So ... I got an interesting text message last weekend. A girlfriend from work texted me saying "Hey, how would you like to go to Seattle with me next month?" I kinda blinked and told her it sounded fun but I was hella broke ... to which she replies "Girl I will buy your plane tix and pay for hotel room, all you have to do is pay for your food, I REALLY want you to go!"

So ... I'm going. Whee.

Here's the plan ... flight leaves Savannah on August 20th at 5:45 pm ... so I should be getting into Seattle like midnightish? My itinerary is on my fridge, at home, so I'm spacing. Anyway, we have an hour layover in Atlanta I think. So I'll be there like four days ... my flight leaves the afternoon of the 24th ... again itinerary is at home so I can't remember exact time off hand but it puts me arriving in Savannah at midnight.

So ... any Seattle peeps interested in a holler? *grin*

Wahoo! So if ya want in, comment "words" and I'll come up with five words for you, then you post what those words mean to you.

My words from msanborn ...
Stilettos : I've got a wicked shoe fetish. I think Josh will go nuts if I buy one more pair of shoes. But stilettos ... I love them. I like how they make my legs look, and they are one of my top two types of shoes for sexiness... the other is big honkin bitch boots that go up to the knees. :)
Witchcraft : This is a great one for me. I've been a practicing Celtic witch for ... *counting on fingers* ... wow, 12 or 13 years now. Wow. For me, it's not a religion, it's not something I dabble in ... it's a way of life. A way of respecting the earth and all creatures on it. Yes, this includes my recent spider epiphany. I'm making peace with the eight legged beasties. Altho pics of camel spiders still send me into cold sweats and shakes ... but omg have you SEEN those things? *shudder* I've never been one for a lot of spell-working, because for me that is one of those last possible resort things. And even then, my only spellworking has been for healing and protection. Just the way I roll with it. I don't want to fiddle with anyone else's free will or karma, so I try very hard not to get involved if something else is needed. I need to dust off my Tarot and do a reading, though ... especially now with all the craziness that's been going on in my life. :)
Snakes : I love snakes. I've been fascinated by them since I was a kid and my god-sister got a pet ball python. I've always wanted one, and it's been my shitty luck that my significant others are seriously wigged out by snakes, so I haven't gotten one. But oh, I can dream ...
Bread : I love to bake. My kitchen is MY happy place. It's my domain, and I get twitchy if people start going in there moving stuff around. When the weather is cool enough for me to get in there and bake, I can whip up some homemade bread like nobody's business. I need to make some zucchini bread this weekend, I've got the zucchini already shredded in the fridge and just need to get it put together. *drools* But for me, making a loaf of bread from scratch (no bread machines for me, thx) is relaxing and almost like meditation for me. And the way it makes the house smell ... *sigh* yum.
Teas : LMAO this is a great one for me too ... I have got so much herbal tea in my pantry that it isn't even funny. I used to store it in the freezer, but had to move it because I had so much. I love a good honey chamomile ... when I'm crazy stressed nothing calms me down like a nice cup of tea with honey and maybe some lemon. And being southern, I'm all about some "rot the teeth out of your head" sweet iced tea too.

Them's mine! Anyone else want in? *grin*

So I had an epiphany of the eight-legged kind this week. Ever since I can remember, there have been spiders showing up in odd places and behaving in very un-spiderish ways. We had a black widow build a web on our front porch when I was little, and that thing lived there for the entire time we lived in that house. It never bothered anyone. When I was in high school there was a brown recluse that took up residence in the latticework below my bedroom window. (Got me to stop sneaking out the window, that's for sure.) When I lived in Atlanta with my ex husband and was having marital problems, a black widow bit him while he was changing the oil in the car. I still giggle over that one. And these weird big honkin brown spiders like to get into my livingroom and hang out by my coffee table, which just happens to be a big wooden packing crate that doubles as storage for all my witchy paraphernalia.

There could be not a spider in sight, and I step outside and at least one or two decide to approach me. Not in an aggressive manner, I've never been bitten by a spider that I can think of.

What makes it funny is that quite frankly, spiders freak me out. I'm a big sissy girl when it comes to the things. I've never been bitten, and you'd think I'd be used to the darn things following me around by now, but I didn't have my epiphany til this week. It was said to me that I needed to stop and think, and connect the dots between the times spiders have been at their most present and when things have been difficult in my life ... and I came to a realization. Whenever I'm under the most stress or upheaval, that's when I see more spiders.

