I'm a child who dealt with divorce, a latch-key kid, and I grew up with my father's family.  I went to decent schools, brought home decent grades, and went to family barbecues.Thus, there are times I ... - 4 days ago

Yeah....I was pretty lukewarm about going, but I decided to go anyway.  I'm really kind of glad that I did.My daughters are 7 and 11 and kind of adventurous.  So when my stepmother told them that we w... - 2 weeks ago

I dreamed last night that I bought a house with my husband.  It had many windows and old lace curtain, with valances in a pattern I thought had to be replaced immediately.  A lot of stuff had been lef... - 3 weeks ago

"Fireflies"- Owl CityYou would not believe your eyes If ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep 'Cause they'd fill the open air And leave teardrops everywhere You'd think me rude b... - 5 weeks ago

So my daughter has told me that she wants one thing specific for Christmas.She wants a Slytherin jacket.  Bad for me is that I can't find one.  Nobody seems to make them/sell them.  (At least....I hav... - 2 months ago

Etymology: Middle English epiphanie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin epiphania, from Late Greek, plural, probably alteration of Greek epiphaneia appearance, manifestation, from epiphainein to manif... - 2 months ago

I have always had sleeping issues.But even given unlimited time to sleep, I wake up around every four hours.  If a REM cycle is every four hours, when our consciousness 'comes up for air', why does my... - 2 months ago

One of Tim Burton's first stop-animation projects.  I love it.  I was probably a lot like this as a little kid. Have a Happy Halloween...or a Merry Samhain. - 2 months ago

I have friends that have made the paper. Of course, the paper paints things in the worst possible light. But the fact that online, people have tried to devulge more information and the newspaper has denied them commentary on the article is just another show of how bias the media can be. It's concerning. How many people second-guess what they're reading and keep from taking what they read as an absolute, final truth? Not many. Think about the other factors. Always ask questions.

I walk through the kitchen and there's a cat hanging out in the dishwasher. Oddly, this doesn't phase me in the slightest. I continue heating my dinner and trying to catch a hold of the epiphany that I had earlier today. I commented on someone about the inter-connectedness of thoughts, and how one thought can race to another at light-speed. But it also makes me recall a debate I had last week that there is something and the space between it is nothing. As I was ironing my work shirt early this morning, it came to me this morning that it can't possibly be true. Because if it were nothing, it got named. If it has a name, it's SOMETHING, even if it's nothing. At the smallest level, the microcosm, the gap between the nucleus of an atom and the electrons surrounding it.... Someone might argue that there is nothing there. But if you call it a gap, if you call it nothing, if you call it space, if you call it air....you've given it a name, which makes it something instead of nothing.... So if you apply this microcosm/macrocosm approach, it isn't even a 'circle' of life. It's an endless, psychedelic fractal. Seriously. Because it's far too complex to be a circle, but simple enough to be patterned. I don't know if I can explain it proper. But it made a lot of sense this morning, before the sun rose and the coffee was even peculating. I am both fascinated and disgusted by the cat laying in the dishwasher. I hope it doesn't clog the dishwasher drain.

