{meliologie} {ivyologie}

Is everyone going insane?

There is a post now, at twopeas about taking CHRIST out of Christmas. They are bitching about Lowes calling their trees HOLIDAY trees instead of CHRISTMAS trees. No matter how many times I reference the history of Yule, they are still not understanding it. HISTORY.

~Pagans (before the time of Christ) used lights outside and inside their home to call back the Sun (god).
~Pagans used to decorate trees with light and ornaments to celebrate the solstice
~Christ was born in the Spring. Pope Julius I moved the date to December in order to share the holiday with the Pagans (and hopefully convert them)
~Xmas shouldn't be offensive. Monks in the 16th century used the letter X, to represent Christ, as its a combination of the greek letters for his name

This doesn't make Christmas invalid, by any means. I'm simply stating this so that people understand that before they get all up in arms about it, to do a little RESEARCH about it.

Whats really sad is that it seems as though many Christians on that board are so closed minded, that they won't even accept the history as fact. To them, fact is what their leader tells them on Sunday mornings. They think that the WORLD should be Christian. That instead of being INCLUSIVE for all religions, we should be exclusive toward Christianity. That Christmas is the only REAL winter holiday, and everyone who doesn't celebrate it is pushing this country toward communism. I feel so sorry for them. And their children. I only can pray that their children will learn tolerance at school, since they obviously won't learn it at home.

I'm brainstorming for a paper I may or may not write..

Why I believe in the degree system in Witchcraft Traditions:

~ easily explains levels of experience
~ are similar across traditions
~ gives the students/initiates goals
~ aides in getting the student to integrate knowledge with practices

Good morning! It is MONDAY morning and I am one tired girliewhirl. However, I'm back at work... here's my very first meme challenge from twopeas:

20 Things I Enjoy Doing
1. Sleeping- last night
2. Emailing- a few minutes ago
3. Writing- last month
4. Scrapbooking- Satuday
5. Altering Objects- last week
6. Shopping- Saturday
7. Reading- this morning
8. 2Peas- a few minutes ago
9. MysticWicks- last night
10. Nature Walking- months ago
11. Drinking- yesterday
12. Dancing- October
13. Singing- this morning
14. Ritual- Samhain
15. Meditation- a few weeks ago (<-- bad witchie)
16. Teaching- a week ago
17. Helping others spiritually- hopefully lately!
18. Listening to music- this morning
19. Sleeping- last night
20. Hot Tubbing!- a few years.... ah, the party days of sitting in a hot tub, playing truth or dare, and drinking heavily.

Enough complaining about money. My friend and sisterwitch Ligeiya told me once not to worry, because it will all work itself out. My sisters friend Kathy told me that her mama always told her to not let YOUR problems become other peoples problems.

So, yeah. It's sunday night... went to bowling. Sucked hard as usual. Its me and Bens 2 yr. Well, its the anniversary of when we met... we call that our anniversary because we don't remember the day we admitted that we were exclusive and it wasn't long after we met.

We had champagne. We were gonna grill these porterhouse steaks, but we're gonna do that tomorrow instead. They are sitting in the marinade right now. I have to remember to flip them tomorrow morning before work.

I didn't get a lot of scrapping done, but I DID get one covensister gift finished.

I just put IcyHot on Bens shoulder and neck... then I touched my leg... it burns like ice. Weird. Some stuff is just super weird.

Well, I'm sleepy. I spent my day helping my bf's sister and mom with a scrapbook his mom is working on for a gift. Three scrapbooks, to be precise. We did 30 pages. Yikes.

Looking over how much $$ we have... and how much we've spent, we are in the hole a nice amount of money. And Xmas is coming up. Great. I'm looking over my scrapbook supplies to see what I can sell, but Ben gets really mad when I talk about selling my craft stuff. He says that it made me so happy when I bought it, that I shouldn't think about selling it. But I contributed to the money issue, so I need to contribute to the solution. He's hoping to get more side work... but I don't have any side work *I* could do. I don't know... hopefully it will work itself out.

I'm beginning to worry. At least we can pay our rent. Thats the most important thing.

Aftermath

Its the day after thanksgiving and my tummy is not happy. I've had the cha-cha-chas all morning. :( I guess the tequila isn't playing nice with the champagne and wine. Or maybe the Southern Comfort isn't getting along with the red bull and vodka. When will I learn to just pick something and stick with it?!?

At least I'm not puking. I learn from my mistakes. I had never puked from liquor until this year. But I learn....

June 2005: You MUST eat before drinking. It will make you sick if you don't. Its not just that you buzzed quicker. You will PUKE the next morning. Also, absynthe does NOT make the heart grow fonder.

September 2005: Do NOT drink out of a bottle in a paper bag in a club parking lot. You don't really know how much you drink. All of a sudden the bottle finished, you look at your partner in crime and are so drunk you leave your purse at a table and never look back.

Anyway.. that being said... I'm at work right now. I hope M and K are having a nice sleepy time while Im here. I volunteered to work so that they could have the day off. Sometimes I feel like a selfish bitch... this isn't one of those times.

The only people that have called are the poor misguided souls who call, looking for the cable company. I just glanced in the mirror. Peaked. I look PEAKED.

