Winter Comes to the Pacific Northwest

So I've been living here in the Pacific Northwest for about 13 years now. The winters here range from just being wet and gray to actually having some character like we've seen recently here.
However, this is the earliest I can remember that this much character showed up. The picture below was taken in my front yard on November 26 and it continued in that vein for about the next three to four hours. Of course, this little smattering of snow is meaningless to those who live in more severe climes...such as my supervisor at work who is mystified every time the city of Seattle shuts down over a little ice and snow. You see, my supervisor hails from Minnesota where the snow is considered and measured in feet, not inches!

Our office was closed on Tuesday the 28th due to all of this snow and our feeble inability to cope with same. I really enjoyed having my snow day off too....I climbed up on a ladder (a very daring feat for me these days since the ill-fated knee surgery of August) and got down the Yule decorations. The tree is now up as are several pieces of festive garland....I there are no actual decorations on the tree, however, so that is going to be a task for the near future. Maybe this weekend after my accupuncture treatment...but I digress.

What I was going to tell you is about this crazy ass manager who works in my office that went into her department on Wednesday after the office was closed on Tuesday and bawled out the people who work in there for not coming in! She's totally coo-coo....as is the rest of this place. Oh well.

So I just wanted to get a picture of yon snow day up on my blog. I don't really have anything else to say and I have another web page that I have to work on for work here.

So, ta ta for now and take care...keep warm and dry.

Well Fuck Me Runnin'.....It's the middle of November

Howdy anyone that ambles by. I just thought I would share a few thoughts on a grey work day. I have my cup of starbucks by my side and am feeling pretty good and just thought I'd share.

Halloween was a good time, but a also kind of anti-climactic like it always is. I DID wear my Billy-bad-ass booby showin' costume, but didn't get any decent pictures while I was in it. :*( Oh well. Fuck it. I have decided that to make Halloween as special as I need for it to be, I'm gonna have to get the Hell out of Dodge. So, next year, and this is the current plan anyway, I wanna go to Salem Mass for Halloween. They got a whole big festival that goes the entire month of October centered around the festivities. And that's where I'm gonna be. I have enough witch outfits to wear for at least three different days there and, of course, I'll have to make a new one for the occassion. It'll probably cost about $1,200.00 to take both me and the man to Salem. I think Andie would love it too, but, oh well....she's at a weird age. She doesn't want to go anywhere with either one of us, much less both of us at the same time. Maybe if it's really good and fun, I can take her as a young adult.

Here's a picture of me with my co-workers that dressed up. This is a pitiful showing of people getting into the spirit of Halloween in an office with 180 people in it. :(



Anyway, that's me in the pumpkin orange witch dress. That thing was a beast to make. The hat is really bad-ass but it wasn't standing up for the picture. It is a poofy one that is supposed to lean, but not be flat on my head. The whole thing cost a flippin' fortune in time and money to make. I may make the same pattern for next year now that I know what I'm doing. But this next gown will be black, I will cut more room into the pattern and I will make it quite a bit longer than this one. When I cut this dress out, I was talking to my mom and so I didn't make it any roomier and I also spaced the fact that patterns are made for an average 5'6" woman. Of course that little brain poot left the dress about 3" too short for yours truly. Oh well....I couldn't wear heels anyway because of my knee.

So....let's see....what else? Not too much. I've taken to going to accupuncture to deal with my knee and back pain. Seems to be a bit more effective than nothing. We'll see. The lady I'm seeing is a true healer and I think she's very good at what she does. All I know is I am fucked up. That's about all I know. Oh! And then to put the cherry on the cake of my knee-babying experience, I had to go and fall in the street right on the 'mergency knee.

Anyway,
I guess I'd better go to work.
Az

Vacations and Other Stuff

Well, since I last posted I've been on vacation to Oklahoma and back, been to about a billion physical therapy appointments - until I feel like I see more of those guys than I do my own husband, and lost a co-worker. I don't know what the hell else I've done since, for the past many, many years I have relied on journaling to remind me of what I'm doing with my life, and since I've given up journaling because it was too painful to go back and look over some of the stuff. Oh well. I guess I will just wander around aimlessly for a while longer until I can get back in the habit of chronicalling where I've been and what I've done with my days and nights.

I went to Oklahoma to see my mother and my sister. They are both doing well - well, my mom has pretty much immobilized herself with lack of movement, but my sister is doing quite well. She just turned fifty years old. Here she is with a picture of her two granddaughters. Yep....granddaughters. She looks pretty darn good, huh?
And here's my mommy from this trip. Compare with the picture of my mommy from previous blog post earlier this year. Not much change.

So that's the little fam. My sister had her 50th birthday and basically that was the big event. Of course it wasn't as big of an event as I would have liked it to be, but my knee being all fucked up and my back too, didn't give me much of an opportunity to do much of anything for my sister. I spent the whole time being pretty miserable, actually. Which is actually why I don't have anything interesting to say. I've come to the conclusion, and this may not be a revelation that shocks anyone else, maybe I'm just a slow learner....but pain changes your personality. Just thought I'd tell you that. My knee is slowly, ever so slowly, getting better. It still hurts like hell and I dread walking on it, but at least I CAN now....which is better than it was before. However, it hurts so much that it actually affects how much enjoyment I can get out of my life. For instance, a friend of mine stopped by my office earlier today and told me that she was going to walk down to the Pike Market to get some spices for herself. Now Pike Market, which is a big tourist attraction around here and a pretty neat place to go is only about a 15 minute walk from this office. However, I wouldn't think of walking there with my knee like this. I have been unwilling to take the bus into work for the same reason. I truly do not know how the 4-block walk will affect me by the time I get here. And Goddess forbid if I have something more to carry than just my purse for that day because it will be too much for my back with it's four herniated disks and the disk fragment that is still lodged in my spinal column. **sigh** Before all of this shit went wrong earlier this year, I basically took my good health for granted and didn't exercise or do anything to improve my lot. Now that I can't do most exercises, I long to have the ability once again. Fancying that if only I did, I would make better use of my time and get my muscles into better shape. I can only hope and pray I'll have that opportunity.

So, since I don't have anything to actually "say" - I guess I'll just show you one more picture. This one is of me at my mom's house using the sewing machine to make my Halloween costume that I have been planning for a year. We'll see if I actually get to wear it or not. I don't have anything planned for Halloween, so it may have been 20 hours at the sewing machine for basically nothing.

See what a good mood I'm in? Too much feelin' sorry for yourself isn't good. I know that. But sometimes I just get so down. I'm ready to feel good again and like I could jump up out of this chair and go get myself a cup of coffee without having to limp the first five or six steps, or without having to stand and move my leg up and down at the knee just to get warmed up enough to walk down the hall. I'd like to be able to carry a box, climb a ladder, get up on a chair to get some of my Halloween ceramics out of the cabinet.

Guess I'll write more when I'm not so poopy.

Having Teenagers is the True Hell!!

I know that there is a huge portion of the population that believes that when you die, if you haven't been a righteous person in your life, you will go to the firey pits and be burned for all eternity in punishment for not having lived up to the mark.