In November, I'll have been married 13 years. Hasn't been all roses, but I assure you, that the quality of my relationship probably makes a lot of others pale in comparison. Why, do you ask? Let me explain some things. When we got together, before we even got married, we laid out some ground rules. The first is that we'd never call each other out of name. Meaning, even at the most heated portions of our fights, the words, "You're being a bitch/asshole" have come out of our mouths, but never "You ARE a bitch/asshole". To the both of us, there is a vast amount of difference there. The difference is respect. If you're a friend or a loved one, when someone's acting a fool, only a friend or someone who loves you can get up enough compunction to tell you you're screwing up. Everyone else just lets you screw up. But a person who CALLS you a name that isn't 'nice', well they don't have a lot of respect for you, do they? And if they can't respect you as a person, they sure the hell can't respect your opinion. One of our other rules is that we don't lie to one another. Not even white lies. You think I jest? Lying totally screws trust, and if you don't have trust, you don't have much of a relationship. So....frankly, we have omitted portions of the truth or let it go untold, but we don't flat-out lie to one another (some people might think there is no difference, but to us there is significant difference....). If you don't tell me something, shame on you for not disclosing the whole situation. But if you tell me something and I can't trust you at your word, what good is our relationship? The third is that we have never laid hands on one another. And I don't mean healing. I think that our childhoods were probably a little more rough-and-tumble than they should have been, but I have seen people take things out of hand, and once you lay your hands on someone in anger, habits form. The force seems to escalate. We have NEVER, in the 13 years we've been married, even pushed one another in anger. (Now I can't say I've never thrown anything at him, but the intention wasn't to hit him. And I can tell you, when you have a small case of beadery explode next to your head, it will certainly get your attention. Not one of my better moments, but it accomplished what I set out to do.) Those two things I think have been fundamental to the survival of our relationship. There were several people who didn't think we'd last the first three years, us being young and 19 when we got married. Oh, how wrong they were. Funny enough, I probably got more offers for extramarital affairs than I cared for. That is saying, after I got married, seemed like everyone crawled out of the woodwork and offered to sleep with me. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the draw of 'forbidden fruit'. Maybe life didn't turn out the way it seemed for them. But as far as I was concerned, I was married, and by the gods (BEFORE THE GODS), I was going to keep my word. At least two incidents I can remember, I jerked a guy up short trying to kiss me, telling him I as a married woman and thank you if he'd keep his tongue in his own face so I don't have to lop it off. In my eyes, willingly kissing someone else (meaning more than a friendly or loving peck) and you're stepping outside your commitment. Let's lay down the law....if you place a TOE in a building you've forced your way into, the judge will STILL call it B&E. Promise. I got married. I took vows before the Gods. Firstly, I would be covered in shame to break a vow to my husband. Secondly, I'd be mad to break a vow that I swore in front of the gods. Seriously. These are MY feelings, and they're mirrored by my husband. I mean, he was a trucker for a while. If someone had told me that when he was out trucking that he'd cheated on me, I'd laugh in their faces. He's not built that way and he carries the same sense of honor as I do. Even if he had been completely pissed off at me, he would have still honored his vows. Same here. By the same token, I suppose I expect much of others. I cannot say I haven't been let down. A lot. But the idea comes from the fact that if I can, as crazy as I am, live up to these things, the people that I love and think much of should have the same kind of 'sterner stuff' as I do. Not necessarily true. So...I generally don't hold it against them, but I find the older I get, that if they can't live up to at least half of my determination and honor...I really don't need to waste my time on them. And it's not to be ugly, it just that we don't have a commonality. There are certain thins that mean a LOT to me, and if they mean little to them, how do I expect them to keep up with me? They...can't, really. We're just too different, I suppose. That goes along to the tune of 'with a fool no season spend, least you be counted as his friend', I guess. If my husband were to drop dead today, any guy/friend that I have ever known, if they'd EVER cheated on their wife/girlfriend and had the foolish notion to confide in me over it, had they been candidates for relationships they were immediately moved to the bottom of the list. Any person who would maliciously act out at someone (yeah, he broke my clock so I slashed his tires) goes to the bottom. Any person that steals knowingly (which includes office supplies, people...a thief is a thief is a thief....) is not even up for any consideration. Anyway....the side bonus was telling you about how cool my marriage is. But the main point of this blog was the idea of 'oathbound'. Let me get to that. The idea isn't the pleasure of keeping a secret for a secret. The idea is being able to keep promises. To make commitments and stand by those commitments. It is a gauge of strength of character. Of determination. Of devotion and dedication. Ideally, (and I am forever the idealist) I think that it represents a people with that kind of character throughout every aspect of their lives applied, which is to say that they give their word and they live by their word. It doesn't have to do with keeping super-secret information. It has everything to do with loving and trusting the people that you're practicing magic with. It's a different level of intimacy, but intimacy nonetheless. And in that intimacy is the same high standards, the same level of respect, commitment and trust. So now...before you go flapping your gums about how wrong it is for those Traditionals to keep their secrets. Before you rant on about their elitism or call them names over the fact that they're so tight-lipped....instead of dwelling on what you don't know, how about you take some context clues on what their behavior tells you. How could you want anything but that kind of commitment?

