Oxymoron of the Day: Disco rave. My daughter came up with this in the car the other night, and made me laugh. It also reminded me that I really need to start carrying a mini tape recorder with me everywhere, because invariably the funny stuff or the important stuff comes up when I have no access to any way to log it. Susan gave me a (I think) micro cassette recorder yesterday, so maybe that’ll be the answer to this problem.

I’m getting ready for the holidays by spending money in mass quantities and doing a generally crappy job of keeping a record this month. Bad Sheta. I also started smoking again, rather unexpectedly though in small quantity, about a month ago. At first it was just on Friday nights, then it started to show up at other times, and yesterday, after finishing my fourth pack of cigarettes, I said this is it. I’m done. I don’t particularly enjoy it except when it’s on the very rare occasion (like Friday nights when Susan and Tina and I are hanging out), it stinks, it costs too much, and it’s lethal. So it’s over. I’ve quit again. I was coming up on my 11-year anniversary of quitting. I still more or less consider(ed) myself a non-smoker, because when I do smoke it makes me dizzy, gives me a headache, and makes me walk like a drunk. So I don’t think quitting again is going to be a problem. It was just a stupid impulse and it was probably good to learn how much it actually sucks once your body is clean, so that I don’t have to be curious anymore.

I am experiencing cravings, to a degree, but the cravings are something I’m familiar with. I don’t have any real concern for my willpower, since I quit after smoking 25 years, so I can quit after smoking half a pack a day for a week. It really stank up my clothes, and I sure didn’t miss that. For smokers who desire quitting and want advice, the thing that worked for me to assuage my cravings was to learn how to take really deep (think sigh or yawn) breaths at those times. A deep breath can work wonders to “satisfy” the lungs, and smokers typically inhale more deeply when smoking a cigarette than when not.

Since I have a new life with friends and activities now, I am finding it hard to focus on the astral or other side as much. I still have contact with Meridjet, but it’s random and fleeting. I want to bridge that other life to my closest friends, who do know about him and are open to it, but it’s very hard to talk about this stuff in person. I find that I lack the words, because there’s more of an issue of introducing them to the core concepts, something I’m used to doing more in text. I feel more exposed and less articulate when I’m looking someone in the face. I want to work on it, but I’m not sure how to do that, since I don’t have anyone I can “practice” on who’s at all familiar with this sort of thing and… hell, I don’t know. I need to find out just how difficult it is to understand it with a layman’s point of view. The jargon may be an issue.

Hope everyone’s enjoying their holidays. Stay warm! (It’s 72 right now. Slight change from last week. )

Hey, that rhymes.

Yes, here in southeast Texas where it isn’t ever supposed to snow, we’ve had snow already this year, and this is the second year in a row. We got almost six inches last year. If anyone’s interested, I’ll post pictures of today’s >1-inch accumulation, and of the unprecedented fall color we’ve been getting around here. It’s amazing! I’ve been telling everyone who’ll listen, for weeks, that it’s going to be a hard winter.

I’ve been decorating for the holidays (last weekend), going to a paint class I can’t afford (because I’ve been invited to sit in for free), and basically getting into all sorts of trouble. Rending the Veil’s Yule issue will be out on the 15th, and I’ve been too busy to work on it. It’s nice to have a life.

It’s literally freezing here now, though the snow has melted and will turn to ice overnight, which is why I’m not leaving the house. People around here drive like lunatics in the rain; snow and ice = idiots causing mass destruction, and I prefer to remain safe from them, kthx.

I’m still working on holiday cards, so if you want one, better email me your address.

The busiest time of the year has begun and November is almost over. I spent the past week mostly lying in bed due to health issues and medication problems, and had to go to court today for a ticket I got as a passenger. The ticket was for not wearing a seatbelt, though I was wearing it and had the shoulder strap under my arm because I can’t stand it when they cut into my neck. The cops were hiding under a U-turn underpass like the underhanded bastards they’ve lately become. I was all kinds of intimidated going into court, but all I ended up doing was entering a plea of not guilty, then they told me to come back December 22 at 7 p.m. Court on Saturdays and at night seems very odd to me.

