Yesterday was a low key day. And the weather was actually warm here, topping out at around sixty and I only had two layers on. I wore my hair up because for once, I didn't have to be outside in 30-40 degree temperatures in the cold in the morning and needing my hair to keep my ears warm. I saw people wandering around town with Santa hats on. I hung out at the farmer's market talking to a circumstantial friend about felting--one of these days I am actually going to felt some ornaments instead of just having my felting supplies hang out in the living room.

I did a few errands along the lines of picking up lithium batteries and other trip necessities. I did the laundry, which was nice to get to do on a Saturday afternoon because enough people cleared out of here. I found out that Lost Girl season 3 hit Netflix streaming, so I've been watching that while doing my packing. (Finished!) I have one suitcase for Hawaii of Hawaiian clothes--while still trying to figure out how to dress for possible rainstorms and the like--and two bags full of winter sweaters and sweatpants and warm crap like that. Happily, I have extra space in the suitcase for buying things. Plus a bag of books, a bag of knitting, a bag of felting.... okay, so I end up packing expecting to have a lot of down time and knowing Mom, I may not get back here as quickly as we are supposedly going to do and fuck if I know if I can get online or not there. (Though she does have the new computer now and my phone has been getting reception there of late, so I have hope. I did ask her what her wireless password was and she said "I'm told it's on the bottom of the modem," so.... that's not promising.) The nice thing about having my own car is I can bring as much crap as I want! And leave it in the car and raid it if I have to!

I think I am going to leave Monday in early afternoon...probably way too early, but I want to avoid having to drive 580 during rush hour because the packed 6-lane freeway on the way to my house scares me, and I want to avoid the dark. Unfortunately, that means I'll arrive in the olde hometown like two hours before Mom gets off work and fuck if I know what I'll do since I can't get into her house security system. (This will also be interesting the next day since I'll be going to the eye doctor while Mom is gone all night at a meeting....again, how do I get in?!). No bookstores to hang out in there....not sure on cafes where you can park for 2 hours with a lot of luggage in the car either. Mom was all, "go hang out at the Barnes and Noble" in one of the next towns over and I was all, "that still means I'm having to drive on 580 during rush hour to get back in time to go to Deacon Dave's, NO" and she started telling me about how to find the obscure back roads, which got confusing. Argh.

Oh yeah, and Mom told me that she talked to her old neighbor Dana. Dana lived with and had a ton of kids with Jim--the repo man, karate studio owner, former bank robber(!), super scary badass who bought the house next door. He finally ended up moving out after the neighbors called the cops or something when his dog bit someone. Anyway, Dana informed Mom of what Jim is up to.... and apparently not only is he living in some super run down, unsafe, unheated house, HE OWNS WHOREHOUSES AND GROW HOUSES.

Yeah, you read that right, WHOREHOUSES. Not just grow houses, but WHOREHOUSES.

I was all, "where are all of these? In the olde hometown, seriously? Because I didn't think whorehouses existed any more outside of Nevada." She doesn't know where they are, but was told that Jim samples the merchandise. OF COURSE HE DOES. And whatever Christian(!) girl he was dating, well, that isn't happening any more. Shocker!

As for today, I went to the party in Rocklin I mentioned the other day. Even though the president of the organization that I was e-mailing back and forth about this kept making jokes about this being the "consolation prize" (that's fair), I did enjoy going. It was a luncheon/ritual/solstice for astrologers...yes, I'm a hippie, feel free to think I'm an idiot asshole for being into that, I'm used to it and don't really care.

I am happy to report that I found the place with no issues, and ended up arriving uh, a half hour early. So I spent ten minutes shopping in the one random junk store I could find (got the Elton John Christmas Party CD!) and then twenty minutes of sitting in my car looking at knitting patterns. The lady parked next to me was clearly attending the same event, as she also had a holiday sweater on, wasn't going into the restaurant right off, and ended up meditating in her car to kill some time!

The restaurant itself had gorgeous bling all over it, even if the food...well, to be honest, it was edible. I ordered a chicken tostada and it boiled down to a bunch of lettuce and a bit of avocado and some flavorless chicken hidden under that, and some tortilla hidden under that. I actually thought someone's vegetarian salad had been delivered to me instead and went around asking the table who was missing a veggie meal until someone else who'd ordered the same thing confirmed that was it. Oh well.

We had a private room in the back...boy, was that ever a good idea. After the chatting and the eating, a little ritual was put on. One guy brought a giant conch shell and blew it twice, and they also had a portable microphone and a musician playing music. The people eating in the rest of the restaurant had to be shocked out of their fucking gourds when that shell played! This was also my first ritual/meditation that took place in a restaurant, which was interesting. There were also specially rewritten Christmas songs for astrologers and a carol/astrology game based off of this. Joyce did an EXCELLENT job of putting it on.

I liked actually getting to do a solstice ritual (a week early), which rarely happens with me. Even when I had the people to do one with, it was kind of a crapshoot how many of them would still be in town (myself included) by the 21st, and the last few years I've been off with Mom doing whatever and I can't imagine getting through anything that quiet with her around. This year I'll hopefully be spending it at a parade in Kauai, hah. Anyway, I got to do one and yay to that.

Now I'm home, having finished off Lost Girl, and I'm trying to make a stuffed Gavle Goat--I found a pattern for a stuffed goat online and I'm redesigning the head/tail to look more like the Swedish version. It's rather cute, actually.

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