I can't believe it!!!
My apartment manager told me that the crappy people in the apartment behind me are no longer going to be living there after next week. My first reaction was "Why??" and I asked; she said, "Well . . . decision. Let's just leave it at that." Ooh. So probably they're getting kicked out or something. Not that I'm happy for their bad situation, but I AM happy that my WALL won't be vibrating at 3 AM anymore. I am very, very happy about that.
Actually I was worried that their stupid "beat dropping" was going to interrupt my ritual last night. I am having Halloween festivities (mini-party, trick-or-treating, snacks) with friends tonight, so I wanted to not have to kick them out particularly early so that I could still have energy for a ritual too and on top of that have to work the next morning. So I decided I'd wait 'til after dark to do my Samhain ritual and that way it'd at least be the right mood.
It ended up being WAY after dark when I did it. Here's how the time went. See, first of all, Jeaux (as always) spent the night, and when we woke up in the morning I iced the cake we'd baked last night and I decorated it with candy corns and a small amount of writing: "Happy Halloween." (I did it by putting the icing in a plastic baggie and cutting a hole in the corner; who needs those expensive decorator bags, huh??) Then we ate breakfast (he had cereal, I had eggs) and I kicked him out.
It was tough to get motivated for the next stage of my day, but I managed to wash some dishes, answer some e-mail, and go to the store for tequila (I need a whole SHOT of it, woo, for the recipe of Chocolate de Mexicanos, a Mexican Day of the Dead drink that I like to serve to guests at Halloween parties). When I came back I did my E2 votes and signed off, only to be called by Meghan.
I chatted with her briefly as I began to bake a pumpkin pie. After we hung up, I called my mommy, and we talked about my upcoming trip to Japan. She's already got it firmly etched in her mind that we are going to spend the entire trip fighting. I'm gonna see if I can't avoid that, though sharing cramped quarters with her on an airplane for a fourteen-hour flight is not going to make it easy. I think we can still have fun. We fought a lot last time we had a visit but all the times before that were pretty smooth sailing, so I don't think it's impossible. Maybe if I just shut up before anything escalates we'll be okay.
I made pumpkin muffins, too, for my mini-party, and washed my dishes. Then I got a weird idea that I wanted to write an article on music for a Pagan Halloween celebration. So I did that; I wrote a node on Everything2.com called "Halloween songs" and it was very well received (C!ed by two people immediately, and commented on by a lot!). Joy. But that pushed me back quite a ways, and of course it was already waaay after dark.
I began to redecorate my house for the Samhain season, and it took a while because my garlands were being stubborn. And as well as Krazy Glue worked on gluing my new scrying glass so that I couldn't fix a mistake I made, it wouldn't fasten fake fall leaves to my black cord decoration, so I gave up after cussing a lot. I replaced my fall leaf/scarecrow/gourd basket with a craft pumpkin, orange and black candles, and black tea lights over a bed of fake leaves, and on my altar I took down the horn of plenty thingie I had up and put my new scrying glass there. (I changed the cloth cover too; it's an orange and black checkered pattern now instead of the autumn leaf one.) It looks and smells nice and Halloweeny in my apartment.
Then I actually went and DID the ritual, listening to the same mix of songs I'd recommended in the node I wrote. It was cool, and I edited out a lot of stuff I didn't care much about from the original ritual I wrote but I did go ahead and burn all my wish tree sachets in my cauldron. It's cool because I use the ashes from that to put in the pot under the roots of next year's wish tree. Fertilization, if you will, even if it's a fake tree and won't grow anywhere.
I finger-knitted and had wine and banana bread and looked in the scrying glass. It was all very nice, and for once my neighbors had actually shut up. (Maybe the fact that it was 4 something in the morning when I finished contributed to that; even THEY sleep sometimes.) What's funny is I got up after that and did some more work on my computer; I separated my book collection page into categories so it's not this ridiculous, hideously long document. Yay me.
So today I took the cake I made and one of the pumpkin pies to work. I wore a witch outfit on the bus so a lot of people talked to me. Then when I got back I tidied up a bit and prepared for guests, and now I'm relaxing. Brendon, Mike, and Jeaux are coming. Why just them? Because the people who come to my Halloween things have to be people I can kick out the same night, and most of my friends live farther away than they do. (Mike and Jeaux are neighbors, and Brendon's at least close enough by that he can make it here without too much trouble and doesn't mind driving late at night.) I don't particularly like sleepovers on Samhain, so my more distant friends have to make their own merriment. :)
Off I go to get stuff done.
Notes:
I know I started answering notes WAY back when, but I just had to read the latest. You are going to Japan? That's wonderful! Japan was the pit-stop on my flight to the Philippines, it's really nice there :) I recommend sleeping the entire time.
Happy Halloween :) I need to clean my room now, so I'll just read some entries and comment on them tomorrow. Adios. [katqueen]