Haven't done this in a while....

Morning folks! I am blogging this morning from Pittsburgh, which makes it that much cooler. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. It's a gorgeous day.

What I've been up to lately - Been crazy busy at work. Lots of training going on. Have a new hire class starting a week from tomorrow. We've lost a couple people recently. Some I am sorry to see go, the departure of others makes me dance with glee.

I've also been watching Lost via my Netflix account. I'm now 3 episodes into Season 2, so don't tell me anything! But I completely get now why my friend Kelli named her truck Sawyer. I've been going around singing "You All Everybody" for about 2 weeks. Lost rules.

I've been spending a lot of time on Facebook. I can chat on it with a lot of people from work, college and even a few old high school friends. So if you're reading this and you haven't already, sent me a friend request!

I smell bacon, which means it's almost time for breakfast. Which is good because I am starving.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

I said, she heard

Me - I bought a futon!
Allison - You bottled Whose Line?

Yes, I now own a 4th piece of furniture, a futon. I was looking at buying an air mattress, but a good one, with a pump, is about $50. My futon was $139. And it works as a couch, as well as a place for guests to sleep. I don't have to inflate or deflate it, either.

I am working on building it as we speak, I am just waiting on my landlord's son to bring me a phillips head screwdriver. I am taking this break as an opportunity to blog, and to eat some soup.

I'm fighting off a sinus infection. I went to Dr. Owens office today and got an antibiotic. I should be in the clear before I go to Lebanon to visit Lacy, Jay and Breanna.



Isn't she beautiful?

Customer Service Week at work is off to a good start. We had plenty of participation in our Professional Attire dress up day. Tomorrow is Team Jersey day, so I need to decide whether to wear Penguins jersey or my Steelers jersey.

Okay, time to eat, even thought I am not really hungry. I hate being sick.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

I love Pittsburgh

It's been a busy couple of days. On Friday night after work, I drove down to Pittsburgh to visit Grant and Wendy, who I've only seen once since they moved back to PA. I got to meet their pretty birdies, Chloe and Baby. (Chloe likes me okay, Baby thinks I am in some way a threat.) We rented Watchmen, which we had all watched in the theater but wanted to see again. We also watched SuperBad, and McLovin was still the best part. On Sunday we walked around Little Italy because there was a festival. Wendy had some tiramisu and I had Italian ice. My Garmin got me in and out of the city just fine, although I had to trick it a little to get it to take me north on 79 rather than out 28. Taking 28 is shorter, but since I was driving at night, I'd rather stick to the big highways.

I also have a theory that the Steelers aren't winning because I'm not watching the games. I may have to find out how much basic cable is. Most of the games are on CBS or NBC.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather, there's definitely a chill in the air here today and I want a cup of hot apple cider, and a purring black cat in my lap.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Sneaky Police!

I got a ticket on my way back to Salamanca from Edinboro today. The cop was on the bridge over the highway, next to the exit. I didn't see him until it was way too late. I didn't even have a chance to slow down and possibly not get hit for as high a speed.

I had a good weekend, Al, Austin and I ate at Max and Erma's in Erie last night. Leftovers from which made an excellent brunch today. I got a couple new shirts. I am excited because I leave for Myrtle Beach in less than 5 days.

I have a lot to do this week to get ready. I want to clean off my desk at work so PTodd doesn't have to look at my squalor while I am gone. I also need to leave my house as clean as possible because I am planning to get a kitten from Kelli shortly after I get back. I don't want to bring her home to a mess. I also want to get my washer hooked up so I don't have to go to the laundromat.

Busy week ahead, but I'm looking forward to it.

My Horoscope for today

From Astrology.com, via IGoogle

"Every now and then, the universe steps in, makes an executive decision, and forces you to take a right when you were absolutely sure you'd be taking a left. This is one of those times, and as sensitive as you are, you'll realize it as soon as you open your eyes this morning. So when you end up someplace you weren't supposed to be anywhere near, chatting with someone you feel an immediate affinity towards, you'll get it. You were supposed to meet."

Today doesn't feel like that day to me, but who knows by the end of it? I've definitely felt that way a lot of days. Like someone is put in your path for a purpose. There are signs, and the universe, Gods, Goddesses, whatever you choose to call them, try to point us in the right direction and teach us, with signs, and advice from friends, etc. But sometimes we're stubborn, or we think we know better than the Gods, and that's when things get taken out of our hands.

I'm reading All One Wicca by Kaatryn MacMorgan-Douglas. It's pretty interesting so far. Very down to earth, easy to read, with a sense of humor.

Church of Universal Eclectic Wicca Affirmation of Faith (can be found in All One Wicca and at the CUEW website)

The Affirmation of Acknowledgment:

I: I acknowledge the presence of other faiths on my planet, indeed, right here in my city/town/village. I acknowledge that the followers of these faiths feel as strongly, maybe more so, than I do about mine.

