A Thanksgiving That's Not Really Mine Anymore

If you think I'm a day late posting this, then you don't really understand US Thanksgiving.  It officially happens on the 4th Thursday of November, but it's really a lot bigger than that!

It generally starts on the Wednesday before, when most students, from kindergarten to University, and lots of employees get off at noon in order to get to family by the next day.  Lots of people take the entire Wednesday off, in order to get an extra day of travel time.  It continues, of course, on Thursday, when most of the cooking, all the eating, and a lot of the football watching happens.  Then there's Black Friday.  And yes, most Americans, save those working in retail or essential services, get those two-and-a-half days off.  On Saturday, it's time to start saying goodbye to family as they start to make their way back across the country to their homes.  Or maybe it's time to put up the winter holiday decorations, especially the tree.  On Sunday it's definitely time to say goodbye to the last of your guests, and by Sunday evening everything is pretty much back to normal, except for the leftovers, and the newly-hung decorations.

So, you see, it's perfectly legitimate to be writing about US Thanksgiving today.

When we first moved to Canada, to British Columbia, we celebrated  both the Canadian and the American versions of the holiday.  And many years we traveled to see family in distant states for the US version.  But since we've moved back to Canada (Ontario, this time),  and especially since we've gotten our Permanent Residence status and have made the decision to apply for Canadian citizenship, we haven't really tried.  Asking for those 2 1/2  days off gets old, especially when you're not in the holiday spirit because everyone around you celebrated the holiday weeks ago.  And I hadn't really missed it.  I think in a lot of ways it's easier not to think about it.

But today I have been thinking about it, and I've been down about it.  I'm not sure why, but this year I miss my family terribly, and I miss the huge hoopla that surrounds this 4th Thursday.  So much so that I've shed more than a few tears today.  I had big plans--finish a couple of lessons, finish a project for a friend that's way overdue, make sure Kai can pass all the Level 2 items that I know he knows.  But, instead, I cried, and felt down, and generally blah.

Maybe tonight I can forget it, this holiday I no longer consider mine.

Big Changes

Don't worry--there's nothing wrong with your screen!  In honor of this blog's 2nd anniversary today, I'm giving it a facelift, so it will change constantly throughout the day. 

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause!

Where the Boys Are 2010

Lance and Kai have a busy day planned, even though they don't know it yet.  They'll chill tonight while Mom and Dad are at Free Lecture Fridays at Dogs in the Park (If you're anywhere near Guelph, Ontario, check it out!), then tomorrow they'll go, go go!

On Saturday they'll have one of their periodic out & about exercises--they'll go for walks in places they don't know and they'll visit any retail store we can find that will allow them.  Some of the locations already planned are:

Petsmart
Rona Hardware
Bass Pro Shop
Terra Greenhouses
Second Cup Coffee (outside on the patio)
Oliver Pets
and
Hamilton/Burlington SPCA (Kai needs a license.)


If anybody knows of any others, please let us know.

Don't Blame the Messenger (or in this case the director)

I just watched a trailer for "Red Riding Hood", which looks like fun.  My post, however, is on the comments about it.  More than one person said they were going to pass on the movie because it is directed by the director of "Twilight", Catherine Hardwicke.

This leads me to wonder--did these commenters actually dislike the DIRECTION of "Twilight"?  Really?  With all else that was wrong with it, they noticed bad direction?  Or maybe they haven't read the source material.  (For a good introduction to that source material, head on over to a hilarious blog titled Reasoning With Vampires.)  I only thought the movie was bad until I read the books.  Boy, was I wrong!  Now, IMHO, I think they did a FABULOUS job on the movie.  Absolutely everyone who worked on it, from the actors to the payroll clerk to, yes, the director, did a great job with the material that was given to them.

You may be wondering why I saw the movie, or read the book(s!).  DH and I love vampires, and anything to do with them.  We had initially avoided the, ahem, literature (and I use that term VERY loosely) because it was aimed at kids, but once the first movie was released, we gave in and bought them.  Sigh.  We saw the movie before we started the books.  We were disappointed in the movie, but we already owned the books so we figured we might as well read them. 

Big mistake.  Big, big, BIG mistake.  Especially since both of us have trouble putting down books once we start them.  Or, as was the case here, series of books.  I realize I'm probably going to get flamed for this (actually, for the entire post), but I have read stories by 13-year-olds that are better written.  And I won't even get into bad (awful, horrible) role models or questionable scientific reasoning.  The writing is bad enough to stand all on its own.  And no, it's not a style thing or an audience-age thing--it's simply badly written.  From grammatical errors to badly written sentences to obscure words used simply to impress to factual contradictions, it's bad.

Not that I feel strongly about it or anything.

Still Blocked

As you can probably tell by how much I've slowed down in writing this blog, I'm continuing to have trouble with blocking.  I thought that making my Getting My Life in Order List would help, but it didn't.  I'm still stuck at the second item on the list:  learning to read tarot cards.  I don't think the list has been responsible, but I've gotten even worse.  I don't have the energy, the motivation, the willpower, or the even the desire to start things, and even if I do start them, I can't seem to finish them.  My problems with metal-poisoning-related fatigue made things worse, but they weren't the root cause.  And now that I'm feeling physically better, I'm noticing the psychological side of it more and more.  (I have looked into clinical depression, but I don't have any of the symptoms.)

In order to try and get out of my slump, I've started meditations on opening my chakras.  I feel as if they are ALL blocked, some of them more than others.  I've also, through a class I'm taking at The Magical Circle School, researched and found herbs that will help me work through this, in the form of incenses and bath herbs.  (Wood ruff, St. John's wort, cloves, and peppercorns to name a few.)  And this weekend, on the night of the full moon, I plan to cast a spell to help me further.

All of this seems to be helping, slowly.  It took an almost unimaginable amount of willpower to actually start the process, but bit by bit I seem to be improving.  I've turned in four assignments in three different classes this week, and finished the readings in another.  I've actually gotten out of bed before noon three times this week. 

Hopefully all THIS will do the trick.

More Housekeeping

I'm sorry, Readers, but I've had to enable comment moderation on this blog.  It received its first spam comment a few days ago, which I deleted.  I hoped it was a one-time occurrence.  Then another spam comment appeared, which I also deleted.  While I was debating what distasteful step I wanted to take, the exact same spam which I had deleted a day or two was posted yet again.

I had the choice of limiting comments to registered users, which is annoying to me when I visit a blog to which I'm not actually subscribed, forcing word verification for comments, with which many people have trouble, or moderating comments, which will mean more attention from me.  I chose the third option as the least unpleasant one.

I sincerely hope this step doesn't discourage any valid comments.

No Awards, Please

A friend gave me my first blogging awards yesterday, and although I'm very grateful to her for thinking of me, I have to refuse them.  I had no idea how much work they were!  I just don't know enough bloggers, I think.

As a result, I've decided to make this blog award-free, as so many of the bloggers I follow have done.    So please don't be offended--I appreciate the recognition, I really do.  I just don't have time to follow through on them.

Missing

I'm sorry I've yet again missed many days of posting, Dear Readers.  Life reared up its head and blogging went down in priorities for the last couple of weeks.  I hope you all had a Happy Halloween, a Blessed Samhain, or both.  (I'm bummed I missed posting everything I had planned for the holiday, but there's always next year.  :)  )

My own holiday went much better than last year.  DH and I are getting better at blending the two aspects, and hopefully will continue to improve.  We managed this year to combine honoring our ancestors and dearly departed with watching a couple of scary movies, and did justice to both, if I do say so myself.

On to Yule.