I’ve been in a fickle D.I.Y. mood lately, and I think it’s going to become a permanent thing. It’s cheap, usually easy, and allows you to experiment with different skillsets and creativity.

I have two projects I want to work on this summer. One of them being to create some home-made blinds for my room now that I’ve tore down the curtains and blinds from the 1970’s. And the other is to figure out a decent wall decoration for my cardboard walls since I can’t currently hang up sheetrock, can’t paint, and can’t put up wallpaper.

I may take several pictures and/or video log of both processes in action.

I was going through books today to pick out additional ones to get rid of since my bookshelves are currently overflowing. I decided to organize them by color rather than subject, and they look a lot nice. I have a section of yellows, whites, blues, and greens. Some stacked vertically, some stacked horizontally, which gives it more dimension. But definitely adds more color to my room.

Purging and detachment is the new crack.

So a while back I talked about how I was having a tooth ache due to biting down on something hard about 2 months ago. The pain has subsided for the most part, but was -really- painful for a while. I hadn’t set up an appointment yet because the pain had gone away.

However, today a piece of one of my back molar’s fell off. I can only assume when I bit down on whatever it was a while back had cracked my tooth and it was just working it’s way off all this time.

I have an appointment set-up for Monday morning, which isn’t a big thing except that I haven’t been to a dentist in uh…….10 years? Maybe 12? I brush my teeth everyday, but I’m sure I will be chastised for not going in so long

Either way, I don’t really know what to expect, so I’m kinda nervous. Fortunately I have an HSA (Health Savings Account) account with about $1400 in it to go towards medical bills, so I won’t have to fork over anything out of my checking or savings for this.

Fortunately I’m not in any pain currently. I’m hoping that it doesn’t start over the weekend.

I took the day off today to run several Grove-related errands. We had our building inspection scheduled for today so I drove down to Baltimore for that. And while there, Caryn and I went to the bank to add me to the signature card for the Grove’s bank account.

The inspection didn’t take long at all, I say 30 minutes tops. I’m amused with the fact that the inspector that showed up, rolled up in a beautiful black luxury car with a Christian Cross on the window and a license plate that said “Jesus USA”. Not to mention he was dressed all in black with a big silver cross around his neck.

My first reaction was “Aw Fuck” when I saw him, since he was coming to do an inspection on a pagan church, but fortunately there were no mishaps. There were two issues we will have to fix, but they were items on our agenda to fix eventually anyway. He was very polite and quiet, and didn’t ask any questions, so I left it at that.

Will then treated us to lunch.

Afterwards Caryn took me on route through the city of Baltimore, around North Avenue. Apparently this is a really really bad neighborhood? It looked pretty bad, she told me some stories of people killing themselves and urinating in the elevators of this one building, etc. I’m always bewildered when I go through cities, cause I honestly do see things I’ve never seen before. I mean I grew up in the country, we don’t see hotdog carts on the side of the road.

There were some beautiful buildings down there though. Crazy huge historical buildings down near the harbor. It was quite beautiful.

After we stopped by the bank, I hung out at Caryn’s for a bit and head home. The entire ordeal got me home around 7pm, so it was still a pretty busy day.

Sunday I might work on packing up the blankets for the Lakota’s in South Dakota. Will is suggesting we possibly take a week or two off to drive out there and deliver them ourselves. Honestly I would be all game for that, but I’d have to juggle my time to make sure I had time to take off in November for my special vacation.

This year was my first time at the Baltimore Herb Festival. I wanted to go to replenish my diminished herbal supply and see what kinds of goodies they had. I had an idea in mind of what types of things I wanted, some tobacco, patchouli, rosemary, dill, etc. I found everything I wanted except for blueberry plants. They had red raspberry, but I already have plenty of those.

I also ran across the vendor Willow Pond Herbs which had a station for trying some of their honey’s and dipping sauces. Oh my gracious were they delicious. I bought a small bottle of sage honey, and 4 packets of their dipping herbs because they were just so f’n amazing. The mexican fiesta one was to die for. I plan to be a regular customer with them from now on. I also got some dipping herbs from The Cottage of Herbs, but I don’t see a website for them.

