How Come?

When the crazies start talking about their “spirit guide” and the like it is always something cool like an Otter, a Cat or (the always popular) Wolf... it's never anything like a goat or cow or duck.   Not sexy and romantic enough I guess.  I am pretty sure that there are Spirit Guides, but they are a part of a more pagan religion; like Native American, African Tribes or South American indigenous people practiced.  Not so much a Catholic or Church of England thing.  And most surly nothing like a spirit guide would come within 100 meters of the Puritans.

I guess it’s funny to me… because I have night terrors, and I have hallucinations at night when I wake up from a particularly vivid dream (my favorite is when I read the Great Gatsby in high school, after reading a party scene and going to bed… now every time I have to go to the loo at night in my folks house, I see a 1920’s party going on in the living room) that all these people talking about seeing “ghosts” and “demons” when what it most likely a sleep disorder (and I have it but can’t remember what it’s called and am too lazy to look it up). Wow. That was quite a sentence.  And, now that I'm thinking about it, I have a tendency to see things that aren't there all the time, not just at night.  I remember seeing  the movie A Beautiful Mind, and thinking: holy shit I have schizophrenia! (Schizophrenia can present in early stages as auditory and visual hallucinations; of course that is dumbing it down a lot; but the gist of why it freaked me out.) It does make for interesting walks to the loo in the middle of the night.  It also means that I have at least two people (Husband and Brother) that will see movies like Blair Witch and that Paranormal State and tell me that I am under no circumstances allowed to watch said movie.  This is after they have both had to deal with a Sivy post creepy movie. 

Don't get me wrong - I totally believe in ghosts. I have lived in a house that had a ghost cat living in the basement; a little black and white fella that would play with Misha and Sassy.  And I will swear that for years after she died, I could feel my cat Sabrina jump onto my bed.  Most people I know have at least one story of unexplained phenomena.  Perhaps at this point, I should also state, that I really find myself agreeing with the premise of Gods and so forth from the novel American Gods.  Yes, I am aware that we are talking fiction here, but there is a rather sound bit of reasoning in there.  As this is a country made up of immigrants, having shoved the native peoples as far away as possible, the people that then settled the country brought their gods and belief systems with them. Think about it... all those little bits and pieces of folk lore, or even that Oden would be here because the Vikings settled Greenland and Iceland.  All the little imps, demons and creatures from the African folk tales would have found their way over from the slave trade; and all the pixies and other bits and pieces that would have shuffled on over with the highly superstitious people immigrating from Eastern Europe. So they would all mix up together with the native religions and Viola! You get ghost stories.  Or something like that. 
 
Now, the creepiest and also saddest thing that I have ever had happen to me was when I was in high school.  There was this big white abandon farm house where my friends and I would go and hang out because we were all cool and goth and shit.  Well, before we started hanging out there someone had painted a pentagram on the floor of one room, and there was the typical "satanic" gibberish on the walls.  (I have a feeling that if met by a true Satanist these suburban weenies would have wet themselves, but I digress).  Eventually, I got more hours at work and daylight savings ended, and generally I just didn't have time to go and hang out at the house.  I really liked the house, it had a fantastic layout, and this super little room on the second floor, that had only a bathtub sitting in it. I used to talk to the house when I would hang out there, telling it how pretty I thought it was; and then one night, I had this very vivid dream that there was blood running down the walls, like the walls were bleeding, and blood covering that silly pentagram on the floor.  And I had the oddest feeling, like the house was in trouble and very cold.  The next day, I drove out to where the house was, and discovered that it was being torn down.  The property had been sold and house was about half demolished when I saw it that day.  And I just burst into tears.  I remember telling the house that I was so sorry, but there was nothing that I could do; and to date, I have not had any more dreams about the house. Where the house stood is now as gas station.

