Ghosts of a summer day

Hello September, it’s always good to see you.

I love that short but sweet time between the nasty heat and the leaves falling, it’s like the best of both seasons hanging out together. It’s also a time for planning, figuring out what we’re going to be for Halloween and how we’re celebrating. I’m thinking about going as the Absinthe fairy, or one of the scary nurses from Silent Hill. Aiden will probably go as a pirate, unless we come up with something else by then.

Little wall shelf from the thrift store, a great thing to have when you want to display cute stuff without your 3-yr-old getting hold of them. My gifted cancer the crab seashell and a glitter skull from the Dollar Tree.

My cuticles are ragged and I have pimples but who cares, my nails are glittery. I dumped different shades of red to purple fine glitter on my nails while they were wet and covered them with clear polish.

This box I painted white was white and blank for way too long.

It’s a big sigh of relief now, since last month was stressful and now we’re pulling ourselves back together.

Noah’s Lost Ark

Vinnie the Elk in the petting zoo area. “Mmmm crackers.”

Yesterday we went to “Noah’s Lost Ark” (Berlin, OH) as a birthday present to my 81-year-old Grandmother, who is a HUGE animal lover. It’s kind of like a zoo, but more like an animal rescue for wild animals who can’t really take care of themselves in the wild. They are either old, blind or were kept as pets and neglected. Part of the park was a petting zoo where you could feed the animals. My favorite were the cute little pygmy goats, unfortunately I was too busy feeding them and forgot to take a picture.

The animals’ habitats were pretty big, even though a lot of the time they would huddle up in their little dens and sleep. They even had a “liger“, which I thought only existed in the imagination of Napoleon Dynamite. Not really bred for their skills in magic, but they are ornery.

The clowny alpacas.

A speedy little tortoise.

Psychic Fair

Yesterday we went to a Psychic Fair in Akron, which was held at a cool little magic shop called “Any Witch Way.” There is at least one psychic/tarot reader closer to where I live, but I wanted to go to this because the proceeds are benefiting the Mabon Festival next month, and I want to go to that too. They had about 4 or 5 tables set up in the store with people doing tarot card and other types of readings. I got my cousin and myself each a ticket and I went to the next person who opened up.

The guy who read my cards was actually the store owner, and I think I already knew this because he looked like the picture of the owner on the community website. I told him I had never had a tarot card reading done before and he could see that I was a little nervous. I get nervous when I’m excited about doing something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, oops. Sometimes I hate being so obvious.

He asked me if there was something specific I wanted to know, but I just went for the general reading. One of the cards came up (the 4 of cups) which suggested there was something I was focusing a lot of my emotional attention on lately. From the other cards that came up, it started to become clear to me that it was talking about my writing and the book I’ve been thinking about but haven’t actually started writing yet. One of the other cards said there were some things blocking me from doing this — namely not having enough alone time or time in general.

Besides telling me things I already knew, here are the main parts of the reading that I remember:

The page of cups represents my spirit.

The 5 of coins represent how I feel right now — the beggar on the outside looking in.

The Empress represents someone who will help me out if I ask for it.

The Strength card suggests that I’m a strong-willed person who can tame the beast.

The Ace of Swords… is a cool card.

There were also a few, I cant remember exactly what they were, that suggested I would be successful if I go through with my plans.

Oh, August

Cotton candy skies.

This past month has been a little irritating but not completely horrible… It all started with the truck breaking down, which spurred a bunch of smaller stressful situations. Also, our air conditioner is now leaking (we had rolling blackouts, which also messed with things) and I keep forgetting to call maintanence about it. If it wasn’t for the cooler weather, I would have done it by now. I like leaving it off and opening the sliding door to let in the real air. I’ve also been hacking up a lung for the past 3 weeks, I’m not sure if I’ll get better or if this is my asthma’s feeble attempt at killing me, but my inhaler is the only thing staving off death. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this Mercury retrograde is in my Mercury sign (Leo!). (Mercury retrograde is supposed to cause some trouble with things having to do with travel & communication).

I do love that it’s cooling down and the humidity let up.

Stuff I want to do now that summer is winding down

❦ Dye my hair with “Deadly Nightshade” again!

❦ Dry some flowers and twigs and make some cute wreaths.

❦ Make a nature collection with Aiden — put leaves in an album. Rocks, acorns & other things in a box.

❦ Live it up — bonfire parties and going out with friends.

❦ Buy more autumn/winter clothes — the thrift stores & Gabriel Brothers are my first stops.

❦ Enjoy the cooler, less humid weather — sit on the balcony at night.

❦ Use my renewed energy to write and send more things to literary magazines (deal with rejection).

❦ Go to the county fair and watch the demolition derby.

❦ Have more evening cookouts with tiki torches and pretty lights.

❦ Cook late summer foods like fried green tomatoes and stuffed squash.

❦ Go to the Mabon festival next month.