However, I, as you know if you have read any of my previous posts am not one of those people. There is retribution for your sins, but it is exacted here on this earth. For instance, if you have kids, you will enjoy them while they are little, but when they get to be teenagers, they bring with them the wrath of God and Goddess alike, all too willing to spill it out on our deserving heads. I can remember that I treated my mom like crap when I was a teenager, and here I am, living the role reversal some 30 years later with my own little cookie-cutter.

Oh well....today I'm downloading music and listening and playing with my computer. I may put on my jeans and go out for a walk. My teenager is starting her first job today and is in the bathroom getting ready. It's cold in the house. Church was last night....right now I'm listening to The Spinners "I'll Be Around." I'm going to Oklahoma in a few weeks. I'm narcotix free these days but my leg still hurts like hell from the surgery. Still going to physical therapy three times a week. Awfully glad that blogger is sponsoring my personal journal. Never plan to run for public office so don't give a good rat's ass who sees this. Homeland security? Come and get me motherfuckers. Noooch.



Here's my natty little MP3 player. Almost makes up for the teenager....NOT!

Music makes me terribly reminiscent. So I'm downloading more. I love to look at the big picture...the tapestry of life. My husband hasn't seen the tapestry yet. He's got a few years to go. Maybe he's seen the hem of it...it's the grandest thing to have lived through some decades of change. Too bad I didn't keep my old body - or wait...I mean, my young body. I do hope I get the opportunity to continue to work on that. Now that I've got an MP3 player, that just got a whole lot easier. I feel as though I've been starving myself for music! And why? For no good reason that's for sure....Ahh......."Iris" is on right now with all it's expansive waves. Nice. Hell yeah! I subscribed to a service! :)

I'm just rambling, but that's what I wanted to do this morning. Happy Sunday.

Some Pics from Lately

So I happen to be lying here in my living room in front of the fire and within ready reach of my handy-dandy camera. So, I thought I'd upload a few pics from some interesting stuff lately.

First, here's a picture of me with some of the administrators from my office at the ALA conference in Palm Springs. I was asked to present a seminar there and did so and had a great time in the process. ALA stands for the Association of Legal Administrators and they are a class act, lemme tell ya. Very organized, very professional and drink....lord god these people can drink. :O



We're all having a great time there. It was the first night I was at the hotel and this was a big reception around the pool. Here's a picture of the pool from my balcony. It was quite beautiful and nice to swim in. I don't think I've ever seen so many lounge chairs in one place before.


So anyway, we all had a great time drinking and eating around the pool. I picked up my speaker package and went back to my room. I hate these kinda nametags that hang around your neck, but I enjoyed having the "speaker" ribbon on there.


After I did my speaking gig the next day, I ran down to the bar and got myself a double pina colada, went upstairs and took some pain medication (my knee was brutal after standing and presenting for 90 minutes) then I went and got myself a massage. It was great, but it didn't keep me from having to go to my room and put an ice pack on my knee for the rest of the evening. It was great though.

The next day I spent the morning in the hot tub, the pool and the exercise room until it was time to go home. I was trying to upload some pics from the pool, but blogger won't let me. :( Oh well....maybe there's a limit per post.

Anyway, it was then time to go home and the day after I got home we went to a friend's house and had ourselves an old fashioned cider pressing. I'm gonna end this blog entry cuz I can't upload any more pictures, but I'll make another one shortly. Those of you living vicariously through my blog (and you know who you are over there on the penninsula) I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get you something to read. :)

Me and the Web Cam

There's a funky little eyeball sitting on top of my laptop at the moment. (Well, it isn't MY laptop....that got stolen from me last month when I had my knee surgery - but the laptop I'm using at the moment anyway). It reminds me of the eyeball in the bag on "My Stepmother is an Alien" - which, if you are ignorant of same is one of the cooler movies to come out of the late 80s. Not a John Hughes movie, but definitely worth watching (IMHO).

I'm at work at the moment and am learning to use the new Creative web cam for purposes of video meetings. So far, I'm up to getting it installed and taking a picture for my blog! Yay for me! :) I have a whole bunch more pictures of my recent training trip to Palm Springs for the ALA convention there as well as some fun snaps of a cider pressing we went to last weekend. Life has been rich of late, despite the fact that I'm really dragging ass on my recovery from knee surgery.

The daughter has joined the swim team and she got a job at Ruby's in the mall. I'm so very proud of her. I hope she can keep her grades up so I can let her keep the job. We'll see....

Okay, well, I gotta shut down soon. They didn't give me a little leatherette case in which to keep the eyeball, so I guess it's goin' into the old bag bare nekkid just like it is.

I'll put those pics of Palm Springs up real soon.

Hiiiiii-dee Ho....

I didn't mean for it to be so long in between posts. The summer got under way and well, one thing led to another and here we are at September 1. My daughter starts back to school on Tuesday, I have a huge presentation due on that day, and in less than two weeks I will be in Palm Springs presenting a seminar to a bunch of legal managers. There are no words to describe how relieved I will be when that is done. I have been both looking forward to and dreading the event since I agreed to do it. :) That's just the way I work.

Let's see....since I last wrote, my daughter went to Oklahoma for almost three weeks which gave me a chance to have a small break from her for that amount of time. I painted the living room purple...well, one wall, the kitchen red (well, two walls) and did some general decorating and spiffing up of the old place. I would take some pictures and put them up here, but, well, our house was burglarized last week and my laptop is no more. Oh well....I suppose I should also go about the business of getting my new one configured so I can upload web pages and so forth, but I do have that presentation that needs finished and there is nothing about the web pages that I maintain that could ever be considered vital.

I want some ice cream.

I had a surgery last week. A surgery on my knee to repair my lateral miniscus and take out some arthritic cartilage. Trust me when I say to you that there are few things that can make you feel older than having your knees fucked up. I will appreciate mine so much more when they are better....I promise. Physical therapy starts next week as does water aerobics. After that....I suppose I may have to go to Weight Watchers. **sigh** I've tried to avoid them like the plague, but, well, I suppose a little comeraderie in the area of making less of myself wouldn't be a bad thing.

It's hard to believe that summer is done and Indian Summer upon us. I have a couple of little fall scarecrows on the front lawn. They're pretty cute....and I am already looking forward to Halloween with the zeal of a little kid looking to score some candy. My harvest witch gown is going to be to die for this year. I got the idea for it off of a witchy Barbie I saw on Ebay last year. Great gobs! It's only two short months away. :) I wanna be sure to get the house decorated the first couple of days of October so we can make the most of the season. But, first things first.....getting through this upcoming Outlook presentation.

So that's it....I just wanted to check in and say "hi" to anyone who may be watching. :) All one of you.

See you again soon, as I will not allow this much time to lapse before my next entry.

Help is On the Way

This is great! I'm so glad to know this place is here, because many is the time I have needed to purchase some of their wares.

Well, it's been a few days since I've blogged, and I haven't yet gotten to see The Omen. Maybe tonight will be my lucky night. On "THE day", the husband and I attempted to go and see it but the movie theatre was mobbed by teenagers who were eager to get in there and see the devil at work. See, they get overly excited because they are too young to know that ALL children are the devil. Not just one. All those little fuckers. :)

So it's one of my good friends birthdays today. She's 46, but she's dividing the birthday by 2 so she's 23 again. I think that's a great idea in the even years, but what about the odd? I have a friend who was born on leap year day, February 29. She only has a birthday ever 4 years. I guess that if she's 52, that means she's only had 13 birthdays. Might be a difficult puberty if you are plagued with having to take arthritis medication. I dunno. Kinda hard to fit in the latest teen fasions when your tits are hanging down to your knees....but that's something else weird about her. Naked she could almost pass for a teenager or a 20-something. Probably because she is a lesbian and hasn't squeezed out any puppies. Who knows? All I know is that I'm so glad I found the paddle store.

