So, for the sake of my family & such who'd like to know what I'd like for Yule/Christams/insert-winter-holiday-of-your-choice-here or perhaps my birthday or something, ( I'm putting up a list right here on my blog )

OK, still cleaning out the basement. It's been going fairly well, considering. For one thing, it was just the storm drains that backed up, *NOT* the sewer. That in & of itself makes a *huge* difference (such as the horrible smell we noticed right off faded quickly- which would not have happened with sewage). We still cleaned the floor with bleach once we got the disgusting carpet up & that's helped, too. There's still stuff to go through & Mom & I are probably going to spend the rest of the summer organizing things (& I'll be scrubbing rust off some of my tools). Mom found herself saying, "Well, we've really needed to get down there & organize things but short of a flood, we'd probably never get to it. Oh, wait..." :-D

In other news, I think I'm autocrating (aka organizing & running) a big SCA event in the Fall. More on that particular bit of insanity when I know more myself.

In the meantime, the craft guild I'm in (The Craft Time Continuum) is working on getting our next Running With Scissors show together. Locals, mark the date- July 25th at Forward Hall. If you craft & want to sell stuff, we still have some tables available. If you don't craft, come spend money on stuff we made & listen to cool bands.

Other than that, the knee is grumbling a little about my return to full time, unrestricted duty at work but not seriously. Yay! Today we had a bit of fun. Biker Babe presented the Joker with a special net- it had a crude drawing of a penis on it (it came in that way). The Joker was very amused & told her, "Next time, longer!" The Joker's sense of humor is apparently very crude- to the point she wouldn't be able to get away with it if it was in English instead of Bosnian so this was indeed quite a treat for her. My coworkers are all nuts. :-D

AT this very moment, I may hate rain as much as I hate snow.

We had an amazing amount of rain here on Tuesday. There were flash-floods everywhere & I don't remember ever having so many streets closed due to high water. Crazy.

Even crazier was what happened here at the house. Floods aren't generally an issue for us because we're on high ground. Not only is the neighborhood in general on high ground, our house in particular is on a bit of a hill compared to the rest of the neighborhood. Our basement is level with the first floor of the houses on the other side of the street & we can see over the next-door neighbor's 6 ft. privacy fence when we look out our kitchen windows.


Yet somehow, our basement flooded.

You know, my studio. My lair.

The drain backed up. Mom, who grew up in the house, can't recall anything like this happening here before. While it seems the water level didn't get very high, it did cover the entire floor in both rooms. And it smells- it smells bad enough that *I* can tell it smells bad, & I can't smell skunks (or much of anything). That's *REALLY* bad.


All the storm drains in the roads around here backed up. I noticed it when I came home from work. They've been repaving the roads & there were tons of asphalt chunks that washed back up, which may be the reason the drains backed up in the first place for all I know.

It's not as bad as it could have been, considering. For one thing, the water didn't get high enough to get into the various power strips & such so all the electronics are fine. For another, about a year ago Mom & I started getting those big plastic shelves & had a lot of stuff up on them. Everything up on them is fine. Unfortunately, we kinda stopped halfway through so there's a bunch of stuff that wasn't on shelves. Plus, I hadn't progressed very far in my plans to clean & organize things so there's stuff everywhere- mostly in cardboard boxes because they're free.

On the plus side, there's a bunch of stuff that probably should have been thrown out long ago that will now definitely be thrown out- like the big box of grandma's old bedsheets (king size- no one in the family has a king-size bed anymore so I have no idea why we still have the sheets) & various piles of papers that I just hadn't thrown out yet. On the down side, there's stuff ruined that wasn't junk- like a bunch of my sketchbooks & some of my hand-made artist's books & journals, which were all in a box on the floor. I've only just started going through stuff. Today I made a stop at a nearby dollar store & picked up some shoe-box & "sweater" box size plastic bins to put some stuff in, like my artist books that survived & various art supplies & such. I might go back tomorrow & get some more.

Tomorrow, we're starting the major clean up. GeekBro is coming up to help. The main things we'll need to do is get the carpet out of the "rec room" half of the basement. It wasn't in good shape anyway & SaneUncle's been making noises about getting rid of it for ages. At this point, it's still soaking wet & keeping things in here from drying out again. So somehow we'll have to move all the stuff in here around so we can get it out. That'll be fun.

