pen pals and another intro going out tomorrow. I’ll drop those off at the post office on my way to Coven Class. Hopefully I can get a few more written tomorrow. Though the god art piece takes precedent for sure.

Friday

written:  June 28

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I received this lovely card from family down south. And by “south” I mean Australia. ::chuckles:: It is a lovely card, congratulating me on getting my Master’s degree and cheering me on for the next step in my life.

Just sucks that I am STILL here, waiting to hear if I passed the End of Program exam. Every time the anxiety rears up to worry about anything, I just tell it that the reason I have not heard anything yet is because my essays were SO DAMN AMAZING the board wants ALL of the professors to read them. ::chuckles:: It shuts the anxiety up for a bit. So I just keep on doing it.

I have decided to go a different route with the god art piece. The antler art piece I wanted to do is just going to require a LOT more time and effort than I currently have, so that is getting pushed back. I will complete it at some point, just not right now. I picked up a wood cutting of a buck at Hobby Lobby today. I plan to paint it, and do some sort of bead dangle thing from it. It will be a smaller piece, but should turn out quite nice with a FRACTION of the work. Which is good, because I have to do a show-n-tell on SUNDAY of both the goddess and god art work. ::chuckles::

Man, I put the PRO in procrastinator in ALL levels of my life.

In other news, Esmeralda (my supervisor at the after school program) FINALLY got back to me about the binder idea I pitched back in mid-May. She wanted to know if Jess (my amazing aide) and I would be willing to work on that this summer. So I text Jess, but she is busy with all the exams she has to pass for her teaching certificate. So I text Emily H. (amazing sub we get), to see if she would be interested, but she is busy with house things all summer. So it looks like I will be on my own. Not that I truly mind, to be honest, but I figured those two would have great input that would be valuable. ::shrugs:: AND Esmeralda also emailed me about the documentation class I usually do during Orientation. So I need to figure out when I will be working on those two topics now (documentation and the binder). Hopefully, they are open on Fridays, so I can just go in and get some extra hours – the Tech Job doesn’t work Fridays.

And with as pitiful as this paycheck was, I need all the extra hours I can get! I mean, I knew it would take a hit due to me taking a week off to do the End of Program exam…but DAMN. This really hurt. Thank goodness I have a savings account or I would be seriously screwed right now. All the more reason to get a library job as soon as I know I’ve passed.

A Good Day

written:  June 27

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Cute little wolf postcard from Latvia I received today via Postcrossing. Since I’ve gotten into the pen palling, I haven’t been doing as much Postcrossing.

I did get 3 pieces of Coven homework completed and turned in today! Woohoo! I’m slowly but surely chipping away at that mound. I still have like 5 million pieces to do, but hey, I got THREE done today! ::laughs:: I do need to run out and print the articles for this coming class at some point though.

Work was pretty good today. We finished up the last of the current shipment of iPads. I had 45 minutes to kill at work with nothing to do. ::smiles:: Just sat around and shot the shit with my coworkers there. It’s so nice.

$1

written:  June 26

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Best $1 ever spent….and it wasn’t even MY DOLLAR! Woohoo!

Ruben (Tech Boss-ish) paid everyone’s dollar for the 4th of July potluck the district was doing. And this is what I got. I got a hamburger (soooooo good), strawberries, baked beans, bbq chips, a Sprite, and COOKIES. I was soooo damn full for the rest of the day! ::laughs:: So tasty. So now, of course, I want to find a way to thank him, because he certainly didn’t have to do that.

I was fighting a headache ALL MORNING and almost didn’t even go to the potluck. And honestly, other than one point of borderline panic due to EVERYONE BEING SO DAMN CLOSE TO ME, it was a pretty enjoyable time. So while my anxiety has gotten better, large crowds of closely packed people still make me want to crawl out of my skin. But I breathed through it and got some delicious food, so it was worth it in the end.

Still no word on the bear skull and claw set. I’m beginning to lose hope. But I’m also super stubborn, so I haven’t completely lost hope. Yet. Please, please, please. All that is Holy, please let me get this.

Coffee

written: June 25

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Today can go jump in a damn river for all I care.
I’ve been battling a headache all damn day. And I thought we were out of coffee and so was bracing myself to have to do a Wal-Mart trip WITH said headache.
Thank god I mentioned something about it to David, and he piped up there was a box of pods in the laundry area.
An unopened box of 96 pods. THAT I BOUGHT LAST WEEK.

Like, seriously? FML right now.
::sets today on fire and nurses her cup of coffee and prays the fucking headache goes away::

Waiting

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Josey-pup, patiently waiting for David to come home. I seriously LOVE how this photo turned out. I may have to get it printed and hang it up somewhere.

Mom text me this morning to let me know that Dudley is home! Yay! He has some medicine he has to take for the next few days, but they expect he’ll make a full recovery from Parvo. Thank goodness!

Jennifer (one of the ladies I work with at the Tech Job) – her son killed a bear and she was talking about it because he’s getting it processed and she was asking if you could even eat bear. Well…that got me to thinking….if he’s not going to keep the skull and claws…maybe I could get him to get them professionally cleaned and sent to me. So I approached Jennifer and told her “Hey, I’ve got a slightly weird request” and proceeded to ask her to ask her son if he’d be willing to part with the skull and claws. I would pay to have them professionally cleaned and then mailed to me, if he would be willing to do that. So I’ve got every appendage that you can cross CROSSED and am hoping and praying and wishing that this bear skull and claw set come to me (for a reasonable price). I’ve even said a prayer to the bear spirit, letting it know that I would be honored to have its skull and claws and that it would be used in a manner to honor it. So hopefully!!!!!

