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.

This weekend there were a lot of things going on that I had to choose from. Faerie Festival, a Beltane Ritual up at Highland farms, and a cousin’s baby shower. I chose the baby shower because I know my cousin has been having a hard time and wanted to support her.

I got her some organic baby items that I know she’ll need like powder, diaper ointment, chlorine free diapers, etc. I would have gotten her cloth diapers, but I don’t think she’s the type of person to use them, so I do what I can.

I wrapped her gifts in newspaper and cloth that I had saved from a gift someone gave me for my birthday. One of her friends came up to me and said they were very impressed to see me doing that, compared to all the other gifts that were wrapped in brand new fancy one-time-use wrapping paper. Maybe it’ll make some of them think?

She also loves my music so asked me to play for her shower, which I did. I actually enjoyed it a lot because apparently some of her friends listen to my music myspace quite a bit and know a lot about me, or they talk a lot about me, or something like that.

I also got to meet a cousin who I used to be very close with growing up, but hadn’t seen in 15 years. That was probably the highlight of my day, because I did miss her quite a bit. I talked with her mom about some genealogy stuff and got some more information for my genealogy website.

All in all was a calm family weekend, which is a nice change from how busy I’ve been with rituals, camping, pagan conferences, etc. Even though I have the Grove’s Beltane next weekend -and- a Sweatlodge later this month, -and- other stuff I can’t remember right now.

When I was little, we used to have a Capacitance Electronic Disc player or “Video Disk”. This was before VHS came out, naturally. I used to remember watching The Last Unicorn on it.

When I was married, for some reason my ex-husband thought it would be a good idea to buy one of these players and some disks at a yard/garage sale.

Thus I am now stuck with the clunker and a big pile of disks. Fortunately I stumbled onto that site above which shows there’s at least an oldschool fanbase for the damned things. Kinda like old 1970’s hackers and computer programmers you’d imagine from War Games.

Needless to say I think I’m ready to get rid of it. It works, and it’s a charming idea to keep and mess with an ancient piece of technology. But there’s no real desire for me to watch it regularly.

I celebrate Christmas with my father because it means a lot to him (and it doesn’t bother me, despite the fact that I’m not Christian). The videos following will show you why it’s worth making as much of a deal of it as I do.

Dad and I were both up at 4am cause neither of us could sleep. We finished opening presents around 5:30, covering our floor in newspaper wrappings like good little recyclers.

My father loved all of his gifts, and teared up from several of them, and actually started crying when he opened up the calendar I made for him, which of course made me start crying. I almost felt bad and could feel my heart breaking watching my dad get so emotional and sentimental about the calendar. I guess when you’re used to having nothing, and then given something, it makes for a lot of emotion. It was one of the hardest as well as one of the most awesome things I’ve ever experienced. I get teary just thinking about it (like now).

Dad opening his calendar.
Dad opening the pipe my sweetheart and I gave him

Between him and my sweetheart I was given a 19″ flatscreen monitor to replace my ugly old CRT energy sucking monitor I’m using now. A new Case hunting knife, several DVD’s including Pathfinder and Stardust, organic chocolate, jumper cables, skull floormats, a new tire iron for my mustang, new gloves, and a book on natural cleaning recipes.

Right now I have some henna sitting in my hair, not a full application, but maybe 3/4’s worth since that’s what I had left. Dad is working on Christmas dinner, and we’ve already watched 1 and a half of the DVD’s I was given.

Stardust started out a bit slow as far as getting my attention, but in the end it was pretty well done. Your typical romantic fantasy movie, but with a lot of new fantasy elements to make it interesting.

Pathfinder started skipping halfway through so we have to take it back, but I wasn’t all too impressed with what I could see, beyond seeing Karl Urban in a loin cloth wielding swords and the mixture of supposed Vikings and Native Americans. They feel of the movie was done in the same dark apocalyptic feel of 300, which I don’t all too like. It distracts from the movie too much, and I wish people would stop trying to use it for dramatic emphasis.

I also wasn’t sure why the Natives didn’t speak in their native tongue, yet the Vikings did. I think that also took away from the depth of the Native American culture by forcing it into the dark setting and then having them speak clear english. While the dark setting fit well with the vikings or “dragon people”, they had the Vikings speak their native tongue. I guess -someone- had to speak English for the purpose of the movie, but I’d have rather it was the other way around. After all, nordic accents in english -are- pretty hot.