Equally fun will be the ongoing discussions of which of my stuff Mom will decide is just ruined that isn't actually. She's always so much better at deciding which of my things should go as compared to her own or Grandma's. Tuesday she was trying to throw out some of my enameling supplies that had gotten wet. Yeah, they look messy but they just need to dry out & they'll be perfectly fine. She also wanted to pitch one of my hand-made leather bound journals because the box it was in was soaked, but once I opened it the book itself turned out to be fine. Plus, she's a pessimist & I'm an optimist. So, there's going to be plenty of "Get-rid-of-it-no-it's-fine" discussions, which are always fun. I'll try & lay down a ground rule early on that I'll stick to my stuff & she can stick to her & Grandma's stuff, if only to help save what's left of GeekBro's sanity.

Still, I've been surprised at some of the things which have survived getting soaked. For example, the prints of my "Brushwood Shrines" photo suite from my Digital Photo class. Normal inkjet prints would have been reduced to a blur of washed-out colors but these prints look absolutely fine-- which just goes to show the power of a top-of-the-line Epson photographic printer with archival inks. (I already wanted one petty badly-- now I want one even more! They're just soooo expensive!) And I didn't loose as many of my handmade books as I'd feared.

Still, there's a *lot* of boxes to go through.

I am sooooo sore today-- but it was so totally worth it!

Saturday night, my friends' band had the good fortune to open for Mushroomhead at Peabody's in Cleveland. It was their annual "Old School" show & it *seriously* kicked ass. The entire event was pretty crazy. It was sold-out, of course, & they had bands on all three stages. Disgraced (aka my friends' band) got to perform on the Main Stage, which was very cool- although they ended up going first, which was a bit of a bummer only because I know some folks missed them because they got to the show later.

I've decided that we all have to get copies of the door key for Finch's vehicle because he once again managed to lock his keys in his car. Fortunately, he managed to scavenge some wire from a chain link fence at a nearby construction site & I helped him break into his car. We stashed the wire in one of his bandmate's cars so as to have it on hand for the next time he locks his keys in his car at a show.

The bands were a mixed lot, which isn't surprising given how many of them there were. Most of the ones I heard were pretty good, though & there were quite a few that I've seen at other shows at Peabody's, too. One of the more interesting acts- Elias Iscariot- is going to come play at Disgraced's next Erie show, too, which will be very, very cool.

And then there was MUSHROOMHEAD!!!

This was Mushroomhead's annual "Old School Mushroomhead" reunion show, which features J-Mann, the original lead singer as well as the two current singers (one of whom is also original) as well as dancer Roxi & all the assorted stage characters. It's kind of an alt-metal/industrial-meets-Rocky-Horror blend of rock insanity that's just way too much fun. I think they may have known my old friend Tate because they had a lot of Barbie doll parts hanging from strings, much like Tate had in his old dorm room. They get compared to Slipknot a lot these days because of the costumes, although they've been around since the early 90's. Ed & I used to listen to them at the leather shop after we got turned on to them by another girl who worked at the shop briefly. The show itself completely *ROCKED*- even if I almost got my legs broken.

I don't know when- or why- it became the new "fun thing" at shows to push the crowd forward as much as possible. I get mosh pits- after all, pits are *fun*! Plus, you generally choose to go into the pit, therefore accepting the risk of potential bodily harm that can result. This pushing thing, on the other hand, is just nuts. It's also seriously dangerous- at a certain point, you just can't go any more forward. This is the same thing that gets fans killed at soccer games in Europe, folks (one poor guy got pushed *through* a chain-link fence- eww!). We had an extra challenge- Lissa was there. She's in a wheelchair. Typically at shows, she sets herself up at the front of the stage but off to one side. It gives her a good view & is generally enough out of the way that she doesn't have to worry about getting in people way or getting moshed over. She made it through most of Saturday just fine. But Mushroomhead crowds in Cleveland (their home turf) are a whole new & very enthusiastic breed & the place was at capacity. The pushing started a full half hour before the band was even scheduled to go on. We formed up in a little bubble around Lis but we were having trouble keeping it up. And then the band started. And I just about got killed. I was right next to her chair, partially so I could block for her & partially to give my knee some protection so it wouldn't get hit. *That* turned out to be counter-productive. By the third song in, the crowd was pushing so hard I couldn't even stand upright & I realized that while Lissa might not be in danger, I certainly was & so was anyone else getting pushed into her chair. So we got one of the security guards to get a path cleared to get her out. I spent the rest of the show smooshed up against the stage, which was much less painful. And J-Mann totally made it worth every bit of pain. Of the three singers, he's "The Cute One"- then there's Waylon "The Bald One" & Nothing "The Demonic One" (so named because he wears a demon mask-- with a wedding dress). The Mushroomhead crew likes tossing things into the audience- small stuff animals, very large colored marshmallows, shredded paper, random breakfast cereals....- and one of the keyboard players has a huge squirt gun that he shoots at the audience (which actually felt *really* good!). At one point, J-Mann, who'd mostly been on the other side of the stage when he was singing, crouched down in front of me & presented me with a stuffed Scooby Doo doll. It was kinda sweet, actually-- & a nice ego-boost. I'd hoped that I'd be able to get him to sign it for me after the show but the rest of our crew had headed back to the cars already. Bummer.

