"Lifelines" Book Party and updates

We had our "Lifelines" Book Party yesterday.  We only had five guests, but we had a great time anyway!  I sold two of my books and another one today.  One of my mom's friends told ghost stories (like on Coast to Coast radio) about UFO's.  Spooky!

I did Reading #6 for Runes Practicum and sent it off to the person who requested it.  I'm so behind in school I don't know if I'll ever catch up.  :(  We have a lot to do for Ancient Rites this month, meditations and papers, etc.  I did finish my embroidery for Buddhism, still have to write the play to go with it.  Still lost in Ecology, still haven't written my essay for Tarot. 

I've been doing so much marketing and chats, planning and blog writing for Lifelines, haven't had time for schoolwork.  Not only that, I had a three-day DVR class right before Thanksgiving.  I made a couple friends at least.  Jed has been watching football today, now he's going to watch The Two Towers, one of my favorite movies. 

Fall Update

School:  I have the week off, fall break.  This is definitely a good thing for a number of reasons.  One, my computer is giving me grief.  Two, you'll see below under life.  Three, I've got to set up for the kiddies for Halloween at the Convention center tomorrow afternoon.  I'm thinking about dressing up as a kitty for Halloween.  I've just got to figure out the ears... 

I've been working on an embroidery project for Buddhism for a month now.  That's way too long.  All those french knots are really getting to me.  Ancient Rites, the Shamanism program I'm still in is going well; we're on the second year of that.  Tarot is going slowly.  Runes Practicum is going very slowly.  And I'm completely lost in Ecology.  Such is life!

Life:  I'm getting published!  The online poetry group I'm involved in is publishing a book of poetry with a small press out of Canada.  Not only that, I'm getting published in my grad school's journal, five poems and two or three pictures!  This is so awesome!  Mom says she wants to buy 15 copies of the poetry collection, hard copy.  Wonderful support!  Well, we are finalizing the book, should be out soon.  The journal is going to come out Mid-November.

My boyfriend is finally admitting he's my boyfriend, so that's a step in the right direction.  Of course it helped that I announced I was his girlfriend!  Life is strange.  :) 

"reality continues to ruin my life"

I found that cross-stitched on one of my Flickr groups.  I figured out tonight I have to take 10 more classes plus do a Master's Thesis to get my Master's Degree in Interfaith.  Four of those are creative approaches to traditional religions, the rest are regular classes, all general electives except for one.  I'm finishing up one class right now or it'd be 11 classes.  I'm closest to getting my Divination Certificate, but even that will be awhile.  Almost 3 more years for Ancient Rites, Shamanism.  I haven't made any progress on Modern Rituals, Shamanism, for months now.  And here I am gleefully considering getting my MFA. :) I don't think I'll be applying for that until I finish something!  I feel kind of pathetic.  People are always asking when I'm going to get my degree or what am I gonna do with it. When is anybody's guess. Frame it and hang it on the wall!  This is all happening, or not happening, depending on your POV, because I take whatever I'm interested in.  Actually, I take "degree" programs in what I'm interested in.  And also because I pace myself and don't take 5 classes at once.  Well, I sorta am taking 5 classes at once, but not really...  Ancient Rites, I Ching, Runes, Prehistory, (Modern Rituals).  More like 4.  I must be nuts!  Oh yeah...

September News

I've been seeing quite a bit of Reggie lately.  That's all I'm gonna say about that for now.  Star and her boyfriend, Yeti are really cute together. I can call him that because his nickname is Sasquatch, but that's someone else's nickname too.  Not here, in real life. I think I want an excuse to get a new computer.  Miss Thing is great, but I'd love a faster, more powerful one.  She's running great so I have nothing to complain about. :)

My Happiness Project is going great!  This doing homework every day is really helping me keep up with stuff.  I finished the Uffington Horse craft/writing project and got some positive feedback on that.  Tonight I turned in the proposal for the last project, based on Stonehenge.  Cool!  That one will take some planning.  We are finishing up the first year of Ancient Rites.  I have one more paper due on Thursday so will work on that tomorrow.  Dean Dharma is going to mail each of us certificates for the first year.  My Mom will be happy about that, proof that all this work is good for something. 

