What I Love About Florida

Since I've spent lots of time kvetching about South Florida, I thought it best for my own peice of mind to find things about it I like/love and begin focusing on those things. Fed up with spending the weekends doing nothing or close to it, I got up early this morning, got myself and our daughter up and ready to go out the door, and went online searching for something to do. I came up with Vizcaya- for the next couple of months Sundays will be free, and you can't beat free. Into the car and off to Miami DH, Bebe and I went. Vizcaya is located in Coconut Grove; to get to it you have to drive down streets lush with Palm trees and tropical vegetation. Million dollar homes line the roadway, gorgeous mansions of various styles-Spanish mission (one of my personal favorites), Key West, etc. , painted white, pink, terra cotta, light blue, and occasionally light green. The sun beamed down for the first portion of our trip, washing the whole scene in its brilliant light. We took the tour inside the mansion (which is really more like a palace) and wandered briefly outside before the rains rolled in. The showers were soft but the lightning was feirce, and lightning is nothing to mess around with in these parts. If you want to check out this beautiful place for yourself without booking a ticket to Miami, here it is: http://www.vizcayamuseum.org/. There are lots of places to eat in the Grove, although one should take care when driving through the area because a wrong turn can land you in a very bad neighborhood VERY quickly.

On another note, DH and I went to see Sicko on Saturday night and I highly recommend it. There are some who like Michael Moore and some who do not; I am one who likes him quite a bit. The movie is a bit upsetting, but since I've watched it I've seen evidence that at least some of what he said is completely true ( I mean, how can it be legal for pharmaceutical companies to lobby politicians? Doesn't that bias the politicians just a wee bit in their favor when it comes time for laws to be passed which could benefit said companies and cost us all more money than we really should be paying to buy their drugs????) A great movie which should be watched with an open mind for full effect.

Sniffles Again

Not much going on here today. My daughter woke this morning covered (or at least so it seemed) in yucky boogers. Another cold has invaded our peaceful home, despite my best efforts at keeping the place clean, washing our hands before eating, spraying disinfectant on the a/c filter, etc. Sigh. She ate crackers, some Jell-O and a grilled cheese sandwich all day, plus drank water mixed with juice, which is more than I thought she'd take in, so at least she's taking in a few nutrients and fluids. Hopefully this will go away quickly. It seems like every time I have Bebe around other kids she comes down with something, but that's the nature of childhood, I suppose!!!

Happy HNT

I'm exhausted after spending about two hours at a very hot park with my daughter and then spending the rest of the day running errands. It was hot as a Cajun kitchen all day long and humid as well. I'd intended to meet a local homeschooling Mommy group at the park, but either they left before we arrived or they canceled the meet up. Either way, my daughter still had fun running under the sprinkler and playing with the other kids and I managed to eke out some intelligent conversation with a couple of other adults. After playtime we stopped at Miami Subs for lunch and who did I run into but the Rabbi from the temple I was frequenting for a time. I conversed with him for a bit about the school they have at the temple and I asked him what he thought about homeschooling and about the local Jewish school. I left the restaurant with a feeling of "maybe that was meant to be today-maybe I wasn't supposed to meet those girls and maybe I was meant to run into the Rabbi". Had I met the other Moms I might have left the park earlier and not been at the sub place, or I might have had lunch someplace else. The Rabbi was reading a book on Jewish spirituality, and I felt a twinge of envy that some people just "believe" with no problems attached. My faith has been so badly shaken in my previous path; I've been reading books that talk about archeological discoveries, etc. , which seem to disprove many of the Biblical events that both Judaism and Christianity are based on. In addition to this, there are so many mythologies in Pagan religions, Hinduism, etc. which sort of paved the way for the later stories. For example, the birth, death rebirth of a God shtick wasn't a new thing when Jesus hit the scene. This occurs in Hinduism and also in the Egyptian religion, with Osiris. Should it matter whether these things are absolute truths? Are there really ANY absolute truths? There probably are not. I feel very comfortable in a Celtic, earth based spiritual path, but I miss Judaism. Tisha B'Av came and went, and I felt sad for not honoring it with a period of fasting like I did last year. Last year I also fasted in recognition of the pain I felt at a school in Iraq being bombed and many innocent young children being killed. It was an inner protest at the violence taking place in the world today. In Judaism, Tisha B'Av is a day of mourning the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem; as well, other things happened in Jewish history on this date which caused great sorrow for the Jewish people : 1. The sin of the spies caused Hashem to decree that the Children of Israel who left Egypt would not be permitted to enter the land of Israel; 2. The first Temple was destroyed; 3. The second Temple was destroyed; 4. Betar, the last fortress to hold out against the Romans during the Bar Kochba revolt in the year 135, fell, sealing the fate of the Jewish people. 5. One year after the fall of Betar, the Temple area was plowed. 6. In 1492, King Ferdinand of Spain issued the expulsion decree, setting Tisha B'Av as the final date by which not a single Jew would be allowed to walk on Spanish soil. 7. World War I – which began the downward slide to the Holocaust – began on Tisha B’av. (see

http://www.ou.org/yerushalayim/tishabav/)

Anyway, I have to go make dinner. This not quite Catholic born, not quite Jewish born, Jewish convert, Celtic Witch doesn't have any more time for speculation this evening. Things will just have to be what they are for the next many hours! Happy HNT!

