Prairiecrow's InsaneJournal

This morning George and I went out grocery shopping in a serious way: $250 at Safeway and $95 at M&M Meats. We now have the satisfying feeling of a full freezer, fridge, and pantry. (The guy who carried our delivered groceries up 3 flights of stairs was also happy with his $10 tip. Hey, if I can avoid hauling a huge-ass box of cat litter to the third floor I'm happy to reward someone else for accomplishing the task.)

And guess what showed up in the mail today? The athame for the Full Moon Group inner court! I'll try to remember to post pictures of it here after we consecrate it on September 16th; it's not fitting that anyone else sees it before the IC group, but trust me, it's simply gorgeous.

Fanfic is still flowing from my overworked brain. And work is... work. Lots of it and not enough hours in the day.

Back to it, I suppose. Tonight we have M&M Meats Chicken and Dumplings for supper -- a new product, but I have high hopes given their track record of creating excellent dishes.

(And a mini-rant... remember Dennis Leary's famous routine about coffee-flavored coffee?



Why the fuck can't they make shampoo-scented shampoo? I tried to get a basic shampoo today and found myself confronted with almost a hundred different products, none of which fit the bill. Gah!)

Okay. Work. Really.

Ye sweet Gods... I've just finished adding another chat log (this one featuring Seraph) and *counts* 8 fanfics to the Degrees of Separation Matrix AU RP site. And that's just scratching the surface on the number of fanfics the players have produced, and not even touching the tip of the amount of material available in the chat logs.

This afternoon went quite well -- the Wiccan gentleman that I and eastpath met for coffee turned out to be articulate, intelligence, and apparently well-read and well-balanced. He'll be joining us for the next Full Moon Group outer court ritual, with his wife hoping to follow in a few months.

Afterwards eastpath and I went to Radiance, where I purchased a small piece of tiger iron, a stone purported to help with vitality, the immune system, and the circulatory system. It may or may not work, but I'll take all the help I can get, and it's my way of supporting a local business. I also purchased two pieces of magnetized hematite which, when held one in each hand, supposedly enhance energy. Again, they may or may not actually work, but they were inexpensive and the proceeds went to support a store that's valuable to the local Pagan community.

We then walked up to Pharma Plus, and parted company there: eastpath went on to the bank while I went into the drug store to pick up some prescriptions. While I was there I darted into the bathroom to test my two hour postprandial blood sugar. 11.4 -- YAY!

I walked back home with two heavy bags of groceries, for a total of eight blocks walked today as well as my daily exercise at home. I feel quite tired and sore, but accomplished.

Oh, and has anyone else had a problem with some of their user pics failing to display? About five of mine appear to have vanished; I can still select them, but all that comes up on the published page is a little blue question mark

*limps over to computer and sits down carefully*

Ow, my arms. And my legs. And my back! Coffee is on, and as soon as it's done I'll be using it to chase down a couple of extra-strength Aspirin.

The cause of my misery is (a) my poor physical condition, and (b) the Wen-Do class I took yesterday at the University of Manitoba, along with eastpath and Michelle. It consisted of three two-hour segments: an hour of discussion followed by an hour of physical technique and practice. Twelve students learned how to stand in balanced fighting stance, how to yell "NO!" from our belly with every blow, and various "soft" and "hard" techniques of attack. ("Soft" techniques cause injuries that are non-life threatening and will heal completely. "Hard" techniques cause injuries that are potentially life threatening and will not heal completely if the person survives.) We discussed the theory and legality of women's self-defense and found out how to slip free of various types of holds. And we nibbled on cookies brought by the instructor, who is Jewish -- delicious little folded creations filled with dates and raisins and poppyseeds.

(EDITED TO ADD: The cookies are called Hamantaschen. Thanks to "nightdog_barks" over on LiveJournal for providing the name and the link.)

When the lunch break came the instructor asked if she could come along with eastpath, Michelle and myself. We had a nice meal and a very interesting conversation at one of the University restaurants. It turns out that the instructor has two cats, as did the rest of us, and that she owns all the Matrix movies and simply loves them. eastpath and I also told her that we might be interested in intermediate and eventually instructor training, which she was pleased to hear, since she's currently the only Wen-Do instructor in the city. (Training takes about two years. Yowza.)