I'm starting I Ching 1 next week and Foundations in Counseling in early October.  I've been so bored, stressed out and confused this summer.  It will be nice having that structure back in my life with deadlines too. No one understands that, I swear.  I'm a Virgo.  Indy is sleeping on the fuzzy blanket Star made me for my birthday.  I'm listening to George Michael videos.  I watched them for awhile while I was working on an afghan to match my furniture, crochet.  For someone who's sick I got a lot done today.  I'm getting over, hopefully for the last time, this dang cold.  My cough has mostly gone away, thanks to large doses of Vitamin C. 

I'm actually going to set foot in church tomorrow.  I'm definitely going to Bible Study. I finally feel good enough to go.  I watched The Book of Eli the other night, very good.  I'm getting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tomorrow, the Swedish one with subtitles, and will probably watch it on Thursday night.  Netflix, of course.

Creativity and Flexibility

I finally started working on the short story inspired by the Uffington Horse for Prehistory class.  I had an idea and took notes on it awhile ago.  It's shaping up OK.  I only have the first half or so written, longhand.  Still not sure how exactly the rest of the story will go.  School, officially, doesn't start for awhile.  I still have stuff to do for Ancient Rites before the start of school.

I'm "seeing" a guy, but not much (nothing) has happened yet.  I think he is really shy, even though he talks a lot.  I'm really shy too. Hmmmmm...!

I haven't been feeling very good physically lately.  I'm pretty much over my cold.  Yesterday, I went for a walk.  Today it poured.  Maybe I just need to get more exercise.  Tomorrow I'm going to town with my mom, to see my job counselor and do a little shopping.  Oh and me and Lucky are starting an I Ching discussion tomorrow. I might go to Bible Study and I have to back up my docs and pics too.  Busy day tomorrow!

The Parable of the Busy Student

I just spent a week going to Vacation Bible School for adults at my church.  We did some creative stuff and learned about the Parables.  I even wrote one of my own! I went with my mom and sat next to Reggie.  Some of the stuff we did was really stupid.  We sang songs.

I saw Snow Dogs on Friday, that was a silly and funny movie. I made brownies yesterday with walnuts and chocolate chips. 

As far as school goes I turned in my 3rd craft/writing proposal for Prehistory. Ancient Rites will have me busy this month and the next as we are finishing up our first year.  Papers to write, journeys to take! :)

I just finished my first month of my personal Happiness Project.  July's focus was Energy.  I don't know if I have more energy, but I'm a little more happy.  The four things I did and will continue with were: Getting to bed before midnight, taking a nap, exercising, and tackling a nagging task.  Not that I did all four every day! For August I'm doing Spirituality.  We'll see how that goes...

Looking Forward

I just read the new catalog for Nature U.  Dean Dharma has completely redone my major, so I'm not sure if I'm going to have to take all different classes or not.  She added credits to almost every major.  I'll be going to school forever at this rate. Well, I was going to go to school forever anyway, now it'll be forever and a day!  It looks really serious, with big words and the same rules.  I reread them anyway.  I have good news!  Good for me at least.  I turned in the paper for this unit of Ancient Rites.  I didn't wait until the deadline, July 31st, but got it in early.  Must be a fluke or the lingering effects of the Full Moon or something like that. 

I went to a dinner party tonight with my NAMI friends.  Jean Jeanie brought her fiance/boyfriend.  That was kind of a shock.  I didn't realize they planned on getting married.  It seems like she just met him, but they have known each other for many years, actually.  I'm friends with Star again, yay!  We've been best friends for so long, it's rough when one of us "goes off the reservation" and writes something stupid.  Email is not the best way to communicate. I've been kind of lax with my blogging this summer.  I'm supposed to go to town tomorrow with my mom.  We'll see. I'm not sleepy and it's what, 3:20am.  I will have to order yarrow sticks for I-Ching class in the Fall.  The class runs all school year.  64 Hexagrams, that's a lot to learn about.  I wonder if I get to write poetic responses to each one.  We'll see!

Emotions, thick and heavy as salt water

I've been pretty upset lately.  I screwed things up with my best buddy, Star.  She helped on her end, but it was mostly my fault.  :(  I'm praying for her whole family at this time, as her brothers are in the hospital today.

