Friday, September 2, 2016

September Personal Update!

So it is currently the night before the Santa Cali-Gon Festival right here in little ol' Independence, MO.  I can't sleep because I'm wired for three days of drawing at a local metaphysical shop, Mojo Mamas, and realized I haven't blogged since early August.  I'm sure many of you want to know what's going on, so here's a little personal update to tide you over until I can get around to articles!

I have been busting my rump slinging ink for the masses this past month.  Trying to keep up with my caricaturing business on top of everything else has been challenging.  I worked every day before and after the move, which included a very stiff stint of drawing at a local university because I overdid it on moving day.

Work also took me out of town several times.  Hotels are typically just a temporary bed to me, but getting away from the rental house and the chaos of moving was a relief.  

I'm trying to do better about my consistency on social media.  Agencies take care of a lot of it, but I'm not terribly good at having a public presence.  I try to take pictures every time I'm working somewhere where the general populace could have access to getting my work.  So far, so good.

Tomorrow starts a long stint of drawing at the Santa Cali-Gon Festival in Independence, MO.  I'll be back with fellow pagan vendors at local metaphysical store Mojo Mamas.  Santa Cali-Gon is said to attract crowds of 400k+, so I'm interested to see how it goes.

I don't really draw at many festivals, mostly because I get so booked with gigs, so I took the chance to redo my business cards and signs for this upcoming festival.  I think they look pretty spiffy!

If you're looking for me at Santa Cali-Gon, you can find me at Mojo Mamas Friday, Saturday and Sunday!  Caricatures start at just $5 per face in black and white, which is a total steal.  Stop by and say hi!

The Circle

We're almost ready for our Pagan Pride Day main ritual event!  I'm so incredibly excited, I can't even begin to express it.  We have just one more practice day - September 4th - and then September 11th is the event day!

We've worked so incredibly hard on this ritual.  It's really coming together quite fantastically!  We'll be easily identifiable with our shirts and easy to hear with our voice amplifiers.  Hopefully, Merc Ret won't get too far in the way of what we have planned!

I'll be discussing theology with other pagan leaders at the Pagan Experience tent from 11:30-12:15.  Our circle's ritual will be 1:30-2:15.  Then, we'll be at the workshop area (I believe) discussing our ritual and our group from 2:30-3:15.  We have an immense day planned! I'm quite excited.

If you're at KCPPD and you can't find me, I'd be shocked.

The Familiars

No news is good news in the land of pets.  So I'm just going to kind of photo dump here.  Enjoy!

The House

This is the current chaos that is my home.

We officially moved August 22nd and our lease "ended" August 31st - just two days ago.  I say ended in quotes because, with the property management company we had, I have no idea if it's really over.  I can't go into details, just in case things do turn around and bite us but, so far, silence on the wire.  Let's hope it stays that way.

Around moving, I worked my rear off.  And moving day was hell.  The moving company we hired did a terrible job.  We hired them because the movers were positively fantastic on our move from the 30 Day House to Terra Luna.  But this time, they were slow, kept asking us to move things in our little cars rather than load it on the moving truck, complained about my furniture being "cheap," complained about the occasional ball of cat hair found behind larger furniture, knocked over a decorative bowl and did not cop to it or clean it up.  Honestly, I can't even remember all the awful stuff they did.  In the end, I paid double the price I did last time with less than half of our stuff moved.  I filed a complaint with the company and BBB, but I don't expect anything to come of it.  Unfortunately, it left me and my husband to make endless trips between the 22nd and 29th trying to move stuff the movers didn't want/refused to move.  What should have been a one-day move turned into a week of either working, sleeping or running my car back and forth and back and forth from Terra Luna to our new home.  It was nightmarish.

Aaron and I keep saying that the move was hell only because the new house will be so good.

Speaking of the new home, I finally came up with a name for it!  It took me oh so long to really settle on something, particularly because I knew I'd have to live with it for more than a decade.  So let me take you through the thought process:

We moved into the house in August.  The birth flowers of August are the gladiolus and the poppy.  The most common poppy type, Papaver rhoeas, is associated with death and remembrance, a strong theme in my practice and why I often pick Samhain as my primary ritual.
August is the eighth month of the year.  This is mine and Aaron's eighth year of marriage. There is an octagonal window over our main door and eight primary members in my circle.  The eighth letter of the alphabet is H.  The house has a fireplace.

With all of that in mind, the finalized name of our house is...

