Oh the Summer

I'm wiling away the summer with it's terrible heat and my awful allergies the best I can.

Gaming is helping, as usual. I've been playing a lot of Pokemon on my 3DS and League of Legends on my PC (as well as Civ).

Ah yes. Watching Bewitched on Hulu and playing Pokemon! I've also been watching a lot of anime. In a way I'm glad I'm unemployed over the summer as the pain my allergies are causing me is to the level of making me mostly disabled. The allergy symptoms are mostly in my ears and lead to referred pain down my neck and shoulders. Add the migraines with aura and I'm almost useless for days at a time!

However, not all is lost. I've been doing gentle yoga with a friend, which has been wonderful. We've had to watch our money and it's been terrible. Our tires were about to shred apart and buying new ones, even the least expensive, cost a small fortune due to the size of the tires being strange. (We have a foreign car).

 I've re-started my etsy which you can find here.

Summer Solstice

Science based events are like the Divine's natural holidays to me. I can't imagine better moments to celebrate than those of the natural world. Yes, I do love traditional holidays as well, but I feel a special connection to events like solstices and equinoxes. These times seem charged with change and potential. I take advantage of such moments to remind myself of certain things and review my goals and dreams.

 

I took a walk towards the college campus that is near us. The campus is full of natural beauty and neat art pieces. It was incredibly hot, but sticking to the shade seemed to help. As you can see the sun looked like it was celebrating by trying to burn me alive! Meanwhile I was headed to the walk-in art shop on campus to do some work with clay.

It's been literally decades since I've worked with clay. Back in grade school we'd make small clay objects and get to glaze them. Mine were hideous! I was determined to create something decent for my first adult attempt. In fact, I had something in mind already. There's a crescent moon candle-holder that I've wanted to buy for awhile. Well, I decided to make my own version of it. I felt a bit bad, like a music pirate, but since it's just for me, hopefully it's ok that I was inspired by something else.

This is what I made! Sometime this week it will be fired and then I can go in and glaze it or keep it as is. Working with clay was so interesting. Any motion you put in it shows in the clay immediately. Every time I accidentally  nicked it with my finger nail I would have to smooth that part over.

My friend Jen was with me and definitely helped me get the shape rounder. She also drew the pentacle on the middle disk as I just couldn't get it looking right!


Now that I have one clay piece done I'm planning on coming back and making more. I'd like to make a tree and a Bastet sacred cat statue. The cost is so decent too. It's one of the few indulgences I can afford this summer.

Tattoo and Burlesque

Joining my skeleton cameo, cupcake with a D20, and the smaller tattoos I have is this thorny letter V. This is the first big one for my left arm. I have a small tattoo on my left wrist.

I wanted a tattoo representing the 18 years of my life I've been vegetarian (vegan for some of that) and I didn't want an actual word. I'm not sure why, but I can't think of a word in English I'd want tattooed on me. I'd love a rune tattoo, though.

Searching all over the internet for a cool V that looked gothy and brutal I finally found this!

Later in the summer I'll be adding some more work to this arm. I also had a dream about a tattoo to get on my lower chest that involved Odin and his ravens....


Aside from this tattoo I spent the later half of this week being very busy. I didn't teach this week, but I took a trip by train! More on that in another post.

Last night my husband and I went out to see a vaudeville burlesque troupe at our local gay bar. The bar is one of the nicest in town. It has an old art deco feel to it, with a stage and a great open plan with two bars. It's a really nice venue.

I wore my Louise Black skeleton corset. I rarely wear it and need to more. Corsets are very comfortable for my back!

You can see some of my other tattoos in this picture. I'm wearing a necklace from Queenie Pocket full of Posiez.

Onto the mini top hat I secured a small sparkly tiara that I originally wore to the combined bachelor party bar event that my husband I had before our wedding.

I'm wearing boots that you can't see. It was awfully hot last night!

Meatless Mondays - Choose Your Own Adventure Edition

If you're into things like earth hour then you may want to check out Meatless Mondays. Now readers of my blog know that I hail from Planet Vegan, but this isn't a post to convince anyone to go vegetarian. No, instead I decided to post on ye olde Face Book about the challenge to not eat meat on Mondays. Animal food, even locally raised animals, are a big contributor to environmental damage and so I kind of see Meatless Mondays as a lights out, reduce your carbon imprint concept for those who eat meat.

Several lovely lasses came forward to accept this challenge and so I want to share some various food ideas and strategies for those who want to Plant it Up on Mondays.

I'm going to present three scenarios to you depending on how much time, energy, and money you have to put into this endeavor. (Hehe. I kind of feel like a GM or a Choose Your Own Adventure writer, remember those?). I'm going to include lacto-ovo options in here because that will be far easier to incorporate for most meat eaters since they'll have eggs and cheese on hand.

Choice A: Wait on me Hand and Foot (or Drive Through!)