This weekend the motorcycles come to town.  I wonder if any of the bike riders will be at church on Sunday.  I'm telling my Faith Story that day.  It should be interesting as my story is quite different from any I've heard so far.  It doesn't help that I'm the youngest person in church.

I've posted some questions for Ancient Rites, but that's about it.  My mind has been on other things this summer than school. What an understatement!  I've been listening to this body-image conference for the past 5 days or so.  You can check it out at:   http://thebodyimagerevolution.com/

Just checking in!

Happiness

I finally turned in my paper for Ancient Rites.  That unit hasn't been graded yet.  I'm just hanging out tonight.  I've been reading a book all day, "The Happiness Project".  It's really good and really interesting.  Don't know if I'll start one of those myself or not.  Seems pretty ambitious.  I talked to Jean Jeanie for an hour on the phone today.  Tomorrow we are going to one of the beach festivals.  Star might be coming out tonight, she was going to go to her parent's first.  Did a little writing today.  More reading than writing.  Got all my poems up on Google Docs for the April PAD 2010.  I'm so happy I got that done!  I try to type up all my poems, no matter how crappy they are.  I think there were 2 or 3 good ones in the bunch.  All for now.  Bye!

Mai Poina 'Oe la'u (Not To Be Forgotten)

Butter Pecan Haagen-Dazs is so good!  Noshing on some right now.  I finished Jean Jeanie's musical themed tote bag today.  It turned out pretty good, black embroidery on a blue bag.  As far as school goes, we are all behind in Ancient Rites.  I don't feel so bad, at least I'm not the only one.  I'm turning in my meditations tonight, but still have to write the final paper for this unit.  Not much happening in Prehistory or Modern Rituals.  Nothing really.  I've been distracted lately.  A few worries.  Nothing too bad, just hard for me to concentrate. I invited my brother, Jed, to come over and play on my computer, but I'm not sure if he will or not.  He missed a Papa Murphy's pizza last night.  Ice cream's gone!  My best bud, Star, is at her niece's graduation all day today.  She had to go up north, quite a drive, with her parents.  I'm sure I'll hear about it later. I'm listening Hawaiian music from the library.  Not too bad really.  All for now!  bye

In the Cards

I'm heating up some chicken noodle soup I made today, in the micro. I'm hungry! Mmmmmmmm! Now I can type. I finally did my overdue homework for Ancient Rites and turned it in. We had a busy day today, Star, Jed and I went to town to pick up a tent and do some grocery shopping. We also stopped for burgers. I had a caramel sundae. It was OK. I scanned a bunch of Tarot cards today to post on a friend's Tarot discussions. Am pretty tired. I hope I get tomorrow off to do absolutely nothing, but it never works out that way, does it? I think I'll trot off to bed pretty soon. All for now! bye

OMG

Well, I've had a busy week. I finished my goddess sculptures and poem for Prehistory and turned that in. Yay! I did a paper for Ancient Rites and am still working on Runes 4. I am doing publicity for a lady. Mostly research, looking up addresses on the internet. I think I am hired for the summer to do baking, decorating cookies and possibly barista(ing). I need to get some good shoes! That just occurred to me. I also need to get a car. I haven't driven in a long time. I'm going a little crazy right now. This is a lot of stress for me. And I haven't even started yet. OMG. What have I gotten myself into? All for now! bye

NING!

I don't know what I'm going to do yet about my NING site. This is my divination site, The Divine Life. It's not very active. I might just delete it. Or I might find a new home for it... Still not sure. I guess I don't have to decide today. Another site, a creativity site that I belong to, needs a new leader or co-leader. I might do that. I'll have to see.

The new drug I'm on is making me nauseous. Not a good feeling. I'm still going to the art/photography show and touring the new fire station today with Mom and Jean Jeanie. I'm supposed to make dinner tonight. I'll see how I feel.