I also got a small jar of homemade apple butter and a small bottle of sparkling apple cider from the Le Mousseux vendor.

They had some vendors there selling smudging feathers fixated to driftwood, and very nicely polished walking sticks wrapped with what looked like suede, and lamb skin. There was also a vendor that sold gourds decorated with buckskin and antlers, and several vendors selling soaps and lotions and things. I didn’t get any of that stuff though.

But the BEST part was the lady with the Owl and the Red-Tailed Hawk! I think she was a predatory bird rescue taking donations for the rescue. I wanted to stay and admire the hawk more since it’s my most sacred animal, but the sun was making me so tired.

Definitely want to go again next year, but I’m bringing a hat and some water Tempted to see if they’re looking for performers cause they had two different bands playing.

It was really cool seeing so many different generations at the festival. There were lots of old people, but there were also a lot of people like me in their 20’s, and it was like this was a place where such a generation gap could come together.

I was looking for a box to put these Xena tapes in to ship, and I found Alex’s (my ex-husband) old class ring. He’s been wanting that, and I had always worn in throughout highschool while we were dating, and I guess it got mingled up in boxes when I moved back home in 2001.

I never had a class ring because I could never afford it and mom never bothered with any of that school stuff. I never even went to my graduation cause I couldn’t afford the cap and gown and all that. Not that I would have wanted to go anyway, I’ve been to my friends graduations before and they are pointless and boring and a waste of my damn time.

Still, I decided to look up prices for class rings. I remember Balfour being the catalog they passed out in highschool. $179-$400 for one, who the fuck wants to pay for that? I’ll pass. Give me a wooden ring any day.

Guess I better get ahold of him so he can have it.

I guess I shouldn’t really call it junk, because it’s all usable stuff.

So far I’ve sold:

Malachite Earrings on Etsy: $5
Peridot and Silver Ring on Etsy: $20
Rose Quartz Pendant on Etsy: $20
Complete Xena Seasons on Ebay: $110
Frontline for 11-22lb Dogs on Ebay: $20
Rainbow Opal Ring on Etsy: $20

Total: $195 putting towards the car.

Not to mention the Stimulus payment plus some excess money I had lying around which came to $1200 towards the car.

The recent sales will be written out in check form at the beginning of next week.

I think HSBC fails at reading memos on checks. When I sent them the check for $1200 I clearly put “TO PRINCIPAL” in the memo field with my account number. Did they do that? Of course not. So I had to call last night and straighten it out. I do have to give them credit though, they resolve their issues quickly, as I noticed it was applied directly to the principal today.

Verizon also didn’t cancel my account when I called in on May 1st after I had Comcast Triple Play installed. Actually they canceled it 12 days later, which means I was charged for 12 days of service that I didn’t have. So I called them up on Monday and attempted to straighten it out, but Marcus, whom I spoke with in customer service, said to call back when my “final” bill arrives and they’ll take care of it. But both he and the lady I spoke with in the financial department both saw that I called in on the 1st to cancel.

Trying to figure out what I was ingesting at the Sweatlodge:

Osha Root:
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CROW AGENCY, Mont. — Sen. Barack Obama became the first American presidential candidate to visit the reservation of the Crow Nation, and in doing so was adopted into the nation under the Crow name “One Who Helps People Throughout the Land.”

Drums pounded and the crowd cheered as Obama was escorted to the podium by his “new parents,” Hartford and Mary Black Eagle, in the manner of a groom being walked down the aisle. Obama beamed. His adoptive parents gave Obama hugs as he stepped onto a riser to speak.

“I want to thank my new parents,” he said. “The nicest parents you could ever want to know. I like my new name. Barack Black Eagle. That is a good name!”

You know, this makes me wonder what issues were talked about on the reservation. And would a similar welcome be had at either Pine Ridge or Rosebud? And does the President intend to do something about the status of the Native Peoples? I doubt it, but he’s at least acknowledged them more than anyone else that I can tell. Usually they appear to just be shoved under the rug and forgotten about. It is a dirty secret of the American past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU4WR_rcGUA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT5Oj4Q9rNw