Rethinking Goals

written:  June 23

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The crape myrtle David planted in Holly-dog’s memory is FINALLY blooming. It’s super late this year in blooming. But then again, I swear it’s grown a TON. I’ll need to do some research soon on when and how to properly prune a crape myrtle, as I think it’s finally getting to that point. I’ll also need to do the same for the rose bush. She’s going crazy and had a big growth spurt as well. All the rain has make the bulk of my plants happy.

The spinach and green onions have pretty much died off. Apparently spinach requires a lot of tending, which I didn’t know and thus didn’t do. Maybe next year! ::chuckles::

Long drive home, but it’s good to be home. We did dinner at the Cracker Barrel and then picked up Josey-pup from Doggy Camp. ::smiles:: She was so happy to be home.

I’m setting up my new BaBuJo (my Bastardized Bullet Journal) – finally get to start a new journal for that. But I got to looking at the goals I had made on my birthday to be accomplished by November 10th of this year…and yeah. I’m feeling pretty damn uninspired. Quite a few of them, unless I won the lottery tomorrow, there’s no way I can accomplish them this year. And nothing is worse than a list of goals that just make you feel shitty. So I’m scrapping them and will come up with a short list of goals to hopefully accomplish by my birthday.

And honestly, while I like the concept behind my birthday goals (I make 1 goal for every year old I am; so 37 years old = 37 goals). But I rarely accomplish more than HALF. ::chuckles:: So I’m thinking of cutting it back and making like 10 goals or less. A couple of crazy ones that really push me to achieve them, and then the rest to be reasonably achievable. ::chuckles:: So now, I just need to come up with some new goals. I want to write those in the front of the BaBuJo, before I set up for July. So I kind of need to get cracking on that.

Reunion

written:  June 22

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The basil plant is blooming. I know, I should cut the blossoms off because if I don’t, it effects the flavor of the basil. But seeing as how we don’t cook with the basil, that doesn’t matter. So the flowers stay. This basil plant is part of a money/prosperity spell my husband did when we moved into the house. And this basil plant has reseeded itself EVERY YEAR. So yeah, we just leave him be, and let him do his thing. ::smiles:: Though, I do plan to harvest and dry some of the leaves to use in future money/prosperity spells. I figure they will be extra potent.

So yeah, up super early to drop Josey pup off at Doggy Camp at 8 am. And we were on the road, headed to S.A. for the family reunion. I was seriously looking forward to playing with my Mom’s new (and too stinking CUTE) pug puppy, Dudley. But she called at 8:30 am to let me know she was taking him to the vet because she was pretty sure he had Parvo. I hope the lil puppers is ok. She lost Winston not too long ago (her great protector pug), and I don’t think she could handle losing Dudley as well.

So yeah, today was the Family Reunion. It honestly was pretty good. I just can’t believe I didn’t take any photos! Like, what the hell, Wolfie?! I know Angie G. got at least one photo of David and I, so hopefully she’ll share that with us soon.

Solstice Things

written:  June 21

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My Solstice tarot reading for today’s Summer Solstice. I used my beloved Spirit Animal Oracle. I friggin’ ADORE this deck so much. And the messages it gave me were much needed and much appreciated.

So the plumb came by today to look at the outside faucet. ::sighs:: Of course it isn’t going to be quick and easy fix, because nothing is EVERY quick and easy with this fucking house. The outside faucet is soldered on and is quite possibly the original faucet for the damn house. ::sighs:: So they need to cut a hole, un-solder the current faucet, solder on a male/female socket, and then screw on a new faucet. Then fix the hole somewhat. All to the tune of about $700. ::grumbles:: David is, of course, SUPER grumpy about that. I mean, he did just shit $1,100 on Wednesday to get the oven installed. I figure I’ll pay for this (since he’s footed the bill for everything else already).

So, I did a bit of research and decided to bury the cardinal wing in a TON of salt. That should dry it out completely in a few weeks and then I can figure out what I’m going to do with it. I’m thinking of adding it to my Ancestor Altar (that I’m in the process of making) – it would go on Pop’s side of the section. I’ll have to make sure to have plenty of room between the feathers and anything for my grandmother, as she HATED feathers. ::chuckles::

I also went ahead and FINALLY put the rose petals into a jar and covered them with witch hazel to begin making the rose infused witch hazel. I mean, it’s not like it’s hard or anything. I just haven’t had a quiet moment to myself for a while now to actually DO it. So, that’s steeping in my closet currently – it needs to be in a cool, dark place. I will strain out the rose petals in a week and probably add more rose petals, just to boost the infusion. And then I’m going to use it as a toner on my face. Wish me luck!

Cardinal

written:  June 20

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My Mom sends me the coolest stuff. ::laughs:: She did also include partial wings, but given that they still have some flesh attached, I figured most people would not be interested in seeing that. Sad that one of the neighborhood cats got a cardinal, but she thought I would like the feathers. I will need to dry out the wings (probably use salt to help dehydrate the flesh). Luckily there isn’t a lot of flesh still attached, so it shouldn’t be too big of an undertaking.

Ah, finally a day with no one at the house! It was so nice to come home at lunch and have the place to myself. Don’t get me wrong. I adore my husband. And I am happy to have the new stove put in and the AC checkup. But still…I am grateful for a quiet house. Plus, tomorrow, we have a guy coming to replace the outside faucet. Yay. ::deep breath:: But after that, we should be done for a little while on home repairs and whatnot.

