My sister is visiting for the weekend. My best friends came over yesterday and we all went up to the organic markets in Frederick for shopping. I fell in love with the market immediately (even though they are pricey), and fully intend to molest the markets on a regular basis.

My sister told me she watched some movies on animal cruelty lately and has been working hard on eating a vegetarian diet. So while my friends came over we went over a few different things that she can eat and enjoy. She also helped me while I made some meatless spaghetti which she loved

I want to support her choices, and I’m thrilled she’s being conscious about her decisions with her diet, and the environment. Maybe some of my habits did get a chance to rub off on her

My sister’s current career path choice is a fashion designer. She’s taken some model sketches and drawn various dress designs on them, and they are actually pretty good. I know she’s also been fairly decent with artwork, something I was never good at.

So I want to encourage her current passion by
1. Scanning her current designs so she has them in digital format to send off.
2. Research schools around here that have a good fashion curriculum
3. Start teaching her some sewing basics (which is all I know, but I do have an old text book from when I took a sewing class in highschool), and maybe research some good classes she can take at the local college when she gets older.
4. Start helping her to save money for college and teaching her about savings and being frugal
5. Encourage her passion

She is starting highschool next year (WHAT?!?) and I think it’s good she’s thinking about her career choice now. She also mentioned wanting to do something for animal rights and the environment (YES!!!), so I mentioned doing fashion in the organic fabric and animal-free department. Which will require her to do research on the new types of materials being used for this purpose, like bamboo. She could even do what one guy did that I read about a couple months ago, make fashionable items out of recycled clothing.

Some local colleges I’ve looked at so far in regards to fashion:
The Art Institute of Philadelphia
List of Art Institutes with Fashion Design

Some additional links:
Blast Eco-Fashion or Blast Art and Design
Fashion Television
Fashion Open Directory Project
Fashion Design Resource Center
Fashion Schools.com
How to become a fashion designer

My sister called me this morning to ask if she could come over sometime this weekend. We’ve set up a time for her to come over tomorrow morning to open the gifts I got her for Christmas. She says tomorrow night she has a date. Wait…what? She’s 13 years old, will be 14 on Sunday, and she’s going on dates? I thought I was young going on my first “date” a month before I turned 15.

And so it begins.

I got a call from BB&T today stating that someone had attempted to make a purchase in Italy with my bank card. I haven’t used my BB&T account for some time now, and had already requested it be closed several months ago. But it’s still uneasy to know that somehow my information got out, despite how careful I am.

Fortunately the purchase was blocked, and I will be checking my credit report for any other unsavory items. I suppose I had best evaluate things a bit more and see if I slipped up somewhere and what other preventative measures I can take.

It is definitely a bonus in BB&T’s favor though that they took the initiative to look into this for me. Unfortunately I am no longer a client of theirs.

The last few years I’ve struggled with art sets and my sister’s desire for bratz dolls, that I’ve finally decided I no longer wish to spend money on crap. You just never know what to get a 13 year old for Christmas. I imagine it’s going to be like that for the next couple of years.

I had made considerations on some girlie things from LUSH which were expensive and I wasn’t impressed with anyway.

I thought about starting up a CD or Bond or something in her name, but decided this money would better go towards paying off my fathers debt for now. And in reality, shouldn’t her parents be doing this?

I thought about doing what I did last year and buying her organic bath products that she wanted (and apparently loved). But I didn’t want to just buy the same thing.

I’ve finally resolved to 2 things:
1. A giftcard to Target. I hate Wal-Mart and everything that it stands for. If I must support a large chain, I’m going to do so with a semi-conscience. I figure any teenager appreciates the ability to have the freedom to go shopping and buy what they want. It shoulders a little responsibility on them to make a smart decision (usually).

2. Two books on finances geared towards pre-teens and teenagers. The Consumerist recently posted an article on Great Finance Books for All Ages, which switched on that dusty lightbulb in my brain. Here I’ve been working so hard on my own finances, why not encourage my sister to learn a little more about hers at an early age? Isn’t that what I’ve been preaching?

