I had the most amazing weekend sharing birthday celebrations with other Virgo, Libra Friends. The rain only caused us to hide for little bits of time. It did slow down work progress, but the entire weekend was really fun.

I went on my first trackter ride. I saw the entire camp grounds. We learned a great deal about fungus, because one of the ladies on the ride identifies them and we all learned a bunch. We even got to taste some of them later at the pot luck! Yumm! Absolutely beautiful fungus. I discovered I need to wander more with my sketchbook and charcoal and maybe on a nice dry day take photos! The trees were so cool! Especially the old narly ones!

I was honored to share in the birthday festivities after a brief snack. Mojitos with extra mint! Yumm! We sat around the campfire to stay warm and enjoy each others company. I have never laughed so hard in such a long time. I awoke with new muscles aches from all the laughter from the previous evening. Caught up with friends, meet new ones, got to know some others better. I did not want to go to bed.

Awoke to rain, which continued to slow work down. More wonderful conversation and TEA between the rain drops. Refueled and managed to finished the task at hand to close up the campsite for the winter. I managed to get into the way of a falling branch that bull's eyed my nose. I haven't been bopped in the nose in years! Holy crap I forgot how much it hurts! Gave blood to the nature gods and goddessess. I hope that was enough. I do not plan on donating again for awhile. That accomplished we headed home.

I changed into warm clothes to be meet by my BFF who wanted to surprise me and visit. I managed to do all my laundry and all the clothes that smell of campfire never made it into the washer and dyer! Maybe nextweek...

I am going through all the things I have to do today. Yet, I am waiting for someone to contact me, so I am my usual impatient self. UG!

I am always amazed at how long it has been since my last post. I will have to work on it. Many things have been happening. I have been trying to fix the computer so that I can have flashplayer, but it turns out I have to buy memory for my computer in order to do that. UG!

I need to finish my bills, check a couple of job websites out, continue planning for the weekend, waiting... check out planfares, a friend invite me to visit, so we are in planning mode.

Check facebook, check email, continue the other to projects I am working on, get stuff from my apartment, take stuff to my apartment, cleaning, only a little bit. waiting...

Oh pish posh - I think I am going to head outside and enjoy the day.

I really liked this film. Although I love anything to do with scifi, fantasy or magic and then do not forget comic books or cartoon heros! I really enjoyed the non-stop adventure of one apprentice finding his own way between the world of science and magic. Also never forget a dash of Love for the receipt to be complete. I can usually tell that if I have to buy it when it comes out on dvd that it is going to be added to the long list of hits.

My dad was in the hospital and the doctors came in visit him just as I needed to leave and meet my BFF and I managed to catch an end of the month movie outing. The strange thing about that day was every where I went I had 15 minutes to decided what I needed to buy and leave, if managed to catch them before closing. I had an A C Moore coupon for $10 off, so i got more scrapbooking supplies and headed out. Ran into a cowoker even! Department Store was closed so I'd have to wait to pay the bill. We had to go to the later show because I was late coming home from the hospital. Mom wanted Chinese for dinner so we stopped, but we added steamed dumplings and had to wait another 10 minutes. Managed to only be about 5 minutes late for BFF a waiting on porch for our arrival. We ate and talked before heading out. Learning to continue not fighting the clock and enjoing the wait. After the movie we headed into borders and once again had 15 minutes to make our consumer decisions. Then we headed to the park for a late night chat aboutour vacation and te directions our lives are heading toward, before heading home to bed.

HOODOO SHE BREW by D. Knight

A friend of mine invited me to her poetry/spoken word at Rust Belt Books on Tuesday evening. I managed to remember to go and be on time even with work. I enjoyed her performance. And we even had a book to take and remember the experience.

I shopped around finding wonderfully priced books on a subject matter I was thinking about due to the previous weekend vacation. My stomach rumbled for attention and I was aimlessly walking up and down Allen Street to ponder dinner at Jim's Steak Out. Deciding that I should not just ponder but partake, I ordered my usual favorite with a twist. I picked up the Art Voice and found an article explaining the Infringement Festival. I also found out a friend of mine was going to be reading at 8pm.

Around 8pm I headed back to Rust Belt Books and sat in on the previous reader and really enjoyed her memory work storytelling technique. Being a visual artist can be kind of cruel. I see pictures of the things as words and vibrations occilate through the air to create a entirely new environment, just as happens for most people when reading a book. It pulls you into that world even if only for a moment. How long is a moment really? Can it be measured? I think of a moment as an open ended question with a multitude of possibilities. And then she realized her time was up and though it was only five minutes of her life that I shared every part of that moment and I was taking an old worn photograph of her life experience with me. Definately, something to cherish.