This coming week is Thanksgiving, which is Thursday. I’ll be at my mother’s for that. The rest of the week I’ll be working volunteer shifts at the Art League. I intend to take my beading supplies with me to work on during slow periods, since I need to do some beading to sell anyway. That’ll be daily from 10 til 6. Susan will be out of town Wed-Saturday so I guess I’ll be feeding her kitties again for her as well.

I still feel really shaky and just icky all over, but it’s gradually improving and today I felt pretty good up until about an hour ago. I owe Lily a tarot reading, but right now I just want to lie down. I did want to let everyone know that for the rest of the year, I’ll probably be very busy. If anyone would like a holiday card from me, send your name and home or mailing address to sheta@rendingtheveil.com with “Holiday card” in the subject line.

Something I stole from bunney at LiveJournal…

Go to Urban Dictionary and look up your real answers to find the crazy answers!
1.) Your name? Julie
Sweet and downy haired girl, changable, and often misunderstood and complex. A fearful creature as well as highly loyal. She will rule your affection and once you have hers it will be forever.

2.) Your age? 48
FOB Fesh off the Boat. 48 also stands for the FOB gang.

3.) One of your friends? Susan
Susans tend to be wonderful girls! If you’ve got one hold on tight! Susans are extremely fun, caring, intelligent, very funny, beautiful, and make the best friends and girlfriends ever! They are the epitome of classyness!

4.) What should you be doing? Responsibility.
The reason I can’t have a car.

5.) Favorite color? Red
1) a communist
2) CCC tablet (Coricidin, OTC anti-tussive medicine)

6.) Birthplace? Portsmouth, Ohio
Portsmouth is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Scioto County. The municipality is located on the northern banks of the Ohio River and east of the Scioto River in Southern Ohio. The population was 20,909 at the 2000 census.

7.) Month of your birth? March
Month in which creative, layed-back, dreamy, cool people were born. [You bet your ass.]

8.) Last person you talked to? Kara
A tall, skinny girl who has an amazing personality. All a man can handle, if he becomes so lucky to even have her. A good friend that is always there when needed. Likes to party, even if it means some regretful moments. Always up for an adventure, and never turns down a dare. Very outgoing and smart. Is very athletic person. Someone you can always count on having a good time with.

9.) One of your nicknames? Sheta
Sheta isn’t defined yet. [Aha! The truth comes out!]

From a chat log moments ago, as proof that I’m silly when I’m tired:

david: before he says the thing about interpreting your own mystery he says about 24 “which to them that hath understanding signifies the interplay of the 3 and the 8.” 8 im assuming he means the magician — and 3 is Binah expanded to her more Nuit like role — as in the universe

Shetakaey: ok. I’d see Binah and Hod, which cracks me up.

david: lol why!? Its like the court jester hitting on the queen

Shetakaey: Sort of “limiting the use of form, theory, and overly intellectualizing things” because most magicians are mired down in Hod to the point they can’t wipe their asses without checking to see if Crowley did it.

Time for bed, I think.

Smileys in Use on Infinite Possibility

Yahoo!® Messenger emoticons are ©

Get your copy here.

