Last Saturday my Grove had its Beltane High Rite, honoring Brigid and Lugh, with Tailtiue as the Gatekeeper. It was a good ritual honoring the courage to be creative, but I wasn’t as absorbed in it this time until I started the faint heartbeat of the drum. Then I started getting into the rhythm of the ritual.

I honored the ancestor’s, which I seem to do and enjoy a lot these days. I tried to honor them in all the ways they started the paths for us to be creative, with ancestor’s of the land, blood, and our minds. Hopefully I did it justice

Caryn made her own omen deck of famous quotes for the ritual, and I couldn’t have pulled a more accurate one for me. In fact, Caryn said she specifically thought of me when she made that card. The weird thing is I didn’t take it from the top, I decided last minute to pull from the middle, and still got the card that best suited me:

“When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.”
W. Clement Stone

Things on the MUD have exploded with players, I’d say we’ve gotten at least 10-15 new players in the last week due to Cities of M’dhoria announcing it was closing its doors on Sunday. One or two players had a hard time adjusting from CoM to Advent due to the major differences in skill system etc, but I downloaded a Camtasia torrent and put up a quick YouTube video on our skill system for them and they seem to be adjusting.

I keep getting compliments on how helpful I am too, but that’s kinda what staffers are supposed to do. I just happen to be one of the ones that’s always visible.

Since everyone is still in their new stage, and our newbie channel access doesn’t go away till after 10 hours of play, we’ve learned yet again why we don’t want to have a global chat channel. People complained when we got rid of the beta chat channel because it was too damn spammy. Now that we’re running into the same problem till these guys get more time on the MUD, I don’t care what people say, it’s crazy spammy to have a Global chat. MUD’s must be crazy to have these things. It’s like being in an oldschool AOL chatroom and trying to chat and roleplay at the same time. Oi!

Some sweet new spells that my coder has been adding are things like, fleshcrafting, bonecrafting, blood pet (he’s working on the necromancy school right now). And I’m about to get some builders together and start putting together a large underground undead area with zombies and all kinds of gross little things. It’s a lot of fun.

I now have safety goggles and a grinder. Now I will give my bronco a deep tissue massage to buff up its rust and stuff as soon as all this rain subsides for a bit.

Attended another Sweatlodge today with the Lakota group I’ve been getting involved with. Actually I ran into someone I used to drum with back in the day as well. I’m trying to learn all of the parts of the ceremony and the ceremonial songs. But since I don’t speak Lakota, it is hard to remember the words (since they are obviously all in Lakota).

I notice the more I go the less painful and the more prepared I am. I still get muddy and sweaty though. I don’t mind the mud so much, but the sweat is fairly gross. If only there was a pond to swim around in afterwards I am also very red.

One of the women at the Sweat, I believe her and her husband are Blackfoot. And she asked for my email address because she wants me to start coming to some of her Blackfoot Sweatlodges as well.

Before I left for the Sweatlodge, I stopped at the only store nearby, which happens to be a Little George’s Convenience store. The lady there asked me if I was Native American (and odd out of the blue question) and I said that it was in my ancestry. She said I looked the part. So we got to chatting a little bit and she asked my name. She recognized the last name and apparently knows my dad (my dad seems to know every damn one). She was tickled to death and didn’t want to let me leave the store, but I had to go.

I feel pretty calm right now, but I still have a few things on my mind that don’t seem to be going away. Nothing spiritual, more relationship-wise than anything. But I guess I’ll deal.

In my……..lax financial days (read as…3 years ago or so), I was late paying a small ($200-$300) balance on a card. Years before that, around 1999, my ex-husband and I had a card in both of our names, that he was making late payments on. Both of these things still show up on my credit report.

Some advice from a co-worker had me dispute both items on my credit about 2 weeks ago. Whether they were mine or not he said just say that they aren’t yours, and a lot of times some companies will be too busy or have little interest in a counter-dispute. I was skeptical, but hey it’s worth a try.

I got my results back today from Equifax, and 1 of the items has been removed (the one from 1999), but the other will stay. I still call that a great victory, and am unsure whether it will up my credit score any. I am tempted to pay the money to get my FICO score, because even looking at my report it doesn’t really tell me where I rate in the whole FICO score area.

If I do find a good cheap place to get it, I’ll post it here later with my score.

$1200 check on it’s way towards the Principal of the mustang.

Now if I can just get more things sold on ebay and add to that It’s actually kinda fun and liberating to go through all of the things that I just don’t need or use anymore and realize that I can sell them off.

I’ve even snagged some pictures of items I bought (Cleopatra bracelets mostly) fairly recently and am reselling them with the original pictures (I figure why waste time making new pictures). I love the bracelets, but I’ve come to realize that I really can’t wear stuff that can’t handle hard labor. Metal or leather are fine, but you’ll never catch me wearing some fancy stone or glass bracelet, cause I guarantee it’ll be broke within a week.

Anyway, pass the word if you know of anyone who would want any of this stuff.

Is having to go to work everyday.

I wake up and everything is beautiful outside. I’m listening to our turkeys and guineas and bumble bees. I can smell the lilacs and lilies and grass. I can see that wood needs to be split, the garden needs tending, and the pile of scrap wood over there that needs to be put together to make new things.

And I have to get in the car and drive to work to sit in an office all day long where my co-workers constantly have the blinds drawn to block the sunlight and the trees.

According to The Consumerist:

“According to AP, former Judge Roy “Fancy Pants” Pearson is suing to get his old job back and tacking on $1 million in damages. You may remember Pearson as the judge who tried to sue a dry-cleaner for $54 million over a pair of pants. Now, “Fancy Pants” says he was wrongfully dismissed and “vilified in the media.”"

It appears as if he is just out to sue anyone he can as a get rich scheme, and using this judicial background to do so. Why not just work like everyone else, heck you make more money than most people as a judge. Stop wasting peoples time and money.

Even if you had direct deposit, according to the IRS website, if filing or preparation fees were deducted from your 2007 Refund or you received a rapid refund, you will be receiving a check instead of a direct deposit.

That sucks for some people (thankfully not for me) who were depending on a payment sooner than later.

Fortunately the IRS website also has a way to login and check your Stimulus Payment Schedule as well as the amount that you will be sure to get back.

I’m still on track to receive $600 by May 9th.