I got home barely in time to greet people arriving for the Full Moon Group outer court ritual. (That's the third ritual in four days for anybody who's keeping count.) Usually I am fully present, aware, and engaged during rituals, but yesterday I was so tired and worn out after Wen-Do that I felt too fuzzy to really concentrate and direct energy properly. (I even placed the God and Goddess candles in reverse orientation while setting up the altar... *sigh*) I hope that others found the ceremony more fulfilling than I did.

After the ceremony, as we ate the post-ritual meal, we ended up watching The Matrix on A&E. We came in right at the beginning of the Neo/Smith fight scene, which led Andrea to remark: "Neo and Smith. TOTALLY hot." Heh. I'll have to send her some of my Neo/Smith fanfic.

On a more seriously note, one of the members of the outer court approached me privately in the kitchen and asked me to help her out with her self-dedication ritual into the Wiccan religion. I was pleased, honored, and touched. She and her husband are taking a "ritual hiatus" for the next six months due to baseball season (they both play), and during that time I'll be meeting with her about once a month to discuss her progress to date and suggest reading and resources to help her fill in any gaps in her knowledge. I hope to see her self-dedicate by next Beltane, which is a little bit over thirteen months from now.

So... the aftermath. Last night I was exhausted and vaguely achy. This morning the various aches have sharpened into pain, especially in my back and arms. (We did proper warm-ups and stretches prior to the physical training. I'm just not used to that level of activity.) And I'm very stiff, which I hope will work itself out over the course of the day. But I'm so glad that I signed up for the Wen-Do course and I'm looking forward to next week's session. I really do feel that if someone accosted me on the street, I'd now have a chance at fighting them off and getting away.

(EDITED TO ADD: eastpath suggested doing some soft stretches to loosen my muscles. And lo and behold, it has worked.

Ah, my... I don't know where my brain has been these last two and a half weeks, but I hope that it's coming home soon.)

Six hours of Wen-Do class, three of them full of hard physical activity, tired me right out. Then I had to pick up a couple of roasted chickens at Safeway and come home to run a Full Moon Group ritual.

We didn't do much, just a variation of the scrying exercise that was done by the inner court on Wednesday and a spell to help an absent member obtain a service dog, but I'm dead beat. I just climbed out of a hot bath and I'll soon be crawling into a warm bed.

Tomorrow we go to George's sister's place out in Selkirk, about an hour north of the city, for Easter dinner.

More about Wen-Do later tomorrow. Right now I can barely put a sentence together.

*yawn* Just got up and making coffee. Ah, the joys of the freelance art schedule.

Today I tackle MM again, and hope to get at least seven pages painted (or flatted, really, since it's reproduction of the original color from the 1960s comics and there's no airbrushing or cut-film effects involved). Dead simple work, but my, the X-Men were a wordy superhero team, weren't they? *smirk* I'm enjoying it, though. Jack Kirby's art is simply amazing no matter who's inking him.

There's an oft-followed recommendation in Wiccan practice that you don't talk about any ritual for 24 hours afterwards to prevent the energy from dissipating. Therefore I can now talk a bit about the Wednesday full moon ritual that the inner court of my monthly Full Moon Group held. We performed an act of divination that I've never tried before: sitting in a dark room and scrying water in a black bowl as it reflects the light of some strategically placed candles. I achieved some results from this first try, which I'm quite surprised by, but due to oaths of confidentiality I'm not able to discuss them. Suffice it to say that they were both interesting and encouraging.

Before last night's ritual (the second of three rituals in four days), the inner court got together and painted Easter eggs in the traditional Ukrainian way, using hot wax and dye baths.

( Photos of pysanka behind the cut, with commentary )

I'd say that as with the scrying, I didn't do badly on my first try.

Wow. Between writing this entry and taking some phone calls, enough time has passed that the coffee is ready. All hail Caffeina, Goddess of the morning, and Her beloved Consort, Folgers!

*sip* Ahhhhhhhhhh, sweet stimulant.