Updatey

[danaeris]

The drive to Ottawa was fun, quick, and uneventful, with minimal traffic. We had a lovely dinner with our local friends, spent time socializing pleasantly and enjoyable at da_gibbs' house, and then I got some lovely alone time with iclysdale.

The next morning we high tailed it to Whispering Pines. It was freezing cold and raining, and on the way there we got lost (went across the top of the loop, turned right to go onto 9, and then stayed on the juncture and went back towards Wendover along the bottom of the loop instead of veering off onto 9 like we were supposed to), but the workshop we were trying to catch at 10 started late, so it was ok.

Grounding and centreing workshop was great, and I definitely got a lot out of it. The rest of the day was a challenge however (never fear; however: the weekend DID get better). I had a headache that did not seem to go away no matter what I did. I was cold, and it was drizzly, and I felt out of place with a lot of the people there, who repeatedly engaged me in fucked up conversations about science that just plain upset me and left me feeling completely disrespected and irrelevant. At one point a chemist informed me that I shouldn't complain about people burning plastic refuse on the camp fire because "it's only one molecule away from the diet pepsi I was drinking." Um. WTF? Plastic fumes ARE toxic, and we were trying to roast marshmallows on that fire! I didn't know she was a chemist, so I basically refused to debate it with a 'non-science type.' It boggles my mind that she would be so out of it with regards to something like this, and still be working on her masters in chemistry. WTF?

Then someone started gushing to me about how quantum mechanics proves that magic works, and I was just about ready to give up.

Crashy from all that, headachey, cold and wet, and sugar-crashing to boot, I was displeased to discover that although the schedule called for dinner at 6 and then the main ritual, they were starting the ritual at 7 and serving dinner afterwards. So, a kind soul offered to do some reiki on me (bastdanica's sweetie, whose username I don't know), which helped improve my mood but not the state of my body. I managed to enjoy the main rit.

I do feel that it was not ideally executed, however. First of all, they invoked the four quarters in a language I did not recognize. If you're going to do something like that, I consider it worthwhile to explain beforehand what is going on. Second of all, they invited us to toast first a god or goddess (had to be a norse deity, or if you didn't know any, you could say, "To all the gods and goddesses", then our ancestors, then to brag, and requested that EVERYONE participate, out loud. My feeling is that it is best to give people time to prepare for something like that, and to give them the option of bowing out or toasting silently. And, judging by the number of "To all the gods and goddesses," very few knew the norse pantheon. It would have been super cool to do a mini tutorial on norse mythology/deities earlier that day so that people were better prepared.

I was glad that I thought to do a separate toast to motogrrl aka. the dearly departed Leigh Ann. None present knew her, but several commented to me afterwards that she sounded like she had been a bright light in the community, and a great loss. I feel it is important that she be remembered far and wide.

Still, it was good, as was dinner. Afterwards a bunch of us retired to the warm and dry gazebo and socialized until late. Some much-needed processing occurred between myself and metalana, and then eventually, we turned in.

It was freezing, and raining. I snuggled up with my sweeties, in the middle, and we were warm enough with three sleeping bags and several layers of blankets, plus nightgowns. It felt good. But, around 1:30 a.m. I began to feel inceasingly nauseous. I said, "Oh my god" twice, abruptly kneeled, said, "I need to get out of bed" twice. Unfortunately, both my sweeties were out like a light. And then, I barfed out EVERYTHING I had eaten all day ( a LOT of tasty food ), all over my polar fleece nightgown/robe and our sleeping bags and sheets. Shit.

We got dressed, and cleaned me up, and put all the barfy sheets outside, but now were faced with a problem: it was too cold to sleep without those blankets.

Luckily, bastdanica and her sweetie had a spare sleeping bag which they lent us, which helped immensely. We were cold, but snuggling up to one another, we survived the night (just barely).

Upon waking, we found that it was raining, and remained uncertain as to whether we could handle remaining. We discussed returning to Ottawa, or Toronto, but decided to start by getting breakfast.

After breakfast, while it was HAILING, we grabbed Rainy (who is fabulous company and also had laundry to do) and drove with barfy bedclothes to the closest town, which turned out to have a Laundromat. We had a great time chatting (in spite of my continuing headache and cleaning up barfy clothes). And, by the time we headed back to camp with clean dry bedclothes, the rain had mostly cleared out! Yay!

The rest of the fest was a blast. Socializing was good.

I made it to the chakra workshop, which I thought was VERY poorly taught. Why? After asking and finding out that virtually all of the attendees knew NOTHINg about chakras, she explained the colours of the chakras, and the stones, but not the meanings (which, granted, were in a handout, but we were not given time to read them). Then she went through these chakra meditations without really discussing what the chakras are. There was no context. She also kept on saying that if there's anything wrong with your chakras you can only temporarily fix them to tide you over until you get to a Reiki master (she pronounced this ree-kee, which is not how I've heard it pronounced either; I've heard ray-kee. But then, she also pronounced pagan peh-gan rather than pay-gan). She seemed to be equating reiki and chakras, but they are from entirely different cultures! Likewise, she mentioned at one point that such and such chakra was associated with such and such astrological sign, which is totally "fusion." I feel that unless it is termed as "Working with Chakras in a Wiccan Context" or something like that, that the workshop should be dealing with the topic of chakras without all of that westernized baggage.