So hence the epiphany. I decided to put on my big-girl panties and deal with the fact that spiders are drawn to me. So going with that train of thought, I did some asking around about Celtic pantheon and any deities with an affinity or connection with spiders. And Ariadne was brought to my attention. I was told that she was the only Greek Goddess that was worshipped by the Celts. I did not know that before.

So apparently I've got another patron ... I'm not saying I gained a new patron, just that I've recently become aware of her. Since She's been present in my life since I was a child, and I'm only just now noticing it. And another animal to add to the planning of the backpiece tat of animal representations of my patrons.

Okay first off, for those who either don't know me that well or have only recently begun reading my journal, let me start off by saying that I am very openly Pagan. Being that I live in southeastern Georgia, this can pose some problems at times. Let's just say that the buckle of the proverbial bible belt is not very friendly to Pagans in general. Savannah has made some positive strides in the past few years since they started having a Pagan Pride Day (which is coming up pretty soon, I'll have to check my calendar again but I think it falls on Summer Solstice this year). But still, although I'm "out of the broom closet" as it were, I usually tend to keep religious matters to myself. I have a Goddess symbol tattooed on the back of my neck that I make no attempt to cover up, and I wear my pentacle every day. I just don't preach, and when people ask I generally say that it is a religious symbol and leave it at that unless asked further questions.

So I was kinda floored this morning when I came into the office. I hadn't even poured my first cup of coffee yet, much less consumed it. I was talking to our receptionist while I sliced up some baked goods I had brought for the office, and she said "Oh I love your necklace, it's beautiful .... is that Wicca??"

I was stunned! After a second or two to recover my wits, I said "Yes, it is." And then we got into a great discussion about nature religions in general and how she loves how in tune with nature they are, and she said "it isn't just a religion, it's a lifestyle!" I wanted to hug her. Really. Because it's so rare down here to have someone who, even though they aren't a follower of nature religions themselves, they still GET it. Granted, I'm not exactly Wiccan, although I am openly Pagan, but still, she was close enough to the general idea that it made my entire day better.

So I spent the weekend attempting to do some advanced email stat tutorials for Incredimail. Altho I can get some very nice results with just borders and header images, I want to learn nifty tricks, like scrollboxes and traily cursors and junk. So I decided to spend the weekend doing tutorials for the advanced letter creating group thing I'm in.

And I came to a realization. My computer = the suck. Really. I can't run two programs at once, which includes having IE open while I'm running PSP. Because my computer yells at me and pops that irritating as shit yellow triangle and crashes when I haven't saved ... Urgh. I got a nifty sideborder one done with no problems, fought with the top border one all day Sunday and finally had to scrap that one as a loss because PSP crashed on me when I was trying to get my graphic to be seamless. Urgh.

So I'm really hoping that my brother stops talking smack and builds me a new computer like he keeps threatening. Even if his reasoning is purely selfish because he wants me on WoW, still ... this computer is the suck and I'm getting incredibly irritated with how it is curtailing my creativity, dammit.

That song is going to be in my head for hours now ...

So yeah ... I'm just hanging out waiting for hubs and das wunder-midget to pick me up from work, so we can go pick up Amber and Brendan.

Gonna post under friends filter in a sec ... work bitch-age shall ensue. You've been warned! ;)

So I went with Goat to see Wolverine today. OMG. I luvved it.

( my rambling disjointed account behind the cut for those who want to avoid spoilers )

So ... I admit it ... I'm not a major follower of the X Men comics. Don't throw things at me!!!! I just can't get all that into mainstream comics! Sorry! lol So I'm sure there are flaws that I didn't catch. But I enjoyed the movie, anyway. Even with the few shots that played with my vertigo.

So anyone else see it? What ya think?

So ... after watching this thing about ancient aliens on history channel ... it was immediately followed by a thing about Star Trek.

sio what time zone are you in? You HAVE to see this! Hopefully you're on a timezone that you'll be able to catch it, I've been sucked in for like an hour now and just NOW thought to tell you. Oops.

I'll only say this ... Poodles in Starfleet uniforms. LMAO And Klingons singing "Let It Be" (in Klingon, of course!)

So I'm completely freaked. I LOVE seein scary stuff like this. There is a sad shortage of "horror" that has this effect on me. If the short two and a half minute film freaked me the heck out, I have absolutely GOT to see what Guillermo del Toro does with it!!

So yeah, I'm sharing the terror ... no clickies with little ones hangin over your shoulder, cuz then you'll be pulling nightmare detail for ages.

I think it's the freaky walking that does it ...