II: I forgive the other faiths and wipe clean the slate between us. I cannot hold a person responsible for the acts of their faith, I cannot hold a faith at fault for individual practitioners. It is not my place to convert, or otherwise alter a person's religion. I invite discussion of beliefs without judgment of those holding them.

III: I acknowledge that I may be wrong, and I have found comfort in the fact that I may be right.


I personally really like part III. You don't have to be wrong for me to be right. I don't have to stomp what another person believes into the ground for me to take comfort in my faith.

In other news, Duamuteffe has started and Etsy shop. Please check it out!



Buy adorable handmade stuff!

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Crashing...

From an excellent "weekend." I worked Saturday and Sunday and then went out to Edinboro. I got to see Wendy and Grant on Tuesday when I took Al and Austin down to Pittsburgh for their big appointment to get Austin his conditional permanent status in the states. We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo after and Wendy and Grant met us there. I really enjoyed seeing the Siberian Tigers, and the PPG Aquarium is great too. (I saw Nemo!)



Then on Wednesday, we went to CEDAR POINT! I have only been to Cedar Point once, and it was after my sophomore prom. The weather was miserable and rainy, and most of the coasters weren't running. The weather yesterday was perfect. I rode 6 coasters, including Top Thrill Dragster I also rode Maverick, Raptor, Iron Dragon and Disaster Transport.

All the coasters were amazing, and I had a great time with Allison, Austin, Jon and Tom. Jon and Tom kept me entertained in long coaster lines with plenty of singing.

We also rode this:



Which is called Maxair and was very fun. You can actually see me on the ride (Thanks, Al!) my hair is over my face. To my right with the t-shirt on his head is Jon. (He was trying to avoid sunburn)

New Alarm Clock

I have a new Alarm Clock. It's a crow that lives outside my house. He seems to know when I need to get up for work, and unlike my phone, he has no snooze button.

According to Animal Speak by Ted Andrews, Crows represent the magic of creation. They are the messengers of magic.

At work, my head aches and my throat is sore and hurts when I swallow. I am going to knock this out with Airborne, because I have things I want to do this week, and I don't want to get anyone sick!

Listening to Bob FM...

Merry Part and Blessed Be

Catching up with the Internet

see more Funny Graphs

Been gone since Saturday morning. Al and Austin are suffering with dial-up right now, so I didn't get online all weekend. Currently listening to my favorite Erie radio station, Bob FM, 94.7.

The graph goes out to my friends who are, have, or will, work in retail/customer service.

I had a great weekend. I really enjoyed the Snow Water Grove ritual on Lughnassad on Sunday. Al, Austin and I had a great time at Presque Isle on Monday. I'd like to say thanks to all the lifeguards at Beach 6 for providing such sweet sweet eye candy. :-)

Merry Part and Blessed Be

Hello I'm Gone

Somebody's waiting back home in Dallas
With no idea where she has gone
Got her suitcase all packed up
In the back of the pickup
Got her red knee-high Luccheses on
She's on any old two-lane
Westbound she knows
'Cause she was chasing her shadow
When the sun finally rose
Man, she's just running
It don't matter where
She figures she'll know where she is when she's there

But she didn't leave nothin' she can't do without
That's enough reason for leavin' no doubt
She rolls down the window, turns up a song
Laughs at the weather and says, hello, I'm gone

Plans for the weekend - wash up new dishes, do some grocery shopping, possibly go to Frewsburg to check out kittens, go to the Farm for a birthday party.

Merry Part and Blessed Be

It had to end sometime...

The weekend that is... I had a fantastic weekend with my friends in Edinboro/Erie. Allison and I went shopping. I got to try curry, which is tasty. Tumeric for the win! While we were shopping I took Al out to Aoyama, the Japanese Steakhouse on Peach St. in Erie. It was just as wonderful as the last time, and the next time I go I may just get all sushi.

After a long day of shopping, we picked up Tim and another Allison at Country Fair and sampled some of Edinboro's night life. :-) A very good time was had by all.

On Sunday morning, I worked on recovering from attempting to entertain myself in a college town on a Saturday night. I am not 22 anymore. We took it easy and ate mac and cheese and watched the Rifftrax of Roadhouse. Rifftrax is basically a movie commentary done by the folks who brought you Mystery Science Theater 3000. In the evening, we went to Cambridge Springs to visit Megin and Pat. I also got to see Grey and Rachel. We were going to role-play, but their DM, Mark, who I've yet to meet, was unavoidably detained. So instead we watched Four Rooms, which is a totally awesome movie that I had not seen since college. The first room is my favorite, of course. :-)

By Sunday, I was having far too much fun to go home, so I decided to take off Monday from work. On Monday, Allison and I went to The Lion's Den and had a great time browsing. I did pick up an item, which I think will be featured heavily in the story I am going to write for Alison Tyler's current contest.