Interest and Intrigue

Hi, ya'll. It's been awhile since I've posted anything; I've been super busy with life and the usual blah blah, trying to be more disciplined, which is very difficult for me. I laughingly say I'm just kind of on the Bohemian side, but the truth is that I annoy even myself sometimes with my scattered ways. On Thursday I'm meeting up with some homeschooling parents and hope that might be a good start toward forming some good relationships with other local Moms and giving my daughter a chance to form some friendships with other kids her age. The group is even considering starting an art co-op and I feel like I'd be a good addition to that. Each parent would do a lesson a month or something along that idea. At first I was nervous about the idea of that but then I realized I had no reason to be nervous. I do creative projects with my own daughter all the time, I love art, and I'd been considering going back to school for art therapy, which would have involved tons of human interaction in an artistic capacity, and I was hugely excited about the idea of that until I realized that I'd have to move someplace else to go to school, which right now isn't feasible. Anyway, it's a positive step toward making a move with regard to my daughter's education.

On a completely different subject, I decided to go back to being a redhead. Maybe it was my recently deepened connection to my Irish/Celtic heritage, or maybe it was the fact that the bleach was destroying my hair. Maybe it was a bit of both. Whatever the case, my hair feels a lot better after just four weeks of not being dyed platinum, and I feel more like myself again. It's always amazing to me how much hair color can effect how a person feels. Being blonde was fun, but I've done it sooo many times before that the novelty has long worn off, and I'm happy to wear a shade that's more natural to me.

As far as the "intrigue" part of this post, I've been reading a lot about the dominant/submissive relationship thing. I always hesitate to post anything with regard to sex, but I find this subject really fascinating. I don't know if I would consider myself a feminist. An equalist, maybe, but not so much a feminist, per se. Strong men have always been a huge turn on for me, and weak, "yes dear" sort of men a huge turn off. So, it's interesting to me to read stories about women who are in relationships where the man is in a dominant position, to read about their view points and the reasons why they enjoy being a part of this type of relationship. There is a physical aspect to this whole dynamic, which I will refrain from getting into in this blog- I think that some people will know what I'm talking about without me going any further in my wording. Sometimes, into the stew of life a few spices must be thrown, no?

I Also Hate Condo Commandos

The blasted condo police are in full force. My landlady called today to tell me that she received a complaint about our fence due to the fact that it wasn't approved through the Association (said with an exaggerated, arrogant accent-by me, not her). We put the fence up to afford us a bit of privacy due to the fact that our unit backs up to a pond, which then backs up to the road going in and out of our development. According to the landlady (who was totally cool about the whole thing) the reason for the complaint was that people can see our place when they come and go, and God forbid the fence isn't of the same design as the rest of this place. Cookie cutter heaven, all of it. Don't get me wrong; we live in a nice place and I feel blessed that when we had to move from our last apartment we were able to find this one and begin cleaning it and fixing it up almost month before me moved in. Someday, though, I think it would be wonderful to live in a house with a private yard where no one could say a thing about what type of fence we decided to erect, what types of flowers we decide to plant and what color we deem it nice to paint our home. This political b.s. is not really something I like to engage in. I'm a private person who doesn't care what anyone else is doing as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. I've never felt the need to busy body into anyone else's private life. As long as my neighbor is keeping their yard clean (and here I will interject that in spite of the fact that someone seems to be offended by my fence they are apparently not offended by the garbage that has been collecting around the pond-I guess it's not landscaping's job to clean it up) I could really care less about what type of patio decorations they decide to put out. Gnomes, fences, cacti, whatever. Who is anyone else to infringe on our white picket dream???

Another Day of Hating South Florida (sort of)

