Rowan's Round of Days

What a great, whirlwind week it has been. Let's see. Last Wednesday I had lunch with Chris C. Hadn't seen him in ages and it was nice to catch up. Then on to the dentist for teeth cleaning (I don't mind).

Thursday I went to a suicide prevention talk at the SiVIC Religious Leaders Forum. The guest speaker was Elena Tindall, the Suicide Prevention Coordinator for Santa Clara County. They put out an annual report on suicides in the County and they offer training in how to talk to people about suicide and about plans to kill themselves. It was interesting that Ms. Tindall was coming out of a Mexican Catholic background and so saw a lot of stigma around suicide that I don't think exists in our community. I may do their online training and SiVIC will probably sponsor more trainings on this issue.

Friday Nette brought over the various props from Beltaine to store in my basement for the year and then we went out to lunch. Then I picked up Russell and we went to Costco and got salmon for Tuesday dinner. I'm glad to have a Costco membership again.

Saturday was the 11th Annual Pagan Festival and Parade in Berkeley. This year's theme was "Paradigm Shift" and the 2012 Keeper of the Light was T. Thorn Coyle. I worked the info booth from 10 to noon and then marched with the Northern Californai Local Council of Covenant of the Goddess and the Gardnerian Wica contingent in the parade. Ouch, they told me it was going to be shorter than that. My body totally rebelled so I spent the next hour or so flaked out on the grass watching the Keeper of the Light passing of the light ritual and a bunch of fine acts lying down. It was a really sunny day but my SPF 70 sunscreen did the trick again. Russell and Liza went off to ride the merry-go-round and hike in Tilden Park and David and I headed off to Dogwood, David's daughter Lexi's bar in Oakland. She makes a lot of her own charcuterie and is going to open a deli soon nearby. I had one of the best Manhattans I've ever drunk and a very nice plate of sausages, cheeses and pickles/olives to tide us over for dinner. So yummy! And David delivered some condiment boxes he had made for the bar. So good errands run all around. Good cooking runs in the family, for dinner David made a lovely eggplant and sausage and spinach stirfry.

Sunday had most of the usual World of Warcraft madness. Falkenrath Knights ran a dungeon. Then David and I played our baby paladins. Then I went to Jae's Ice Crown Citadel run. The only achievement I still needed was heroic Lady Deathwhisper so Roszfianna got Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player) and received her Reins of the Icebound Frostbrood Vanquisher. Jae still has to do one more week because she is a shard short for the legendary, so I'm probably not done with ICC but maybe I'll bring another toon.

Monday I did my orientation with Lee Hecht Harrison, the "career transition" company Ricoh contracted with to help us laid off folks. It seems like they have a lot of resources and I look forward to taking some classes. I have a chat with a coach on Wednesday.

Another WoW art commission - My main, Roszfianna, as a Mucha-esque Draenei Goddess of Spring. I am really tickled! Art by PkThunda.

Been home for a week, I've mostly overcome the jet lag and gotten back into the routine of work. I love being home and yet I miss traveling too.

Because of the fun of seeing Murano again, and because I have always wanted to work with glass, I took a survey class on Torchworking today. It seemed like such a good idea. the Bay Area Glass Institute, the place whitemare blows glass, is less than a mile from my house and I love lampwork beads. What didn't realy occur to me is that this is one of those things that you have to hold thin wires and keep them turning with your fingers. And also that I have nursemaid's elbow from just a couple of days of rolling my bag in Europe. The class was fun... and I am paying for it. And it would probably be way too masochistic of me to take the longer Beadworking 1 class. *sigh*

Today was the sixth anniversary of my WoW Guild, Daughters of the Alliance. We had a fun party on a pirate ship in Faldir's Cove followed by a race through Gnomeregan in teams each of whom had to keep a lvl 20 gnome (one of the officers) alive whilst whacking bosses. It was crazy. I think my team may have come in last... but Roszfianna got the Hydrocane which she always lost the roll on as a lowbie.

And it is passed my bedtime, so I am signing off.

Just wanted to share some recent WoW art I commissioned.