I ordered The Totally Awesome Money Book for Kids and The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens: 8 Steps to Having More Money Than Your Parents Ever Dreamed Of. I don’t know if she’s actually going to read and enjoy these books, but I want to give her an opportunity I didn’t have until a lot later. Both of her parents are normal middle-class people when it comes to finances, but I’m fairly certain neither of them has ever talked to her about finances, as they never did for me growing up either. The money I could have saved.

To note, I also saved money by ordering used copies of these books, not brand new.

My father went to the steam show today in Westminster (like a tractor show) at the Farm Museum. He knows a lot of folks that show off their tractors there (it’s actually where we bought our current one), and a lot of his old friends that he grew up with are there.

One friend in particular, whom I’ve been wanting to speak with regarding financing for this house, was also there today. My dad explained to her and her husband the situation, as they buy properties all the time as I mentioned before (though I can’t find the article) about how they helped an old farmer from losing his place.

Anyway, my dad mentioned our predicament to her, and she now has interest in buying all three properties and potentially letting us live here rent free if she gets them. This would be fantastic news, obviously, and we’d have to still do the maintenance on the place, but rent free.

On the same token, if she buys the 500 acre farm, I may also want to look at that for purchase or renting. I don’t know how all of that would work, if she’d sell it to us, if it’s even the type of property I want to invest in (I want something heavily wooded). But it could be an option.

It does ease my concerns a bit, but nothing is final, so I don’t want to get my hopes up too high.

In other news, my sister stopped over unexpectedly today to spend the night. We were playing with the pup outside and she started talking about religion. She asked about Wicca (even though I’m not Wiccan) and asked if it was possible to be Wiccan and Christian. She wanted to know what Wiccan’s believed, and to know if it was okay to believe in some of both.

I’m glad to see that she’s being open-minded, as I was close to her age (13) when I started questioning religion as well (I was baptist). I told her to just learn about different religions with an open-mind, and if she sees things that she feels strongly about that it’s okay to incorporate them into her own type of spirituality. I also made sure to reassure her that any choice she makes I would always support and she can always talk freely with me about it.

I’m glad she at least trusts me enough to confide in me about her spiritual thoughts. If she went to my mother with this, she’d flip her fucking lid.

Saturday: Midsummer ritual at the Grove. Our Midsummer rituals are always considered a Fools right, because we like to have fun with them. This one was still fun, but on a slightly more serious note. It was influenced by Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, calling deities of seership rather than specific deities of choice. I was able to spend time with my good friends, and spend the majority of the day before ritual cleaning and purging things around the Grove, being overall productive. I also got two tarot decks out of one of the purges, and set another 15 or so out for sale to help support the Grove. I’m not particularly interested in tarot or divination, but it’s something I like to look into once in a while.

When I got home and opened my mail, I had a citation from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office for not stopping fully at a red-light before turning right. There is $75 down the drain. A lesson learned. Especially since I have put so much effort into frugality, getting my raise, and optimizing my bills lately. It’s somewhat of a slap in the face.

They’ve thrown me into a .NET environment at work. It’s somewhat interesting, but I imagine I will frustrate myself as I attempt to learn and understand.

My sister is over now, playing WoW while I mess around on my new laptop. She got her period today, and seems somewhat scared and unsure about it. They taught her about it in school years ago, but she still asks me questions. At one point in time I had wanted to do a Rite of Passage for her once she finally got it, but her disinterest in paganism in general changed my mind.

However, tomorrow I will be doing all of my hair in henna, and will also do a stripe of hers for her. I’m not sure if she wants to go the deep red route or what, but it will be her choice. Our mother will be fairly pissed off about it, but that’s what I do best. She has naturally red hair, so straight henna should do a very interesting dark red.

I just got back from dinner, and there’s a lot going through my head.

It wasn’t a -bad- dinner, I guess. She offered to pay, which was fine with me. She didn’t ask any demeaning questions about my religion or anything like that, probably because my sister was there.

I don’t know, I thought I went to the dinner to try and figure out what she was up to, but I couldn’t sense anything. There were no hints or ulterior motives. It was just….dinner.