We had our usual stop at Waffle House, where I once again wondered at why only one of their specials actually has a waffle in it. It was after sunrise by the time I finally got back home.

Man, I love rock & roll. :-D

And let us be very clear about something- if a "religion" demands that its members follow their leader without question (particularly if said leader is a human being), forces members to cut off ties with family members, & doesn't allow people to leave freely if they so choose, then it is a cult.

Since Scientology does all of those things- and much more- it is a cult. I think it's quite possibly the most dangerous cults currently in existence. Two reasons- First, it has an insane amount of money so it can therefore bully people, newspapers & government agencies with no repercussions. Every time I hear someone go on about how rich the Catholic Church is, I always wonder if they've considered that Scientology probably has more money. Seriously- they harassed the IRS into submission. The fucking *I*R*S*. That's like getting Satan himself to give up torture. Second, they target crazy people. They specifically target people who are depressed & unstable, preferably ones who aren't very well educated. The reason Scientology hates the field of psychology so much is because it's their main competition (as GeekBro likes to point out).

So I am very pleased to see that The St. Petersburg Times has just run a three-part expose on just how fucked up Scientology really is.

The Times' Main Scientology Page Includes links to all three sections & supporting data. Also the response from the CoS, which can be summed up as, "They're all lying about us!" Of course, the fact that they claim that these people "weren't important" in the CoS when their own literature from when the people were in the group lists them as being in leadership positions kinda hurts their credibility. As does their constant reference to David Miscavige as "the leader". Kinda reminds me of the alien dolls in Toy Story talking about "the Claw")

Part 1- Scientology- The Truth Rundown A history of the group, particularly how it's current leader came to power & it's battle with the IRS.

Part 2- Death in Slow Motion
The events surrounding & following the death of Lisa McPhearson, who died in the Scientology center in Clearfield, FL after she suffered a psychotic break.

Part 3- Ecclesiastical Justice Not only is "the leader" a tyrant, he's bat-shit insane & prone to assaulting & torturing his staff.

Freedom of religion ends when you start abusing your members.

OK, I've found my ideal winter boots. Not surprisingly, they're Doc Martins.

Tori- Black Leather, 14 holes & zippers so it won't take me half an hour to put them on....
Aren't they sweet? Now I just have to figure out how to pay for said boots. I'm *really* getting tired of spending $40-60 on a pair of boots that don't even make it through one winter & these I know would last forever if I took half-way decent care of them.

And these lovelys would be great for "dressing up" winter boots...
And these would be beautiful "nice" boots, too. Especially if I was *not* trying to freak people out (but the price tag's waaaay beyond anything I'd consider)
*sigh*

I've also started looking at boots to wear dancing. I've mostly been dancing barefoot but I like the look of having shoes of some sort & boots in particular. Plus, having bit of a heel makes me look taller. I'm also thinking about strappy sandals for dancing, too. (Boots for my solo, gothy-type stuff & the sandals for group & more traditional stuff)

I like these (aren't the buttons cute? & these, which come in both black & red suede

OK, that's enough for shoes tonight. :-D

I'm the one with the malaise going on- I think I'm mostly worrying about money. They've put the big "office work" project I was working on at work on hold as of this past Friday so I'm only working the hours I can manage in the shop, which has been about 6 hours a day. Even sitting down, it's a pretty physical job (which kinda makes me wonder why I wasn't loosing weight faster). So, paychecks will be on the small side And I haven't been sleeping well. I haven't even been able to turn the downtime from work towards anything productive because I've been too tired &/or sore to do much of anything. And waiting for the other shoe to drop....

On top of all this, I'm finding myself more & more concerned & well, frankly terrified of what's going on here lately. Less than two weeks after Dr. Tiller's murder by a crazed man with a gun, we have another crazed man with a gun trying to kill people in the HOlocaust Museum. The freakin' *HOLOCAUST* MUSEUM.