Oh, and if any of you reading this want to buy Avon from me, just email me at Asradel@gmail.com and I'll send you a catalog!

Az

666....Today

Time to bust out the horns and the pitch forks. Yep, it has arrived. All you Christers out there go and hide your heads in a hole somewhere. It's the day of the Great Beast. Yes.....6/6/6 has arriv-ed.

Whatever! I think it's an atrocity and a gross oversight on the part of Hollyweird to have not put more offerings out there to watch on this most inauspicous day. The only think we have to choose from is a weak ass remake of "The Omen" - Who cares? I hope that there are at least some cool graphics in it. Hell yes, Im going to see it. It's the only game in town. And I'm gonna see it tonight TOO! How can I not? I am a student of human theology, a seeker of truth and practitioner of the Art Magickal. 666 is a cultural icon. Whether you are a holy rolling Christer who flails around on the boards of the church floor of just someone who has a vague idea that there is a religion called Christianity, chances are you know what 666 is and what it is associated with. So yeah....I'm going to see The Omen.

My young friend Matticus put a nice little article up on the Bulletin board today. He's a smart little dude. I'm glad to know him. He found a fragment of one of the new testaments that was found in the jars of the caves in Qumran (can't spell the fuckin' thing....I can say it though) - anyway, he goes on to talk about how the 666 was actually numeric code for the Emperor Caligula. Quite possibly. What I remember most about Revelations was that it said, "he who has eyes to see and discern, let him see" - and brother does THAT remark ever point to a political statement on the times.

If we were living in a time of oppression (and we are) in which we could lose our lives if we spoke out against the powers that be (not quite yet) then we would find ways to express our unhappiness with the state of things without getting our little head-balls chopped off, I'm sure.

So, while I have no doubt that the human race will self-destruct or a natural disaster or disease will eventually thin our numbers to the point that we will be building on the rubble of society and coming up from dirt-eating once again (check your history books - they all point to the fact that we've done this a few times already) I do not believe that Death Rides a Pale Horse....(no disrespect to The Man In Black intended).

But, if you haven't read the Book of Revleations, I strongly suggest that you do....read it today for the sake of the day. Read it with new eyes that see past the shackles of an angry God and through to the truth of the human heart. Read it from the perspective of a people who had been enslaved and taxed to death for generation upon generation, and I guarantee you'll get something different out of it.

Bright blessings on all who read this. I'll let you know later how I like the movie.

Now here's a cute little blog thing that I got called "what sign SHOULD you be"

This one says I should be a Cancer. Now, I'm just fine being a Saggitarius, but who am I to argue with a 4 question quiz on the Internet?

You Should Be A Cancer

What's good about you: you're incredibly kind, caring, and generous What's bad about you: you can be too moody and impossible to understand In love: you enjoy wining and dining the object of your affection In friendship, you're: likely to depend on other friends for emotional support Your ideal job: historian, marine biologist, or religious figure Your sense of fashion: you dress to match your mood You like to pig out on: classic home cooked meals, like mac and cheese

What Sign Should You Be?

Big Ass Weekend!!!!

So it's been a great Memorial Day weekend. It started off on Friday when we came home, had dinner and I filled Avon orders. I got my new Avon pin for selling over 500 dollars worth of Avon in just two campaigns. It's so fun. I can't tell you how strange it is to be an Avon lady when I can remember wanting to be one when I was a little kid and the happy recipient of those little lipstick samples my mom would get with her orders back then. In those days they were in little white tubes and you could clearly read their names on the bottom There were also fragrance samples, but what I remember most are the lipsticks. Anway, the merit pin was fun. Thank the Goddess that my husband discouraged me from wearing it to the movie we went to later! Ha ha ha! I was excited to get it and had a moment of duffessness when I thought it would look cool to wear it to the movies! WTF? A big-ass Avon pin in gold....just as an ornament! Not at a convention! Or even to deliver orders, but to a movie! Now you gotta be a dyed-in-the wool convert for something like that. Anyway, I saw the light very quickly and avoided that bit of embarrassment - and saved him as well. So we then went to see X-Men III - I have to say that I was kind of disappointed. It really wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. But I refused to read a review on it before it came out. X-Men is something I hae to judge for myself. Anyway, it was great to go to it on its opening night, even if our tickets were for the 11:30 show! We didn't even get home 'til almost 2:00

Then Saturday we got up at a decent hour and my husband went to his favoritie Toy store, the Harbor Freight Tools in Everett. I hung out with Andrea the daughter - then we did the grocery shopping - big job....and we got a movie (that sucked), but it was still a pretty good day. The husband was working on his truck most of the evening, and then my son and his wife came over for a while.

The next morning my hubby got up and went off to the autocross practice in Bremerton. Shortly after that, I took Andrea to the last session of her driving school with what must be the most dufus ass instructor I've ever encountered.....but at least she has her permit and has passed her written driving test. So .... then she came home and was sitting there all bored and stuff....and her sister-in-law came over. :) I made us some vodka crans (not the 16 year old, but me and the 25 year old) and we all three sat around and talked and had a great afternoon. We played with Avon a little....looked through the catalogs and I did my daughter-in-law's makeup. Here are some before and after pics.




Polly Before


I gave her a choice between "going out at night" make-up a and a day look. Polly chose the day look and here's what we came up with. Not that we didn't have absolutely lovely material to work with already, but she did look absolutely beautiful with some under eye concealer, some pressed powder, a light bronzer on her cheeks and some neutral colored eyeshadow with a touch of Heaven Blue on the sides. She also had berry lipliner and a color shine mauve on her lips. She looked just beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. Not to mention the fact that we had to wait until my camera batteries charged so I could take the "after" picture.




Shortly after that, my husband returned from his auto-cross practice, and I made chicken curry for everyong. My son came over to pick up the Polly, as she had had a bit to drink, but by the time they left, everything was just fine and she drove on her own.

So today I got up and went to the AutoCross (not practice) with my husband. To my great surprise, my son, Tim Allen, turned up to go with us! I couldn't have been more surprised or grateful. Surprised because he never comes to anything it seems, and grateful because he kept me excellent company while my husband was going about his autocross business. It was a wonderful day, albeit very long. From the time we left the driveway until we got home it was nine and a half hours! When we got home, my son took my husband 4-bying. They aren't home yet and it's 10:00 p.m. Great way to spend a weekend. I sure loved talking to my son for as long as I did. It was wonderful. I really have no idea when the last time was we even sat down and had a conversation that lasted ten minutes. much less roughly 7 hours. He's come out to be a great guy. I also enjoyed hanging out with Polly and Andrea. It's been a great weekend of reconnecting with my kids and I've loved it. As I type these words. Polly is sitting over in the big chair and Andrea is sitting next to me on the couch as the X Men II movie plays on the DVD player.

Well....happy Memorial Day weekend to all who read this. This one has definitely been one that I've been remembering the things that are important. Those who are here with me and living and lovin today. I know that my ancestors are important and this is a day to honor them....but what better way to honor your ancestors than to honor their progeny?