Then I drove back to the real world this morning. Back to the grind...

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Hindsight's 20/20

It's just occured to me that an ice cream cone and a taco for dinner are not going to mix well in my already agitated stomach. Of course, I didn't think of that until the first burp, which tasted of Piece of Cake ice cream (yellow cake flavored ice cream, swirled with chocolate frosting and impregnated with chunks of pound cake. My absolute favorite) with taco seasoning and beef.

Gross.

But I've already been told I'm obsessed with food today. I read in one of my books a long time ago that people who stop eating in a crisis are stupid. You will need all your strength to deal with the matter at hand, so what's the point in starving yourself? But I did do some fantastic eating 4th of July weekend. Started with dinner at the Old Library in Olean. I had the best French Onion Soup on earth, followed by a salad, then homemade potato gnocchi in alfredo sauce. I love their alfredo sauce so much I want to have sex with it. Or in it. I'm not entirely sure which. For dessert I had Peanut Butter Thunder cake, which is a chocolate layer cake, with peanut butter frosting, and peanut butter chips.

Then on Saturday, we went to Jess and Frosh's for a barbecue. Frosh grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs, and I got to have their macaroni salad, which is my favorite macaroni salad. They use mayo, tuna, eggs, and celery seed instead of celery. I don't like raw celery because of the stringiness factor.

I'm back at work today after 3 days off. It's kind of sad that I missed it. Well, not really. What I really miss when I am not here is the people. My Corolla is in the garage getting the boo boo on its butt fixed. I will hopefully have it back tomorrow afternoon. Harriet very nicely agreed to be Driving Miss Suzy today, she brought me to work and is picking me up tonight. I'll have the good ol' Tempo tomorrow.

Okay, off to work on a story for Alison Tyler's blog. This needs to be based on one of the cover girls for her alphabet series. I will probably go with the cover for F is for Fetish, since I have that one.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Why is the Internet always finding new ways to occupy my time?

There are blogs to read, facebook to update, myspace to update, NeoPoints to earn, and now, Twitter. It's all Grey's fault really. He jumped into the wonderful world of social networking with both feet, so now I have ended up with a Twitter account as well. The only thing I haven't done is activate it so it can be updated from my phone, because we don't have texting on our cell plan. Plus I'm really bad at texting.

I had a great weekend. I played a lot of World of Warcraft, and yesterday we successfully surprised Kelli with lunch for her birthday. And I just remembered I left my leftovers from lunch yesterday in the fridge at home, instead of bringing them for lunch today as I had intended. Doh! Oh well, it's pasta, I am sure it will be good tomorrow night for dinner, as Jeff has class. The semester is almost over, and we are taking a short break together the first weekend of May.

So sleepy... I wonder if I can convince my boss of the benefits of a siesta?

Buenos dias!

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Inquiring minds wants to know...

A friend from work sent me a few questions about my beliefs. They really made me think, so I wanted to share my answers here.

#1. Are you a vegetarian? Why or why not?

#2. Do you consider mining the ground as an insult against the Earth? Is the "spirituality" of crystals affected when they are intentionally extracted from man made caves? Or, more simply, do rocks have souls?

#3. Do plants have souls?

My answers:

1) I am not a vegetarian. I think if the Goddess didn't want me to eat animals, she wouldn't have made them so tasty. :-) Seriously though, humans are animals, and animals eat other animals, that's all a part of the natural cycle. I do avoid eating animals that are raised in inhumane conditions, like veal. If I could afford it, I would definitely buy more organic/free range groceries and such. But I don't believe my Goddess wants me to be broke, so I do as much as I can.

2) & 3) - The word "soul" isn't one I use a lot. I believe more in the eternal spirit, which is born, lives, dies and is reborn again. "Soul" to me has always been used to say who gets to go the afterlife and who doesn't. A soul is something to be saved or damned, two concepts that don't really fit in my spiritual worldview.

For rocks, I would rather use crystals produced in a man-made cave, than something that's been torn out of the ground without any care for the ecological system around it.

It would be like using an African conflict diamond or a cubic zirconium in your fiancee's engagement ring. Sure, the conflict diamond is of excellent quality, but do you want the negative energy associated with it attached to a symbol of your marriage? The cubic zirconium serves the same purpose, and its production did no harm to the Earth.

I have kind of a black thumb when it comes to plants, so I don't work with them much. I do believe they have spirits that you can communicate and work with, which I probably need to spend more time doing to work with them successfully. A plant spirit is usually called a Deva.

The magic is always in the magician, not in the tools. If you feel a tool was tainted in its creation, or in how it was harvested, then it's not going to work in your magic.

