Last night, my son and I had the extreme pleasure of attending a discussion being given by Pagan author Christopher Penzack. He talked about Shamanic Witchcraft and our relationship with the spirit world. He said that the spirits are always willing to help us, we just need to figure out how to penetrate the veil between the physical and spiritual planes. There are three planes and we exist more or less in all three planes. They are the physical (middle) plane, the spiritual (lower) plane, and the angelic (upper) plane. Picture a tree. The trunk is on the physical plane, the branches reach into the angelic plane and the roots go deep, deep into the Earth. After the discussion, Christopher guided us through some meditative trance work using drumming. I wish I could explain the experience, but words escape me. Anyway, just thought I would tell you about my evening. It is really slow and I am hoping that they will be sending me home soon. And...IT'S SNOWING!!!

Yesterday was Pagan Pride Day. My son and I had a great time!!! There were several different workshops that we could and did attend. We both attended a drumming circle workshop and I learned the basics of making mead. We were feeling crafty (haha!!) so we made a couple of wands. Then we wandered through all the vendor booths. One of the vendors gave my son a really nice necklace. She just gave it to him! No money was exchanged; NOTHING! I thought that was very cool. I bought a necklace with a Goddess pendant on it for $5.00 from the same vendor later. I also ran across a vendor selling smudge sticks which was convenient because I need to do a serious smudging of my apartment. In case you are wondering, smudging cleanses the space of negative energy. It also purifies and protects it from future negativity. And after the last couple of weeks I've had, I think there is probably a bit--just a bit-- of negative energy in my apartment. Anyway, it rained most of the day, but when the time came for the main ritual, the clouds parted and we had a bit of sun!!! Then, of course, it started raining again. Gotta go! Must take a breather for a minute. Talk to you later.

My son came home yesterday with a pass for a free screening of Transformers at the IMAX theater. I dragged my feet because I have been feeling a little down lately and I didn't want to go anywhere. Well, not really down. It takes a lot to knock me down. Maybe just feeling overwhelmed and I'm not dealing very well. What is going on at work with my schedule has me completely discumbobulated. Is that even a real word? Needless to say, we went and it was great. A nice little diversion for a couple of hours. I swear there is no better way to watch a movie than on an IMAX screen. I went on two interviews yesterday. One at Alorica. They hired me 15 minutes after I walked in the door. I don't really want to work at Alorica, but they are willing to give me a schedule that will work with everything else I have going on. The other interview was with O'Currance. I won't know until later today, but I'm pretty sure I butchered my interview with them and will not be getting the job. No! Wait!!! Must think positive!!! O'Currance would be great because after a while (probably a month or two) I would be able to work from home and they would also give me a schedule that will work.

Korn tickets went on sale on Friday. In 15 minutes they were completely sold out. At least the $10.00 floor tickets are. Now they have seats for $20 and $30 dollars. I still want to go and I think I can handle $40.00 for two seats. That is still pretty cheap. Besides, my son's birthday is the week after the show and maybe I will get him an early birthday present. I can't believe he is going to be 14. Time flies, doesn't it?

I have given myself until the middle of October at the latest to find a different job. I have been fighting to get a schedule that will work with my school schedule and still leave me time to spend with my son. Ideally, I wanted a 6:30am to 3:00pm shift so I can go home and change my clothes, ask my son how his day has been and fix him something to eat. They finally gave in and gave me "set" schedule. So, starting in October, I work 8:30am to 5:00pm. That gives me time to get to school right after work. I don't see my son at all during the days that I have both work and school. And the greatest thing about this schedule is that my manager chooses my days off based on business needs, so I don't get weekends off either. Of course, I'm being completely sarcastic and I am totally pissed about the whole thing. It really doesn't pay to be a single parent anymore. What happen? When did single parents become second class citizens? When did businesses decided that we were a liability?

I am so excited I could pee all over myself!!! 94.9 the Blaze announced their Halloween Havoc concert yesterday and KORN is the headliner!!! The most spectacular thing about the concert is that they are selling tickets for the meager price of $10.00!!! No, that is not a typo and these seats are NOT in the nosebleed section. This is the price for the FLOOR!!! I know it sounds too good to be true, but they did the same type of thing this summer. If you will recall that Flyleaf and about 6 other bands played and tickets were dirt cheap. I think $15.00 or something like that. The Korn show is Oct 25th and tickets go on sale on Sep 15th. I am going and I am taking my son. It will be his first metal concert and he should have tons of fun!!!

A couple of neighbor kids visited my house not too long ago. When they left, my son's Nintendo DS walked out the door with them. We got the DS back, but it doesn't work. I told the one little boy that I wanted him to stay away from my house. This leads me to last night. Let me give you a bit of background. There are three families that live in my building that have kids around my son's age. They are all friends and none of them like this other boy. So, the only reason he would have for coming around would be to try and start trouble. He succeeded magnificantly last night and almost got my son arrested. The situation may still get us evicted. To try and make a long story short. This boy had taken his shoes off and went running around to taunt my son and the other kids that were hanging around in front of my apartment. I truely commend all of them for keeping their cool and for the most part ignoring him. My son and another kid (I don't know the other kid involved) decided to pull a harmless prank (I say harmless because the security guard called it torture) and throw his shoes on the roof. This boy freaked out and ran off to tell his mom. I made the kids get his shoes and put them where he could get them. We waited for about thirty minutes for him to come back and get his shoes. When he didn't come back, I made my son take them to him. Later that evening, the security guard who patrols the complex came by and said my son and two of his friends jumped this boy and beat him up. First of all, I had a feeling something was going to happen and I needed to be a witness, so I hung out with the kids outside to keep an eye on things. If anything would have happened I would have seen it. Then, since I live right across from the basketball court, there were probably 15 to 20 kids in total hanging out. Not one of them saw my son or any other kid lay a hand on this boy. And seriously, don't you think that my son and his friends (I want to know where these extra kids came from) would have had bloodied and scraped knuckles if they had hit him? So, now I am worried that this boy's lie is going to get us evicted and we have no place to go. I am also wondering what my options are if in fact it does come down to that. Such drama!!! I too damned old for this.