One more week

Next week at this time, I'll have new tile floors in the living room and the dining room. I've been in the process of ripping up old linoleum and tile over the course of the summer. When the floor guy came in to measure he told me that I'd probably been ripping up asbestos. Oh well! I bought my stove yesterday so that will be put in place next Saturday. Then I'm off to get new dining room furniture. I've been looking at the counter height tables. I really like how they sit. I've got new curtains in the living room. I found a lovely sofa/chaise combo that was way too expensive, but hey...it's only money. A couple of pre- shots

 

Sitting with failure

Well, I've chatted with a couple of you already. But for those of you who don't know, I failed 2 of the four comprehensive exams, conditionally passed one, and only passed one. Well, that's a first. I've never failed an exam before. I've had failure in my life, ie., closing a child care center because we were not able to sustain it financially, and I've had worse news given to me in my life about my own life. I had actually written to the Chair of the PhD program three weeks ago, sharing with him the challenges of the exam along with suggestions as to how it might be altered to be a more valid measure of the information taught in the core Public Administration classes. I keep going through my head about what I could have done differently, and I can't think of anything. All I know is that when I walked out of the exam room, I knew that the exam did not test what I knew and how I knew it. It just plain "didn't work for me." That was confirmed this week.

I'm meeting with folks this coming week to create a plan of action. I already feel better about it all and quite frankly I'm OK with it. I go back to the question I asked after my trip to San Francisco. Am I doing the right thing with my life in the right place?? Stay tuned.

Check this quick video out

Here's a cute one. I wish my projects knitted themselves. It's been a busy couple of weeks. I'll catch you all up this weekend.

Hell Beads

 A couple of years ago, I was sitting at my friends Greg and Saga's house. They were making fun of someone and in a joking way I said, "You all are going to hell for that one." They just looked at me. Not knowing if I was serious or not, until I just went on a tirade, at which point my overreaction gave away the joke (That and at some point, I just had to giggle). Anyhow, since then when they or other circles of friends start up, I just remind them they are going to go to hell. At some point, their response was, "You'll be leading the pack with the rest of us." That is probably true, but that is another story.

So for Christmas, my dearest friends gave me "Hell Beads." Little beads shaped like skulls. So I'm collecting Hell Beads. 

So a couple of weeks ago, I got the pretty blue one below (BTW, I got the big wooden one, because apparently, I was really "being bad"). So I've been thinking about my Hell Beads and I'm pondering them. Realizing that because I believe in magic that there is a significance here. As many of you know I'm going through my initiation process within the Reclaiming Tradition and as I thought about that process of death and rebirth, I thought of none other than "Grandmother Baba Yaga." Yes. She's back. 

A few years back, I worked diligently with the Baba Yaga. In fact, for a year and a day, I fed her on an altar I made with a mask I created for her.  I've even aspected her for Rites of Passage classes. She's a wonderful goddess focusing on death and rebirth. She has a house that sits on chicken legs and the fence around her house has skulls on top of the fence posts. The other thing that strikes me in one of her stories is that she has "helping hands." It made me think about my post about people's hands as I walked through the Tenderloin in San Francisco (see the post below).

She is making herself known to me again and now I have to sit and listen to what she has to say.

 

The Time Warp

OK. I have no clue how I managed to get to this sight, but I just had to dance when I heard this tune (It's an mp3). Then there was this version that was equally fun.