Obviously I won’t ignore the fact that this is the same woman who only 6 months ago was threatening to sue me and calling me a devil-worshipper. Or that this woman is capable of relentless lying and scheming. Or that I haven’t even been around her for more than 10 minutes in probably 8 years.

But in a way it was still very sad. She has aged a lot in the last 8 years, moreso than she probably would if she wasn’t under all the stress of this custody battle. She could barely walk, mostly just hobbling side to side, using my sister for support when stepping down from a curb. She had a hard time reading small print, and I could notice all of the new wrinkles and aging in her complexion than I remember from highschool. It was hard to make eye contact, and I didn’t do it as much as possible. It made me uncomfortable.

It gave me a lot of conflicting thoughts. Here is a woman who was a vile human being to her first born, had a great job which she threw away, had several marriages, gave herself up, and now she’s all alone. Living rent-free with her 70 year old father, working part-time for $8/hour, knowing every single day that her first child despises her.

It’s almost like watching a rabid dog sitting in a cage. You know it’s evil and you want nothing to do with it, but at the same time you sympathize with the poor suffering beast. It’s confusing. And I don’t know if I should feel guilty or just sad. I won’t allow myself to feel guilty because I did nothing wrong, but I don’t know if I can be forgiving, and I know I can’t forget.

When we left, my mother asked for a hug. I leaned down and gave her a small one, and glanced over at my sister, who was smiling. Smiling because no doubt she was happy that she thinks things will begin to repair themselves between my mother and I.

That left me even more confused. I just don’t think they will.

I’m having a bad day.

I woke up this morning to $105 in fees on my account. Not something I wanted to see, but the “relationship banker” at my bank is supposed to call me sometime today to help straighten this out.

The dinner with my mother is tonight, which in itself makes this a horrible day. But in her email she also states that she “wasn’t going to tell me yet but my 13 year old sister has a mass in her throat.” Luckily she had another test this morning and she’s normal, but they are trying to figure out what’s wrong with her and why she’s sick all the time.

I don’t know why she has such a hard time, like when she was temporarily paralyzed from the neck down after falling off a balance beam in gymnastics. That scared me to my wits end.

I never had these sort of problems growing up.

The weekend was less than par. My ideal weekend is spent alone, maybe a trip out of the house down to the Grove or out with some friends. But for some reason, I don’t enjoy having people over my house a lot. I like a nice quiet weekend where I can do chores, catch up on projects, read a book, enjoy the sunshine.

I went to my cousins babyshower on Saturday, as mentioned. It was interesting, very feminine. I didn’t really get to talk to her with all the mothers and women fighting for her attention, but I came back up on Sunday and we got to sit down and chit chat about various things.

I’m actually quite impressed with my cousin. I’ve always thought of her as just a youngling, but over the past few years she’s really grown up into a young woman with a good head on her shoulders. It makes me very proud of her, and I hope that she stays that way. I hope that I’ve helped in some way, but even if I haven’t, it’s good to know that she and I are so much alike as far as the world and how things should be.

On the other hand, I just found out another cousin of mine on my father’s side of the family has moved out, quit both of her jobs, and isn’t making payments on her brand new truck because she got into a fight with her mother. I can’t say I’m too impressed there, but people have to make their mistakes I guess.

How different the webs we weave are.

In other news, I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” today. I actually enjoyed it a lot, so much that I took it with me when I went back over my cousin’s, hoping they would also watch it. But being the very religious sort, it didn’t turn out very good. I was actually insulted at how tossed aside the very idea of the movie was, because the environment should be an important issue to everyone. At least you’d think anyway. But the general consensus was “We can’t do anything about it anyway.”

Well, actually, we can. And I’m really not interested in hearing other peoples theories trying to contradict the idea of global warming. I firmly believe in it, and I intend to do what I can to soften the footprint I leave on the Earth.

I guess it’s just frustrating to see people ignore the environment so much. It makes me wonder if they would ignore it if they had no more trees or parks or their drinking water was more expensive and more of a commodity than transportation or fuel or something like that. I guess it has to be too late before they care.