FINALLY

written: June 19

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After almost a MONTH of it sitting in our living room, we FINALLY got our new stove installed. Granted, our old stove was built IN to the house…along with being hardwired. ::sighs:: Plus, the old stove was 29.5 inches….while all standard stoves are 30 inches. So yeah, it was a major ordeal, but it’s all done and now I have a NICE, working stove. Hurray!

Not pictured, but we also got the back porch light switched out with the nice one that Liz gave us back when we MOVED in. ::laughs:: It just took us 3 years, but we finally got it done. I should take a photo of it and send it to Liz, thanking her for it. ::chuckles::

David is grumpy as hell today. I just keep going outside to smoke when he starts getting pissy. I just can’t handle it right now, and, to me, he’s getting all worked up over little shit. Like not being able to turn off the subtitles when we are watching Vudu. Like, getting SERIOUSLY bent out of shape over it. I fucking regret ever making the comment about them. ::shakes her head::

Normal

written:  June 18

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Shit! Second day in a row that I damn near forgot to take a photo!
So yeah, I did end up picking up the locket from Hobby Lobby once I turned in my End of Program exams. Now, I just have to figure out what I’m going to create with it.

David was home all day due to us getting our yearly A/C check-up. It passed! Hurray! Now if only I could get the same for the End of Program exam essays already!!!!!!

I am really craving a change with my hair. Like, SERIOUSLY want to shave it – either a side shave or a mohawk shave. Or to do some fun colors, like my beloved blue again. But I can’t do that because I’ll be job hunting soon and should look “professional” for that. ::sighs:: But once I land the job and figure out how much wiggle room is in the dress code, you bet your ass I’m going to do SOMETHING fun and crazy. I’ve been normal for too long.

My rosebush is going crazy again with the blooms. Trimming a few of them off really helped curb the balling it was doing beforehand. So I’ll have to keep an eye on that in the future as well. It has more than enough blooms now for me to easily do the Rose Infused Witch Hazel, and still have plenty left on the bush to look pretty. So hopefully, I can do that Friday (when I’m not working at the Tech Job because we don’t work Fridays during the summer!).

Guilty

written:  June 17

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I damn near forgot to take a photo today. Like this selfie is of me, right as I was about to nod off to sleep when I realized, SHIT – I haven’t taken a photo today! ::laughs:: Yeah, so that’s how I art sometimes! ::laughs::

I don’t know where the day went. I mean, yeah, I worked at the Tech Job which is 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. And my husband doesn’t get home until 8 pm. And then I usually head to bed around 9:30 pm. But yeah…no clue what happened in all that time. ::laughs::

Ok, so I did get sucked into watching the Scared compilations on YouTube. Seriously, I will lose HOURS of my life watching those and cracking up.

Ah, I remember now. I took Josey for a walk around 6 pm. The neighbors down the street were fighting in the front yard – I think they are siblings. And mom was out there cheering them on, telling them to whoop each other’s ass.

Honestly, I was surprised at how that brought on a TON of anxiety. Like, almost PTSD stuff. My anxiety went through the roof, but I didn’t recognize it until after I had finished the walk and returned home. The super shitty part was that they had their little mop of a dog out (off leash, because it’s never ON leash), and Josey-pup does this thing when she sees another dog. She hunkers down completely and refuses to go anywhere. David says it’s because she wants to play. I know better. This is a hunting stance. Granted, even when the dogs do come up to us, Josey doesn’t attack or bite or any of that. But it’s a hunting stance for damn sure. And I’m pretty positive that if she wasn’t on leash and we weren’t standing right there, she’d have a go at the dogs.

But anyways, so Josey keeps hunkering down and I’m just trying to get HOME at this point. And the neighbors are still fighting in the front yard and no one is paying any damn attention to the dog. So I’m just pulling and pulling and dragging Josey, just trying to get HOME. Because of my pulling, she has a small scrape on her leg and lemme tell you. I feel like complete SHIT over this.

But I’m utterly LIVID at the neighbors now for creating this whole situation. The fist fight in the front goddamn yard that triggered me. Me, having not had any issues like this in a LONG time, not recognizing my spiraling mental health in the situation. Then their fuck ass mutt never being on a goddamn leash. Josey wanting to hunt and eat the damn thing and is not paying me any attention. So I have to drag her 50-pound ass halfway down the street to home before she starts walking on her own. And me realizing I scraped her leg. So yeah, I sure as shit reported their dog as a stray and I sure as shit called the cops on the two fighting in the front yard. And you can kiss my ass if you think I feel one BIT bad about doing that.

Now, if only I could stop feeling so damn guilty about the little scrape on Josey-pup…

Moon Piece

written:  June 16

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My goddess representation artwork is complete. Honestly, I am pretty damn pleased with how it turned out. It’s about 5 feet long and is the moon phases across the top of my altar. I do plan to add various little charms and whatnot to the links between the phases, like the little key charm I have from our Hecate full moon ritual (that’s on my journal currently). And there are two charms that I had in a dream that defeat evil, so I want to get those and add them as well.

Close up shot:



We were supposed to show these at class today – and I was supposed to invoke the goddess Gaia for our ritual…but that all got cancelled as we had a pretty good storm blow through. And the last storm we got hit with knocked the electricity out at the High Priestess’s house for a few days, along with spawning tornadic activity, so she didn’t want to risk it.