Shepard Smith, one of the talking heads on Fox, has started talking about his concerns with the level of bile & hatred that's been showing up in his e-mail over the last few months. (I'll admit to a certain amount of surprise that they've got someone at Fox with both a brain & a conscience.) Not surprisingly, the other right-wingers are jumping all over him for it. Limbaugh's reaction was, "For liberals to claim that the atmosphere is somehow more violently anti-Obama is simply preposterous."

Exactly how is it preposterous to claim that the atmosphere in this country is more violently *ANYTHING* when we've got crazed madmen running around *SHOOTING* people simply because they disagree with them? *MURDERING* them? And why is it that they think all other sorts of media can supposedly brainwash people into doing things but not the right wingers & their perpetual stream of hate-speech?


Michael Rowe has a good op-ed on what he terms "The Degradation of the American Dialogue". It is disturbing how far out-of-control some of this stuff has gotten. I keep waiting for someone to declare, "Haven't you done enough? Have you no sense of decency? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" but so far people keep buying into this crap.

"Look who bought the myth..."

(Subject line should be imagined as said by a certain blue caterpillar in what is probably not surprisingly my favorite Disney flick, with smoke rings)

After the Craft Time Continuum meeting tonight, a few of us decided to head next door to the Brewerie & hang out at the Hooka Cafe. I'd only been there for the very first time over the weekend when a bunch of the Erie Bellydance gals were dancing. It's a really neat place, even if you don't smoke. Since I drove, Mom was stuck getting dragged over there, too (not that she seemed to mind at all). So we hung out & drank coffee (Cappuccino this time- I had the Turkish coffee on Saturday) while Bobby J & Mo enjoyed a hooka, discussing tattoos & the weird propositions Mo gets when she works overnight shifts at a local 24-hour restaurant. Suddenly, this kid from the next table comes over & says, "Hi, Aunt Char!" And there's my cousin Ethan, grinning at the weirdness of finding my Mom in a Hooka Bar. And Mom is saying, "Aren't you too young to be in here? And aren't I too old?" Meanwhile Bobby J, quick-witted as always, informed Ethan that he was Mom's new boyfriend. "Tell your mom that she's dating a hot young guy with blue hair & a killer bod" he commanded my cousin. Mom said his hair was really more a teal color. I suggested next time she wear her teal dress so they could match. The three of us decided that we ought to have a family gathering at the hooka bar & Mom pointed out they even had a nice ramp that we could wheel Grandma up, which had Ethan & I just about on the floor.

My family- we're all nuts. And apparently, we all like the hooka bar. Or at least, some of us do.

My first visit had also been a good time. Some of the LAke Erie Ballydance gals were dancing to celebrate the Cafe's 3rd anniversary. The only bad part was that I'm still not allowed to dance & I really wanted to (of course- it's generally harder to get me to sit down then dance when the music's going. I think it's the worst part of this whole messed-up knee thing). The guys that work at the cafe- who are apparently all from Syria- got up & danced with the gals & everyone had a wonderful time. It turns out they're planning on making dancing there a monthly thing so I'm hoping I'm all healed up by the time the next one comes up. Also very cool was that an old friend of mine from high school was there, too. Amusingly, she didn't know what a hooka was before going & so was surprised when she walked in & saw everyone smoking (particularly since Erie's gone smoke-free just about everywhere). She's doing photography now & took a bunch of really nice photos of the dancers-- I can't wait to see them!

OK, off to bed now.

Over the weekend, I decided to pop in Under the Tuscan Sun, since I haven't watched it in a while & was more in the mood for something lighter.

It made me miss Florence terribly. Such a beautiful place, such a wonderful atmosphere... and such *amazing* light! You'd think that sunshine would look pretty much the same anywhere but it doesn't. The light in Tuscany is golden like honey & everything glows. Being there, it's obvious how it became such a big center for the arts. With such wonderful light & such amazing beauty it's harder *not* to paint it!

Still, it's not just the light I miss. It's everything about the place- the wonderful dried fruit from the San Lorenzo market that I could have lived on, the buildings, the gelato which was always so tasty after a day of walking everywhere, all the shops with all the craftspeople working & showing their arts. Most of all, there was the history & the way that history was woven into everyday life. Like finding Machiavelli's Villa & seeing a brightly-colored plastic play gym in the yard for the kids who lived there now. Walking through the Boboli Gardens (where my icon picture was taken) & knowing that some of my artistic heroes had walked there, too- DaVinci, Michelangelo, Ghiberti. I wondered if Galileo had walked there, too. (One of the things I regret not seeing was Galileo's villa. It was a ways out of town & I didn't have a car of any sort).