Let's see what next week brings.

Bright Blessings to all who read this.

Asradel

X-MEN III IS OUT TODAY!!!!!!

Wooo Hooo! I can't wait. I'm going to a late show this evening. I do not think I can possibly wait until tomorrow. I love the X-Men movies and this one promises to be the ever-lovin' shiz-nitz baby! Too bad I don't have some Wolverine attire to wear. It's like I told the husband, though...I'd probably just wind up lookin' like Freddy Krueger with a fucked-up hair cut. Oh well. I guess I'll leave the Wolverine'in to Hugh Jackman, that sexy hunka stuff there....and well, there are going to be many many moments of "oooooooo" and "ahhhhhh" during this movie, I just KNOW IT! I wasn't this exited about any release of any of the three LOTR movies. I just think I like the characters better, ya know? They are all fucked up in addition to being super-mutants. We got the oober-Christer dude who can teleport his ass all over the place, but has blue skin and sharp teeth....alrighty then....and we've got the chick who can kill people just by touching them, but how much would THAT suck. Geezuz! Talk about no way to please yourself but BY yourself...that's pretty sad. And then, of course, there's the dude who can armor himself like a pill-bug and walk through walls.

And of course.....well....we know that Jean Gray will be back with this 3d iteration and oooooo-la-la.....

Oh! Oh! and then there's that crazy self-absorbed teenager who can turn the Earth into a blazing inferno....and then there's the ultimate bad guy....Magneto....now THAT sum-bitch is a cool dude. I hear that in X-III, he moves the Golden Gate bridge and wraps it around something or throws it at something....Wow! I can't wait to get out of here and get into a movie line!

That's pretty much the focus of my day....waiting for the ability to go see X-III. I don't even know what else we have planned for the weekend. Not that it much matters....I DO know that I am going to go and watch my huzband drive his car around a lot of cones on Monday....but Saturday and Sunday can be spent in a lazy haze....

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to Everyone out there!

Hope it's a good one for you and whatever you want you get lots of!

Az

Big Day

Husband had his wisdom teeth removed this morning- I took him there and stayed with him - he had the easiest extraction of anyone I've ever known or heard of. He was in and out and had four of them extracted in 40 minutes. Gotta be some kinda record. Well, after that we went and got his Percocet and antibiotics prescriptions filled and then we came home. We both slept for a while then I left at 3:00 to meet my witch sister and friend, Iris at Travelers in Seattle. I had a really lovely time. She is such a wonderful person and I really miss seeing her since circmstances changed and seeing her is such a rare event. Anyway we had a wonderful time of sharing. She bought me dinner at an Indian restaurant a few blocks from Travelers and and just had the best time talking. I had to leave all too soon though so I could come home and take Kristopher to the Thesis exhibition of our friend Jaime Forero who was graduating this art photography class that has taken him six years to get done with. Then we went over to a great little bar in Ballard that we've been to several times before. I'll get some pictures of that place up here soon. My friend JenBaby takes pics all the time at places like the Last Supper Club and the other clubs she goes to. I don't see why I couldn't take a few of this place. Anyway...I'll pile the camera in the car the next time we go there.

I'm going to bed pretty soon, but I wanted to check in and officially thank the God and Goddess for such a wonderful day. I think blogging is a good way to do it too. If the Lady or Lord wants to use you as an example for someone, well, they dan do so with a website. ;)

Bright blessings, and good night,

Asradel

What's Happenin? A Revelation of Sorts....

So it's officially the middle of May and the sun is out and it's damn hard to come in to work every day. However, I am reminded of the fact that I have a cushy job where I can keep long, manicured fingernails and where I get to hang out with people who bathe regularly, etc... That is a good thing, in my estimation. Also, I am much less in debt these days thanks to a refinancing of our house - a very good move indeed.

However, last night as I was standing at the gas pump filling my 1994 Saturn's 12 gallon tank and watching the meter tick over to 33.33 (a most auspicious number in and of itself - witchy friends who are reading this should ponder that a moment), I had a sort of revelation if you will. The crux of that moment of clarity and long vision showed me that economically things in this country are going to get much much worse before they get better. It was a crazy moment of being able to see where prices were going and why. I tell you now....we are in for a helluva ride. We have only begun to see the edges of how high prices are going to get. The fuel prices are going to be echoed in every corner of the market very soon, and it's scary. The great depression of the 1930s caught people by surprise, and, though the Federal Reserve has made provisions so that there will not be a run on banks like there was during that time, they have not been able to compensate for everything. I for one am going to react to my vision in the following ways:

1) Not going to make any major purchases that obligate me for long-term payments unless it is real estate or unimproved land for at least the next 2 years.

2) Going to cut the extra spending in half and increase the amount of money that I keep in my 401K plan. While there is some risk associated with the 401K, it will have my money growing rather than sitting still, and I can take the tax break on that money.

3) Going to listen to my husband and stock up on dry goods as emergency rations for food, etc.....

Lately my husband has gotten on a jag abou emergency preparedness - now while I do not subscribe to the theory of complete governmental or political breakdown, my vision at the gas pump has me thinking that there is going to be some form of societal storm to ride out. So, I'm gonna play along with him and that way I know that if the bottom drops out, we will at least have beans and rice to live on if we need to.

For those of you who are reading this, I'm not trying to scare anyone. I fact, I only shared the vision I had with my daughter, and that only because she was in the car when I had it. It was only a moment and it wasn't concrete enough for me to describe in terms like the Book of Revelation or anything - only a tremendous feeling of certainty and brief moment of clarity. If you are reading this blog, maybe it was because you were meant to as well. So that you could prepare yourself by stopping extraneous spending and tryign to get yourself into a state of preparedness. That never hurts anyway. Did you know that I heard that the Mormons believe that if the man of the household has not provided for back-up emergency food for his family for at least one year, he is being remiss in his duty to his family and to the church? Yep. One more thing the Mormon's threw in that actually has value.

Okay then....I don't have any pictures to go with this post. I don't know what I would put up anyway unless it was a gas pump with a big Jesus streak behind it.

Bright Blessings to all who read this,
Asradel

Banks are the Axis of Pure Evil and TGIF

Okay... I'm a fairly reasonable person and normally am pretty fair-minded about businesses making their money - but right now my ass is chapped to an exponential degree because my ass-clown bank decided to rear-rape me for $280 in insufficient funds charges. Was my account deficient the money? No. Not if you count the check that I deposited that day. Not at all. Well, did they credit my account with the deposit? Hell no. They credited my account with $100 of the deposit and held the rest for 2 days while they watched 8 separate instruments come in while they were holding an artificial balance on my account that reflected only $100 of my larger deposit.

Now get this: the check that I deposited that they were holding was a check from an escrow account that was backed with US Bank funds from the refinance of my house! My head's gonna explode! WTF? I've worked in the legal support field for a very long time. Too long for me to actually wanna recall here - but I know, as do most people in the legal and financial world, that an ESCROW check is as good as cash. But not to them! No! Anyway, after going and fighting with the customer service manager and the bank branch manager, I was able to get back $210 of my dollars, but not the total amount. I will be writing a letter to the bank today in an effort to get back the additional $70, which I will promptly turn around and spend on a witch doll that I don't need but want very much.