Meant I had the time and no excuses to do some cleaning up in my room. ::chuckles:: Leviathan shed, so I cleaned that out, along with poops. And then I fed her. Then I set up my little personal A/C unit we picked up a while back, so hopefully I can test it out soon. And then I folded and put away all the laundry AND vacuumed my room. Go me! After that, I chilled, listened to Poe, cuddled with Josey, and dicked around on Sandbox coloring app, and enjoyed the storm. All in all, a good evening.

Limbo

written:  June 15

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David has named this table the “Boner Table” due to the curvature of the wood. ::laughs:: We are total juvenile in our humor and have been cracking up about it all day.

David painted the antler slices for me. And the really cool thing is that he had to wait until almost night-time for the wind to finally die down enough that he could spray paint them. So the antler slices got to bask in the light of the almost-full moon for some extra energy. ::smiles::

I will have to wait until tomorrow to remove the tape and see how it all turned out. Which I know, I will be chomping at the bit, because I have like zero patience. ::laughs:: And I REALLY want to put this all together and see how it turns out. Plus, I do need to take it (completed) to ritual and class tomorrow, as we’re supposed to do a show-n-tell of our Goddess Representation art pieces.

Which, I still have NOT done my Gaia invocation. ::laughs:: I really need to get on that. Plus, all the other Coven work I haven’t touched.

Man, I dunno where my motivation has gone, but I hope it comes back soon! It’s like I’m just sitting here in limbo, waiting to hear back on my End of Program exam essays. Until I hear back, it’s like I can’t move forward in any way. And it may be WEEKS before I hear back, so I’ve gotta push myself out of this limbo.

Medusa

written:  June 14

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A beautiful copper Medusa coin I bought on eBay arrived today. And apparently I bid on a silver version of the same coin, but forgot about doing it? ::shrugs:: Anyways, I got notification I won that bid, so I have a silver version coming soon. ::laughs:: Luckily the copper coin was only about $5 and the silver one was less than $2, so at least my impulse purchases were cheap! I do plan to pick up some jewelry things to make both coins into necklaces. I was already planning to get one for the Mercury dime, to attach it to the Red Fast Luck oil bottle, so I’ll pick up two more that are the right size for these coins. The copper one will be hung on my altar in Medusa’s honor. The silver one, I’ll wear when I feel I need a little extra protection.

Man, just turning in the End of Program exam essays yesterday and not having those looming over me has lifted a massive weight off my shoulders. I am calm and relaxed and just loving life again. ::chuckles::

DONE

written:  June 13

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My cute, sleepy Josey-pup, supervising me turning in my EoP exam.

I am DONE. I finished up my final essays and submitted them for my End of Program exam. And I went ahead and did my End of Program survey as well. So now….we wait.

I don’t know whether to be excited, relieved, or panicked right now. Kind of want to throw up actually. ::chuckles:: I’m sure that’s just the nerves talking.

Now, I should get to work on the Coven homework. ::chuckles:: Or at least work on the goddess invocation for Gaia, as I will be the one invoking her on Sunday for our Litha ritual.

But for right now, I am just kicking back and breathing a sigh of relief. Incense offerings will be made to the deities, spirits, and ancestors who helped me out. I do have plans now to set up a small altar for some very specific ancestors who came forward to help me during all of this. Need to pick up incense specially for them as well – coffee and peppermint.

Witchery

written:  June 12

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I spent some of my downtime today taping up the moose antlers. David will paint them this weekend for me. If you can’t tell, they will be painted with the moon phases. What is white right now will be painted black. And what is blue (painter’s tape) now will be white. It really took WAY too much time to wrap my head around that and to get the tape put on correctly. ::laughs:: But I’m hoping it turns out at least as half as good in person as I’m visualizing at the moment. David was kind enough to drill them yesterday so we could screw the eyelets in. And it’s a good thing I bought another set of eyelets. Quite a few of them broke! I hadn’t factored in the hardness of the antlers to the equation. Oops! ::laughs:: Oh well, we got it done eventually.

What else to report about? I picked up a few more mini-pine cones on the walk with Josey-pup today. I even found two that were maybe HALF as large as the one I photographed yesterday. They will be perfect to use in spell bottles as these teeny tiny pine cones will actually FIT inside the bottles. ::laughs::

I ventured out to Hobby Lobby because the notepad I write my pen pals on is getting low. I also picked up some sealing wax – I didn’t even know they carried it until I randomly stumbled across it. So woohoo for that! And I found this cool locket:



I didn’t buy it…yet….but I plan to in the future. It will be perfect to make into a spell locket. This photo that was posted on FB a few days ago is serving as major inspiration:



It was created by the Poisoner’s Apothecary. Here’s what they wrote about this amulet:
“This apotropaic Charm intended for supreme protection and personal fortification. It contains Mandrake root for potency and chthonic power, Belladonna Berry the Devil’s herb, Henbane flower to soothe the living and feed the spirit, Devil’s Shoestring for protection, Crow claw and snake skin/vertebrae spirit familiars, an antique nail for defense, labradorite to seal the aura, and Dragons Blood to potentiate.” 

I certainly have plenty of snake skin around thanks to Leviathan that I could possibly use in it. But beyond that, I don’t have any real plans as to what I would use it for.

And I picked up a jar so I can try my hand at making Rose Infused Witch Hazel soon. My rosebush is doing quite nicely so I should have enough rose petals later on to make a batch.

Other than that, my day is just dominated by the blasted End of Program Exam essays. I have the rough drafts all written and printed out. So starting tomorrow, I will polish and edit and edit and polish and try NOT to go completely insane before turning them in.