Clover code	Result
%% or *clover*
Alien code	Result
*alien* or >-)
Angel code	Result
O:-) or O:) or *angel* or *innocent*
Angry code	Result
X( or x( or X-( or x-( or *mad* or *fumes*
Angry – WP	Result
:mad:
Applause code	Result
=D> or *applause* or *claps*
At Wits End code	Result
~X( or ~x( or *at wits end*
Batting Eyelashes code	Result
;;) or *bats eyelashes*
Beat Up code	Result
b-( or *punch*
Bee code	Result
*bee* or :bz
Big Grin code	Result
:-D or :D or *grin* or *big grin*
Big Grin – WP	Result
:grin:
Blushing code	Result
*blush* or :oops:
Bring It On code	Result
*bring it on*
Broken Heart code	Result
=((
Bug code	Result
:bug: or =:)
Call Me code	Result
:-c or :-C or :c or :C or *call me*
Chatterbox code	Result
:-@ or :@ or *chatterbox*
Chicken code	Result
~:> or *chicken*
Clown code	Result
:O) or *clown*
Coffee code	Result
~O) or *coffee*
Confused code	Result
*confused* or :-??? or :???
Confused – WP	Result
:???:
Cool code	Result
B-) or B) or *is cool*
Cool – WP	Result
8) or :cool: or 8-)
Cow code	Result
3:-O or *cow*
Cowboy code	Result
*cowboy*
Crying code	Result
:(( or *cries*
Crying – WP	Result
:cry:
Dancing code	Result
*dances*
Daydreaming code	Result
8-> or 8> or *daydreams*
Devil code	Result
>:) or >:-) or *evil*
Devil – WP	Result
:evil:
Doh! code	Result
#-o or #o or #O or #-O or *doh* or *doh!*
Drooling code	Result
=P~ or =p~ or =-P~ or =-p~ or *drools*
Eyebrow code	Result
*eyebrow* or *raises eyebrow*
Frown/Neutral code	Result
:| or :-| or *frowns* or *frown*
Frown/Neutral – WP	Result
:neutral:
Frustrated code	Result
:-L or :L or *frustrated*
Giggling code	Result
;)) or *tee hee* or *giggle*
Headbanging code	Result
*rocks out*
Hides Eyes code	Result
X_X or x_x or *hides* or *hides eyes*
Hug code	Result
*hug* or *hugs*
Hurry Up code	Result
:!! or :-!! or *hurry* or *hurry up*
Hypnotized code	Result
@-) or @) or *hypnotized*
Idea code	Result
*-:) or *idea*
Idea – WP	Result
:idea:
I Don’t Know code	Result
:-?? or :?? or *dunno*
Kiss code	Result
:-* or :* or *kiss* or *smooch*
Laughing code	Result
:)) or :-)) or *lol* or *laugh* or *laughs*
Laughing – WP	Result
:lol:
Liar code	Result
:^o or :^O or *liar*
Loser code	Result
L-) or L) or *loser*
Love code	Result
:x or :-x or :-X or :X or *love*
Money code	Result
$-) or $) or *money*
Monkey code	Result
:(|) or *monkey*
Nail biting code	Result
:-SS or :SS or :-ss or :ss or *bites nails*
Nerd code	Result
:-B or :B or :-b or :b or *nerd*
Not Listening code	Result
%-( or %( or *not listening*
Not Me code	Result
^#(^ or *not me*
No/Shakes Head code	Result
[-( or *shakes head*
Not Worthy code	Result
^:)^ or *not worthy*
Oh Go On code	Result
:-j or :j or *oh go on*
On Phone code	Result
:)] or *phone hang on* or *phone*
Party code	Result
*party* or *noisemaker*
Peace code	Result
:)>- or *peace* or *victory*
Phbbbt code	Result
>:P or >:-P or >:p or >:-p or *phbbbt* or *raspberry*
Pig code	Result
-@) or *pig*
Pirate code	Result
:ar! or *pirate*
Praying code	Result
*prays*
Pumpkin code	Result
(~~) or *pumpkin*
Puppy Eyes code	Result
:o3 or *puppy eyes*
ROFL code	Result
=)) or *rofl* or *lmao*
Rolls Eyes code	Result
8-| or *rolls eyes* or *eyeroll*
Rolls Eyes – WP	Result
:roll:
Rose code	Result
@};- or *rose*
Sad code	Result
:( or :-( or *sad*
Sad – WP	Result
:sad:
Shame On You code	Result
[-X or [X or *shame* or *tsk*
Sick code	Result
*sick* or *retch* or *green* or *eww*
Mr. Green – WP	Result
:mrgreen:
Sigh code	Result
*sigh*
Silly/Crazy code	Result
8-} or 8} or *silly*
Skull code	Result
8-X or *skull*
Sleepy code	Result
I-) or i-) or I) or i) or *sleepy* or *snore*
Shh code	Result
:-$ or :$ or *shh* or *shhh*
Star code	Result
(*) or *star* or *gold star*
Surprised code	Result
:O or :-O or :o or :-o or *omg*
Surprised – WP	Result
:eek: or :shock: or 8-O
Smile code	Result
*smile* or *smiles* or :-) or :)
Smile – WP	Result
:smile:
Talk to the Hand code	Result
=; or *talk to the hand*
Thinking code	Result
:-? or :? or *thinks*
Thumbs Down code	Result
:-q or *thumbs down*
Thumbs Up code	Result
:-bd or *thumbs up*
Time Out code	Result
:-t or *time out* or *timeout*
Tongue code	Result
:P or :-P or :-p or :p or *tongue*
Tongue – WP	Result
:razz:
Waggling Eyebrows code	Result
:> or :-> or *waggle* or *waggles eyebrows*
Waiting code	Result
:-w or *drums fingers* or *waits*
Waving code	Result
:-h or *waves* or
Whew/Relieved code	Result
#:-S or *whew*
Whew – WP	Result
:whew:
Whistling code	Result
*whistles*
Winking code	Result
;) or ;-) or *wink* or *winks*
Winking – WP	Result
:wink:
Worried code	Result
:-S or :-s or :S or :s or *worries*
Yawning code	Result
(:| or *yawn* or *yawns*
Yin Yang code	Result
(%) or *yin yang* or *yinyang*
Twisted – WP	Result
:twisted:
Arrow – WP	Result
:arrow:
Exclamation – WP	Result
:!:
Question – WP	Result
:?:

Earlier tonight my daughter and I went out for a bit; we got home around 9 pm, or four hours ago. Kara just went out to go for a walk and found a dead cat on our walk. Our driveway is about 50 yards long and it’s another 15 feet to the porch; the cat was about 3 feet shy of making the porch. It was a small, charcoal gray cat that I am not familiar with. It had no obvious wounds.

My guess is it got hit by a car or perhaps ate something poisonous (I cringe at the thought that anyone around here is baiting cats), and crawled up our driveway because we have so many cats of our own, most of which stay outside as they wait for new homes. Poor kitty. Its mouth was open and it had a pained expression on its face, as if it died mid-meow. It was lying no more than six feet from where I’m sitting, and I can typically hear our cats meow at the window plain as day. I heard nothing, so that plus the lack of obvious wounds reassures me that it wasn’t a cat fight that killed the kitty.

I’m sorry I didn’t find it in time, but if I had I would have gone searching for a late-night vet and I have no money for that (no offense to injured or very sick kitties). I’m sad, anyway. I hope it was a stray and not someone’s beloved pet. No collar or I.D., though.

Those of you so inclined are asked to please do what you do to help such creatures along their way. Thanks.

The thumbnail for this post is our cat that disappeared last August, Bandit.

I’m sitting here going through my .mp3s one at a time, in an attempt to weed out bad or truncated files and to come up with a couple of good playlists (one more evocative and “emo,” and one of high energy/good driving music) for my friend Mel for Christmas. I believe I mentioned this plan in a previous post. I’m at the C’s now, and it reminded me that I wanted to tell you all about the Cult concert. It’s taken until now (from a September 6 show) because I knew I needed time to digest it properly… you’ll understand what I mean in a minute.

Ian Astbury, the frontman for the Cult, has an enormous voice. It’s just huge — strong, powerful, and fabulous. In photos and videos I remember from MTV’s heyday, he looks/looked tall with long black hair and penetrating eyes. In person, he’s nothing like that, at least not anymore.