So, I hope you all have a great weekend planned. Asradel here is going to help the husband get the truck loaded to take to the dump. Believe me...I'm totally STOKED about this. :) Not really. My life hasn't spiralled quite THAT low yet.

Oh! And by the way! I am going to start selling Avon products as of today. The district rep is coming downtown to meet me and give me my "getting started" kit. So, if any of you out there who lurke on my blog want a catalog, lemme know.

Bright blessings!

Post Tarot Camp

Hey ya'll! This is my first time to write on my blog after my sojourn over to NYC for The Reader's Conference 2006. I wish I could have taken all of ya with me. We had such a good time! I got to hang out with my heros and heroines of the Tarot elite and could hardly believe my good luck. I have some pics here to share with you. The pic that's up above is one of me about to go out to the Rachael Pollack portion of the Tarot weekend. Look at me cheesin' there.

So, I got to NYC on Friday morning about 9:30 a.m., and should have been completely knackered from my trip, but I wasn't. I was so excited to just be there that I was bright eyed and somewhat bushy tailed. I registered and then went out and talked to one of the other attendees in the gazebo while the conference organizers were getting all the stuff together for us to go into the main room. The first session was about what we were all going to learn while we were there and from whom. I was star-struck!

We had a lunch break at which time I finally got to take a shower, and I was so glad! Flying overnight and having nowhere to lay my head was a different experience for me. :) I'm a "shower a day kinda gal."

Above is a pic of me with Bob Place. He spoke about doing 3 card readings in a way that I was totally unfamiliar with, and I got a lot out of his lecture. I am a big fan of the Alchemical Tarot. I'm a sad Panda that I don't actually own the deck, but had to borrow one from my Magus in order to get to better know Bob's work before the class. Anyway, it didn't take anything away from my enjoyment of the artwork (I just didn't want to give it back!). But I bought the Tarot of the Saints by Bob while I was there. Mind you, I didn't feel I could part with enough money to buy the English edition, but he had the "Tarot el Santos" which he was selling for half price that I scooped up with a high degree of zeal. Who knows? Maybe I'll take Spanish. :)



So we were all seated at big round tables in this ballroom type area at the Marriott, and one of the women at my table was the one you see me with in the picture above. Her name is Elinor, and I just LOVE her. She and I hit it off big time. I guess she's been a student of Ruth Ann's and Wald's (Tarot School - Email me if you want the link to their site) for quite some time and she knew everyone. She was my reading partner on one of the lessons and we had a nice dynamic.

Later that evening, I went out to dinner at a diner with Rachael Pollack, her agent Zoe, Robert Place, Elinor and I guess that was the group. Anyway, it felt kind of surreal to be sitting next to Rachael, who's work I had admired for quite some time. Nice, conversational style writing that works very well with me.

I DID wind up adding to my Tarot collection while I was there. I purchased an "Animal Wisdom" Tarot by Lisa Hunt. It's a nice one, but wasn't the prize of the weekend. Rather, a Tarot of a Moongarden deck was the prize that I was so happy to walk away with for the weekend. It was given to me by a gal from England named "Gaynor." Poor Gaynor....I didn't give her a moment's peace about this deck after seeing it in front of her at the table and her saying that "she didn't like it." I bugged her mercilessly to sell it to me. In the end, she wound up giving it to me for a card reading. What a great trade. The husband and I are planning to go to England for about a week in September. Maybe there will be a look-up opportunity while I'm over there. I sure hope so. Gaynor's a kick in the ass. Here we are:

There is so much more to tell about Tarot camp, and I'm not really in a mood to write too much of a play-by-play at the moment....perhaps later. Or at least I will put some stuff on my static website for you to look at. There was really a lot of good information given at this event. A couple more pics and I promise I'll be done here.

Next is a picture of me and Lon du Marquette - the author of "The Chicken Kabbala" and "The Thoth Tarot" and about a dozen other books, Lon is revered around the world as a ceremonial magician, a mystic and an all-round nice guy. He taught us to sing the name of "Ganesh" to the tune of pop goes the weasel three times through in order to reach the mystical number of repitition, 108. :) That's just how this dude rolls!

Now the pictures of me with these various folks are not the most flattering for me, and normally I wouldn't be sharing them at all, but I'm just too proud of the great learning time I had to be held back from sharing by some neurotic need to look good in pictures. I just DON'T and that's certainly not a new revelation.

Anyway, that was Lon above, and for those of you who are Mary Greer fans - eat your heart out that we had a nice round-table session with Mary on Sunday morning. I can't remember for the life of me what the heck we talked about, because the fecker was at 7:30 in the morning, and I never actually got off of west coast time while I was on the East coast, but I did my best.

Here's a picture of me and Mary Greer after I purchased and got her to sign her latest offering "21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card" - I haven't read it yet, but the premise is BRILLIANT. Very apprapo and I believe it will be a nice catalyst for me to take my own reading in some other directions that I'm not even able to think of quite yet.


And last, but not least is a picture of me with Eileen, my first reading partner. She and I did the initial reading for the conference with each other, and the last reading for the conference with each other. She's a real mensch too. I wanted to purchase Lon's Thoth Tarot book, but had tapped my funds out buying all sorts of other good stuff at the conference. Well, Eileen won the book in a raffle drawing on Sunday before we all headed out of there, and she GAVE IT TO ME! Thanks Eileen! :) She had already purchased one for herself the day before. I dashed out the door immediately to catch Lon so he could sign it for me. He wound up drawing a little charicature of himself on the inside cover, which I thought was a very nice touch. Aliester Crowley was probably rolling over, wherever he is. :)

So that's about all I have time to write at the moment. I have a lovely and very special house guest arriving on my doorstep this evening, and, as you witchy types already know, this weekend isn't the one to be staying in the house messing with the computer. It's Beltaine for Heaven's Sake! Time to get out there and really enjoy the gifts of the heavenly father and the earthly mother. Time to really get down with some gettin' down!

So, Happy Beltaine to all of you! And, you lurkers out there....you know who you are - You are welcome here any and every time.

Love, and hugs,
Asradel
The Good Witch of the West

My Sister Elizabeth

I don't usually write expose type pieces on here, but my good sister (see the pic of me and her together on previous posts) just emailed me about my wicked idiot crazy sister, and well, I just needed to blow off some steam.

I have a sister who is ten years older than me, and I have to tell you, she is nuttier than Opra's shit after a fruitcake binge. She lives in a little po-dunk town in Oklahoma with her one and only son who weights upwards of 625 pounds. I'm not sure, but I think they are on intimate terms. Yes....you heard me....I'm talkin straight out of "Deliverence." It makes me really sick to think about it, but oh well....I guess they deserve each other. He is also whacked in the head - due in no small part to his mothers ministrations.