Rhoeas Hearth

Looks like my garden might be a poppy minefield when I get around to it.  I'm pretty darn happy with this name.  I feel like it accurately represents the growth of my practice as I will it under this roof.  I can't wait to see where Rhoeas Hearth takes us!

 With all of that in mind, it's now 3:30 am and I do have work in the morning.  From my family to yours, happy September, good luck with Merc Ret and I'll talk to you again soon!


  1. I'm sorry moving was hell, but I bet the house will be exactly what your family needs. The name is beautiful. I'm trying to come up with names for our house, but nothing I've come up with has been cool with our resident spirit friend. She's a friendly spirit and I'm pretty sure it's my hubby's grandmother. It was her house for decades and I think she just doesn't want to leave. My hubby was her favorite grandchild and she really doted on my little family and demanded that the house go to us when she passed.
    I'm so glad you've been busy with work and even happier that the fur babies are all doing well.
    How has your health been? I know things weren't going the greatest for you for a while, but I'm hoping with everything turning up rosier lately that things have eased up for you a bit.
    Thanks for the update!!

    1. Aw, thank you for asking, Stephanie! My health has been okay. A perpetual fast food diet during moving hasn't helped, but we're changing that as a circle after PPD. I've had good days and bad days but, overall, nothing too major to report.

      The naming process is so tough! I couldn't imagine if I had someone else needing to weigh in on it. I played with so many names before settling on Rhoeas Hearth. Have you tried sitting down and discussing what your resident spirit would like to name it? Particularly since you think it might be your husband's grandmother and it was originally her house, it sounds like it might be entirely up to her what the name will be.

      Good luck with everything, and thank you for commenting!

  2. I have yet to name our house. Nothing has felt "right" yet, even after a year of living in it. Haha! I'm sure something will come eventually.

    I'm sorry your move was terrible, but as you said, let's hope it means good to come. Very happy for you both!

    1. I'm glad I'm not the only one that struggled with the naming process! This was the toughest yet, particularly because I was so in love with the name Terra Luna and I wanted something that was just as fluid. Good luck to you on finding a name, and thank you so much for commenting, Willow!

  3. Is it just me, or is merc. ret. just kicking everyone's ass already? Oi.

    How's your health doing under these frustrating circumstances? my daughter has IBS and is gluten and lactose intolerant, so when you were talking about your health and diet, I related in a way! Hope you are well!

    I love the house name! It sounds so pretty!!

    1. The shadow period was particularly grueling. I find that Merc Ret sets itself up for hell a few weeks out of the actual retrograde. I then spent the entirety of the retrograde fighting whatever that setup is. Wonderful, isn't it?

      Thank you for asking about my health! I'm doing about as well as can be expected on a perpetual fast food diet. Fortunately, nothing out of the ordinary has happened health-wise. Just general sluggishness; some days are better than others. My circle is working on changing our dietary habits after we get through PPD, so I'm quite excited there.

      Thank you so much, Raven! Good luck with Merc Ret!

  4. Yay update!
    This retrograde has been the biggest doozy I have yet to experience...I talked about it on my blog but WHEW! Glad we have our blogs and commiserate with because BAM!
    House...yay! Name....yay! Familiars well...yay!!!
    I sincerely wish the best for your upcoming event. Not going to lie, it passed my mind to come travel for it since your community seems so welcoming to the pagan belief system and that would be worth the trip from PA!
    However I don't want to sound like a creeper....and I have to work my second job all that weekend.

    Maybe next year! :) I'm sure you all will have an amazing time!

    1. Goodness, I just read through it. I'm so sorry to hear about everything that's happened. My condolences to your and your family. I'm also so sorry to hear of everyone lashing out at you. You certainly don't deserve that. Hopefully after retrograde, people will come to their senses!

      You would certainly be more than welcome to attend if you didn't have to work; I don't see it as creepy at all! I can't count the number of times someone's approached me at a public ritual from the blog. It delights me that people find the rituals worthwhile enough to travel for them!

      Thank you so much for your comment though! Only a few more weeks of Merc ret and then we'll be free! At least, you know, until December.

  5. You put in a lot more effort into naming your house than I did naming my flat! :D I'm sorry to hear that moving was such a nightmare, but I really hope it's a good omen for your new life in Rhoeas Hearth.
    And yay for the photo dump of the familiars - I've not been keeping up with my blog reading and I've missed seeing their fuzzy faces. :)