Isis is the Egyptian High Priestess, ruling with love and calm patience. She provides equilibrium and guidance through our journey. To open the door to Isis opens the door to love, love fosters the development of inner wisdom, as a budding flower blossoms into a glorious flower that takes people's breath away.

Isis' relationship with the third eye, the psychic eye, brings us a powerful skill to cultivate our trust in our own psychic wisdom. We have all talked about our "gut instinct" at some stage in our lives... Isis lets us embellish on this inner wisdom through divine power.

I trust my wisdom and insight

This morning, as I was driving to work, I noticed an unusually large piece of roadkill in front of the high school a few blocks from my office. As I slowed and drove past, I saw that it was a baby deer. Geez.

*

Last night's Chinese food didn't come out so well. It's not that I'm a bad cook, it's that I like to experiment and not all recipes come out the way they should.

*

As I spent $45 and change on gas this morning, I thought to myself, "How can I lower my consumption?" I have thought about this before but realized that it is not feasible for me to go to work via public transportation. There is a bus that takes one hour to get close to my office, and after I get off, I would have to walk for about 20 minutes to get there. Then do it all in reverse when the day is over. Kind of ridiculous when it takes me 20 minutes to drive door to door (except for during traffic!).

This morning I started thinking that perhaps that 40 minutes of walking will be great exercise, and I can spend the hour on the bus reading, writing, knitting or doing something else productive. The fact is, even doing it twice a week would save me a good deal of money. I think I am going to try it when I get back from my vacation.

Not only that, but I need to take buses more on the weekends. When I have plans with friends, it is just my natural impulse to drive. I really need to start figuring out how to make my way around without the car.

Is it Sojourness-on-a-bike time?? First time since the blue bike with the white basket that had a big flower on it? Looked kind of like this but not red:



And pigtails and bad clothes my mother made me wear?

Today I received an email saying, "Amazon.com has some recommendations for you!" In the first row of products, there was a book entitled Christians Going to Hell.

...

Charming.

Hello friends, I'm your Vitameatavegamin girl...

Random thoughts:

• I need to have an I Love Lucy marathon. I put Season 1 on hold at the library years ago and now that it is finally my turn I am going out of town.
  
  
  
  
• Stomach is still queasy all the time so I went back to the doctor. They don't know what the hell is wrong with me. This is not helpful.
  
  
• I received a letter in the mail that the university is no longer denying my graduation. Diploma will be forthcoming. I cannot tell you how relieved I am.
  
  
• I am making good progress with my 101 list!

I tend to be superstitious about jinxes so I shouldn't even be writing this, but my things keep breaking on me. First my car CD player broke a few weeks ago. The CD player has a dial that controls the radio, so I can't even get that anymore. I decided not to replace it (yet) because I am making a trip home for the 4th of July weekend and I need to keep spending under wraps.

This weekend, I discovered that the network/wireless card in my laptop is shot. It says it is connected to the Internet, but it is not. My laptop is actually lying to my face!

I don't want anything else to break because I cannot afford it! (Car, don't you dare get any ideas.)

Things That Make Me Happy: Sour Cream Doughnuts

The Great Office War

This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time!

Yesterday I took the first of many trips on foot to the library. I was really proud of myself for doing this because it is a sizable walk and I have been really lazy with exercise. I got home sweating with a few new books and felt really good ;)

Father's Day was what you'd expect, I don't need to whine about it. I am trying to recover now. It takes time.

Love New Therapist. She makes me feel so comfortable I wind up spilling my guts, whereas I held back a lot from the last one. Things are going well on that front.

I have been thinking about what to do with the archives of this blog. It holds three years of my life - imagine that! - and it does worry me that a server crash or some other problem at Blogger/Google could take it from me. I would like to back it up. I wonder if I should print it as a book, keep it on my bookshelf. Sounds silly but really, it is a long-ass journal. That's what it is. I would hate to lose any of it.

Bodicea stands Amazon-like, her feet grounded and body erect, garbed as Warrior Queen, leading her followers confidently. Like the tigress mother who protects her young, she harnesses her anger to seek justice for those dear to her.

The great Celtic queen whose name means "victory" became synonymous with terror and savagery as she amassed an army of 20,000 Celts to execute revenge for the rape of her two young daughters. She cut a path of ruthless destruction as she led her people in violent revolt against the Roman Governor of the province of Britannia, killing an estimated 70,000 people who stood in her way. She destroyed three cities including London, before disappearing - it is thought that she took her own life rather than be taken prisoner by the Romans.