My sister is so lazy that she doesn't want to work at all. Well, hell! Who does you stupid cooze?! I'm sure that I could find lots of other things to do besides work, but we are called upon as citizens of this country as well as this world to do our part and carry our own weight if we can. Well, not her....she has to be carried by other people. In the spirit of wanting to be handed something and feeling like she is owed something, my idiot sister (see picture inset) decided that she needed to get Social Security disability. Well, it just so happens that my niece, who is truly incapacitated from a surgery gone terribly wrong, is a bright go-getter who knows her way around the social system from her own experiences. Well, to make a long story short, my idiot sister (see picture - which is an amazing likeness, by the way) used my niece to get full disability from the government, on the premise that she is useless and stupid, and yet could not be bothered to compensate my niece in any way. An attorney who does that kind of work would have ass-raped her for over $5,000. But, I tell you as a former paralegal who worked for attorneys who did this kind of work, they wouldn't have been able to get her near that kind of money. Her's was a case where she MAY have gotten a 33% declaration with an attorney, and she STILL would have owed them a butt-load of cash for getting her that. Oh noo.....my niece got her an obscene benefit and when asked if she was going to compensate my niece in ANY way, my idiot sister (see extaordinary likeness of her in insert photo) got pissy and made my niece sign a waiver that said she got NOTHING for her efforts. That poor young woman (my niece) has been through the ringer, has not gotten an even break for about four friggin' years now, and needs all the help she can get herself - but does that cow of sister of mine care? No. In fact, she forwarded the email that my good sister (see previous posts for pictures of my cute sister), the mother of the bright niece, sent inquiring as to what the niece may be getting from it, to the niece telling her "you deal with your mother on this one." Well, I know that I'm rambling and no one on the planet except those people who know the players will be able to follow this, but I just had to vent.

I know that my crazy sister has no life to speak of. I know that she has no friends - except for the ones she pretends to be friends with so she can get a ride to the free cheese dispensary once a month - I know that the only man in her life is her twisted sex-crazed attention-starved son whom she has completely ruined and who also has no friends, but this is a prison of her own making and I find it really hard to feel sorry that she's in it. It just doesn't seem fair to my niece.

Okay....that's done. Whew! Friday's a good day for a rant.

Az

Beauty for the Sake of Beauty

Alrighty then....well, it's just 9 short days until my tarot conference in NYC. I'm getting very excited about it and have been doing a massive amount of reading for people in preparation for attending. I still feel like there's a great deal to do, but I'm trying to be more organic about it. I decided just today that I am taking my smallest suitcase and saving my back rather than taking a bunch of decks and trying to commit self-mutilation by carrying some big-ass suitcase.
So the image that I'm pulling in here has nothing to do with anything I'm writing or doing...it's just so friggin' beautiful that I could not resist. The colors are evocative of deep emotions with me. I would love to have a room painted in these colors, and then, of course, there are the forms. Anyway, it's glorious. I wish I knew who did it. All that I DO know is that it came off of WebShots.


So, my boss is playing golf this afternoon and it's a lazy time around here. I need to be writing documentation on some processes, but I find myself day-dreaming. It's 3:30 and I'm ready to go home already. :)

So anyway, Tarot conference on the brain is where I'm at. I'm making another robe for my circle life. It is going to be the prettiest yet. A nice deep amethyst color with grapes and grapeleaves for contrast. I will be stylin' next full moon circle. :)

That's about it. I just wanted to get a post in because I don't like to let my blog get too stale.

Later gator!

I kidnapped a friggin' gnome!

Well, it seemed like we needed some sport around this office. Therefore, I took it upon myself to swipe the private property of one of my co-workers....a natty little gnome named Weezle-stix. Weezle-stix was just minding his own business sitting in the mailroom when I came along and nabbed him. Here is the first picture his owner got with the first note.

You can't recognize that he's a gnome except for the pointed hat and little shoes sticking out from where I slipped the bag over his head. I'm sure his owner is worried about him! But, we have to have some entertainment around here, and so he made an unwitting sacrifice to the cause.

Happy Friday everyone! It's almost time to go to the house!

Az

Out of the Convent and Back to Work

Well, I spent the last day of my vacation, Tuesday, March 20th, in a convent. Here is a picture of it from the outside. It is a wonderful, beautiful place, and I got to spend from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. there.
I had a wonderful view. I spent my day writing in my journal, working on my Tarot book and cards...meditating and just enjoying the atmosphere. There was another group there that day, but I couldn't really hear them except when they were having lunch. Beyond that, it felt like I was all alone. It was so peaceful and quiet. The original plan was that I was going to be in one of the upstairs rooms with a desk and a wing chair, but the good sisters had forgotten that they would be having a guest stay in that room so I had to suffer with one of the enormous downstairs room. Here was my little setup and my view.
Rough huh? I brought my lunch so I didn't even have to leave the grounds for that. It was cold and rainy so I spent the day inside, which is kind of a shame because the grounds are so beautiful. But it was so cozy. Those leaded glass windows are just incredible. The hardware on them is so old and lovely. You can really begin to understand as you look at the stone casements for the windows and the leaded glass windows themselves the phrase "they sure don't make 'em like they used to." I cannot even imagine what that property would go for on the real estate market. It's almost obscene to think of it as ever being up for sale. I know that there are a lot fewer sisters than there used to be, and that the Catholic church is a business.....I hope that whatever diocese this convent is in is a rich one and can afford to keep them there. I know that the house itself was donated by a Boeing-rich family back in the 1930s, and so they don't have to pay for the land or the house unless they have leveraged it for other funds, but it has to cost quite a bit of money just to keep up with the maintenance and the grounds.

Anyway, back to my day. One of the things I did while I was here with all of this time to myself was to lay out a tarot mandala. This is my DruidCraft deck and this is an exercise recommended in the book. It takes so much floor space and so much time to set up that I didn't think I would get to do it. But I did it on my nunnery day! There were really some insights and illuminations that came from it too. Plus, it took a pretty cool picture. Check it out.


Another thing that the good sisters have going for them is that they have unencrypted wireless internet access, so while I was there, and yes....of course I took the laptop. I can't get very far from a keyboard these days. I really dont think I would know what to do with myself if I did. Anyway, I was able to hook up to the Internet, email my husband, and what was even better, MY CIRCLE MATES right there from the Convent. I did try to put up a blog entry from there, but something happened and I lost it and I decided that I wasn't about to waste all my convent time looking at a computer when I could look right in front of me and through antique leaded glass windows see a gorgeous vision of the Puget Sound and the ferries crossing back and forth fucking around with trying to get a blog post written. That stuff is better done from places like I am occupying now. The friggin sofa at home with the idiot box with nothing on it playing in the background. Yep, there are plenty of THESE moments to write things on the computer.

So, yeah....I'll be going back to the convent as soon as I can. I think it is soul-restorative and wonderful to be there, and hopefully the good sisters will have me back. Just wanted to share some of that day here on my blog.

Bright Blessings all ya'll.

Sister Mary Asradel

Home Again

So it's the Monday after my return to Lynnwood. We had a very full weekend lined up and it went by in a blur. Yesterday, my hubby went racing while I stayed home with my girl and we watched videos and went out to a coffee place. Saturday afternoon I had an unexpected visit from my son and his girlfriend and a friend of the family for some years, Scott Reynolds. Here is a photo of all of them along with Andrea. I'm a lucky woman.
After Saturday's lunch with my brother-in-law's new fiance and her family, we came home to our visitors who were only hear for about a half hour, then I had to take a nap before I feel down. After my nap, and believe me, I didn't want to get up, it was time to go to circle. I didn't get in until 1:00 a.m. and brother was I ever tired. So today was for cleaning the house and making some headway toward this place looking human again. My daughter has a surprise coming to her when I leave her a note telling her that she has to clean her bathroom and bedroom this afternoon while I am off cloistering in the convent in Woodway.

