Been awhile, travel, plans failed, things won, hanging on in the current.

First Happy Halloween! Blessed Samhain! 

Hi, its been awhile and a lot has happened. Months have passed and I haven't really thought about blogging or keeping up with other's blogs, no offense to anyone. We've been very busy and sometimes I've felt like I was swimming against a many different currents. Lately, however, I'm kind of hanging out in the water, holding on to a rock, waiting for things to pass before I venture out again.  Today especially, I'm a bit apathetic. Or maybe numb and meh is a better way to describe it? Doesn't really matter, let's get to all the stuff!

Summer saw a lot of changes within my house. Amanda's (a,k,a Selene) parents moved out and a friend moved in. Said friend was dog sitting- or rather, I was dog sitting because said friend was working. Said friend also got two rabbits and eventually brought her cat and dog to live here. The dogs we were dog sitting finally went back to their owner after much stress, barking, half trampled garden, and accidents on my floor. 

Further into summer, I was a guest panelist at our local anime convention. I did a panel on the history of Bento boxes and another on Oiran vs. Geisha. I actually flew solo on these, which I haven't done in a long time. It was terrifying but fun and I would love to do it again next year and have some ideas for other panels. 

We held our own Tanabata festival at a local park and about 40 people came. We had a little Japanese festival food, some Japanese games, music, some activities entering on Japanese lore and mythology, and finally a nice wishing ritual at the end.

I broke out in hives from the sun and on the very day our roommate went to the ER because her arm went numb and she was suffering from severe pain in her neck and head, I got heat exhaustion from running another friend around town in the summer heat with no air conditioning in our car. The air conditioner quit and that made the rest of the summer errands miserable. I have never done well in the heat. 

I also started a support group for local pagans with disabilities and while the group is new and very small, I am happy there is some interest. 

The end of September took me back home to Kansas. I wanted to visit family before heading to Tulsa to help Amanda;s cousin move up to Washington. My Mother's health is declining and she's as OCD as ever. We think she may have had a stroke right before I flew down but she was so worried about the hospital bill that she checked herself out and wouldn't let the hospital run any tests to see. I was not happy. That could have aided in getting her disability which would get her the health insurance she needs. My Dad is overwhelmed and depressed. I did enjoy spending time with my parents despite the sad and aggravating stuff.  My mom wouldn't let me help much around the house and stopped me when I would try. We spent more time watching shows and movies.

I also visited my cousin Shi-chan. I missed and miss her so much. It was so nice to spend a little time with her. We played cards against humanity with her boyfriend and had pizza and just talked. 

Visiting Grandma went without saying and spent several days at her house. Grandma's in her 90s and her health isn't the greatest. She was really upset that we couldn't go out and do as much, but I didn't care. I was happy just spending time with her. We talked. I went through some things she wanted me to go through and took some she wanted me to have, although not much- there are reasons I don't want to get into right now. 

Next up was heading to Tulsa to get Cousin Kat. We drove 4 days in a Budget truck towing her car behind us. Or rather I drove and you know what, even the weather radar lied about snow in Montana- or was it Wyoming... Anyway it said the area we were driving through was clear, but it wasn't!

We made it home safely.

I had about two weeks (okay honestly, I'm not even sure if it was that long) before Amanda, her parents, and I were on the road to Seattle. We went to visit some family and do some 'harvest activities'. Which meant we loaded up to go to a big farm that had various actives and a pumpkin patch. Honestly it was beautiful and rainy and I enjoyed hanging out with the family.

This was one of the trucks decorated at the farm. 

Amanda's parents

 

Amanda and I

Since Amanda has her moot on our anniversary, we spent some time alone together in our hotel room. Nothing too exciting, just hanging out drinking coffee and tea while watching scary movies in bed. We also got out to do a little shopping at Uwajimaya and Diaso Japan in the international district. We went to Daiso in Bellevue as well.  And we went to the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America for an afternoon. I really do love that place. The Shrine is tucked away in lush trees and green and sits beside a river. They've added a few more things since we were last there too. 

View of the main Shrine Building

Fox Guardian and a view of the river

Two of the main Shrine deities-  Sarutahiko-no-o-kami, and Goddess, Ame--no-Uzume-no-Mikoto. Ameterasu is enshrined there as well. 

We also saw Zombieland 2 and did some sorely needed clothes shopping.

Back home we held a Book-or-Treat at one of our local libraries. Basically, we did a Halloween pot luck party and told people to bring books they didn't want anymore. We had two tables full and lots of people brought tons of books like we did, some only brought a few, but I think everyone went home with something fun and new to read. The books that didn't get chosen were donated to the library. 

Since then I've gone to the gym, cleaned, had some bad fibro days, and have been trying to keep moving. I am tired, still don't have all my meds yet (waiting for one to be done at the pharmacy), and hurt. But today is Halloween and there are a couple of Day of the Dead celebrations we're going to, one for sure. And tomorrow Nanowrimo starts. I was excited for that. Right now, not so much, but I am hoping tomorrow I won't be so apathetic. Maybe the little Halloween get together will help tonight!

I was going to be so industrious blog-wise yesterday, I get the house to myself ,there's yelling, and I want my coloring books and colored pencils

My house is filled with yelling at the moment. Skoora just got paid last night and most of it went to bills. We have to go donate plasma next week. We have enough to put a little gas in one of our cars, which is fine, but she didn't have enough time to go do that before work. So she asked her Dad to take her. And on come the 20 questions of Why? Meanwhile Skoora is pleading with him to just take her or she'll be late- because he drives like an old man. No really, he does. He sometimes stops at green lights and tries to go on red. Once he pulled off our street onto another and there was a car coming, we told him to hurry up but he slowed down to stop. He's 70 and I think he's trying to be overly safe sometimes. And if we drive, he bitches! I actually stopped my jeep one day, unlocked the doors, and told him to get out. LOL, he just laughed.

