Field Notes

 Busy week: Done! This week is also gonna be busy but it'll be ok I hope! 

Taught my first class in the new Witchcraft series tonight, and it went well, though there's one male student in particular that I may need to ... talk to. We'll see. There isn't class next weekend, but there is the weekend after, so he may have calmed down by then. 

Tomorrow is super anxiety-inducing and I'm trying not to worry about it. Make-up lesson for a student in the morning, then ED recovery program, then ... photo shoot??! Yes, I'm doing a photo shoot in the middle of a super difficult time in my ED recovery. But I do need new photos for my business, and I've been wanting fall photos, and the season only lasts so long. So in spite of not feeling quite ready to do the shoot, I guess I've gotta do it anyway. 

I went to the mall last night to get a new outfit for the shoot. I've ... gained weight this year, and it feels like nothing fits me the way I want. So new clothes were a necessity, and since it's for a business thing it counts as a write-off. Anyway, I had two major eating disorder related meltdowns about my body, but the women at Torrid were incredibly kind to me. And thankfully Anais came with, which meant xe was able to support me as well. But I got a dress that shows off my decolletage in a classy yet scandalous way, a new sweater that is lighter and has some lacy bits, a leopard print scarf, and a pair of sweatpants with skulls on them. So that's fucking incredible. 

Mall shopping was weird and overwhelming.

I have to say: I hate capitalism, but I like being able to find things all in one central place. Would love more shopping districts that are funky but not have to drive clear across town to go between different shops. There's some kind of carbon footprint thing here, but it's late and I'm gonna go to sleep now.

OH HEY SEMESTER.

Semester started last week. Between feelings and hard work, it's been kind of hard to keep up on dreamwidth. Know that I am every once in a while checking in! Just ... things and stuff.

Started out a bit behind on my semester, trying to catch up. Still trying to keep up work with Northern Lights Witch. Definitely need to figure out what block of time makes most sense to work on it during the week. I'm also realizing just how ambitious my original timeline for the project was, and scaling it back in my head before I over commit. 

I have an internship interview tomorrow. I've been waiting to really plan out Northern Lights Witch until I know if I have this internship. If I get it, I'll be lucky if I can maintain a blog post on a weekly basis and a twitter presence. If I don't, then I'm planning on pouring energy into this project in my free time, probably around 15 hrs a week. We'll see. This is a PAID internship, which would be amazing. 

The results are in! 

This was a super quick, super general survey to help me out in thinking about names + content for a blog project. There was really quickly a consensus on the name, so I actually created a blog on Friday. 

The name: Northern Lights Tarot

I decided not to limit myself to tarot, so here it is: Northern Lights Witch!

It's incredibly basic, just a Wordpress blog, which I will upgrade to northernlightswitch.com if I begin to make money from the blog. I also have a super baby Twitter account linked to it, and an Instagram as well. I'm thinking I need more content up before I really tackle doing a ton of social media and trying to gain readership.

Which brings me to ... content preferences!

Again, this was a really small survey, and it was mostly with people who know me in person, but a few who know me online. Most people were interested in an eclectic mix, but there were some themes.

In order of popularity (asterisks mean the same rating):

Social Justice from a Pagan Perspective**
Witchy Crafts**
Tarot Readings*
General Witchy Stuff*
Book Reviews/Esoteric Book Club*
Mythology Studies
Custom aromatherapy/teas/elixirs
Astrology Readings

I was surprised by how much interest there was in witchy crafts - I just threw that in the mix because I occasionally craft, but now I'll have to think about featuring that a bit more. I was surprised that book reviews were kind of middle-of-the-road popular (maybe I just love reading book reviews - there are so many books and so little time! I like guidance!). 

I have to say I was shocked/relieved at how low astrology readings are on the list - that is the thing here that I have the least experience with, and it is also the most to learn. So it looks like I've got some time to learn before I dig into that. 

Also because this is dreamwidth I went ahead and made a feed for you! Here it is! northernlights_witch_feed 

Just got called by someone working on this rally at the national level, saying we aren't hitting our numbers. She said "it's not your fault!" but subtext: it is my fault because I'm in charge of recruitment.

She also forgot that I was only hired on to this rally part time. 20 hours a week? NOTHING when you're trying to get 3,000 people to RSVP to a rally.

(Who RSVPs to a rally anyway? NO ONE. That's why this is so hard.)

Everything feels fruitless right now. I had been feeling so good about it, but now I just feel panicked and little and frustrated.

Today was the kind of morning where I didn't feel like a person until I had my coffee. Now, coffee in hand, I'm getting to writing this journal entry.

NaNoWriMo was a bit of a bust this year. I never did get back into the habit. But I got 25,000 new words, so that's good I suppose. I'm not really beating myself up about that at all. This was just a very busy year to do that, and grad school comes first.