My class didn't get cancelled! Yay! I start Runes 4 tomorrow. I did a meditation last night for Ancient Rites, but I haven't typed it up yet. I have all these poems for the April PAD challenge I have to type up. And a million other things to do. Sigh. Well, that's it for today! bye

To-Do List

I did my meditations and paper for Ancient Rites this weekend. Funny how you avoid homework for days and then it turns out to be not so difficult after all. I've been considering applying for another program. I decided to ask the cards about it. The Tarot cards came out with a resounding no, at least for now. I mean I drew the Moon in the Covers position. So if I'm not clear how can I make a good decision? It's a matter of enthusiasm. There's something about beginnings that's just so exciting.

I had a really frustrating day with the embroidery today. I started a gardening design on a lime green tote bag for my mom. I'm using only white thread. Well, one of the little flower pots didn't iron-on very well. I decided to do the hardest bit first, the little flower pot. So I had to keep checking with the transfer to see where to embroider the leaves and flowers. This iron-on is more detailed than any I've done so far too. Uggh! Well, I rushed it, but I got the little flower pot done anyway. I'm faster than I used to be. I make myself do one motif at a time now. It may take a couple hours, but I make progress that way. I wonder if wanting to embroider a lot is normal. I doubt it. And do other crafts too. Hmmmmm... I'm certainly not lacking in inspiration. Probably just a phase.

What else? I've got a million things to do tomorrow. Like write poems for the April Poem-a-day challenge. Attend the poetry critique group chat and reread all our poems and read our fearless leader's epic poem and provide feedback. Plus I have a Swaptree package to mail at the PO. There are some things I've been putting off too, posting on the F&F board and posting excerpts from a chapter of Refuse to Choose. I should make my bed and empty the dishwasher too. Plus, and this is really important, I want to type up my application for peer counselor training. And I have Netflix to watch, Fringe and Cirque du Freak. I'm tired already. Hee hee!

Is this who I am? Someone who's usually happy even while complaining. Good prescription drugs I guess. Well, I'll just enjoy it for now. Who knows? Tomorrow I could be depressed out of my gourd. Anything is possible! Bye for now

Happy Easter!

I'm eating my dinner in front of the computer, beans and weenies. It's really good, but I may have put too much brown sugar in it. Oh well! I saw two good movies this week, Up in the Air and Precious. I didn't like how Up in the Air ended, they left us "up in the air". Hee hee! I cried in the middle of Precious. What a powerful movie. Understatement.

Went to Olympia yesterday. Bought a nice skirt and dress pants. Still need comfy flats and maybe a jacket. This is so we don't look like total slobs when we go around to different companies. I'm talking about the Employment Support Group I'm in. Plus they are possible interview clothes.

I also went craft shopping at Joann's. Maybe I'm involved in too many crafts now. Seems like it. My life feels unbalanced. Well, not today, nothing like doing a lot of housework to make you feel balanced. Just maybe too much on the creative side of things. I even got a keyboard! It's a used Yamaha keyboard from 1993. It's really big, Jean Jeanie gave it to me. Not that I know how to play, but I can learn.

I started the April Poem a Day challenge on the 1st. I wrote my first three so far. I'm posting them to my poetry critique group's Google Document page. I had the idea to make merit badges, like in Girl Scouts for our group. We'll see if I get that done. Sometimes I type before thinking. Often.

Not a lot going on for school. I think I'll do a meditation tonight for Ancient Rites. Forgot to put meditation days on the April calendar. I've got more laundry to do. Back to it! Happy Easter everyone!

bye

Lemon Cake with Lemon Frosting

I haven't posted for awhile. I've been busy! I had two appointments this week, plus shopping after. Today was Jean Jeanie's birthday party. Prepped for that by making Irish Soda Bread and the frosting for the lemon cake my brother baked. Mom made corned beef and veggies for dinner. And then I had to smell the bread, cake and corned beef all afternoon. :) Then we played cards and watched 2012. I really liked the disaster sequences, but the rest of the movie was just so-so.

In my convoluted way I got two friends to give me their opinion on my first short story for Prehistory. I should have just went with it, but here it is a week later and I have editing to do before I turn it in. Writing is just not a priority for me right now. I want to kick myself and get my butt in gear. It won't work though. I guess I need to find another way to motivate myself.

What I have been doing in my spare time: finished the orange and brown afghan/throw for my mom, including weaving in the ends, so totally done. Yay! I embroidered the other peaches on the fruit-themed floursack towels. Now all I have to do is the green border on that one, then the first four are all done.