    It happens. Sometimes we just have to pick up food. If this is the case here are my suggestions:

• Commerical breakfast sandwiches (order without bacon or ham) 
• Subway, Panera and many fast food places have no meat sandwich options!
• Wendy's is a great source for a baked potato and a big salad
• Asian take-out always has a Tofu option (beware fish sauce in Thai food)
• Indian buffets are the BOMB for vegetarians 
• Mexican places. Check out the veg part of the menu. Get some veg fajitas and a margarita!
• Pasta. Order w/o meat and with marinara sauce (watch out some places put meat broth in sauce)
• Pizza! Just get it with veggies or be daring and get it w/o cheese!
• Sushi! Yes veggie sushi is delicious.

Choice B: Low Maintenance Loveliness

    If you buy a few boxes of veggie burger type things then you'll have meals for a month of Mondays. The easiest option is to replace the meat you would be eating with a vegetarian analog. Here are my suggestions:

• Quorn products are great for those who love the flavor of chicken
• Amy's brand chilis, frozen dinners, etc are amazing!
• Tofurky sausages and deli slices.
• Daiya 'cheese'
• Boca makes delicious items
• Morningstar Farms makes a rib that a lot of meat eaters love! 

Choice C: Kitchen Alchemist
         Cooking is an act of magical intent and if you have time mixing together spices, ingredients and adding some flame (or a blade if you're keeping it raw) is a wonderful way to create something. So what recipes do I suggest? In this section I'm not sure what to put because your options are as limitless as your creativity. Instead, I will ask that you post in the comments a particular flavor group, vegetable, or ethnic area and I will share a recipe with you if you like or point you in the right direction.


   

Hiking among Giants

I've been substituting for a single teacher for two weeks now. I'm not teaching for her on Monday, but I am teaching. Yay!

Friday we took some of the students hiking in the rain. Oh my Goth. Perfect weather for me as the cold and rain kept the bugs and pollen away! I love the look of green on gray days and I love the rain. Yes, to me it's only beautiful outside when it's very overcast.

We live on the edge of a vast forest. Part of this forest include small cliff areas like this one. It was a gorgeous hike and I actually felt better after it. However, the next day wow I was so incredibly exhausted, beyond reckoning. If I had been on my own it would have been a more spiritual experience, but maybe my husband and I can go out there soon on a rainy day.

Corp Goth

As Morticia would say "Black is such a cheerful color"

I don't see a lot of people using this term anymore, but corporate goth is the type of fashion I have for work. I've been working professional jobs since 2003 and when I'm not working in an IT setting I'm teaching. Luckily because of this fact I have a fairly wide variety of clothes suitable for a business setting. I've hit deep sales for these items or the thrift store.

Right now due to my health, and really for the foreseeable future I can only do temporary freelance IT work or substitute teach.

Subbing is turning out to be the best job I've ever had. Working at the special education school means a lot to me. I think my personality is the perfect mix of mellow and spontaneous to work with students who have autism or ADD.

Stripes. It's like adding color in my mind.

I've been called in a lot, which makes me really happy. It also means that my neglected corp goth wardrobe can see the light of day (ha, instead of the dark of night as most goth clothes go).

At some point I'm going to make a video about it. I've noticed some people are taught that they won't be able to find jobs while maintaining the fashion they love.  Some of this is probably coming from parents and professors, but things have changed a lot, even in the nine years I've been working professionally.

For instance, I obtained a Master's degree and taught while having pink hair, purple hair, tattoos, and stretched ears. Sometimes I wore more sedate business type goth outfits and sometimes wilder stuff depending on my mood and the state of my health. None of it seemed to make a difference to my students.

I guess my point is that there is a way to dress the way you want to. Sometimes you do have to adapt for your job, like I need to keep my tattoos covered while teaching, but there's always a way to stay true to your sense of fashion and have a job.
                                             

One of the hair colors (ha, or two as it were) that I had while teaching college courses.

Yay!

Thanks new followers and everyone else following me too! I received the most page views ever yesterday! Huzzah for food!

I wasn't called in to substitute today, so I took advantage of the free time to work on some projects and go for a walk. Walking is one of the few exercises that my body tolerates currently. This is kind of shame, as I used to lift weights regularly and do very challenging hikes. However, I can still do gentle Pilates and take walks.

The pollen count was on red alert around us and I've been suffering from it! However, I took some meds and went for a stroll in one of my Gothic Lolita dresses. (Lolita fashion has nothing to do with the book. It's a fashion movement from Japan based on Victorian aesthetics and some other influences. You can read about it here.)

I also took my Nintendo 3DS with me. It counts the steps you take and rewards you with coins that you can use to play games. I love it!

EGL Fashion. You wear a petticoat under the skirt to get  a big pouf. 

I was also carrying an umbrella with me to ward off the sun and wearing sunscreen. Both of my parents have had skin cancer! They weren't into tanning and started out with naturally darker skin tone than I have. (I'm the only pale, blue eyed, natural blonde in the family). So I try to be very careful!

In fact, I even made a silly video about my umbrella use. This video, does not, however explain what got me started on using umbrellas to protect from the sun. Many years ago I spent a year studying abroad and teaching English in China. Almost all the women I met carried an umbrella on sunny days and I found it very useful, so I adopted the habit.