Thirteen Things About Small Towns

1. You really do recognize people by their cars.
2. Often, homes and addresses are referred to by their previous owners. Example: “Oh, you live in the old Smith place?” when the Smiths lived there no less than 30 years ago and has had 3 owners since.
3. Charge accounts at local businesses are just ‘how things work’. “Charge it!” you say, and the clerks write your name at the top of the slip without having to ask.
4. Everyone knows your business before you do. “I heard your mother got a new haircut! What do you think?” *blink* “She did?” Buy a pregnancy test? You’ll be getting calls of congrats before you can read the results.
5. The bars and the grocery store are the only things open on Sunday.
6. Everything is in walking distance… but everyone drives there anyway.
7. It’s strangely common to drive around town just to see who’s at the local bars that night.
8. Everyone seems to be somehow related to everyone else. Creepy.
9. The local cops let the locals drive drunk… as long as they’re just going straight home. After all, you can’t just arrest /everyone/… soon, nobody would go to the bars, and then there’d be hell to pay.
10. You can connect to everyone in town within 2-3 degrees. Guaranteed. “Jane Smith - who’s that?” “Oh, it’s John Doe’s sister. You know John Doe, don’t you? He married Sue Smith - used to be Sue Black?” “Ohh! I know who you’re talking about!”
11. You cannot go have dinner with a friend without someone else in the diner sitting down for a chat. For that matter, you can’t go to the post office, grocery store, or anywhere else without ‘chat’, either.
12. There’s a lot of incompetent people working in various places… but you can’t fire them. That’d just be cruel… And besides, who would take their place?
13. 20 years later, you will still know the names of everyone you graduated with in high school… and their siblings… and their parents… and their high school sweethearts.

1. amy 2. Raven Vampire Nightclub

3. Michelle M Pillow 4. Mark Caldwell 5. You're next!

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A late response…

Now that the pentacle has been approved to be placed on Veteran memorials, do you feel that other symbols of different pagan faiths (the druid sigil, thor’s hammer, etc) are as equally important to fight for?

That fact that only a limited set of symbols are allowed on Veteran memorials is silly. Of course there should be limits on allowing anything clearly obscene or offensive (the middle finger salute, anything anti-american, racist, sexist, hateful, or pornographic), but personal symbols of faith or belief or whatever should be allowed without exception, rather than limited to certain ‘approved’ designs.

Either allow everything but the obviously obscene, or allow no personal symbols at all.

Copied from here. I’m such a meme-thief.

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Bobbles
Button holes
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Continental knitting
Darning
Domino knitting (modular knitting) ???
Drop stitch patterns
Entrelac Sorta…
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
Fulling/felting ~ both accidentally & intentionally
Garter stitch
I-cord
Intarsia
Kitchener BO
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with DPNs
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting smocking
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Lace patterns
Long Tail CO (both knitwise and purlwise!)
Moebius band knitting (Maybe)
Norwegian knitting
Short rows
Slip stitch patterns
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Swatching Have done it. Don’t do it regularly.
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Tubular CO (have attempted… failed)
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting ???

Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with banana fiber yarn ??? It exists? ???
Knitting with beads
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair (Inadvertently. *chuckle* I’ve certainly knitted it /into/ things. It’s everywhere…)
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Knitting with silk (Not 100% silk yet.)
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with wool

Afghan/Blanket (baby) (I don’t intend to… but it may happen)
Baby items
CardiganCuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Gloves
Hat
Hair accessories
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Jewelry
Mittens: Cuff-up (two mittens… of two different pairs…)
Mittens: Tip-down
Pillows
Purses/bags
Rug
Shawl
Scarf
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slippers Socks: top-down (Doing that right now!)
Socks: toe-up
Stuffed toys
Sweater
Toy/doll clothing

Charity knitting (Honestly? I’m not that nice. Or rich. nor do I knit fast enough.)
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Knitting art
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies (Only if I have one, or know someone who does.)
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting a gift
Holiday related knitting

Designing knitted garments
Dying with plant colors
Dying yarn
Participating in a KAL
Publishing a knitting book
Knitting to make money
Knitting for a living
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Knitting on a loom
Machine knitting
Olympic knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Writing a pattern
Knitting in public

Thirteen Things I Anticipate This Spring

1. Chickens! Yes. That’s my big exciting thing coming up! I’m getting some peeps!
2. Growing daylight. It’s nice to wake up after a long day of sleeping and still see some daylight. Makes me feel less like a vampire. (Not, mind you, that I have anything against vampires…)
3. My first-ever big veggie garden. Last year, I could just do some herb gardening in pots. This year I have a huge garden plot, and I can’t wait!
4. My first ever flower garden. Maybe this year, my father won’t stop by with his super herbicide and kill them all off in his quest to rid the world of weeds.
5. Warmer weather. I’m looking forward to shedd the long sleeves and scarves and the heavy coat!
6. Better fruit selection at the stores!
7. Rain that doesn’t turn into ice or snow. One of my favorite scents is the way the air takes on that ‘it just rained’ scent. That’s one thing I miss terribly about Washington. It just doesn’t rain enough here.
8. New Clothes. I’ll be needing a few new shirts and things this spring or early summer. Woohoo!
9. The lack of credit card debt! Extra money! I’ll be putting most of that toward new furniture. I need a couch and a bed and a decent dining table, and maybe some new end/coffee table type things.
10. More energy. Something about this time of year just gets me going on all my projects.
11. The return of greenery - things will grow! Grass and leaves and flowers. Oh my.
12. Cleaning out the garage. I both loathe and look forward to this. The place is a mess, but it’s just too cold and dark right now for me to do much about it.
13. If I’m lucky, a week-long vacation!