I have been practicing ZERO self-restraint with my vices this week. I am pretty sure, I’m running 100% on coffee, nicotine, and chocolate at this point. Man, when this week is over and I have to go back to work, that detox is gonna SUCK. But for now, it’s fueling me and it’s full steam ahead!

Onwards

written: June 11

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Cute coffee based mail art on a letter from Erin O.

I did finally receive my smoky quartz from Sage Goddess (they sent me the wrong package last time). Gorgeous stone as always. They also sent me a bottle of their Anointing Oil, I think, to say sorry for that fuck up and the broken Green Epidote pendant I ordered a while back. It is not the same oil as what’s in the Original Anointing oil I have, but it’s a really nice gesture on their part. I will use it.

Forgot to mention that my arrowheads and green seed beads also came in. The arrowheads were a bit smaller than I anticipated, but it’s actually a good thing. It will work out better for my god representation art piece in the end. And that’s also what the green seed beads are for as well. Oh, and I’ve finally decided which antler to use – a nice 6-point rack that I had originally used as a jungle gym for Leviathan. But seeing as how she wasn’t all that interested in it, I removed it from her tank a while back. So I’ll hang the seed beads and green arrowhead from it. I still need to figure out if I’m going to use leaf beads at the end of the dangles or bells? Or maybe both? Shit if I know. Luckily, that art piece isn’t due until the end of the month.

I emailed Shakti to ask what goddess she was planning our Litha ritual around. I’m the one that will be writing and performing the goddess invocation for that ritual for the Coven. Just waiting to hear back so I can start working on that as well. All in all, I actually am looking forward to ritual. Even if Sara is there, I’m confident in the Coven to sort that situation out soon. Which, most likely, after the Litha ritual, I will tell the High Priestess I’m ready to dedicate to the Path. Sounds kind of silly actually, given that I’ve been walking the Pagan Path for the last 22 years…but it’s something the Coven requires before you can even consider dedicating to the Coven itself. So yeah, I’ll do it and progress onwards.

Rough Draft

written:  June 10

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Teeny tiny, itty bitty pine cone I found today on my walk with Josey. I guess that’s one good thing the storm did for us from yesterday. Honestly, I was expecting more downed limbs and trees, given how explosive the winds were.

It was so nice to get to sleep in until 9 am (instead of having to be at the Tech Job at 7:30). Now to begin working on these End of Program exam essays.

I did venture out to the post office to mail Leida’s journal to Sharmila…again. I upgraded the shipping, so it should only take between 6 to 10 business days to arrive. Fingers crossed and spells cast, this damn journal better arrive on time to Sharmila or I will slay bitches. ::chuckles::

I was supposed to do a Wal-mart run for us today…but I got caught up in writing the rough draft to Essay #1. So, a valid reason not to go to Wal-Mart…but it doesn’t solve the problem that we have literally nothing to eat in the house that we can make right now. Like, David has his brunch sandwiches…but they have to be cooked in the oven and our oven likes to burn shit. So yeah. Hopefully David can get our massive oven install scheduled soon (but hopefully not THIS week) so we can go back to having a working oven. I would like to make sausage balls sometime soon!

STORM

written:  June 09

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I’m just showing off the cute gray bottle I got the other day (when I bought the crystal lotus candle holder) that it’s full of storm water. I put the Barbie Professor McGonagall hat on the stopper and it fit perfectly. And the wand is the gorgeous one I bought a while back from Luna Blue Boutique.

We had an INSANE storm kick up. Massive amounts of wind and booming thunder. I made sure to put the bottle of storm water, the wand, and the resin crow skull in the window to soak up all that energy. It lasted less than an hour and by then you couldn’t even tell we’d had a storm. So weird. Though, what sucks, is that a large crane was blown over in Dallas onto an apartment complex. So far, one person is dead and a handful of others had to go to the hospital as well. ::shakes her head::

Deep Breaths, Wolfie

written:  June 08

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The two fortunes I received in my fortune cookies this evening. David doesn’t like fortune cookies and I love ‘em, so it works out nicely as I get all the fortune cookies I could eat. ::laughs:: And I don’t have to worry about him stealing any!

I’ve read through all 10 of the essays offered for my End of Program Exam and have selected the three I will be writing on. I’m not allowed to say anything about the actual essay questions. If I did, and the school somehow found out, I could lose my degree, that’s how serious they are about them. So yeah, suffice it to say I chose one on ethics and two on diversity, but I can’t say anything more than that.

While David was working on various yard/outdoor projects, I was in here, researching articles I can use for the essays. I took a whole class on diversity, so I’m not focusing too heavily on that right now, as I have TONS of articles from that class that I can reference. And on the plus side, they are already highlighted! ::laughs:: So yeah, focusing quite a bit right now on ethics. Fun times.

Tell me again why I elected for this bullshit? ::chuckles:: Deep breath, Wolfie. This is the final hurdle for the damn degree. And once you have the damn degree, you can work on liberating yourself from the after school program. Man, I’m going to miss the shit out of my students. They truly are awesome. Upper management can kiss my ass though. ::chuckles::

I came across this on Facebook, and I cannot even begin to tell you how tempted I am to do this:



I figure if I do also include a heart-felt thank you for all the opportunities I was given in this job and how it really was a great place and how I will miss it a lot, I can get away with doing this. ::chuckles and rubs her hands together:: I wouldn’t send it to the Head Boss, but to my supervisor. Esmeralda is a bit less…volatile. I would send a proper letter of resignation to Kelly. No matter how much pleasure I would derive from nuking that bridge into oblivion, I won’t do anything to screw up a good recommendation for future jobs. It’s just not worth it.