And there's so many places outside of Florence to see, too. I saw some of them- Fiesole with its ruins of an Etruscian Temple & Roman Ampitheater, Sienna & it's illuminated manuscripts, some small parts of Rome & Vatican City. There's so much more I didn't get to see, though. But then, that's true of most of the world.


I keep telling myself that I *WILL* get back there but it kinda bums me out that I'm not really any closer to it than I was a few years ago.

One of these days, though, one of these days...

...Spam My Blog.

Facebook is a funny place. I've reconnected with people I haven't seen in over a decade. This includes a woman that "worked" at the radio station I DJ'd at. (I put worked in quotes because it was a college station that I volunteered at & she was one of the students in the Communications program who ran the studio. I don't remember her DJing so much as doing things like Music Director & such)

Turns out she now works for one of the big Arts-related non-profits here in town & she's been sending me links to local artsy happenings, like the Nouveau Party last Friday at the Art Museum (which was a ton of fun! I made bowls out of old LPs- Wings' Greatest Hits & Dire Straights' Brothers In Arms). She sent me info about a grant-writing workshop for Program Grants for art programs. I learned that I don't really have a strong enough idea to apply for a program grant this year *BUT* the woman leading the workshop had information on individual artist grants. The only problem is that they alternate which categories they give grants to each year & Metals was last year. *BUT* this year includes Sculpture & Installation art & there's a fair amount of the Tech-Theology Project that is installation-based & sculpture, so I think I'm going to give it a shot. After all, the worst they can do is not give me money. If I can get a grant, I can get myself some more equipment, like the adorable & fabulous anvil that Rio has & it's cool little stand, or maybe some mini-stakes so I can make raised forms-- all of which would be *very* cool.

It's funny how people you haven't even seen in over a decade can help you out. Thanks, Allison!

There was an interesting painting at the Spring Show in the Erie Art Museum. It was titled "Pro-Life" & was done largely in the style of a medieval illuminated manuscript. At the top was a picture of a RCC bishop & calligraphic text which read "Everyone has the right to be born." On the bottom was a matching picture of the back of the bishop & calligraphic text which read "No one has the right to live".

Today has certainly shown that in high relief. This morning, Dr. George Tiller was murdered. He was murdered in the foyer of his church as he handed out programs to the other parishioners. He was murdered because he believed in the right of a woman to decide her own fate & control her own body.

NYT Story


MSNBC's Story (mostly the same as the NYT but with some different quotes-- oh, one major difference. It brings in more of the reaction from the "Pro-Life" groups who are concerned that there's going to be a backlash against them because of them.

Feministe Commentary at Feministe

Shit like this drives me nuts. Show how "pro-life" you are by murdering someone? How the fuck is that *NOT* hypocrisy of the highest order? "Oh, but by taking this one life, we'll be saving hundreds more" is how the defense usually goes from these not-very-pro-lifers. Oh, really? This particular doctor was an OB/Gyn who included late term abortions as part of his practice. The reason he did those abortions were to save the life of the mother & terminate pregnancies where the fetus was not viable, (as an example, a fetus with a large cancerous growth expanding out of it's chest & back). This man *saved* lives. But these "pro-lifers" don't care about the lives he saved because they were just the lives of women- women who were either "sluts" who were getting their "just reward" or mothers that should have been happy to give up their life so that their stillborn child might have some kind of miracle recovery. Right.

But the hypocrisy of the so called "pro-life" movement doesn't begin & end with the wackjob with the gun. Groups like Operation REscue have been publishing personal data on doctors & abortion providers for years- where they lived, where their kids went to school, etc.- specifically so that people could seek them out & harass them. They had images of Dr. Tiller up on their website with flames around him, calling him a doctor of death. For them to claim to be sorry now is a bit disingenuous considering that they laid the groundwork that set this crime in motion.

All this makes me wish I could do more personally to fight back- to stand up to these religious bullies & tell them to shut the hell up. It makes me want to volunteer at a clinic or something, but I'm not even sure the one in Erie is still open.


Pro-life? Bullshit.

(Note- I know that most pro-lifers do not go out shooting people & blowing up clinics. However, most of the "pro-life" groups *do* encourage a lot of behaviors that lead up to this kind of violence & that's something that needs to be dealt with)

OK, I haven't actually stepped on a scale in forever because I was afraid to see how much damage all the recent inactivity had done to counter-act my progress. I do know that at one of my doctor visits in early April I was up to 180 again. Yuck.