1. Ingrid 2. Mama Duck 3. christine 4. Raggedy

5. Mark Caldwell 6. Terrific teens 7. Henderson Real Estate 8. phentermine

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Stole this from here while checking out a 52 socks in a year knitalong that I love the idea of, but could never possibly complete. Hmm. Another good booklist. Will have to work on it sometime!

Look at the list of (100) books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you own.
Movies don’t count.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible (not all of it, though)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) (reading currently…)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

From Witches’ Weekly:

Do you have any other pagan members of your family? Is there any significant pagan-oriented history of your ancestors and family? If neither of the above apply, what do you hope to leave behind for the next generation concerning your path and knowledge?

No other pagan members of my family. My brother is, I believe, somewhat agnostic, but not pagan. No pagan-oriented history in my ancestors or family at all. We’re a good Christian family through and through, but for me (though really ‘good Christian’ is a bit of a stretch, since my family is not particularly religion-oriented, never attends church, and the only Bible in the house is… well, since my parents moved, I’ve never seen a Bible in their house.)

Anyway, what do I hope to leave behind for the next generation? I don’t know. I don’t have a next generation thus far, and even if I did, I’m not certain I have any designs on leaving anything behind for them, spirituality-wise. Family traditions, however, are another story. I hope to create some of those in my time, when I have children - holiday traditions, seasonal traditions, that sort of thing. But my spirituality is really mine alone, and at this point, I’m not certain that will ever change.

Then again, perhaps it will. I’m not really at a point in my life where I can say anything regarding this with certainty anyway.

I didn’t link last time. Oops. I get this from Witches Weekly.

If you were to plan your own Wedding or Funeral ceremony, would you create two separate ceremonies for pagan and non-pagan folk, or would you just plan a ceremony around your beliefs. How would you feel if any non-pagan friends or family did not wish to attend such a ceremony?

I would not plan or create two separate ceremonies for pagan and non-pagan folk - nor would I really plan a ceremony “around my beliefs”. I am the only one I know personally with my beliefs, and while not in the broom closet, per se, these beliefs are rather quite personal and I certainly don’t go shouting it into the streets.

Often, anyway.

But I would also not plan it around Christian beliefs specifically. I’d probably go fairly neutral in the religious arena, but also touched with some purely… pagan things. Like terminology: handfasting. That, to me, is romantic as hell. Things involving the seasons, the passage of time, the turning of the wheel. Perhaps mention of deity, or the spirit, but nothing particularly /pagan/.

On funerals in particular: I believe that funerals are for the living, not the dead, and frankly, if it makes them feel better to have a priest saying comforting things to them, so be it. But I do have some personal wishes on the actual burial, none of which are particularly religious - or at least, not particularly pagan. I’d like to be either cremated or buried ‘naturally’ just wrapped in linen cloth and covered up. Or at least in a plain wood box. Why people spend thousands of dollars on a beautiful, satin lined box they’re just going to bury for all eternity is beyond my comprehension. And I don’t want to be embalmed. Period. I would prefer not to have the whole Christian ceremony stuff and all, but hey, I’ll be dead and beyond caring by then.

Thirteen Random Things About My Week

1. It’s payday tomorrow! Er. Today actually. In about four hours! Then I have to buy some yarn!
2. I finished my grandmother’s scarf. Pictures of the scarf in progress are below a couple posts, and frankly, they’re good enough. It doesn’t look much different, except… longer. But ooh, it’s scrumptious. Mom wanted to keep it, too.
3. I bought a movie today. The first movie I’ve bought in… years? Yep. It cost me seven dollars and fifty cents, and it’s called Young Guns - an old western with Emilio Esteves posing as Billy the Kid. I have a thing for outlaws. Was the first Rated R movie I ever saw as a kid. I fell in love, too. The outlaw thing.
4. My cat got shaved today, too. Took my gray persian, Tsuki, to the groomer and let them hack off all her hair and matts and tangles, and she’s a new kitty. She’s about half her former size, and she was small to begin with, more like a half-grown kitten than a full grown cat. But now she looks plain silly - like a cartoon cat with a liiiiitle itty bitty body and a big head. These pics don’t do her justice, but here they are anyway:
   
   

   
   