Donuts

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Happy National Donut Day! ::laughs:: I made it a point to go to my lil gas station by the elementary school I have my after school program to pick up a donut and some Frappuccinos. ::chuckles::

Ok, I did a bit of research and it seems what my roses are suffering from is called Rose Balling. Basically, the rose buds get wet and the outer petals fuse together, so it doesn’t open up properly. Pruning is the best way to treat it, to make sure there is enough air movement in the bush that they don’t get so fused. So I went and cut a number of buds off the bush so hopefully the remaining buds can open properly. I’m drying those little rose buds that I pruned off for possible spell work later on.

After MONTHS of getting nowhere, FINALLY, Leida’s journal was returned to me by the post office. I mailed it out originally February 25th to Bahrain. It made it all the way to London, before returning to the US. Then it spent SIX WEEKS bouncing between Dallas and Coppell here in Texas. ::sighs:: But finally, after multiple emails, I FINALLY got the journal back today. I took a photo of the address I sent it to and sent that to Sharmila to see what I did wrong. The only thing she could see is that my “6” looks kind of like a “4”. SO, I’m typing up her address and printing that out and seeing if THAT helps.

And I figured throwing a bit of spellwork at this journal wouldn’t hurt either. Why not? I’m a friggin’ Witch. Let’s do this. ::laughs:: So I have 2 sigils that I’m taping inside the journal to hopefully help this journal reach Sharmila this time around. If this goes well, then I’ll be using the same sigils in the rest of the journals for this swap. I have never had a swap go so crazy and get so derailed. ::shakes her head::

Migraine of Doom

written: June 06

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A new rose from the second round of blooming the rosebush is currently doing. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, as a number of the blossoms never open fully and look almost charred/burnt? I am currently treating the rosebush for blackspot. I’ve set up reminders in my planner to do that every month for the next few months or until the blackspot clears up. But even with all that going on, I still get some truly gorgeous blossoms from her.

Wow for an all-day horrible migraine. It started up at 3 am. I emailed the Techs to let them know I would not be coming in to work. It was so bad that I couldn’t stay in my room because it wasn’t pitch black. So the darkness I did have in there seemed only to amplify the brightness of the light that did appear in the room. So sleeping downstairs in the living room that was semi-light was actually less painful. It was so bad, that even the sound of my own breathing hurt my head. No nausea, so I’m deeply grateful for that.

I mentioned on Facebook that I guess I’ll be investing in three sets of black out curtains – One for the only window in my room, One to cover my bedroom door (as there is a window right outside of it), and One to cover my bathroom door (as there is a window in there). Carmen (a LARP buddy from back in the day) inquired about a sleeping mask. Wow. So much cheaper and EASIER to try out, though I’m not sure how my head will react to the pressure. But fuck, man, I’ll give it a try. Plus I have an Amazon giftcard, so it’s not like it even cost me a dime. Now I may have to get a mini-frig to put in my room so I can keep it cold, but we’ll see how it works out. I am still planning to get black out curtains for my window. I’m so redneck right now – it’s covered by a blanket. ::laughs::

Tomorrow the End of Program exam opens. I’ll get to see what 10 questions they are posing to us, and I’ll pick the 3 that I think I can do the best job on answering. ::chuckles:: I am flat out forbidden to say anything beyond that about the questions. And I will not do a damn thing that could possibly jeopardize my getting this damn degree. I’ve put too much blood, sweat, and tears (a LOT of tears) into getting it to fail here at the finish line.

The migraine finally lifted around 8 pm, right as the rainstorm broke. I swear, I get migraines leading up to a storm, but as soon as it fucking rains, I’m good. Might have to start petitioning the Harpies for rain when I get hit with migraines.

I got the arrowhead ordered for the god representation artwork I’m doing (Coven-required) and then ahead and ordered another one for Sekhmet (because the shipping was so high on the one item, but went up very little for the second item – might as well take advantage of that). And I ordered the green beads for the god project as well. So now I’m just waiting for all of that to arrive. I’ll get David to drill the necessary holes in all the antlers I’ve amassed for the Goddess and God projects. Then I get to start piecing everything together. Really, the drilling is the major hurdle. Once that’s done, and all the supplies are here, the projects will be completed pretty swiftly.

Talked to Aesa

written:  June 05

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I spent most of today scanning broken iPads. I swear the boys at a particular middle school had a competition to see who could destroy their district-issued iPad the most. ::shakes her head:: This one isn’t even the worst of the bunch, and none of these compared to others that I’ve seen over the years that I’ve done this job.

I did message Aesa about the whole Sara thing. I decided to stop worrying about coming across as a “bitch” and just embrace it. ::laughs:: Aesa sent a message back that she has the exact same feelings about the situation and the exact same red flags and has talked to the High Priestess about it and they are dealing with it. She said to give them a few more meetings to finalize exactly what that is going to look like, but that she was 100% on the same page as me. ::huge sigh of relief:: So at least I know now that I’m not the only one feeling this way and that the “higher ups” are working on this problem.

Really, that’s about all I have to report on. ::chuckles::

13 Mil

written: June 04

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My lavender plants are finally sprouting. I was quite late in planting them. Seems everything this year is running a bit behind. ::chuckles::

Today was a super low key day at the Tech Job. Scanning in old purchase orders as PDFs and renaming them to make them easier to find. Though, I did come across last summer’s purchase order for all the iPad brand cases with keyboards and the MacBooks – totaling a little over $13m. I about fell of out my chair when I saw that total. Thirteen million dollars. Wozza.