Alrighty then....time to sign off now. By the way, here's me on the plane on the way home.

Here at Eva's

Eva, that's my sister there with me....ell, she gave me some perfume today, because I told her that I smell bad, and therefore, cannot get full time employment nor enjoy any of the other benefits of being in polite society. She caved in, gave me the perfume AND the lotion as well as 20 bucks and a bottle of pain killers! Now how's THAT for makin' out great the last day of vacation. Booo Yahhh!


So now we're gonna go to Ditch Witch! I can't wait. We're gonna get the coolest shirts and other ditch witch crap you ever saw. :)
Hooo Rayyy!

Well, we got back from the Ditch Witch place where the guy must've thought we were cute 'cause he gave us free stuff. My crippled up old sister up there couldn't walk the stairs and so we had to be taken the back way like freight down to the basement where all the shirts and shit are....anyway, it was fun and we got a lot of stuff. Again, the sister bought all my stuff. She's pretty sweet, even if it's really painful for me to admit it. I'm gonna hate to leave.

Oklahoma

I'm writing this post from the sofa of my Mom's house in Perry, Oklahoma. We are watching Harry Potter. I explained briefly the plot line as Part IV started and mom wanted to know how I got all of that from the 10 minutes the movie had been on. By the way, this is my Mommy:



She just put on her glasses to better see mad-eye Moody. :)

I have been so happy to be here and so very glad to have been able to come at a time when I was needed. The Goddess works in mysterious ways, and listening to the inner spidey sense is always a good thing. Since the beginning of the year I have felt like I needed to come and see my Mommy. The time-frame just worked out perfectly for me to come here when I was most needed. My sister just had a surgery on March 1, and my mom just got out of the hospital too. I have been able to help in what I consider small ways, but they are so glad I'm here. It really makes me feel good. I told my sister that I knew she would do the same for me.

It occurred to me while I was sitting in my little bedroom that you won't always get to visit your mother. There will come a time when that will no longer be possible - and there is really no other feeling or place like it in the world. A place where you can go and feel at home, or at least to a certain degree, no matter how old you get or how many miles separate you. So, I'm really enjoying my time here and will be coming back more frequently now that I know it's only going to cost $250 to get here and back.

So, that's what I've got to say about that. Mother is asleep now....Harry Potter has just gotten going good. She's nodding off.....oh well....nightie-night mommy. Your daughter is going to stay up and play on the Internet and work on her Web Page - concepts that you have no notion of, and really don't need to know about. You've lived your whole life without this computer stuff, and there is absolutely no need to crowd it in at this late date.

Day Before Vacation

Today is my last day in the office before a 10-day vacation, most of which is going to be spent in the state of my youth, Oklahoma. Now there isn't a great deal to see or do in Oklahhoma, unless, of course, there have been some vast improvements over the years that I am unaware of.

However, my mother and my sister still live there so it should be a good time. I have never just made a trip back by myself. I've actually only been back, well, this will be the third time in 12 years that I have been back to visit. Neither of the prior times was I on my own. I had at least my daughter with me, and the very last time I went, I had my husband with me. I wanted my mom and sister to at least meet the man I am married to. It just seemed strange somehow to be married to someone your family wouldn't even recognize if they came up and knocked on the door. But this trip, this one is for me. I want to see my Mom, since she's actually getting up there in years and have some time to talk to her and relax that I'm not having to worry about entertaining someone else. My sister just had a surgery so she'll be glad to have me there as a go-fer. ;) I don't mine either. For my part, I'll be glad to have a break from my everyday life and to see my family.

So that's it! Anyone reading this post, I wish you good friends, strong families and good times.

Az

Goddess's Gift of Artistic Talent

The Tarot has long been a passion of mine. I read cards when I was a kid....then again as a teenager, then kept the fire of inquisitiveness all through my 20s, 30s and now my 40s. I have acquired quite a few decks and told quite a few fortunes using the Tarot. I collect different decks and study their images to see what the artists' interpretations are of the 78 doors of wisdom. It's a wonderful passion to have. To read tarot cards for people and to study their images and absorb the interpretations of hundreds of different artists, but now, I've got a new high. :)

Well, my friend, Holly Glenn, whom I work with and at one time lived with (in that plantonic "roommate" way), has begun her own Tarot deck. It is wonderful! I am posting her first card here, and also a link to her website is on the right side of this page under my favorite links so you can watch the progress of this deck. :) This will be the one and only time I post one of her images here - you'll have to check her website to get a fix of her latest.

Look at that card! Look at that face! Full of knowing and intelligence yet as innocent and fresh as friggin' spring rain. Strength. This card depicts the purest of that attribute. The ability to know, to reason, to maintain and direct with reason those impulses which, if not controled could utterly consume you. To feel gently confident and aware of the world around you. Look how keen her eyes are. There is nothing that will get past her, and yet there isn't a drop of menace in her. She simply doesn't need it.

Isn't it amazing? And I have to say that this is a really cool experience for me because, well, I've been collecting and looking into artist's interpretations of these 78 mysterious cards for friggin' 25 years now - and now here is an artist that I know and care about making her own interpretations of these cards tangible to me. It really is difficult to describe the experience. I saw one of her cards "in progress" this morning - the Death card, and it blew me away. It was so surreal to see this card whose incarnation I had studied in dozens of different decks to now be presented through her fresh eyes. It's a knockout.

I'll be writing the book for this deck. She didn't ask me to, I volunteered. I will start it when she is halfway through the majors. It will be a labor of love and an honor to participate in the project. I'm really looking forward to it.

So, the Goddess's gift of artistic talent definitely has been given to Holly - she is the vessel through which moves the divine force of creation. But that gift is also a gift to those of us who it touches and moves.

So....
Thank you Goddess...
Thank you Holly....

This is going to be a lot of fun.

Az

Ode to a Brownie....

Brownie, oh brownie,
How sweet and chocolaty...
brownie, oh brownie,
Oh what you do to me....
Brownie, oh brownie,
with tiny bits of green,
Brownie, oh brownie,
You make me feel so serene...
Brownie, oh brownie,
If only I could have another,
Brownie, oh brownie,
Please don't tell my mother.

Okay...well the above SUCKS ASS. But the confection that inspired this entry was WICKED WONDERFUL! It was given to me by a friend last night. I loved it! Thank you GOD, GODDESS and M! (You know who you are.)

The only problem was that I didn't heed the advice I was given along with the heavenly confection. And, thinking that it wasn't working after 45 minutes, gobbled up the whole thing. Man....did I ever get a surprise about 3/4 of an hour after that....HE-LLO! WOW! I thought the Care Bears were dancing around the living room! (not really, but, had they shown up, it would not have been much of a surprise.) Woooo! I felt like if I leaned forward, I'd fall over and just keep falling and falling and falling. I could feel every muscle in my body, tense, relax then tense again....and I had non-stop chatter in my head. Straight trippin, that's the only way to say it, baby.....

Thanks again! Sure cleared out the cobwebs in my head too!

