I’m posting some long newsy entries for people who are interested in what’s going on in my life. If you’re not one of those people, you won’t miss anything by skipping these.
A lot of the usual committments I would have during the first week of the month–IPNE Board meeting, IPNE member call-in, church Parish Committee meeting–were all bumped ahead by Pub-U and the election. My suspense level went through the roof before the election and on Tuesday the 4th, I couldn’t think about anything else. I did some campaigning for Obama and refused to watch the early election returns online or on TV. The funny thing is, I had once registered on the website of a newspaper in Tucson, Arizona because I wanted to comment on a vampire-related article they ran. Since then, I’ve been getting “breaking news” e-mails from Tucson. That was how I saw that Obama had won Pennsylvania. At that point, with copious thanks directed toward the Pennsylvania voters I’d called, I started following the election returns. I could scarcely believe my eyes.
I don’t know quite how I missed Obama’s acceptance speech live; I had the TV on, but they ran McCain’s speech and not Obama’s. This was PBS, so I’m completely bewildered. I therefore stayed up late, rather upset, until Obama’s speech was finally placed online at around 3:00 a.m. Then I watched the whole speech online. By the end of it, I was sobbing into a paper towel–I was a complete wreck! The next day, I made myself a mug of hot spiced apple cider with rum and drank a toast to President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama and everyone who voted for him. 🙂
I busted my tail getting the Program Book finished and uploaded to the printer (we just used Kinko’s, we only needed 75 copies) on Wednesday. On Thursday the 6th I did my Samhain observance, which was okay, although it felt like it had been shoe-horned into the middle of everything else and I barely had time to get into the proper spirit. The octaval Tarot reading was typical: great start, dismal ending. I never get an encouraging Outcome card! Ever! No matter what I’m doing, the Tarot hates it!
Friday and Saturday were Pub-U. It was great. On Saturday I came home and logged into an online business meeting for another group I’m in. I got so disgusted that I quit the meeting after forty-five minutes and don’t plan to attend another one. I was very depressed about this, though, so the high of Pub-U came down pretty fast.
I haven’t had any chance to decompress after all the work I did helping put on Pub-U. On Sunday the 9th, I went to another meeting of the church Youth Group, for which I had to drive out to Gardner because we’re collaborating with the Gardner congregation on this group. I was not in a good space for this, but my mood improved after I got there. We did fall crafts. Our interrim minister, Liz Strong, had gotten some stuff at Michael’s, and a woman from the Gardner church, Vicki, contributed some leaves that she preserved by dipping them into melted paraffin, and some random crafts items. We were making centerpieces and arrangements, but there was an old grapevine wreath among all the stuff, and I pounced on it. I ended up making this:
This photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s a bit frail because I didn’t have glue or florist’s wire to attach things, which it really needed. Some of the teens made some absolutely beautiful baskets and arrangements, too.
Yesterday, I went out to get groceries and then had to take the long way around to get home because the police blocked off a section of Main Street. I have no idea why, but I’m assuming it was nothing good. Then, shortly after sunset, the power went out. Once again, I was typing on my laptop by candlelight, but at least the outage was only about 20 minutes long this time.
I’m doing the church service in Ashby on the 16th, and I’m behind with the prep. The musicians have been asking me for the hymns, I need to send a title and description for the announcement list, and I’m still pulling myself together after all the time I spent on Pub-U! Tonight I had a Parish Committee meeting, tomorrow is an IPNE Board meeting and the Full Moon, and on Monday the 17th I have a chimney cleaner coming to clean and check the chimney. After that, I can get back to my real work…I hope! My dad is coming down here for Thanksgiving.
Mortal Touch continues to be a popular book for the Kindle. I’ve sold four Kindle editions so far in November.