Still, I noticed my clothes have been fitting better lately so I got brave & stepped on the scale this morning. I'm back down to 173! Yeah!

I admit, it's a bit disheartening that after all this time I haven't made more progress but all the crazy health issues over the last year haven't exactly been helping. Or at least they weren't- I suspect that all the PT I'm doing *is* helping now, especially since my personal torturer has me working out on some of the machines. (Wow- recumbent exercise bikes are comfortable! I kinda want one for at home now)

Now I just need to keep myself focused on not over-eating.

I have to say, much as it sucked to not make it to SNAG (for the second year in a row! They're going to take away my metalsmith card!), I am *very* glad to have made it to Wellspring. Many wonderful things happened this year, including:

- a good Artisans Guild Competition with a number of excellent entries (which I will write about in their own post)

- chronarchy hugs! :-D

- getting hit on by a cute young guy (he turned out to be a jerk, but it was still a nice change of pace from the creepy dudes that usually slobber on me)

- even better, having lots of people complement me & flirt with me all weekend. Totally the boost I needed. :-)

- finding that the women of ADF will back each other up when it comes to men behaving like jerks, which was unexpected & amazingly cool

- a nice chat with druidkirk on how I might get some help in controlling the insane amount of chaos in my life. I'm now researching Nuada.

- Druid hugs!

- selling several Big Ass Sigils (tm) & getting a commission for a custom piece, all of which meant that I came back with more money than I arrived with (& how often does *that* happen at a festival?)

- drafting an assistant to help me with the Artisans Guild Competition next year (I told her that her official title is "Artisan Guild Chief Ass-Kicker")

- did I mention hugs? :-D

I *FINALLY* got to see the Orthopedist today. He took some new x-rays, man-handled my knee for a bit & said, "Yep, you've got a nasty bone bruise."

Good news, really. I won't need surgery or massive time off from work or anything like that. I just have to spend the majority of my day *not* standing, so I'm still on restricted duty at work & will be for at least the next month, when I go back & see him again.

The bad news is that part of the reason I don't need surgery or anything is that there's really nothing they can do for me. I just have to deal with being gimpy for a while.

I have to say, it's been doing *MUCH* better since I started PT. Most of the swelling is gone & it doesn't hurt nearly so much (proving that a good part of the pain was the insane amount of fluid in the joint). My muscle strength is building back up quickly too, which is very good.

Still going to look for a new doctor, though.

Ye Gods. Someone get me a .45 so I can just shoot my laptop & put it & me out of our shared misery? (Just shooting the laptop.) Seriously. As amusingly surreal as it may be to type out a sentence & then spend the next five minutes watching it slowly appear letter-by-letter on my screen, it gets old after a while. And twenty minutes to load a single e-mail is really a bit much. I've taken to teaching myself to crochet chain while waiting for e-mail & such to load. (Right now just with pearl cotton but I'm going to pick some of that really, really thin electrical wire to play with soon).

I *finally* get to see an orthopedist on Monday- YAY! Finally someone who will tell me what the hell is wrong & what to do about it. I know this guy is good because he's the one who fixed my cousin's knee last fall when he managed to flip his meniscus in a soccer game. I've made a disturbing discovery recently, though- there's a vertebra in my back that's seriously cracking now that didn't before I fell. I know because I used to do pelvic curls a lot when I did pilates & it never bothered me then. I was going to ask my Personal Torturer about it on Monday but I forgot she was out & had a sub instead. Ugh.

Work is going fairly well, all things considered. I'm not entirely full-time at the moment because have to take time for PT three times a week but at least I'll have something of a paycheck. And they're taking the restrictions very seriously this time- as am I. Unfortunatly, I think I'm losing a bit of the mobility I'd regained when I was off work. Blech.

Had a great first half of the weekend last weekend. Friday night one of the Metals Grads had his Thesis Show Reception, which was fab, & then my good friend Lisa's birthday party where I was actually flirted with by a sailor, which was a nice ego-boost. (He was in uniform, even)
MAde it out to see some of the local Belly crew dance for World Bellydance Day early Saturday afternoon & then things took a bad turn. I'd planned on catching The Watchmen at the dollar theater (since I still haven't seen it) & then on to the Pegasus Unicorn CD release party. Alas, I was thwarted. My stomach has decided that chicken wings are no longer an acceptable dinner. It decided I hadn't been getting the message clearly enough with it just feeling crummy & decided to make a more emphatic statement. At least my abs got a decent workout.