WIERD TALES and TALL COINCIDENCES by Janna Willoughby

Now, the audience changed preparing for the next artist to take the stage. A friend I have not had the pleasure to see in a few years ascended the stage. Her warm presences easily filled the back room making it continued cozy. I moved from the back row to the front. I love to hear Janna. We traveled with her on her families' strange experiences, it was very magical for me. I discovered we had some stange things that had happened to both of us. I listened intently.

Before I knew it the hour had passed. Still digesting I waited to say hi again after a long time. We traveled to Days Park to enjoy an evening with fire in the park displayed by a group called Pyromancy.

At the end I was debating on heading home when I ran into other friends surprised to see me out. Before I knew it we were deep in discussion and having a beer.

Time really does fly when you are having fun... the next time i gazed at my watch I realized why I was yawning, 10:30pm had become 2:00am. I was headed home and dreams from every land and nation to dance across my brain as I slept.

In July I decided to spend some quality time with my BFF (e:springfairy) on a weekend get away. She was just finishing up school and paper/project deadlines. I was just ready for a break from my life; work; bills; job; family; apartment; et cetera... The Universe being the accomodating beings they are choose to have me get Heat Exhaustion / Dehydration the Wednesday before I am to leave on said vacation. I have to have an emergency visit to the doctor, who then sends me to urgent emergency care. UG! I woud like to live me life without having those symptoms again! The doctor was very thorough in letting me know I should: Take time off; enjoy a couple of days rest; drink - stay hydrated; no work; if symptoms return come back immediately.

I even asked the good doctor if it was ok to go on said vacation, he said it was doctor's orders! Nice doctor! So I slowly packed for my weekend vacation. I hung out with BFF at her house. The drive was nice. Stopped for some tobacco for my elder. Geesh! How money flies out of the wallet! Prices have gone up quite a bit for tobacco. Drove into local store to get some groceries and snacks and breakfast foods... Got to camp, visited with several people haven't seen in a couple of years. We got invited to camp with friends - from out of town specifically New Orleans. Good times! I promised myself no work, so I did what must be done and relaxed!

Managed to touch base with more people than had planned. Great Company. Great conversations. Lots of dancing. Lots of drumming. Lots of silliness. Lots of connections. Finally gave friends their belated present from 2007; pictures of their wedding. Spoke with my elder and found out we are rebuilding due to unforeseen circumstances and set a date to come and work. It was good to see the surprise on his face when I gave him the tobacco, definately worth it! I tried to spend quality time with as many friends as I could time allowing and weather permitting.

The morning of our day to head home a thuderstorm rolled in and did not stop raining for several hours. Who says Mother Nature does not have a sense of humor? Therefore our plans had changed. There was flooding and roads were closed. Once the rain stopped the locals reported that after 2-3 hours it would all seep into the ground and we would be able to head on our merry way home. My response was what can I do to change this situation? Nothing. So, what am I going to do while I wait? Have a spot of lunch, visit with bff and wait until our lake side property became dry land once again, so that I can begin to pack up camp and pack the car.

Drama Queens. Two friends were acting quiet strange and were upset about the situation and were shouting orders to people in camp. I ended up being one of them and did as ordered. Only because I have been in this persons shoes, even though I had never met her before - not because I was ordered. The order part got me to leave promptly after help was given. Miffed I began talking to bff about issue. We vented. We also decided since people were reacting badly it would be best to spend time with each other or other people with the same mindset. We too had to break camp and the rain had flooded our stuff and no one was helping us. Was that simply because we decided not to let it upset us and pardon me for the pun, but go with the flow!

We hung out in a community dry space while waiting for the water level to disappear. We found other people who were just chillin'. We were invited to partake of cherries and share in our weekend festivities stories. We spent some time around a small camp fire still burning from the night before which wafted into my hair and stayed there until my next shower. Meet some new friends who were concerned with catching a plane on time. I sat and meditated on many different thoughts, ideas and feelings. It felt good to just be. Thank you Mother Nature for those moments with nothing to do but wait. I spent some quality time with myself and my thoughts. Sharing with others as they came and went. Mostly centering myself and finding the secret of taking home my vacation when I left. I think it was Mother Nature's gift to me.

When the water level had disappeared it was time to get to packing up. I took my tent and other wet camping gear to dry in the hot sun. I then waited while having a snack of cookies and water knowing that the car was packed, mostly. And once all the wet stuff dried we would be off heading home and dinner at Aunt Millie's. I was planning on steak and potatoes! I do not ever seem to have room after eating dinner for dessert. And Aunt Millie's desserts are supreme. Headed back to BFF's house and partly unpack the car, to do some laundry of wet clothes and watch tv.