Now of course I'm going to have to get off my arse and watch The Grudge. That I've owned since it came out on dvd, and have never seen more than the first half hour of. And I think I wanna watch Tale of Two Sisters again too.

I'm binging on scurry movies this weekend! It's official!

Yep yep ... finally getting internets back at the house. Unfortunately, due to AT&T being nazi-pig-dogs I can't get the super cool deal and get broadband for $20 a month. They don't do broadband in my area. Which is gay. They offer phone service in my area, why not broadband? I don't get it.

Then I spent like forever on the phone with Comcast, getting transferred from one call center to another, and then another one, to get cable internets. No cable tv, just cable internets. Cuz we really aren't home enough for cable tv, don't watch a whole lot of tv, and have about eleventy bajillion dvd's to watch.

So yeah, after much confusion and wtf-moments trying to figure out why the call center for the Comcast office that is LITERALLY 20 minutes from my house does not service my zip code, I have a cable man coming to my house Saturday morning to hook me up with the interwebs.

Now let's just hope that the poor beast that is my computer can handle it. It can barely tolerate PSP. LOL I think maybe it's on its last legs. I've just got to make it last a leeeeeeetle while longer. I gots to remind my sis-in-law of her promise to give me the computer sitting in her closet, when she comes out at the end of next month. Yep!

Or is it smorgasbord? I can never remember. LOL

Okay, so since I've got all the blanks for the tags I've been making recently, I decided to put them up on my Fotki and open them up for requests ...

Now keep in mind I've only been doing these since October of last year, after a REALLY long hiatus in which I did not have Paint Shop Pro. I did not realize just how many I've done. Oy. It literally has taken me all morning to get them all uploaded. (well, did some before work, did some during morning break, and finished up just now)

I've struggled to keep them copyright safe, purchasing tubes and using artists who do allow free use of their work, etc. If you see something up there that shouldn't be, let me know so I can get rid of it. :)

Anyways ... for those interested ... linkie!

US House approves "hate crime" bill opposed by Bush

All I can say is it's about frikkin' time.

Got this one from sio

The rules:
1. Comment on this entry saying "interview me" or likewise.
2. I will formulate five incredibly thought provoking or ridiculously pointless questions and pose them to you.
3. You will then update your journal with amazing answers for me to read.

( sio's questions for me )

And now, time to go clock in for work!

<< edit : I totally changed my answer for #4 ... I thought I couldn't think of anyone, and then I was reminded. Yay. >>

So I took a crazy long lunch today. (I had clocked in about an hour early this morning, so I had some extra time that gave some flexibility.) Today was my lunch with John! Hadn't seen him since probably 2000? Maybe a year or so before? Forever, in other words. Had stumbled across him on myspace after Casey's very odd "wonder what ever happened to ... " conversation last week, and John and I both were like "we should totally hang out!!". So today we went to lunch. I had entirely too much food to eat (1/3 pound southwest burger and fries) and we talked and talked and talked. Next thing I knew it was like a minute or two away from 2:00, which was the time I was supposed to have been back in the office.

So yeah, we definitely need to hang out more. It's so cool to get back in touch with old friends. I'm in such a good mood now.

But oh my gods ... I'm sooooooooo stuffed!

So the birthday itself SUCKED. Now I remember why it is that I usually don't bother telling people when my birthday is. Anytime I attempt to do something that isn't the normal every day stuff on my birthday, chaos reigns. And I end up being sorely disappointed and bummed out.