That would be life-changing to have that money right now. It’s looking like it’s going to cost us around $700 to get the kitchen fixed enough so that we can install our new oven. ::sighs:: Luckily, David stayed home to learn all of this with the handy man. And then David switched the car and house insurance, and is saving $1600 over the course of a year. SO, he found a way to pay for the stove work without having to take money from anywhere else. I swear, David claims he’s a shitty witch because he hasn’t done any magick in ages. But, he friggin’ managed to manifest $1600. Literally OUT OF THIN AIR. If that ain’t magick, then I don’t know what is. ::chuckles::

I need to mark where I want David to drill holes in the moose antler slices so I can hang them. And I need to mark where I want him to drill similar holes in one of my loose deer antlers (haven’t figure out which one just yet – I have a few to choose from). I’ve changed my god representation project AGAIN. I’m going back to making a suncatcher/beaded dangle thing (yes, that’s the proper name I’m giving it). Something along these lines:



So, I just need to pick WHICH antler I’m going to use. Because I’m not allowing myself to buy an antler for this project. I have 6 or so in my closet RIGHT NOW – I can damn well use one of those and save myself $30 or so. The beaded sections will use various green beads. I’ll have an arrow head at the central focal point (literally). The other sections will have bells at the end of the dangle. Or maybe green leaf beads? I dunno on that just yet. but I still have plenty of time to get that all sorted and done.

AND, miracle of miracles, I turned in all my god homework today – excluding the god representation project and the god invocation in ritual (my turn to invoke the god for Coven ritual isn’t until September 29th.

Which reminds me, I really need to get in touch with Shakti as I am supposed to invoke the goddess for our upcoming Litha ritual (June 16th). I need to know which goddess she’s chosen for the ritual, so I can begin working on that invocation. I would love to get that done BEFORE the End of Program exam descends and crushes all brain function. ::chuckles::

Rosary

written:  June 03

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My rosary chain arrived today. It’s gorgeous. I bought 10 feet for about $12 – not too shabby. I only need about 5 feet for the goddess representation art work I’m planning, but I’m sure I’ll find something to use the other 5 feet of it for.

I am toying with the idea of getting the same chain, but with red crystal, and using that to create a “curtain” for the altar section that will house Sekhmet’s icon and painting (by the SUPER amazing Kimberly S.). I would use the beaded curtain to shelter the icon and painting. Though, I would have to figure out something to pull the curtain back during ritual, so I can see Sekhmet. Must ponder this more. ::chuckles::

I finished up all of the projectors tagged, scanned, and re-boxed today. All 425 individual projectors. Then I got to sit around for about two hours, twiddling my thumbs while the bosses scrambled to find something for me to do. I ended up getting on scanning duty. They have purchase orders that need to be scanned into the system from two years ago even. ::chuckles:: So I’m having to remove the staples from the packets and run everything through the scanner. Then staple the packets back together and update the PDF file name to reflect the vendor, the purchase order number, and the department the items went to. Nothing too terribly exciting, but hey, I don’t really care as long as I’m on the clock.

Drama Bomb

written: June 02

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My card I drew today at class (from the Gods and Titans Oracle deck by Stacey Demarco).

I was a bit late to class and Nicki was sitting in the chair I normally sit in. Seriously guys, the ONLY available spot to sit was – can you guess???? Yeah, RIGHT BESIDE SARA. Fuck my life. Honest to god, I should have just turned around and left. She was doing this sigh/grumble/whine thing EVER TIME she exhaled. ::rolls her eyes::

Other than that, the class wasn’t too terrible. No major revelations about the male deity. Though Luna describe the gods as servants to the goddess – that’s their main role in a lot of the mythology – that really struck a cord with me. Maybe viewing them in that light, I can work with them a bit more if I so choose.

Shakti was leading this class and brought with her a few god representations. And lordy, I’ve been making this shit SO MUCH HARDER than it has to be. Hers were very simple and straight forward. And here I’m planning out elaborate things. Great undertakings. ::shakes her head:: So I need to scale down my operations and be more realistic about what I can accomplish in this time frame.

We also made it all the way through class without any major Sara drama. We were literally packing up to leave (Students leave; Initiates stay for their New Moon Ritual) when Sara dropped the bomb – her cousin had commit suicide earlier this week and the family (predominately VERY Catholic) were all discussing what happens after death. Sara was claiming they were stuffing their beliefs down her throat and wanted to know how WE deal with those types of situations.

If this were the only happening, I would be so much more sympathetic. But seriously, it’s a major catastrophe EVERY time we come to class. Something big blows up in her life and she needs someone to ride in and rescue her. Every. Damn. Time. Somehow, every time we come together, the class or the ritual has to be put on hold while she makes everything about herself. And I, who am usually energy ‘deaf’ (meaning, I don’t typically FEEL energy), can feel her just sucking in everyone’s energy. I’m serious. She’s like a goddamn black hole and is just devouring whatever energy people will give her after she sets off a drama bomb. It feels like black tar, just oozing out to everyone. Me? I have shields up for days, so I don’t get any of that crap on me. But she still makes my skin just crawl. I seriously have to say something to the Coven, but I haven’t figured out a way to say it without sounding like a completely callous bitch. Shit, maybe I should just embrace being a callous bitch and go with it. It does have its useful points. ::chuckles:: Maybe I’ll bring this up to Aesa, as I have more of a connect with her from our previous Coven and I’m a bit more comfortable talking to her. That and she knows me and knows that I’m not a completely heartless bitch. ::chuckles::

Antlers and Things

written:  June 01

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My moose antler slices arrived today and they are GORGEOUS. Shame that I will be painting some of these. Though, I do have one left over – in case something goes wrong with the original 9 I’m planning on using for the moon phases – that I want to make into a charm of some sort.
I’ve already sketched out the moon designs. I need to check to see if David has a tiny drill bit that I can use to drill the holes for the eyelet screws. If he doesn’t have one small enough, I’ll have to pick one up.