Yesterday I was going to be so industrious as far as blogs were concerned. Plans were made, topics chosen for my participation in the Pagan Blog Project (for my pagan blog), and I even thought about working on craft blog post (not that I have many of the crafts finished- leave it to me to choose to do big crafts instead of smaller ones). But, homework took the better part of the day and I stopped for an hour or so to have eat lunch with Skoora's parents. I even watched a TV show with Skoora's Mom and oh boy that was awful! Then show was, not watching it with her. I'll may talk about it another post or I might not, depends on how much gets done.

I did, however, get the bedroom mostly picked up, vacuumed (not supposed to vacuum, and did some laundry. I hurt my back, because why should my body let me have one day where I can do any house cleaning and feel good about it. This sort of thing is beyond being old. But I also have to remember not to push it with house work and the workouts at the Kroc. (I also got half of my homework finished.)

Oh, I don't remember if I talked about that yet. I started their active trax program and got to speak with a physical trainer who is good with back injuries. She is so nice and sweet. We basically had a consultation, we talked about my goals- which are to strengthen my body enough for me to get a regular job again, and lose weight- and then she showed me which of the weight machines to use, the elliptical, and said to keep coming to swim 2-3 times a week. I felt so bad because I kind of became a chatter box. I apologized, of course. I either clam up around new people or turn into a bit of a chatterbox, even in e-mails.

I get the house to myself for a few hours this afternoon. Skoora is at work now and her parents are going out to run some errands. I can have my music as loud as I want. I could even hook my laptop up to the TV and turn on Pandora for a bit. I probably wont. I still have my Humanities homework to do and just realized that I forgot to do my initial discussion post yesterday. Shit! I can't believe I forgot about that. Grrrr... Well, I know how it happened, got my days mixed up, thought today was Thursday, and I will get it done this afternoon.

All of that aside, I've been feeling that urge to do something crafty lately and it's been really strong. I just haven't really done anything because of school work and other things. So yesterday I thought about pulling out some of my coloring books, I have a couple put out by Dover- Fairies, Steampunk, Goddesses, and my colored pencils. But then I got to talking to a friend on Facebook about the camping trip we are going on soon with the pagan group. I ended up chatting with her for a couple of hours and perusing Pinterest for some camping food ideas. I want something simply, but I don't want us all to not actually have meals. I've made a check list of what we are taking and then made a separate list for some food ideas. Since Skoora and I don't have a lot of money and the two friends riding along with us don't have much either, we're keeping everything cheap and simple and one of said friends wanted to know if we could compile a list of food we want and then split up the cost. It sounds like a plan. And it sounds like a ton of fun! I can't wait for it.

My plans for today are to get that Humanities homework finished, finish up the laundry, and make some time to actually sit down and color for a bit. I want to take some time to work on that book for my Grandparents I still haven't finished as well. Then some reading and some writing before bed.  
   

Spray paint and flashing lights.

This week hasn't been a good week for me or my  Jeep. I went to visit a friend in the Sliver Valley here in Northern Idaho. She is one of my best friends and I love heading over to visit her. What I don't like is that she and her parents live in a dying valley. By dying I mean that most of the mines are in ruins and unsafe, have shut down due to accidents, and most people have moved away from what was once full of booming mining towns. (Someday, in the fall when it's pretty, I will take pictures.)

What's left are elderly, those that work for the highway, a few miners, and their families. However, the Sliver Valley has also become haven for druggies. There's a lot meth. Also there's not a lot of the kids to do so most of them are out having sex in middle and high school. Oh and did I mention the inbreeding? Oh yes, there is a lot of that going on and I've heard that from people who used to live there and people who used to work there. Did I also mention that there used to be a pretty heavy KKK movement in that valley. There are still some remnants left. I generally try to stay away from most people I run into down there because I typically get a weird vibe off them. They are very tight-nit and you definitely get the feeling that they don't like strangers. Not to mention that the valley itself is far to quite and eerie. There's been a lot of tragedy and death there.

But on to my point and why I am so upset with the people there sans my friend and her parents. Some shit head kid or kids didn't have enough intelligence to find something better to do and decided that spray painting cars and buildings would be fun. Mt friend's parents truck, my jeep, a neighbor's RV, the health building across the street, ad the Stop sign were all hit. Oh and to prove their lack of intelligence, who ever did the tagging, sprayed 'go' on the Stop sign. Wow, really? You couldn't come up with something other than 'go'. Nothing clever?

The Police had already come out and taken pictures before I'd gotten up for the day, not that I hold out much hope since the police aren't very effective down there. My friend's Mom pretty much refused to let me help her take the spray paint off my car. I guess she had something to help remove it. Most of it is gone and you have to get up close to see the tiny hints of it. I need to come up with something to thank her for taking care of it for me.

Now today, on the way to the library, I got pulled over. I was just about to the library on a road I don't often take but I'd gone to get coffee. Of course I'd forgotten that the speed limit changes half way from the coffee shop to the library. I was doing 36 MPH in a 25 MPH zone (I thought it was a 35 MPH zone). So, I got a ticket, or rather I have two options, both of which are expensive. I can either go to the police station and sign up for a driving course that will take 3-4 hours and the traffic violation won't how up on my driving record. Or, I can skip the driving course and just pay the ticket and have it go on my record. Since this is my first ticket (minus a 'fix it' ticket for my tail lights a few years ago), I am very interested in the class. Also the class is 75 bucks vs the 90 for the ticket. Still, I am really upset that I even got a speeding ticket. I am usually much more attentive.