Az

Happy Friggin' Valentine's Day Ya'll

Well, here we are again, another Hallmark Holiday. I have my problems with these things that feed the florists and the card manufacturers....but then again, there is a place for it in society. Especially a society like the one we live in today where it's hard enough to remember to say hello and be there for your family that LIVES IN YOUR HOUSE , much less have time to acknowledge your friends, your extended family, your parents, etc... Valentines Day is a good holiday for not only acknowledging your sweetheart, but taking the time to say "Be My Valentine" to all your friends as well. Remember how we used to do it in school, with all the cheesy valentines and the white bags and the construction paper? That was pretty cool. So, I've made you all a Valentine to remind you of those times. Here it is:


Happy Valentines' Day ya'll, and may you get a great big kiss from that special someone or someone(s) on your heart throb list. I know I will be getting my share! OH! Was that out loud?

Peaceful Musings after 1:00 a.m.

That crazy Canuck buddy of mine says I have "a nice ass." Well, that's mighty sweet of you Gwynnie, and I wish you Goddess-speed in your travels and will see you next in March.

So my little "church group" bid farewell to some of our number this even. They are forming their own group and will no longer be part of our core family. It was a bittersweet time. We are all happy that they will have their own group since they had to travel such a long way to attend services with ours. But we will miss their energy and their presence. Ah, but the wheel turns, doesn't it my friends?

The wind was really blowing today. I took my daughter out for a little quality mom and daughter time today and we went to a park in Edmonds where we got out of the car and experienced the power of the wind and watched the big Douglas Firs sway back and forth bending with the breath of the great Mother.



Today's picture is of a special spot that I have about 3 miles from home. It's a place I've been going to for years and I call it my "cathedral" - it is my cathedral in the real world like my web page is in the virtual world. It's very peaceful there and the beauty is so overwhelming that it brings tears to your eyes.

Well, it's after 1:00 am, and there's not much more to say. But yet, Gwynn, you did say I have a nice butt, and for that , I thank you! ;)

Bright Blessings,
Az

Do What You Love, and No Tellin' What You'll Wind Up Drivin'

Hi-deee Ho! Well, it's January 24, 2006 and all is right with the world. I am at work, lunch time just beginning for me - the first part of which I will take to write a few words on ye olde blogspot. The picture you see here was taken on Sunday when my daughter and I went out for coffee and were driving around together. I mortified my 16-year old by chasing these old dudes down and leaping from the car and asking if I could take their picture. This is the result:


The camera, however, did not capture the look of absolute joy that was on these guys' faces. This is an accomplishment for them. They are building this car themselves, it is a work in progress and you could tell that them taking it out for a spin was some kind of victory dance. Maybe it was the first time it had been out of the garage. I regret not sticking around and asking them more questions about it, but hindsight is always 20/20. At the time it seemed enough just to get the picture. It was also pretty amusing to have my daughter all hunkered down in her seat, writhing in her embarrassment over her over-bold mom. :) She is also a Saggitarius, but not yet a full-grown one. Time will show her the nads she needs to do stuff like this, and how much fun it can be.

I just wanted to show off these old geezers who are making a cool little car and totally enjoying themselves.

Ciao and blessed be, baby!

2006 is Well Under Way

I haven't read a single piece of news since the beginning of the year and I can't actually say that I intend to. Keeping up with current events was one of my loosely formulated notions which passed for a sort of resolution this year. Let's see, I want to keep more informated (yeah....) about what is going on in the world around me, lose 20 pounds of fat and take on 100 pounds of confidence - you know...THAT sort of thing.

Keeping up with current events, however, is a double-edged sword and I know it is. I remember from the days when I was politically active and, by virtue of being vocal and interested, wound up being a delegate to the state convention for the party I was interested in at the time (no...I can't tell you which one that was because I can't fucking stand the idea of ever having been so sheared off at the ears as to have been a registered, card-carrying Republican. Blech, kak!)

But, again, as ever, I digress....back to the double-edged sword: I think you can actually cause your blood pressure to rise to dangerous levels by keeping up with what's going on out there. Those bumper stickers that say "if you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention" are absolutely 100% CORRECT. And, who the hell needs that kind of grief in their lives. My life is full and busy without knowing what's going on, but then there's a rub there. The rub is that this friggin' country could be invaded tomorrow and I wouldn't have any idea what was going on. I wouldn't be able to see it coming, because I've had my head in the sand so long I don't know which way the wind is coming from.

What is the point of this discussion....absolutely none. Like the rest of this blog, it is a wank. A way to get it out of my head. Blogger is a penseive for the masses - Professor Dumbledore's got nothin' on us, baby. Instead of sticking a wand up by our ears and trailing the thoughts out of our heads into smoking cauldrons, we put them on blogspots where they are never read nor accessed by anyone (except perhaps those who are with homeland security and are completely bored out of their skulls from having to look at this idiotic drivel all day) except perhaps by ourselves. We may want to go in and look at these thoughts again someday, and that's what the blogger is good for.

Thank you, blogger. I appreciate the fact that I can divest myself of my mental crappola in a public forum and come back and see it later.

Az

Another Phase Complete

Well, the picture here is of me with a group of friends who have completed a year-long class. It was a journey of learning about lots of esoteric stuff and about each other. It was an experience in committment without monetary or tangible personal gain of any kind and it was a great time. I will miss seeing these crazy people and wish them all well on their respective life paths.

This weekend also FINALLY saw the end of the Christmas 2005 happenings. Thank goodness! Kristopher's family was not all in the area for the actual holiday so they wound up scheduling their gift giving event and dinner for January 7 - and we showed up for a while, but had to leave quite early (and before Aunt Pat's beautiful roast came out of the oven which was a shame) to go to our last class.

We got gift cards to Trader Joes, which we turned into food today, and gift cards to Half Price books which we promptly burned through this evening. I got another Astrology book. This one has TABS. :) and a book on a Bardic journey. One of my new year's resolutions is to read a lot more - a thing that is made even easier by riding the bus to work every day, which was another of my new years resolutions in order to save money (the husband and I were spending an obscene amount of money on parking) and also I want to learn a lot more about astrology this year. It's going to be a bumper year for witchcraft in general, I think. Lots of cool stuff to do.

I had lunch today with my friend Karen and her friend Linda (whom I knew from being in one of Karen's fashion shows). We had such a good time and I did a little shopping at Victoria's Secret which made me feel very girlie indeed.

It was a great day. My husband tells me it is time to go to bed and the clock on the wall is chiming midnight to back him up. Blessed be all, and to all a good night.

Az

Welcome to 2006

Wooo Hooo! It's 2006, and I think it's going to be a really great year. I woke up on New Year's Day and the first thought in my mind was the following:

2004 was a year for betrayal and pain
2005 was a year for coping and managing
2006 is going to be a year for healing and growing.

I feel like this was a message from the Goddess within, which is why I've chosen this image to post. I was going to write a blog entry about the New Year's party that Kristopher and I attended, which was held at our friends' Jaime and Melanie's house, and post a picture of my drunken husband standing beside his friend the host and another one where he appears to be finishing off a half-gallon of vodka, but I ultimately decided that I would share this story instead.

Maybe I'll post the drunk pictures later - but right now I feel like 2006 is going to be about something finer. It's going to be about spiritual and personal growth - it's going to be about wounds healing and becoming faint memories, it's going to be about helping people and giving attention to family and friends and spouses and children.

Blessed be to all who read this. I know it's corny, but fuck it....sometimes life just gets you all mushy inside.

Az