I want to go to a club this weekend. I need to shake my big ol' booty. I'm also going on a diet. I don't really want to, but I can't see myself pregnant and this overweight. I'd like to drop about 30 pounds. Thats my short term goal. I think thats manageable. I'm a healthy fat chick. Cholesterol-fine, BP-fine, Sugar-fine. But my knee would be happier if I was thinner. Eh. I'm fine the way I am... but I'd be happy 30 pounds lighter, too. My diet really isn't that bad.... I don't eat that much. I DEFINITELY don't snack. However, I'm lazy. I always can find something else to do than exercise. I probably need to start small and then work up to more. I don't teach dance anymore, so even that is out. I heart dancing. Oh well.

I wish I had a gym membership or a treadmill @ home. Its so hard, when you are pretty broke. I'm not gonna worry about a gym membership until after the beginning of the year.

At least my family is on a budget this year with the gifts cause we are all pretty broke. I can even make some stuff, which is nice. :) I mean I have ENOUGH craft supplies to make presents for the entire population of China, I think.

Oh well. Ben is probably still asleep.... and he left a mess in the kitchen (the living room reeks of burnt chex mix). He has quite a list of things to do today.... clean the kitchen, put his damn clothes away (why cant he actually PUT THEM IN THE HAMPER!?), get out the Xmas deccys. Deposit his paycheck. I bet if I get home early, he'll still be asleep.

I'm listening to my shuffle here @ work.. unplugged my computer from the speakers and wish I could turn it up! Music makes you lose control!

I have so much scrapbooking that I want to get done:

Pacific Circle- 8.5 x 11
Samhain- 8.5 x 11
4th of July- 12 x 12
Hawaii Album- 8 x 8 (or maybe I'll try a 2up album)
Sea World- 12 x 12
Las Vegas- 12 x 12
NASCAR- 12 x 12 or 6 x 6

A new SB store opened up on Leffingwell and First. I went there a few weeks ago, asked the owner to hold something for me. Totally never came to pick it up. I SUCK.

Anyway, thats enough rambling from me. :)

I really need to start blogging more...

Its Thanksgiving morning, 11:42am, to be precise, and I still have not yet showered. I'm trying to wait for my DBF to finish up his Chex Mix making, so we can take a shower together like we used to do all the time.

The plan is that we go to my parents, to drop off Thanksgiving snackie-poos, then to his parents, then bring his sister back to MY parents. My family loves a good party. And when I mean LOVES a good party, I mean, that we set up a bar. We've moved up, though... my aunt gave my mom a little buffet thing, so now we'll be setting it up on there... last year it was on the washing machine. I thought that was cool!

So, lets see, whats been up with me lately... well, I've been knitting up a storm, almost finished my first scarf... once its done, I'll post it up here. I'm getting ready to clean out my craft supplies and my closet. I have so much scrapbooking stuff, its insane. What MORE insane is the fact that I know that my stuff is tame compared to some other peoples stashes. I need another three-drawer thing.

I did 18 scrapbooking sketches the other day during THE most boring conference call at work. Over 90 minutes of stuff I learned 5 years ago. I was so excited to see the NEW program. They changes ONE graphic, and felt they had to do an entirely new training. I wish they would have said that it was the same old shit. I had work to do for my account executives. Oh well, at least I got some sketches done.

I need to actually get started on working on some of my pages. I can't wait to do my Pacific Circle and Samhain pages now... I just have to figure out my journaling. :) I also want to put together an 8x8 album for my sister for her wedding pictures. I haven't bought her wedding present yet... but I have a year, right?

My naked wood craft table inspires me...

Another stressful week behind me. I'm so glad that Thanksgiving is this week. There are so many things in my life that I am thankful for.

I was trolling my myspace groups today and someone was looking for a forgiveness prayer... so I whipped something up to inspire them. This is it:

Great Goddess,
I have done things in the past that I am so sorry for,
Things that were almost out of my control,
yet I feel as though I might have changed their outcome.
Past events cross my mind often enough so that its interfering in my growth.

Great Goddess,
Help me forgive myself for these past events, so that I might be able to grow as your daughter.
Aid me in overcoming these obstacles from my path, as they block my path from becoming the spiritual being I long to be.
Assist me as I grow and learn, knowing that I am sorry for my mistakes, but accepting them, growing from them and learning from them.
Support me as I move on in my life, spiritually released from the bonds that have held me for so long, as I am refreshed and ready to begin again.

Remind me that I am yours, loved by you and living in the world that you created, my life a constant learning experience, my mistakes- opportunities to grow from. Bless me with your wisdom, knowledge and love eternal. Blessed be.

Lyrics, Logs and Last Minute Lists

Its odd. Sometimes lyrics just GET you, you know?

Workin' so hard every night and day
And now we get the pay back
Trying so hard saving up the paper
Now we get to lay back

When's it my turn to 'lay back?'

I was looking at some logs of conversations from the past... so interesting how things change. What else is interesting is how some friends past... even if you aren't close any more... how you can just 'know' that it will all work out. And you'll be friends once again. Looking at the logs... it was so weird. Especially some of them- I saved the sweet ones. I had a friend who was really close... and I really cared about him... and he finally said some of the things I wanted to hear. But it was too late. Some guys are just late on that sorta stuff. And then they expect it to work out in their favor. Everything happens for a reason.

I need a past life reading... I have a feeling about one of my lives... but I'd like some sorta confirmation.

My sisters wedding is in less than 1 day and a half, now. I still have place cards to do, shapewear to get, pedicure to get, and car wash to get. Shapewear! Hah! Torture device is more like it. I'm gonna go to bed with my cuddlebug now. He's already asleep. So, Ima cuddle with him whiles hes sleeping. Night!