In other news, there's a bad news/good news side to my knee-related woes. Since I won't be able to drive to Philly & don't have that much extra cash, I won't be making it to the Society of North American Goldsmith's Conference the end of the month. Which makes me sad. However, since I'm not going to SNAG, I *can* go to Wellspring- which is the same weekend & significantly shorter drive. So while I'll miss my fellow smiths, I can at least spend some quality time with my Druid buds!


And now I'm going to go to bed while this thing uploads

I had a grand holiday weekend indeed.

Friday night a bunch of us went up to see our friend's band, Disgraced, play in Geneva-on-the-Lake. GotL as a town is not actually open yet so the place was very like a closed-up carnival, largely because that's what it is. And the bar was kinda pricey- $3 for one of those cheap shots they bring around on trays. (Everywhere in Erie, they're a $1). Disgraced's set was fantastic as always. Some of the other openers were pretty good, too. Some were middling at best, unfortunately. And one was trying *waaaaaaaaaay too hard to be Limp Bizcut with their very own Fred-Durst-Act-Alike. (Dude, Durst is an *asshole*. Insulting the people watching you does not generally gain you fans). The headliners were both excellent- As Summer Dies & Ventana. For those not aware, VEntana is a side-project of one of the Mushroomhead guys. The lead singer of ASD looks like a cross between Anthony Perkins & Crispin Glover- psychotic but somehow cute anyways. And they have a chick bass player who sings backup- she had very cool dreadfalls. Ventana performed wearing gas masks. I couldn't decided which I was more reminded of- The Wall or that episode of Dr. Who. It was especially amusing to watch the one keyboard player drink a beer *through* his mask. MEanwhile, the other keyboard guy somehow managed to curl himself up on his keyboard stand without actually sitting on his keyboard- I have no idea how he did it.I even watched him fold up into that position & I have no idea how he did it.He must be related to Mr. Fantastic or something.. The venue did make one trully awful error in judgement- they decided to put a crappy local band in *between* the headliners. This would be a bad idea with a *good* local band. In this case, it drove even the non-smokers outside for a extended smoke break. It is not a good sign when *every* member of the band is wearing a Metallica t-shirt. Seriously.

On our way home, we stopped at a Waffle House. I had never experienced the joy of a WaffleHouse before but I have to say, we had ourselves a good time- even if we did (mostly) restrain ourselves from making fun of the fake cowboy. (Dude, you are from Ohio. *Northern* Ohio. This is nowhere near Alabama so drop the fake drawl. And that tricked-out Hummer? There's no way that flashy paint-job has ever been off-roading- or even within sight of mud.) Got home at an absurdly late hour & spent a good portion of Saturday just sleeping as a result.

Sunday, Maggie & I went up to Stone Creed Grove's Beltaine & had a blast! Maggie now understands why I always rave about how great Stone Creed's Rites are. The only thing I didn't like was that I couldn't do any of the dancing- :-P. Damn knee. But it was great seeing everybody up there & Maggie's daughter won a tarot deck in their raffle. During the one of the prayers, Ian was talking about about how it was a day to show our feelings to the ones we loved- at which point I turned to Maggie & said, "Guess when I get home I should go kiss my anvil."

This was originally written by cadhla & posted here. I'm posting them here because (a) I want to remember them & be able to find them later & (b) they're just too damn funny not to share with the entire world.


The Commandments of Coyote.

I. Thou Shalt Have As Many Gods and Spirits and Personal Trainers and Gurus As You Like Before Me, But You Shalt Not Let Them Block the Exits, and More, You Shall Not Permit Them To Take the Last Beer, For That Beer Is Mine. Seriously. Don't.

II. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife, But Thou Art Totally Welcome To Admire Her Ass When She Walks By, and If It Happens To Come Out That They Are In An Open Relationship, Dude, Tap That Ass As Much As They Are Willing To Allow. Same Goes For the Ladies. Coveting Is Sort Of Stupid, But Sex Is Just Plain Fun, Unless Thou Art Doing It Entirely Wrong.

III. If Thy Neighbor Says 'Hands Off My Wife, Dude', Thou Shalt Listen and Back Off, Because Otherwise, Thy Neighbor Will Be Totally Justified In Hitting You About the Head and Shoulders With Gardening Tools, and Don't Think That I'm Going To Step In There and Stop Him.