I release my fear of the opinions of others

Things That Make Me Happy: Tori Amos

I woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday and then realized it was Monday. Is there anything worse in all the universe? Honestly.

As I was making my cup of Earl Grey this morning, I thought about how what I drink is not just about how it tastes. I once told someone, "I'm not that fond of tea; I just want to be the kind of person who drinks tea." That has changed somewhat, as tea has grown on me, but the fact remains that I like certain personas associated with beverages. Not following? Here's what I mean...

Sojourness, the writer: Drinking cup after cup of coffee, smoking cigarettes and pounding away at an old-fashioned typewriter. Sojourness is hunched over the table for hours on end, surrounded by her cigarette smoke and her thoughts. Her hair is swept up, messily. She is wearing a "sloppy" outfit - t-shirt and short shorts - that is really quite becoming, accented by her thick-rimmed, trendy black glasses. Crumpled up papers litter the floor in the shitty apartment. Pouty lips puff the cigarette as she creates the postmodern masterpiece of our time, the novel that will break all the rules and launch her in the literary world.

(Can't you see it?)

Sojourness, the class act: Sipping a cup of tea at an outdoor cafe after a morning at a local museum. Light, summer dress in light summer colors and hair neatly pinned back. Reading the NY Times, perhaps. Or the New Yorker. Very European.

Neither of these Sojournesses is plump, or emotionally erratic, or too tired to write and visit museums because of her 9-5. These Sojournesses are just cool.

You may have noticed the coffee scenario is richer, more indepth, longer even. That is why coffee appeals to me more than tea :P

Today I wore a new green t-shirt with a recycling symbol on it. I wore this, along with my new Birki's, to the local recycling center, where I dropped off my cans, bottles and magazines and got a compliment on the t-shirt. As I drove to the library, I realized that I have become a full-fledged hippie, minus the drugs.

Cool, dude.

I don't have much else to write about. Since I am still slightly nauseous, tired and head-achey, I am not doing much but laying on the couch and watching The Sopranos.

Here is some more news from my boring life :P Blood test came back normal; I am not diseased. This is a good feeling, but the nausea will not go away. Neither will the lethargy. I came back to work today only to speak gibberish to my colleagues and nearly fall face first into my decaf. (Yes, baby... decaf!)

I never buy myself things unless they are on serious sale because I'm cheap, but in the last week, I had a couple of fun purchases worth noting. The less exciting are several body washes from the Bath & Body website. I needed new ones, I love their scents, and they were marked down from $9.50 to $3.00 each. I love me a bargain.

Before that, I went to a major closeout yarn sale and went a little crazy. As in, spent three times what I had planned to be my limit, but was able to justify it all. Now I have THE perfect yarn for winter hats and scarves for little sisters, scarf for mother, birthday present for FFWW and for... you know... just fun yarn indulgence for me. The woman who held the sale runs a quality (read: expensive) yarn store around here and she had a two car garage full of imported yarns marked down to about $2-5 a skein. I SAID, $2-5 DOLLARS A SKEIN. And you are surprised at the big bag I brought home? Boyfriend wasn't.

I have officially been sick for four days now. I went to the doctor, who said it could be a bug or virus or something, but doesn't know for sure. Waiting on blood test results. Either way, unless it is something serious, I've gotta go back to work tomorrow. *Sigh*

Been working feverishly from home because of a big project this week. Right now, I'm taking a break, laying on my couch and knitting while watching Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason.

Yesterday was a strange day. (I nearly said today because it is the middle of the night.) I had severe caffeine withdrawal because we keep decaf coffee in the house, and I deliberately did not go out and buy a soda. I figured I would just get over the cold turkey days and then I can get off coffee for good, like I did just before Father's death.

Well, ibuprofen was no match for the killer headache (migraine?) I had all day. As in, it hurts to have my eyes open. As in, I'm going to go take a 3-hour nap right after breakfast.

I went to bed fairly early, as you can guess, and then woke up at 3:00 AM with a horrific upset stomach. I've still got it, though Alka Seltzer and tea have calmed it a bit. This has never happened with caffeine withdrawal before, so I am inclined to think it was something I ate today.

I have a craft party to go tomorrow (uh, today) and am hoping I don't have to cancel, but since I still feel like hurling, it might just go that way.

*

In other news, I miss my father like nobody's business.