Paleo Challenge, Benchmarks, and Other Goings On

The Paleo Challenge has officially ended, and we are now doing the benchmarks to gauge performance.  So - that is three different things - the one rep max of power clean, deadlift, bench press and back squat; the Benchmark: 500M row, 40 squats, 30 sit-ups, 20 push-ups and 10 pull-ups; and "Hugo". Hugo has been this nasty looming thing for the entire challenge for me.  It is 5 rounds for time of: 400M run, 21 box jumps, 21 kettle-bell and 21 pull-ups.  I am pretty sure that it almost killed me doing Hugo in August.  (I had brilliantly donated blood the day before, having no idea what Hugo was.)  But as we are doing these with the same modifications as at the beginning, I am hoping for a sub-45 min Hugo.  So far, my "benchmark" was 6:06, down from 7:49 and my deadlift has gone up to 190 (from 185).  My back squat is 145 up from 105! WOOO!  That leaves the power clean and bench press for after Urbanna, as Hugo is tomorrow.  And I'm sure I posted this already - but going from 160 to 146 was pretty cool too.  And, at 146 I am officially weighing less than when I got pregnant. I still have about 6 pounds of fat to go - my target is 139.  OH!  And my face is like 90% better, still get some flushing from nerves and heat but the painful puffy zit infested red flushing is gone.  The best part: no more medicine! 

Now, for the other goings on.... Grandma is arriving today to stay with Freya for Oyster Festival.  It is no kid this year, and we are really looking forward to this vacation.  It will be the second time I have been away from her overnight.  I am a little nervous, but we both really need this break.  I have been looking forward to  and planning my wardrobe for this trip for the last 2 months!  Surprisingly the wardrobe hasn't altered much at all.  Atypical of me, usually I've overhauled the planned wardrobe at least 3 times!  But - can't go wrong with jeans, t-shirts and sweaters.  Biggest issues have become: which shoes and jacket or puffer vest?? We aren't checking luggage and it will all have to fit in the massive NRA backpack (that thing is a pocket universe) but boots take up a lot of room!  And do I really want a coat? Decisions, decisions!  Oh, my bag - do I carry a tote, my purse, which purse.... oh heavens to Betsy! That whoosh you just heard? That was Chris rolling his eyes.  But if I am focusing on this, then I am not freaking out about leaving Freya.  So it's all good.  Besides the most important things on the what to pack list are: camera, "ears", cords for the phones and the iPod.  Because everything else can be obtained once we are there if we have forgotten anything.

Halloween

I was a little worried about Halloween this year. With the not wanting to wear her Witch Dress at the birthday party about 2 weeks ago and working on "trick or treat" and saying thank you .... that is a lot! But, magically she wanted to wear her witch dress (that daddy fixed the itchy arms of) and she NAILED the trick or treat.  She went around our end of the street, Chris was also dressed up (in his Kendo gear) and I stayed home to dish out "treats".  They were gone for just about an hour (had to take puppy meeting breaks) and when they got back, she helped me hand out candy to the last 3 or 4 groups to hit the house. 

All our Trick or Treater's said trick or treat and they all also said thank you.  Which is huge as many people I have talked to the kids just stuck out their bags, not saying anything and then turning around and going.  The candy is OK - but the fun part is getting to say Trick or Treat!!  This is the first year since we had Freya that we participated in Trick or Treating, and we sure made up for lost time!

No Time to Sit Still! ~ a fragment

It is finally fall! The weather is chilly in the morning (46 degrees) and just a little warmer than I would like in the afternoons but still cooler that it has been! Woot Woot! We have a super busy couple of weekends coming up.  Next weekend we have Barbells for Boobs, Nocturnal Nature Walk, and our body fat dunk tank tests.  Sometime in there we want to go talk a little hike and see the fall foliage and get some Dutch Monkey donuts*.  The following weekend is Halloween and we have a party to go to! As well as taking Goosy our for the first time. Oh - and I'm starting school!  Whew. 

This past weekend Freya attended her first birthday party that wasn't for her.  It was a dress up party and she was all excited to wear her little punk witch costume.... well that lasted for all of 5 or 6 minutes then it was full on melt down and "I want it offffff" so (thanks to Grandma) we had a substitute Elmo dress up costume and she wore that instead.  She was so damn cute. We got there and we had a great time painting mini pumpkins, eating all the marshmallow's out of the snack mix and having cake with ice cream.  After what might have been the longest two hours of my life (we are full on potty training and are going without pull-ups these days) we made it home without having an accident took the shortest nap on record and then went out for dinner.