"October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February." - Mark Twain October Flower: Calendula - The Calendula represents grief and jealousy. Signs: Libra - September 23 - October 22 Scorpio - October 23 - November 21 Birthstone: Opal (Traditional - meaning Hope) Tourmaline (Modern) Today is: * Homemade Cookies Day * World Vegetarian Day This week: * Fire prevention week. Your month-long observances are: * Clergy Appreciation Month (Pastor Appreciation Month) * Computer Learning Month * Cosmetology Month (National, US) * Country Music Month * Crime Prevention Month * Dessert Month (National US) * Dinosaur Month * Drum Month (International) * Energy Awareness Month * Family History Month * Fire Prevention Month (National) * German American Heritage Month * Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) * Kitchen & Bath Month * Magazine Month (American) * Pasta Month * Pastor Appreciation Month (Clergy Appreciation Month) * Pickled Pepper Month * Pizza Month (National * Polish-American Heritage Month * Popcorn Poppin' Month (National) * Pretzel Month * Rollerskating Month * Sarcastic Awareness Month (as if!) * Sausage Month o Source: Click Here * Seafood Month * Stamp Collecting Month (US National) (Since 1981, October has been officially designated as National Stamp Collecting Month. It is an annual event that began in 1981 as a joint venture of the Council of Philatelic Organizations and the United States Postal Service. American Philatelic Society: www.stamps.org) * UNICEF Month * Vegetarian Month * Breast Cancer Awareness Month * Eye Injury Prevention Month * Celiac Disease Awareness Month * Chiropractic Month * Dental Hygiene Month * Disability Employment Awareness Month * Domestic Violence Awareness Month * Down Syndrome Awareness Month * Halloween Safety Month * Healthy Lung Month * Let's Talk Month - Advocates for Youth * Medical Librarians Month * Physical Therapy Month * Sarcoidosis Awareness Day * Spina Bifida Awareness Month * Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month * Talk About Prescriptions Month And - Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Squish a boob!

So my house is starting to look suspiciously like an abandoned warehouse, because the boxes are piling up. I know that it might be a year before I move, but I'm packing now. Yeah, yeah. Others think I'm insane too. Here's my reasoning. In all the moves, the husband has packed. I am not by any means blaming him, but well, when he packs boxes, it's more out of efficiency than anything else and...things get broken. Important things. So this really is kind of a slow process, but it IS a process. What's important? Uh, sentimental things. When I was part of an ADF Grove in Houston, we had an outreach program that included inmates on death row. Before the Texas Seven, one of the members used to craft these beautiful handmade boxes of balsa wood. When my daughter was born, he crafted a keepsake box with her name on it. On the lid, there is a triskelion painting of the threefold goddess and her name is hand-carved above a small handle which opens the lid. It was the last box he ever made, because shortly after the escape, they took away his tools. So, it's important to me that it doesn't get damaged. So in the flurry of day-to-day, on my days off, I've been meticulously packing the smaller items, using those silly free publications to shred (they're a waste of paper anyway) for packing (which will be recycled upon reaching their final destination). So there are slow days where I fill half a box, others where I can put away 2-3 and mostly, it helps me go through and throw out what I don't need, give away what I can, and streamline things to a minimum to carry halfway across this country next year. It's an adventure, to say the least.

I dreamed that I was in a very small, cream-colored bathroom with lighting that isn't quite bright enough. I sat and brushed my hair, which was long, thick and wavy. Someone came and knocked on my door, whom I let it. I think it was my roommate. Very carefully, she asked of me if I would help her move fish from one tank to another, so I obliged her. I saw no dead fish, but it was a challenge keeping the water high enough so that they did not suffocate in the process. Generally, when I dream of fish, someone is pregnant. Hmm.

So yesterday we went to the park after school. I notice that my eldest daughter seems to be teetering on the brink of womanhood. She wants to go to the park, but she omits playing on the playscapes. She will swing on the swing for a time, but when all the younger childern bombard her, she leaves them to their own devices. She looks for more 'grown-up' things to do. So instead, she walks along the path where the pond is. One of the younger children with us has a pop tart from after care, and begins to break it up, throwing the bits out to the ducks. Soon, all the ducks begin to congregate. Of course, because there's food. I'm pointing the duck out to her, and she watches them quietly. "This is important as you become a woman. Remember: Be like a duck," I tell her. "Let everything roll off your back. Be calm and composed on the surface. Graceful. But paddle like Hell underneath." She giggles at me and I shake my head. "You're so silly, Mom." I hope that she remembers.

There are some days that all you can do is dream.