The band came on without making anyone wait a noticeable period. It seemed like they came on almost right after we arrived, which was probably around 8:30. The House of Blues is not a large venue; I think they seat 1100. There are two levels, and each has stadium seating for part of the area with a mill-around-by-the-bar area to walk around in. The place was predictably packed, but due to its size, it feels very intimate. We found a place to stand and after a while had to move because Kara and I are short and we can’t see over tall people. We have to move three or four times. Eventually, Tina and I found a decent spot to one side and Kara spent some time with some very nice band member’s wife who carved her out a spot in the lower prom before she took off and re-found us, figuring we’d be worried about her.

Ian Astbury is obviously older than he was in the 1980s, as we all are (except you people who were still aether-bound at the time). His hair is long and basic brown, layered a bit. His stage energy is that of someone shy — he is always lit in muted shades, never a white spotlight or anything that really shows him well. He tends to look down, probably toward the front rows but it often seemed he was staring at the floor or his feet. He didn’t talk to the crowd a whole lot. Similarly, his vocal was mixed too far into the music, whereas I really would’ve enjoyed hearing his strong voice blasting out my eardrums. The volume in general was lower than I expected. We’d brought earplugs for Kara but she didn’t need them once the music started.

I was disappointed at the mix and at my inability to see Astbury well. On the other hand, during times when I couldn’t see at all and wasn’t struggling to fight my way to a better spot, I could hear him well enough to get the much beloved sound of his voice. I missed most of “Revolution” because I went to the restroom. I haven’t had the Love album since the 80s when I had it on cassette (it might be here somewhere); “Revolution” had been my favorite song but I’d forgotten all about it.

Toward the end of the show, Ian announced to the crowd that the band would be available in some named room, but I didn’t catch the name. When the show was over, we started making our way to the door to beat the crowd. It’s a confusing place with stairs inside and out, and an elevator that seems to only be available under certain conditions. We didn’t get to use the elevator to come in, but we used it to leave, and it stopped at what we thought was the “lobby” floor, and we got out. We found ourselves in what had to be the named room, very decked out with a much higher class of crowd that I am accustomed to mingling with. I knew the band would be along in a bit. There was incense burning all over the place and a bunch of Hindu decor; I passed a large picture of Kali, my patron goddess, at one point and wondered if it was a sign. Normally, I’d take it as such — who expects to run into such a thing at a club? — but for some reason, I was just too easy going to care right then. And for only the second time in memory, I deliberately walked out of an opportunity to meet my favorite band. (The other band was Queensryche.) I marveled aloud at this as we walked to the car.

I still don’t know why I left, and I regret it a little bit (just like with Queensryche), but it felt like the right thing to do at the time. Perhaps Kali was there to encourage me to follow my intuition. The affluent crowd in attendance would have most likely fawned on the band in a way I never do, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to get near them without participating in all that.

All in all, the show was disappointing in some key ways without being at all bad. I’m not sure how much was due to the venue and how much was due to the band’s preferences. I’d see them again, if I could. And I could swear I’ve already written this review — every bit of it feels familiar. *shrug*

Download: Revolution

The New York Times today reports (among content about the new health care bill and the release of the names of those killed at Fort Hood) that “There are just over 100 people in the world serving sentences of life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles in which no one was killed; 77 of them are in Florida.” These occurred in the 1990s. The article expresses the (thankfully humane) opinion of various judges that locking juvenile offenders away for life is “barbaric” and leaves them no hope. Read on:

Outside the context of the death penalty, the Supreme Court has generally allowed states to decide for themselves what punishments fit what crimes. But the court barred the execution of juvenile offenders in 2005 by a vote of 5 to 4, saying that people under 18 are immature, irresponsible, susceptible to peer pressure and often capable of change.