I mailed out the Leopardskin jasper sphere that Sage Goddess sent me by mistake to a friend here. I had no desire to keep the stone, but it apparently caught her eye big time. So off it went, along with its wooden stand. She was kind enough to cover shipping plus a little extra. And she calls ME the generous one! ::chuckles::

A fabulous storm blew in this evening. So much thunder and huge cracks of lightning. I made sure to put the new resin crow skull, the Harpies’ wand, and the new glass bottle in the window to catch some of that fabulous storm energy. I went ahead and collected enough rainwater to fill the glass bottle. Maybe later on, I can buy a small raven skull charm to add to the bottle.

As of right now, I’ve got to seriously cut back on my spending. I tend to go through cycles of this – where a penny burns a hole in my pocket, begging to be spent on something, and then periods of where nothing catches my eye and I don’t really spend money on anything “frivolous”. I need to get back to the no spending phase! ::chuckles::

Tomorrow is Coven Class – which I’m honestly, mostly dreading. Partially because of Sara and whatever drama of the week flavor she’s bringing to the table. But also partially because it’s over the god. And I don’t care much for male deities. They just don’t play that large of a role in my life or in my Pagan Practice. And honestly, I’d just rather skip the whole thing and no deal with the god OR Sara. Mostly Sara.

All the Quirks

written:  May 31

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A gorgeous crystal lotus candle holder I picked up at Tuesday Morning earlier today. The crystal petals are tinted a steel blue color, which immediately made me think of the Harpies. And I found a pack of gray Thunder Storm scented tea lights (also for the Harpies) that smell AMAZING. AND I found a lightly tinted gray glass bottle with a wood stopper – ALSO for the Harpies. I plan to put either rain water in it or small bones and trinkets for them. So yeah, those Harpies are QUITE spoiled now. ::chuckles::

I checked the tracking on the moose antler slices – I might actually get them tomorrow! And the rosary chain (coming from China) is currently in Chicago. So I might actually get this art project done by mid-June. Woohoo!

I accepted the invitation to the End of Program exam “class” on Canvas (the online portal for the college) today. Talk about some serious panic starting to set in here. ::chuckles:: So I will definitely take advantage of the various workshops they have in there right now, so I can be as best prepared as I can be for the exam. T minus 6 DAYS until I get to begin working on the EOP exam. Hence some of the panic.

Sooooo today, Lowe’s delivered our new oven (our current one is slowly dying). They were supposed to remove the old oven and install the new one. Well….nothing is that damn simple with this fucking house. Apparently our old stove is BUILT into the house. ::sighs:: So yeah, now we have to hire a handyman to remove the old stove and install the new one. So for now…we have our new stove, still in its box, hanging out by the stairs. Oye. And here I had plans to cook sausage balls in the new stove this weekend. Guess I won’t be doing that. But of course it’s something crazy that has to be done to get the stoves swapped out. Don’t get me wrong – I do enjoy our home. But everything is just a little extra quirky it seems. ::chuckles:: Which, I wouldn’t have an issue with, except that it translates into extra work and extra MONEY to do simple things. ::shakes her head:: So we have no idea WHEN we’ll actually get our new stove put in.

I just realized today that I never finished uploading the photos I took back in January at the Falconry Expo in my little hometown to my DeviantArt account. THAT just goes to show how friggin’ crazy this past semester has been, as I got some STELLAR shots. ::chuckles:: So I’ll be working on slowly uploading those to my DA account and then to the various photography groups I’m a member of on there. But I definitely miss doing my photography. I can’t remember the last time I went to the local zoo even. And of course, now that I have the free time to do so, it’s already hitting the 90 degree weather. ::shakes her head::

Godzilla on the Brain

written: May 30

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Projectors, projectors, and more projectors. This is my current project at the Summer Tech Job – 425 projectors. I’m pretty sure I pulled my right thigh yesterday due to the constant squatting and lifting. I should probably pick up some bananas. Honestly, I need to start eating better anyways, given how physical it is.

Luckily, Roni has a mini-frig back in our area and keeps it stocked with bottled water. Now, I’m not a fan of bottled water, but I’ve been drinking those because my body NEEDS it right now. Maybe I’ll buy some that I like, or I could start bringing my Yeti cup with ice water in it.

And I just found out that we are supposed to work tomorrow. The Summer Tech Job is usually Monday through Thursday during the summer, which is what I assumed this week was considered. But apparently, since it’s still May, we’re supposed to work Friday. Ooops. Well, I have a stove being delivered and installed sometime tomorrow, so yeah…I won’t be at work. ::chuckles:: Oh well.

But on the flip side, that also means I won’t be able to go see Godzilla tomorrow, like I had planned. So that sucks. But I’ll see it at some point in theaters. I’ve made that promise to myself. I figure I’ll go sometime during the week that I have my End of Program exam. I’ll get the rough drafts written for the three essays and then go see Godzilla. Then come back and polish the SHIT out of said essays. And maybe go see Godzilla again. And then I’ll turn in the three essays…and then sleep forever. ::laughs::