I know some who attended who already KNEW a lot of the theory who got a lot out of it, but I had been looking for something more basic and theoretical and cerebral in nature, so I left during the break along with will279802. We enjoyed a walk together, and then got a tasty dinner of fajitas started for those who we knew would emerge from the workshop hungry. :)

Afterwards, there were fireworks (awesome), and then I called an impromptu divination night in the Gazebo, which was very successful. I got to read for two people, and I got one tarot reading and one palm reading. Then we wandered over to the campfire where we danced to drumming a little, before turning in for bed.

The next morning, we had some hot camping sex! Yay! And then socializing and packing up and goodbyes. There was a brief fight with Will, who had been stressing me and Rbowspryte out about getting going and leaving ASAP, nownownownow, and then disappeared to go for a walk with bastdanica. As soon as I told him why I was angry, he knew what he had done wrong. And I managed to control myself so as not to totally rip into him, and it was all forgiven fairly quickly, with hugs all around.

There was one other little fight/incident. Just inside Toronto, Rbowspryte started talking about how fertility clinics were problematic for her. The way she initially phrased it however, sounded to me like she was saying that they shouldn't exist and shouldn't have to, and that bothered me a great deal. Fertility clinics may be my only way to conceive when the time comes. And the subject is loaded for her as well because she wants and cannot have children. But, we both cried and hugged and forgave each other, and I think we both know now that we will have to be more sensitive to each other on this very tender topic.

We returned home to Arcadia to a crisis, however. tocityguy was extremely upset over some personal stuff I won't go into. However, we're all very concerned about him, and hope that he takes care of himself and not others over the next few days.

More unexpectedly, we returned home to find their cat, Hexy, missing. Eventually, we found him outdoors. The screen in the upstairs bedroom had been loose, and Hexy had fallen out the window.

Frantic searching for a nearby emergency animal hospital ensued, and then they left with the poor kitty in tow.

Hexy has multiple complex fractures, which will require surgery. The emergency hospital splinted him and gave him painkillers, for a price tag of $500. The surgery, however, would cost $2,000. Another place might be able to do it more cheaply, but how much so? We don't know yet.

When they moved into Arcadia, they presented the super with a long list of things in the house that needed to be fixed, and informed him that kids would be in the house and so things such as the loose screen MUST be fixed. Since then, they have handled fixing large swathes of the list themselves, and submitted the list a second time to NO avail.

There is some hope that perhaps, perhaps they could get the super to pay the bills for Hexy's surgery. But it would probably be a difficult battle.

...

The weekend brought a lot to mind. Lots to think about, especially after that divination night. By and large, I'm happy but worried about the residents of Arcadia. Three of them cried on my shoulder in one night. They need our thoughts and prayers.

...

Positive things:
-Congratulations to pyat and velvetpage on the birth of their beautiful new baby!
-Congratulations to kaidevis on your upcoming uncle-hood
-Congratulations to laura47 on your paper (and class!) grade!
-Congratulations to taikakettu and her loved ones on her finally getting a work visa!

I know there are other shout outs I wanted to put in here, but the details of 380 LJ entries is fading. If there's something I should know or respond to, please contact me directly.

Comments

[con-girl.livejournal.com]

LEt them know I am thinking about them and their kitty.

IF they have waited on repair for the kitty generally non emergency vet visits cost less than a visit to an emergency hosiptal but I don't know if it makes any difference in this kind of serious injury.

[polywolf.livejournal.com]

Without you there last night I think Arcadia would have fallen apart. I don't know how to thank you.

It was a wonderful weekend dispite some negative points. I was really glad to have you there with us.

I love you

[freefloat.livejournal.com]

May I humbly second will279802's sentiments above.

danaeris, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your sturdy shoulders (good for crying on), your rational and calm perspective/advice, your sympathetic ear, and your compassionate heart. And let's not forget your ability to absorb it all and still provide confort to the broken and the needy!

Thank you - the words don't do it justice.

(I'm sorry your weekend wasn't as happy/carefree as you truly deserve)

[energeticintent.livejournal.com]

WOW, sounds like you had a really up and down weekend! Glad that you managed to at least enjoy some bits of it.
M.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Reports in your LJ seem largely positive except for the drive being too long! I hope that your mini-vacation continues to improve and recharges you.

FWIW, I mostly enjoyed fest, and can hardly wait for KG. I met a lot of wonderful people, and I feel I connected well with the folks in the poly enclave. The fights with Will and Rachel were short and very reasonable and not at all big deals. Mostly, they were incredibly supportive of me through the crappy bits, and then I was able to pay back the karma when we got home to the bad news; while they took hexy to the vet, I unpacked some for them, folded their laundry, cleaned their dishes, and comforted the other Arcadians.

And there were several times throughout the weekend when I thought of you, and wished you could have been there with us to enjoy the good parts. But, there's still KG! Love, Danae

[energeticintent.livejournal.com]

We really needed a few more days to ease the long drive! ladygiggles and I did some hiking in the torrential rain and that was more then enought 'wetness' for us! :-) Did manage to get some cool pics which I'll try and post some time.

Wrt KG. We're not expecting to be able to go this year. Scheduling conflict. My hope is Sirius and Starwood, back to back for 2 weeks! That would be awesome! We'll see if it works out.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Thanks!