Any excuse will do for me to throw a party. I'm an inveterate hostess extraordinaire. No doubt about that! I have Ancient Rites homework to do tomorrow as well, the final for this section. Well, that's all for now! Bye

Appliances

The rain is pattering on my roof. The dryer wasn't working, but I think it might be working now. The dishwasher repair guy didn't get the switches on the breaker box all pushed back correctly. Will go check. Yay! It's working again! At least I didn't tell Mom the dryer was broken, she would've had a cow. I get along pretty well with my landlord. :)

I had a creative breakthrough today. This is for my Prehistory class. I think I may actually get my homework done this weekend! Another victory, I finished the St.Patrick's Day coasters for Star. All I have to do is get them laminated and put feet on them. I'll probably do that on Tuesday. I also did my meditations for Ancient Rites, just have to type them up.

Saw The Hurt Locker and Up last night. Jean Jeanie came over and watched the movies with me and my brother. The Hurt Locker was really intense, grim. Up was OK. I recommend the first movie. We are going to watch more Oscar movies next week.

I've been in my jammies all day. I didn't feel so hot today. Achy and tired. The neighbors moved out at the end of January. They've been doing some work on the mobile home next door today. I hope I get good neighbors. We share a fence. That should make good neighbors, but doesn't always.

That's all for now! bye

Computer Hell

I have been in computer hell for the last couple days. I figured out that my Zonealarm wasn't working, bad install. I chatted with the customer service rep and reinstalled it. Already found about 8 viruses on my computer. My Google and Yahoo search results have been getting hijacked. Haven't tried searching today. Couldn't access my Word docs for awhile. Had to do a cold boot at one point. But things appear to be working better. Don't have to call my computer guy, yet.

Have been catching up with housework and laundry for the past couple of days. It seems endless. I finished another floursack towel. Have to take pictures of it and post it. Talked to my friend, Jean Jeanie, for a long time yesterday. Her ex-husband is dying. She gets along good with him, so this is a blow.

I'm still in some kind of fog. I hope things take a turn for the better soon. I told my teacher what's happening in my life and she understood. I will be taking a break from most schoolwork for awhile, except for Ancient Rites. All for now!

Revelation, Meditation and the News

I made chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight, homemade. No one's sick, exactly. I'm still in shock over my friend, Star, and her revelation. I'm just glad she's getting help for her addiction problem. That shows real spirit and courage, which she has in spades. I guess I'm not handling it too well, though. I worry about her enough as it is. I worry about the people I love, I can't help it. Especially the ones with health problems.

Today I did a chanting meditation for Ancient Rites. We were supposed to chant a word like, "OM", except related to Norse Mythology. That was a real eye-opener. Instead of thinking about the past or the future or things I couldn't control I was pulled right into the present moment. I realized that instead of waiting for the perfect moment, to do anything, the moment is now. In other words if I want to do something or share something or say something, the moment is now. It is so good for me to stop and just smell the incense. LOL! Like smelling the roses! Then I wrote it up and submitted it to the boards.

My brother, Jed, came over and we talked and ate veggies. He mostly just played on the computer, looking at news sites. I get enough news just with Yahoo news and reading the occasional article. I'm glad I don't have TV. TV news is horrible, all negativity. I don't need that in my life. I'm really trying to be a more positive person. I look through faintly rose-colored glasses. Literally! That's all for now. Have a good night anyone who's reading this.

Monday Night

Well, I'm not hypomanic or anything. Just hadn't gotten enough sleep for some time. But I slept well last night and the night before. I'm making dinner right now. I don't usually eat this late, but I had a poetry chat with my online poetry group. My best friend, Star, is coming over later. She wants to fix my hair, so I don't know if we are going out or what. It's Monday night, but anything is possible. I did one of my meditations for Shamanism last night. I feel so good afterward. It's nice to just be quiet and still with just incense and a candle going. That's for my Norse Mythology based Shamanism course which I'll just call Ancient Rites. The other one I haven't worked on for awhile which has a more modern bent, I'll call that one Modern Rituals. I'm in the first year of both studies. But I've been in the first year of Modern Rituals for two and a half years now. Sigh. Well, playtime tonight!