The Thanksgiving weekend has been fantastic for me. Of course, Thanksgiving day is always amazing, and having an extra day out at the farm was wonderful. I played games with Matt, talked with my parents, went on a hike in the woods with dad, ate good food, and got some good peace and quiet.

I'm really excited for a time when I live in a rural area. It's in my bones - I miss the quiet, solitude, the woods ... I've wanted to for so long, and I finally have a plan for doing that - and a partner who's also interested in it. I'm making connections again in the environmental movement, and starting to edge my way into potential contracted positions. I have a limited amount of time every week that I can currently dedicate to the movement, but I'll have more time once I have my application complete and I'm waiting to hear back. And in the mean time, I need to save as much as possible.

Things with Matt have been fantastic lately. We've been doing a lot of movie nights, and yesterday we had an unexpectedly romantic day. We were both getting sick of sitting around working on things, and decided to grab some lunch out and go for a walk. It was a beautiful day, so we ended up walking all the way down West 7th looking for that good Chow Mein place I remember. It ended up being too far, so we ate out at a nice Italian restaurant. We headed back, and I worked on things for a bit, then we watched The Maltese Falcon.

Laughing, happy, fun. It's been like that constantly in our relationship. Pretty much since the decision that I would only apply for the U of MN, and our conversations at Lutsen about moving North together, it's been good. It's been better than good - it's been a dream.

This has been a very strange week. I'm not sure how I feel about going back to work tomorrow( Read more... )

No one who's reading this will recognize the userpics that I'll start using, but it's pretty fabulous. My dad got my old (very first, giant 17" Toshiba) laptop working, and asked me to pull any files I might want. Well, let me tell you - it was definitely a trip down memory lane! I found all my old LJ userpics - so of course THOSE will now be a part of the rotation here.

Seriously, they bring back so many memories. I'm glad that even if I can't access my old journal entries, I can still see the images that accompanied them.

Ugh, moving. I was getting really anxious about the whole process last night, and so I talked to Matt about it and I think we've got a good plan. What's really making me anxious is that the week before I'm moving, I work 10-4 on Sunday, I have two 11-12 hour days (including the Thursday before the move), Matt's sister's surprise bridal shower is on the Wednesday of that week, so pretty much my only day to get everything packed is Tuesday of next week. Ahhhh!

Matt was able to talk me down a little bit. Thank goodness. But this is gonna be crazy.

So, I started making a list last night of all the things I need to do to move. Here we go:

1. Show apartment - it's gonna be crazy, but just remember: they'll take $100 off the re-rental fee if I find the person to move in.
2. Today: Send Matt home with box of kitchen appliances, maybe some books, dvds, tchotckies, and electronics boxes.
3. Friday: Pack up sewing and camping stuff and take to St. Paul.
4. Saturday: Show apartment, but also pack up books. Take wall shelves out (will need to borrow Matt's drill), spackle, paint.
5. Sunday: Varnish bed? Not necessary - but it would be a good idea to treat the wood, and moving is one of the best times to do that. Pack a bag of clothes for the week, pack the rest of my clothes and bring to Matt's. Unpack all the boxes at Matt's so I can reuse them.
6. Tuesday: Pack EVERYTHING ELSE. Live out of a suitcase for the week.
7. Friday: MOVE.
8. Saturday: Spend day unpacking and rearranging apt. Meet Matt in Hibbing for his sister's wedding. May need to leave early if he's going totally bazonkers with family.
9. Sunday: I have NO idea where I'll wake up. Like, we could be at home, but I also wouldn't be surprised if we have a family sleepover or something. (His family can be a bit cagey about plans - I usually don't know what's going on.) TRY to get to book club - this could be tough if there's a wedding brunch I didn't know about. But oh my word Wuthering Heights, I really want to discuss it. Then: possibly check in on the Whittier Walkers shift from 12-2. Then: Relaxxxxx.

Ok ... that plan seems ok. It all depends on if Matt can do it too. He's coming over tonight, and we'll go over what this all looks like.

On a different note: It looks like he has work for next week! Yay!

Some other things I'm thinking about lately:

1. I NEED to get back to working on my novel. I've been too busy lately, but I have been getting a serious writing bug.
2. On a similar note, I want to do that mythology challenge. I've actually been thinking of ways to build that into the current project.
3. I'm getting kind of serious about stargazing. It will actually be a lot easier in Lowertown - less light pollution, and closer to the highway out of town. I'm trying to find an app that will help me out with that, but since I have an iPhone I can't get the one I want - google stargazer. Grrrr. There's gotta be a good comparison app.
4. I really miss sewing, and working with fabric. When I get to the new space, there are several mending projects I need to finish, but there are some patterns I have that I should really start working on. It would be good to hone my skills a little more.

Oh goodness. Time for me to get to work. BUH ALL THE THINGS.