So what happened is this ... my coworkers on Friday had cake for me and gave me a card. I managed to convince them NOT to sing to me and it was all good. I even had a little cake left over to bring home. Friday after work we went to Amber's softball game, caught the last five minutes or so of it (oy) and then brought kidlets home. Saturday, since Josh had to work from 6 to 2, I wasn't expecting any big to-do, but just hanging out with the family. Lee was supposed to come over and stain my witchy trunk of doomity doom and put a hinge on the lid for me so that it doesn't continue to get knocked off every time someone walks past. Simple, but that was going to be my birthday present and I was stoked. Then, consumption of alcoholic beverages was to commence, once the kidlets were put to bed. Well, Lee ended up not being able to make it, because he had the night from hell the night before and had about an hour and a half of sleep, etc. That was no big deal, I was cool with it and understanding and all, despite his "I feel like an ass" comments. No, that isn't what made my day suck. What made my day suck was my HUSBAND coming home from work three hours late. Seriously. He had stopped at a friend's house to pick up our dice, and only came home after I left him a voicemail asking if he was planning on being home before dinner time. (considering he got off work at 2. yeah.) Not to mention that we needed to take Amber to get cleats for softball, at the moment she is getting away with playing in regular tennis shoes, but that is a bad idea and she can't continue to wear those to play. It's just not good. So I had promised Casey that if I could find cleats for her, we'd get them since she has another game on Tuesday. So when Josh walked in the door at 5:30, I was pissed. Smoke pouring out my ears, whole nine yards. So I made some snarky comment like "Don't feel obligated to come home just cuz it's my birthday, we can have my birthday any day" blah blah. Yeah, I was bitchy. Period + 31st birthday + feeling like nobody wanted to spend time with me = me super bitch, you victim. So after Josh went and changed out of his uniform, I went off. Told him that he knew we had stuff to do that had to be done Saturday because Sunday is the crazy day at the house, blah blah blah. He goes "Well we'll just go after dinner to get the cleats." So I said we couldn't because after dinner we had to get all three kids bathed and ready for bed, etc. So he said for me to get my shoes on and we'd go then. I said that I didn't want to be in the same room with him at that point because I was too irritated with him, and that he may as well pick up dinner for the kids while they were out because I didn't see any point in cooking if I didn't know how long the cleat shopping would take. So he took the kids (and slammed the front door on his way out) and went shopping for cleats and got dinner.

Yeah. I spent my birthday fighting with my husband. Over him not feeling like it was important to just hang out with me on my birthday. I didn't want a big deal made, I just wanted his company. Simple request, right? That's what I thought, anyway.

So finally when we went to bed he apologized for putting me in a bad mood on my birthday. (I swear that is an exact quote.) Yeah. I'm still irritated about it, but it has just made it all that more clear that I just don't need to acknowledge that I have a birthday anymore. Ever.

Sunday was better, Mac brought Tony over (so we could finally meet him) and she cut my hair, and Jimmy dropped by with no warning at all. The new hair cut is cute, I like it anyway, I just forgot to put the pic (that I was forced to sit still for) on my thumb drive to put up here. I'll try and remember to do that so I can post it tomorrow. Anyway, my ego got stroked Sunday by something Mac said, and I just had to share because I'm still giggling over it. I was playing my Emilie Autumn cd (I swear I'm going to wear the thing out) and said something about getting "Thank God I'm Pretty" stuck in Josh's head so that he would start singing the line "So everybody thinks that I'm a fucking Suicide Girl" (which is really funny btw) ... and Mac said to me "You could be a Suicide Girl" (making me blush) and then Tony chimes in with "Yeah, give her a few piercings and she's set" ... not exact quotes, it threw me off enough that I can only remember vague wording. But yeah. So. They made me feel purty. LOL

I think I'm the only person I know who takes that as a compliment. But in my defense, I've wanted to be a Suicide Girl for like five or six years now. But yeah. I'd have to get over my hatred of getting my picture taken first.

But yeah. And I'm excited about going to lunch with John tomorrow. Can't wait to catch up with him. :)

I think my brain will implode from the craziness that is happening right now. Between my rapid progress into the "over 30" demographic (it's official, tomorrow *sobs*) and the oddness that is my normal day to day life ... oy.

So as if I wasn't already whining about the impending doom of my birthday, Wednesday we went to the hellmouth (ie Walmart) because I had to get some girl stuffs. While there, we decided to check out the dvd releases. They had 25th anniversary dvd release of Follow that Bird. OMG I remember quite clearly watching that as a kid. Wow. And 20th anniversary of Hellraiser. I guess I was wayyyyy too young watching that one on vhs back in the day. But wow, if I wasn't already feeling old, all the stuff from my childhood having 25th anniversary re-releases will definitely bring you in touch with your own mortality. Did I mention the abundance of Smurfs toys? Gahhh.

Then, my ex calls me yesterday afternoon to remind me that Amber has a ball game Friday (tonight now) and that I'll have to pick kids up from ball field. That turned into a half hour conversation. I thought I'd NEVER get him off of the phone. He was feeling nostalgic I guess, I got another apology for "treating you like shit when we were together", and we remembered some friends we had then. We both said how much we missed Christian, and some of the other crazy people. So, today when I was on lunch I looked up Goat on myspace. (after some serious head-desk moments trying to remember his REAL name, he was always Goat!) Found him, sent him a friend request, which he quickly accepted, then we ended up spending all afternoon chatting on MSN. (still are, honestly) It's been great getting back in touch with someone that I really liked a lot and missed a lot. Turns out that after he moved out, he missed me, but not so much Casey. Do I feel bad? Nahhh not really. Casey was an ass and still has his moments where I want to throttle him, I tolerate him for the kids' sake.