A ruling extending that reasoning beyond capital cases “could be the Brown v. Board of Education of juvenile law,” said Paolo G. Annino, the director of the Children’s Advocacy Clinic at Florida State University’s law school. Judges, legislators and prosecutors in Florida agree that the state takes an exceptionally tough line on juvenile crime.

But they are deeply divided about when sentences of life without the possibility of release are warranted.

“Sometimes a 15-year-old has a tremendous appreciation for right and wrong,” said State Representative William D. Snyder, a Republican [emphasis mine] who is chairman of the House’s Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Council. “I think it would be wrong for the Supreme Court to say that it was patently illegal or improper to send a youthful offender to life without parole. At a certain point, juveniles cross the line, and they have to be treated as adults and punished as adults.”

A retired Florida appeals court judge, John R. Blue, did not see it that way. “To lock them up forever seems a little barbaric to me,” Judge Blue said. “You ought to leave them some hope.”

The definition of a social Republican is dominated by the concept that he (and it is a he, most of the time) will insist upon allowing all babies to be born, and then insist that all offenders be punished to the full extent of the law. Many of those unwanted babies live to grow up in the projects, where they learn all too well how to become those offenders. Whose care or execution we then pay for as taxpayers. Add to this generally accepted (if liberal) definition of a Republican the presumption to decide who is allowed to love or marry whom, who is allowed to have access to birth control (yet another way to make those unwanted children overrun society in greater numbers), who is allowed to have medical care, who is allowed to worship what, who is allowed to rape and destroy the environment as they please, and who is allowed to prosper at the cost of whom. Oops, I slipped a bit into fiscal definition there, but oh well, sue me.

I am a raving psycho of a liberal. I am not a Libertarian. I am not Green Party. I am not, by any measure whatsoever, remotely Republican. I am a Democrat in an age when Democrats are the least cool thing to be. I would love to see income tax abolished in favor of a everyone-is-equal-including-corporations sales tax. I suppose that is rather a Libertarian idea. I think human rights are human rights and as long as one is a human being, there should be no weights and measures deciding what you’re allowed to do, barring probation or parole restrictions (which are temporary and should fall completely away after a prescribed period). Convicted felons who’ve fulfilled their parole could be checked on every so often rather than singled out for suspicion by having to cite their crime on a job application.

Everyone needs health care. Everyone needs education. Everyone needs the right and opportunities to prosper. While there is no way, nor should there be, to give everyone the exact same upbringing or spectrum of opportunity, personal effort to succeed is a fine barometer of character and mettle. But as it is now, the poor and the ever-shrinking middle class are suffering a lack of basic health care while corporations ride taxpayers’ coattails to repeated quarterly revenue records, cackling all the way to the bank. It’s deplorable.

I saw a pickup truck with a homemade panel top a couple of days ago. This plywood mess was painted up with warnings about government control and weird paranoid propaganda about Obama. I live in Houston, TX, and these people here really hate Obama. I voted for him in both the primary and the general election; it was my first primary. I think the people here feel about Obama the way I felt about GWB. I am unable to stomach any video of GWBush. He was giving a speech on TV once when I was at the hospital waiting to have tests run. I had to leave the waiting room and go down the hall, because he literally makes my skin crawl. I am wracked with waves of instinctive, purely visceral disgust at the sight and sound of him. He has a cameo of sorts in the movie Live Free or Die Hard, and I have to mute the TV and look away while the montage runs in which he says, “We will not falter, and we will not fail,” because the physical response is immediate and intense.

When his father was elected President, I cried. I knew there would be war, and I was right. We then had the first Gulf War. GWB, though, made Daddy Bush look like a puppy who’d lick you to death in comparison. And this country, to the horror of the rest of the Western world, spiraled into some sick, right wing, fundamentalist surreal reality that could’ve been straight out of a Phillip K. Dick novel — and yet the “Christian” majority kept on tooting their horns for him, almost right up to the day he left office. The rest of us, the minority groups who love the Bill of Rights and feel that the Constitution is much more than just a goddamn piece of paper, watched in growing disbelief, dismay, and distress as it became okay to quite vocally suggest gays should be put to death and Constitutional amendments should be added that restricted rights rather than protected them.