IV. Adultery Is Actually Pretty Fun. Commit It All You Like. Just Make Sure Everyone Is Cool With It, Or I Will Not Help You Out Once the Hitting Gets Started.

V. Thou Shalt Not Eat Poisoned Bait. If You Do, Don't Come Whining To Me About It, Because I Am Very Unlikely To Care. Once It Is In Your Mouth, It Is Your Problem, Not Mine.

VI. Of Course Thou Shalt Kill. Carnivores Do That. Also, Swatting Mosquitoes, Sort Of Instinctive. But All Creatures Are Alive Before You Kill Them, and So Thou Shalt Respect Them In Their Lives and In Their Deaths. Thou Shalt Not Kill Without Reason. Thy Neighbor Tapping Thy Wife's Ass? Is Not A Reason. Don't Make Me Set A Plague Upon Thy Ass. Thou Wouldst Not Enjoy It, I Promise.

VII. Thou Shalt Not Hoard. Seriously, Here. If You Have Enough, Share. Only Asshats Bogart Life.

VIII. Thou Shalt Not Be A Martyr. If You Have One Beer, Drink It. Do Not Give It To Me and Then Expect Adoration. Dude, That Was Your Beer, I Did Not Break Your Arm To Get It. Give What You Can Give, and Expect Neither Praise Nor Worship. You Are Not Being Morally Superior, You Are Being A Decent Human Being. There Is A Difference.

VIV. Assume This Is It. Maybe There Is Reincarnation; Maybe Not. Not Only Am I Not Saying, Please Consider the Fact That I Probably Get A Say In Whether You Come Back, and If You Are the Sort Of Person Who Doesn't Do Anything With One Life, Why Should I Waste My Time Giving You Another One? Live Like You Get No Second Chances. You Will Have More Fun.

X. Are You Going To Eat That?

Today's subject line brought to you by my physical therapist, whom I saw for the first time today. Finally! Something resembling treatment! I'll be going 3 times a week for who knows how long. I also finally have the appointment to see the orthopedist in two weeks.

She told me that the bone bruise is pretty bad- my kneecap, my femur, etc- all on the joint. She said the only thing you can really do is keep off it & wait for the bruises to heal. Bone bruises actually take a long time to heal. She also said the amount of fluid is a problem too. She gave me some exercises to work on to build my leg muscles back up & increase my range-of-motion. She was very happy to see that I hadn't lost my extension in my leg- she said that's much harder to get back if it's lost.


However, things are still insanely screwed up. When I told the physical therapist that the PA-not-really-a-doc insisted that she'd be the one to determine to determine whether I could go back to work or not, she told me, "I can't make that call. The orthopedist would have to make that decision." OK.

So I call the doc's office when I get home & explain what the PT said. They say they'll pass the message to the PA & get back to me. So an office person calls me back much later- after the docs have gone home of course- & tells me "Your physical therapist has approved you going back to work so we have you going back to work tomorrow but with restrictions." Excuse me? That is directly counter to what the PA told me. What the hell is going on? The woman tells me that they can't write me a new note & I'll have to wait until tomorrow when the doctor comes in. Meanwhile, my employers have a note saying that I'm supposed to come back tomorrow with no restrictions that the stupid PA already gave them.

I am pissed beyond belief. I actually yelled at the nurse or whoever it was that called me- "It has been over a month & today is the first day I've had any kind of treatment for this & you guys are giving me a hard time because I'm in too much pain to work?" This whole thing is just completely insane.

So today I get a phonecall from my boss. It seems that the doctor's office never faxed my med leave slip over to the office. General S informed me that if they don't get the note today then they'd have to consider me as having had "unexcused absenses"all week & Monday I would no longer have a job. So I call the doc's office & tell them to fax it again--- for the 4th time. (Seriously- I even gave them the phone number every single time I told them, too.)

General S calls me back & says, "Ready to do jumping jacks?" And I thought, "Yay! They faxed it!" And they had. What they hadn't told me was that what the doctor wrote was, "Can return to work on Tuesday, May 5th with no restrictions." Uh, what? General S being the kidder that he is said, "So Tuesday morning we'll start you off with calisthenics."

The PA-sort-of-doc had told me the note would clear me until I saw the Physical Therapist on Monday. She didn't say anything about telling my boss I could return to work with no restrictions. So, now my boss is trying to decide whether I'm a whiner or the PA's an idiot. Thankfully, he seems to be leaning towards the PA being an idiot.

Still- I am never going to go to this woman ever again. This is just beyond ridiculous.