5. One of my other cats, Sebastian, now does not recognize her by either sight or scent, and has been trailing her around with his nose in her butt and hissing at her every time she looks his way. Tsuki is not the least bit disturbed by this, but I find it incredibly rude.
6. I read… one whole book. February was not a good reading month, obviously.
7. I got several new pairs of socks, thanks to my mother. They’re… uh… cute. You know, kitties on them and whatnot. I really wanted some like, striped socks, or plain nice colored ones, but I got kitties. Oh well. Fun feet!
8. I have nothing to knit and suddenly, it’s driving me mad. I either don’t have the right yarn, or not enough of it, or the wrong needles, or the wrong pattern, or no pattern… it’s madness!
9. I roasted a chicken, and as of last night, or night before, I am finally done eating all the leftovers. Except some of the chicken itself. And I’m so sick of that I might have to feed it to the cats.
10. I got my shipment of books from QPB. What did I order now? The Book Thief which is actually hardcover, not paperback… hehe. Oh well. And Amy Tan’s Saving Fish From Drowning which looks good, and is somewhat larger in size than expected. And a mystery book, because I am a sucker for grab bags. The book turned out to be… er, I forgot its title, but it’s a collection of writings from a large group of authors who submitted what they considered their ‘best’ work to go into the book. So basically, stories and writings, and even a comic from Scott Adams, that each of these authors consider an example of their best work. Could be interesting. Looks intelligent, anyway.
11. I’ve been suffering sinus headaches and stuffiness. Again. I think I’m allergic to the cats, because it never goes away. Either that or it’s an allergy to life itself. Hmm…
12. I finally got my ftp server working at home!! Hurrah! Only one glitch, and it’s a relatively unimportant one anyway. One more thing to cross off my list of ‘geekly things to do’.
13. I’m terribly glad that TT is up and running again! Need to make time to do more visitations of people this week!

1. ancsweetnsassygal 2. Jess

3. Domestic Geek 4. You're next!

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Thirteen Things About Letting GoSomething

Since this is Thursday Thirteen’s Retirement Edition… the last one ever, I thought I’d commemorate it with a few last notes on letting go.

1. All things must come to an end. The Buddhists have a saying: This too shall pass. Everything, good or bad, will eventually pass us by.
2. There is a natural cycle to earth - birth, life, death, and rebirth. When one cycle closes, another can begin.
3. Tears are only natural.
4. Laughter truly is the best medicine.
5. Memories get sweeter with time.
6. Some of the best things in life are the most short-lived.
7. When the time comes to say goodbye, have no regrets, but burn no bridges. Life can bring you down this same road again in the future - but then again, you might never see it again.
8. Honor your blessings, and grieve for your losses - not the other way around.
9. Try not to worry too much about what could have been. Life has a funny way of taking us right where we need to be - even if we can’t see it at the time.
10. What fulfills you one day may bog you down a year from now. Let it go and cherish the good memories you once had… rather than letting the bad fill you up and breed resentment.
11. The world does go on after tragedy. Move with it. All things soften with the river of time.
12. Let go of the old to make room for the new.
13. Don’t cling to the past, or relics of it - remember it, cherish it, and honor it, but don’t let it rule the present or the future.

1. jude&elise 2. Raggedy

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What tools do you feel are essential when performing rituals? (Give the reasoning behind each tool and what it means for your ritual)

Mmm. Good question. Essential tools would be:

Candles: And lots of them. Why? Because that, to me, is really what helps me make the transition from ‘average everyday’ to ’spiritual magic’. Certain candles mean certain things - my spirit candle, elemental candles, etc. - but I’ll just lump them together.

Oils: I’m big on scent, as well. Annointing myself with oils is a spiritual thing, almost like a repeat baptism.

Tarot: I do a bit of divination most every ritual. It’s important to keep connected, and more, to keep focused.

Salt & Water: For purification of the ritual circle/altar area/whatever.

Everything else varies by the ritual at hand. And mind you, these are things that are essential to me - not essential to ritual. While it’s been said by many that magic - and ritual - can be done without anything whatsoever, I’ve always been a bit of a material girl. I like my things. I love my things. I like to use them. I don’t have any particular designs on simplifying my life (though I do need to do some serious decluttering/organizing) by ridding myself of my possessions, and I don’t see any particular need to better enlighten myself/work pure magic/whatever by forgoing the tools of the trade just because they aren’t /necessary/.

I’ve met a few pagans who seem to have designs on impressing to others how cool they are because they aren’t trapped by all the trappings - they don’t need to use [insert tools of choice here], all they need is their mind, themselves, yadda yadda. Well, that’s fine. They might not need a spoon to drink soup, either, but I’m sure not going without one, and it doesn’t make for a better person, or even a more sincere/honest/better pagan to do so.

That said, I like to have lots of things on my altar. Herbs and candles and cloth and plates and bowls and water and salt and oils and random stuff piled everywhere. Some people might look and cringe. But it’s important to me. And dammit, I’m not gonna change it just because certain people feel no need for frivolous earthly trappings.