I don’t, and never will, understand how anyone can fear Obama or accuse him of being the Anti-Christ (I’m serious, it’s all over the place here) when he is so clearly a beacon of hope. How can a Christian fear religious freedom as if it were a threat to him, and how can a perfectly content and married suburbanite fear gay marriage as if it somehow would subvert the value of her own relationship? It boggles the mind. What’s so wrong with equal rights for all that it scares people who are in the obvious majority? Someone please explain this to me.

To briefly return to the original topic of this post and piss off even more people — nonviolent crimes should not receive such harsh sentences, especially with juveniles. And victimless crimes shouldn’t either. All drug offenders should be released, and marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxed. It would bring in serious, substantial revenue for the government to pay for things like this 1.1 trillion health care plan.

I know I’ve meandered all over the place in this post, but with so much going on right now, I had to put it somewhere. Feel free to air your opinions in comments, but please try to be smart and thoughtful — posting one sentence insults won’t do anything to make your case look intelligent.

I am SO tired. I am still trying to get my house decluttered and organized, and arranged in a way that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Imagine someone moving all your stuff into half your current space, and putting everything in all the wrong places, all mixed up. Imagine trying to work within the confines of that smaller space and organize it, putting things away where they are used most. It’s a nightmare, but there is progress in spurts and trickles.

I had the living room nicely set up but it wasn’t doing it for me. Worse still was my bedroom, where I’d tried to move everything with personal significance in some wayward attempt to make my living room more “adult.” What it did was make my living room aesthetically meaningless to me (BOOOORING) and my bedroom way too crammed. I then started trying to weed out what wasn’t essential from the bedroom, putting it in boxes for storage, and every time I wanted to sit at my computer desk, I had to move boxes and bags out of the computer area to the bed. Then at bedtime I had to move them back. I fell twice within one week from my feet catching on things.

Then I brought in the enormous corner cabinet that Jesi and I picked out on “as is” sale at Ikea in 2007 (paid for by my mother). I moved it into the corner of the living room and put my computer in it. Got it all set up, and then realized that the keyboard tray was as high as my kitchen table. Who the fuck types that high up? My arms don’t like it one bit. And in the course of the last week, we were blessed with four boxes of clothes that can fit my daughter, which we desperately needed, along with a bunch of stuff my mother brought over — everything from a six-disc cd changer to a bunch of berries like you’d use on a wreath, which I’ll use for my next Art League project. But this amounted to about 8 boxes in an already crowded apartment, plus we have all the Halloween stuff in boxes, and boom, I was unable to move in my it-was-clean-yesterday living room. I got really discouraged.

So today I cleaned out the big shipping container shed we have and rearranged it, creating room to put some stuff in so I can have room to move in the house. I rearranged my living room and we went through the four boxes of clothes. I still have to clean out the closet of clothes we don’t want to make room for them, but this was a lot done today and I feel better. I’m also completely exhausted.

Due to Halloween concerns (we went to a costume party and it was a major undertaking), I haven’t worked on the book I’m supposed to be editing. So that’s pressing hard on me. I also have another issue of Rending the Veil to edit and put together by the end of the month. I’ve been prodded by a concerned contributor regarding the not-yet-restored archives — we’ll have been at the new site for a year by Yule, and I’ve only restored two issues. Bad Sheta. And then there’s my long-suffering book, always shoved aside for other things that need to be done.

It’s a good thing that I’m making actual progress nowadays, though. At least I’m confident it’ll all get done, and I’m working very hard to make sure of it. I have friends who care and who help me. I am blessed. Oh, and I drank absinthe for the first time (and then every night for about 5 days) over Halloween. Woot!