I say, "sort of" because I think hate is a strong word. I don't hate it exactly, I just dislike many things about it, not the least of which is the school system. That's not to say there aren't some great teachers here (who aren't getting paid nearly enough money); it's just that the atmosphere in which they have to teach isn't always the greatest. I won't get into it too much because I don't want to seem overly negative with regard to South Florida, but I definitely will not, if I can avoid doing so, send my child to any school here. I'm currently researching the homeschooling option, which I think is kind of a cool idea even if one lives in an area with a great public school system. I grew up in a great public school system and still hated it. When I arrived at college and realized how much different it was I was hugely relieved. In college I could be myself, without all the b.s. Aside from the school system, I'm just tired of being here. I want to be back with my family. I'm tired of all the scam artists and scumbags who live here. For every cool person I meet I seem to meet ten fake or otherwise horribly untrustworthy people who fool me for a short time into thinking they're relatively normal (and understand that my definition of normal is fairly liberal) and then stab me in the back somehow. Either that, or I get into relationships with people and they move away (it seems like every time I form a close friendship with someone cool they leave-a telling pattern). I'm tired of taking the time to build relationships just to have people move away or turn into psychopaths (and, in a few cases, I mean this literally) so at the moment I'm in a state of near isolation. I'm not in a position where I want to get close to anyone else down here. I'm part of a couple of online Mommy groups, but not all the women in those groups are from down here, and when I do "meet" someone from here I'm skeptical, although I still talk with people and try to give them the benefit of the doubt. I have met a few really great people since I've been here. Possibly, I'm a bit grumpy due to the intense heat that set in about one month ago, not to be gone until probably next January or December, if we're lucky. The oppressive humidity makes being outside unbearable; I can't take my daughter to the park and the first few minutes of being in the car first thing in the morning are like being shut into a sweat box. Even with the a/c running for a few minutes it's still hot in my car. Anyway, seven weeks until I go up to Massachusetts again and I can't wait. I'm going for two weeks to visit with my family in my home state and I couldn't be happier about it. Hubby is coming up for a long weekend as well, which will be good because the only thing I hate about being up there is him being down here while I'm up there. I miss him horribly when we're apart for any length of time (this being a good thing!). All of this said, I think I just heard the sound of many toys scuttering across the downstairs tile floor, so this would probably be a good time to sign off. It's dinnertime anyway.

Mainstream Be Damned...

For a long time (at least over the past few years) I think I've been trying to choose the easier path, the one I think will be acceptable to those around me, to the general population, even, in some cases, to my family. But what if that path begins to feel a bit constrictive? What if it is missing key elements of who you are, if it starts to overshadow everything you've ever known about the truths of your soul? I know that I've talked ALOT about religion in this blog. The truth is that I find all religions interesting because they speak volumes about the people who follow them and I think they help us to understand the inner workings of the societies which make up our planet. I've spent the last year or so really digging Judaism, really getting into the spiritual end of it, bypassing the stuff I didn't completely agree with and just generally enjoying the values behind it and the holidays. The rub is that while I was practicing Judaism (and I will admit that I was practicing in a rather peripheral way...) I felt an empty space. I would hear people talking about how they wanted to go to Israel like it was the ultimate travel destination of the soul and I would think, "Hmmm. That's how I feel about Ireland." To me Ireland has always been my "mother land", my ultimate destination, the place where I feel most connected as far as my roots are concerned. Ireland is the place where most of my ancestors walked and lived; it's a place I love deeply even though I've yet to travel to her shores. Because of this desire I've always felt to meld my spirituality to my Irishness, I tried about a year ago to follow Catholicism with my husband. I went to church with him and tried to listen to the priests talk about this and that, but I didn't feel any deep stirring within myself. If anything, I just felt disconnected from God. Feeling like a hypocrite because the only peace I could find in the church was by staring at the statue of Mary and imaging her as the embodiment of the Pagan Goddess, I stopped attending church. My belief system was just too far from what they were telling me was fact. So, lately I've been delving into the depths of Paganism again, reading about the God/Goddess (I've always viewed God as both male and female, and, actually, Judaism supports this belief), getting back in touch with the part of me within that has always been in tune with the worlds of animal and spirit around me, letting go of the guilt for believing that it's okay to commune with my spirit guides. I've been getting into meditation and celebrating the spring (Imbolc) and summer (Litha) seasons. I feel really good, very at peace, probably more so than I have in a long time. I joined an online group of Pagan mommies from whom I'm learning all kinds of cool stuff and getting support. I feel like, in this community, I will be accepted for my belief that tattoos are a spiritual part of life (although certainly not everyone who gets tattoos does it because they feel it enriches them spiritually, and that's completely okay!), that it's okay to go with my inner belief that being gay or lesbian is just natural for some (Judao-Christian dogma does not allow for this and it has always gone against the grain of what I feel in my heart to be right), that life is a balance of light and dark, with neither being all good or all bad. This might seem like a complete "about face" along the path of my faith, but really this is what I've believed all along. I don't know what about any religion is based on pure, historical fact. I know what feels good and right and natural and right now this is it. This is a path I embarked on many years ago, but never really delved into wholly. I don't think I was capable of being as in touch with spirit then as I am now; many things have changed and I've grown ALOT since those far away days!!!! There is a level of devotion and seriousness that needs to be there, a level of being willing to give of one's self that I hadn't reached back in the late 80's, but today I feel like a completely different person in that respect, and in many other respects as well. Anyway, this is beginning to turn from a blog entry into a ramble, so I will leave you. Have a wonderful!!!!