We might be driving up to Gettysburg spontaneously since we ate so early (noonish) to visit my uncle’s farm.

My father and I went out to get our tree today to decorate. We went to a farm owned by a friend of my fathers. The father of the farm owners was tending the tree stand, along with his new wife. Apparently the wife is from the Philippines, brought over recently and quite young considering the father had to be in his early 70’s. She was a very beautiful Philippine woman and had apparently never seen snow before. I was actually quite taken by her and wanted to talk to her more but we had to go.

On the way home we stopped by the store so my father could get some brown sugar for baking, and we ran across some other friends of his, the ones that are trying to help us buy this place. I haven’t seen them since I was a baby, so they were excited to meet me. The lady kept going on and on about my dad (she calls him Eddie) and how he’s a real life John Wayne. She’s the same one that called him a hero a few weeks back, because of how he was in his younger days. She said anytime someone tried to harass her, all she had to do was mention Eddie’s name and they’d back off instantly, that’s what type of reputation my father had.

I know I talk a lot about my father, I admire him so much I can’t help it. But I also post these types of things so that I can remember them after he is long gone. So I can share them with my children and they aren’t forgotten by time. My father is the type of person that -should- be remembered throughout history.

She called him a legend.

Remember as you eat with your family and friends, all of the things you have, and the life you have been given. Remember the less fortunate.

Remember the freedom your ancestors fought for, remember the natives of this land and what was taken from them. This holiday has more meaning than what the government would have you believe.

Remember the earth mother and the bounty she provides for you and your future children. Walk softly on the earth so we can provide for the next seven generations. Do what you can to help the earth.

And most of all, remember that we are all one mind, and one heart. You are all my brethren, no matter color, creed, or nationality.

One heart, one mind.

I’m about to go out and help my dad kill rabbits, though I am still feeling relaxingly sluggish from yesterday’s Sweat. We have a total of 50 to kill, but we’ll probably only get half of them done today. We have a few that are sold already, and I have some stews I want to make. We sell them for $6 each (whole rabbit, already cut up).

It looks like my father and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving alone again this year. Which is fine, we’ve done it before. I had invited my cousin and her boyfriend up but she never got back to me, and it looks like she’s made plans. I felt bad for her because a lot of the family has disowned her because she’s dating a black man, and I wanted her to know that my father and I don’t care, and support her and her decisions. Hell her last boyfriend was white and used to beat her up. This one treats her golden. WHAT’S THE PROBLEM.

Actually one Aunt even said she doesn’t talk to her anymore because she wants to “raise her children right.” I only pray that one of her daughters marries a black man that treats her golden too.

Back on track, I love thanksgiving food. My father and I keep saying we should make turkey on a day other than thanksgiving or christmas, but we never do. So I told him I want a turkey on my birthday next year.

Like my friend Anna, I’m torn about thanksgiving as well. But to be honest, I don’t celebrate thanksgiving for the traditional meaning behind it. And though it still encourages the commercialized and consumerized version of thanksgiving, I hope to at least open other peoples eyes about what it is that they are doing. It shouldn’t just be something to “do”.

I don’t celebrate the genocide of almost an entire race. A race that ironically were the ones that supplied the food to the “first thanksgiving”, as the pilgrim settlers were dying off and had very little. I also don’t celebrate the mass slaughter of factory tortured turkey’s. Which is why every year we buy from a local farmer (usually my uncle). And I’m trying to convince my dad that there is a market for local home-grown organic turkey’s, and if we just raise..5 of them every year, we could sell the rest and have turkey for ourselves.

But I celebrate to give honor to my ancestors, all of my ancestors, not just my Cherokee ones. Especially this year, given how much I’ve discovered about my family. I give thanks for my father, and our little home here. Sometimes it may not seem like we have much, and it gets so frustrating being poor. But we are happy, and my finances are stable. I give thanks for my Grove, that brought me to my best friends, and all the people from ADF that I talk to semi-regularly. Some of which I admire more than they know.

I guess just being grateful in general for the life I have been given, the path I am following, and the people I have met. For they all contribute to who I am.

Course I’m also of the mind that you should be grateful for these things all year, and make excuses to get together and celebrate with good food on other days, not just Thanksgiving.