So bonus is that I might be getting back into gaming again. Whee! Since Bunny got married and his wife managed to chase off pretty much the ENTIRE gaming group (gahhhhh) I haven't been able to play lately. That's why I've let my mother convince me to play this christian fantasy rpg thing. It's like D&D except the purpose of the game is to hunt devils and convert people. Goes against my very pagan grain, but ... it's gaming, right? I can play a character and not get mixed up with real life. I cut my teeth on that sort of shit. But Goat is talking about starting a sci-fi game soon, and he wants to introduce me to his gaming group to see if we can mesh and get along. If that works, then I'm sooooo up for some gaming. *nodding emphatically*

And it's always nice to hear "Ya know, I thought you had the patience of a saint with Casey" and that I'm remembered (even several years after being out of touch) and missed. And getting back in touch and reminiscing is awesome. Making me feel better for sure.

As long as I can keep myself distracted from the dreaded birthday tomorrow, it'll all be good.

And I think it's time to replace my mp3 player. The damn thing keeps cutting off on me randomly even though it's got a brand new battery in it. *sob*

Okay so I can't figure out how to embed the video ... so I'll just send the link to the trailer on IMDB.

Trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince


In a word ... AWESOMENESS!!!

So, slackers, hope you got your income taxes done! My fed has been done so long that I've gotten my refund already, and my state went out on Monday. Cuz we had to wait on federal refund to pay the state. Don't understand HOW it works out that way, but, myeh.

In other news, I was so dizzy when I woke up yesterday morning that I was desperately looking for brakes for the floor. I stayed that way ALL DAY LONG. I think what happened is that I tried to jump back into regular running around like crazy too soon after the icky stomach thing of the weekend where I ate all of twice in a three day period. That'll do it, I guess. I'm feeling much better now, though.

And my Malefactor cd shipped today! I can't wait until I get it ... I'll have to do some re-arranging of the mp3 player and get all the tracks on there, but I'm stoked, especially since my craptacular desktop pc ate their demo. Argh. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let "More" be on the full length cd. I love that song. Okay so I'm biased, my favorite song is the one where my brother sings, but ... come on! It's darkly twisted in a very Nick Cave "Murder Ballads" sort of way, and my brother has a nice voice.

I'm tired. I need more caffeine. Definitely. I'll invent a caffeine IV-drip system. Any buyers once I get the logistics figured out? *wink*

aumonae ... dear, your invite to the taggy goodness is sent! I couldn't reply to your comment or else it'd unscreen it, which defeats the whole purpose of screening so email addies stay hid. Just be sure to fill out the database so that I know what name(s) to put on your pressies! And the glorious goodness of having umpteen bajillion taggies with your name on them in the near future shall commence.

And now ... random bullety stuffs. Cuz my brain is fuh-rieeeeeeed.

+ It's Friday! And I don't think I've ever been so happy for the end of the week. Like ever.
+ I want my cd. Now. Is it here yet?
+ I can't decide if I'm up to going to mom's tonight.
+ It's Good Friday stuffs, and they fasted all day and will be breaking fast at sundown.
+ I like food too much to fast. And dislike passing out. So I'm eating right now.
+ And Josh has to get up at like 4:30 to get ready for work tomorrow so he won't be there.
+ Just me and ALL THREE KIDS. Yipes.
+ I think I'm talking myself out of it the longer I type.
+ Is my cd here yet?
+ My birthday is coming up! Whoa. As long as I ignore the number, I might can get excited.
+ It helps that Josh got me a surprise that he won't let me have until my actual birthday.
+ BTW men are impossible to shop for. Why is that? I couldn't figure out what to get him for his birthday (which is tomorrow!) until yesterday. *slapping my own hand* Bad wifey.
+ I'm having incredible difficulty focusing on work today.
+ And the endorsements sitting in my in-tray are from a Monday, which means the stack is hee-yuuuuge.
+ I really need to do tag requests tonight. I've got pending requests for my autism awareness tag, and must must must get them done.
+ And laundry. Lots of laundry.
+ And dishes.
+ And I despise housework. Can I have a maid????

And now, back to lunch.

So Josh got my birthday present on Monday when he had an afternoon off. He gave me the choice to have it now, or wait until my actual birthday. I'm all about some instant gratification, so of course I was holding out my hand saying "Mine?" *grin*

So he got me THIS! A Final Fantasy X necklace. And I LOVE IT. It's sooo me. And pretty too!




And the closeup view ...




I'm so spoiled.