Hope that answers your questions, I have no problems answering questions about my beliefs, so let me know if you have more. Keep in mind I don't consider myself a spokes-witch though. The best part of Wicca for me is that each of us is our own priest or priestess. How I interpret things might be completely different from how another Wiccan does. A lot of my beliefs are influenced by the Reclaiming and Faery Traditions of Wicca, which are both got their start around San Franscisco, completely separate from Gerald Gardner's Wicca.





Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Tomorrow is the day

My 29th birthday. I got a very lovely gift from my in-laws today. Jeff got me two DVDs I really wanted, Sleeping Beauty and Wanted. Not sure how I feel about the birthday this year. Normally I love my birthday, it's the one day a year I allow myself to be a shameless attention whore. But I'm being plagued by the feeling that everyone expects me to have done more with myself by this age. It's the last year of my 20s. Time to grow up or shut up? And it's stupid, because really, I'm the only one who has to be happy with myself. And I do generally like myself, my job, my house and my life. I have the awesomest friends, fantastic family, a husband who loves me, a good job and a roof over my head.

So I guess, writing it out like that, I'm pretty damn lucky.

Bring it on 29.

Merry Part and Blessed Be

New Shoes are Sweet

This post actually has nothing to do with my shoe fetish. I got Apples to Apples, a very fun game, from Jess and Frosh for Christmas this year. In the times we've played it, I've developed a theory that the green apple cards with adjectives you win describe the personality of the person who wins them.

For example, last night I had Fresh, Sultry, Influential, Corrupt, Hilarious and Sweet.

One can argue that I'm not extremely influential or really corrupt, but I know I have influenced and corrupted the morals of my friends and exes.

So I think it's pretty spot on. :-)

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Damn snow, being all slippery and wet

I had fantastic plans today to see my friends in Erie. I was going to start my Christmas shopping, and have lunch, and it would have been awesome.

I say would have been because there is a Lake Effect Snow Warning for all counties from McKean to Erie. I say would have been, because today, I am listening to my gut when it says, stay at home.

Bless Jeff, he didn't say "Don't go." He said, "Make a good decision."

But I feel crappy because I feel like I am letting people down, and I am worried they will be mad at me.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Dream Blogging

I had a odd dream last night that my manager Tom was leaving and no one knew. We found out last minute and Pam was running around planning a going away party. He was sitting at my desk talking to me and I had to hide my reaction when Pam came around with a list for the party and asked my opinion on it.

Terrible headache this morning, I think I need to take some Sudafed and Tylenol. I am hoping I am not getting my annual sinus infection again.

Our friend Adam is visiting this weekend. We had a good time last night carving pumpkins and playing Arkham Horror. And this year, our pumpkins didn't get smashed.

I hope everyone else had a fun Samhain/Halloween or whatever you want to call it.

Merry Part and Blessed Be

More food

Today we went down West Hickory and my mom made steak, crab cakes, texas sheet cake, twice baked potatoes, garlic bread, and salad. The portions were not small.

Missed going to Ellicottville this morning as planned due to oversleeping. I'm excited that Halloween is Friday and Adam will be up next weekend. We can play Arkham Horror and carve pumpkins and it will be great.

I'm feeling tired now, might post more tomorrow, might not.

Merry Part and Blessed Be

Slowly slipping away...

I am back down to updating once a week maybe, will have to try harder. I am working til 9 tonight. Today is Obnoxious Shirt Day at work. Jeff dug me out his ugly old laundry shirt. It is hideous. I have to come up with Team Contest for tomorrow. Tomorrow is Team Jersey day. I will be wearing my Steelers jersey. I was going to buy a Terrible Towel at Wally World today and forgot. I did get my hair trimmed in anticipation of the fancy dinner I am attending for work this weekend. It should be fun. I wish I had a perfect little black dress to wear. I really didn't start worrying about what to wear until this week.

And Duamuteffe referenced Suz's third law in a comment on Teh Kid's blog this week. I don't remember my laws, which were probably about mixing booze and sex. I wish I remembered them, they came from hard experience, so they were probably pretty smart.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

0-2

That is my record for smart vs. stupid today. I didn't turn off the alarm when I got up this morning, I just hit snooze, waking Jeff up 10 minutes later when I was in the shower. Then I locked my keys in the car with it running at Emory Espresso Bar. I could put it down to lack of sleep, but it's probably just me having my head up my ass as usual.

But I had a latte, and I have Swedish fish, and I have good friends in town. How bad could it really be?


Last night we played Ticket to Ride and Bohnanza. I did horribly at both. Couldn't get any good destination tickets for Ticket to Ride, and I usually suck at Bohnanza.

Lacy and Jay brought up a new game called Mare Nostrum which we will check out tonight.

Merry Part and Blessed Be