( pictures! )

Yesterday my Warcraft main, Roszfianna, made Merrymaker. I was very jazzed as I had been working hard on it and I thought I had one more quest to go (but found it wasn't required for the meta). Yay.

Then I headed off to the NROOGD open sabbat. It was a lovely way to bring in the season. The ritual was nice and there were many friends with whom to touch base. Driving to Oakland did bring to light that my shoulder is still not fond of driving. *sigh*

Driving to work today reinforced that learning. *double sigh* And it isn't as if I get any time off work since I don't work Fridays anyway. But tonight I have a massage (which my jet-lagged & sore body will appreciate) and then off to a Yule vigil. Life is pretty darn good!

Have I mentioned that my Parliament photos are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowanf/sets/72157622988537908/ and my Adelaide set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowanf/sets/72157623010604830/ ? I don't see that I have.

It is nice to have front row seats at the Rep. I ended up going all by myself last night and that was okay. I sat in the middle of our three seats and felt like I was an audience of one. A fly on the wall of a South African hotel lobby where the drama unfolded. The play, Groundswell, was a tense portrayal of the scars of Apartheid as an elderly business man arrives at the out-of-the-way beachfront Garnet Lodge. Threads of racism, loss, diamonds, entitlement, poverty, police brutality and desperation weave together into a compelling drama that, like life, has no resolution. I admit that the lack of resolution was not unreasonable but I do find it unsatisfying. But, as usual, the cast and sets were superb and it is a very compelling play that will certainly make me think about it in the days to come.

The marathon I took part in raised more than $140,000 for pediatric cancer research, and the donations are still coming in. Our team raised $587, surpassing our goal of $500. Go us. I still have 8 hours of my commitment yet to play on Saturday. Since it is Hallow's End in WoW, this shouldn't be hard.

Then Sunday I leave for Internet Librarian. Even though Ricoh isn't paying for conferences this year they are paying for my time as though I was at work. spikeiowa and I are sharing a hotel room and I am looking forward to it. It is actually kind of freeing to be paying for it myself, I am taking a class on screencasting which is not relevant to Ricoh but something I am interested in. The programming looks quite good this year too. So yay.

A few members of the Libraries and Librarians guild of Aerie Peak (US) are joining the Extra Life gaming marathon, playing World of Warcraft and seeking to raise a modest $500 -- but hopefully more. Please consider helping us help the Texas Children's Hospital on October 17th. Our fundraising page is here. My team caption, Liz Danforth, did an eloquent post to her blog about the appeal.

And yes, I'm going to be playing waaaaay to much WoW on Saturday! Roszmairta hit 61 last night, we'll see how far I get in 20ish hours *grin* I have to go up to Oakland for the at-home in the afternoon but I figure it I get up at midnight and play until noon that is 12 hours and I can surely do 24 over the weekend. A marathon I am actually qualified for. *grin*

Okay, I just adore this. I bought the video off iTunes. :-) Of course, I am a fan of The Guild and of Felicia Day. But I think it will appeal to anyone who has done any virtual world/MMORPG exploration.

riot_fox311 wrote in wow_ladies a life of a toon post in screenshots and it seemed like such a cool idea, I did it too.

( lots of pictures )

Last week was quite busy at work with dry runs for the upcoming review. I even had to go in on Friday but at least that made up time I took off for MLK day. No big. But the weekend felt short. *grin* I know, no sympathy.

Saturday I spent a fair amount of time doing last minute shopping for Attilio's white cord ceremony that evening. Because our coven is so small (4 people) we had asked elders in the trad to come and help us initiate him. We had 13 people in circle! And wonderful energy from a super bunch of elders. I'm so very happy to have had an Imbolc initiation too, it just felt right. Hurrary for Owl Moon.

Sunday Russell & I went out to breakfast and then I headed off to the rehearsal for a ritual I'm in at P'Con. The day was fair and we spent a fair time in the yard doing blocking, so things are becoming clearer. Hard to believe it isn't even two weeks until PantheaCon! Eeeep!

I got home and went into WoW for a supposed Guild instance run. I told Russell & Maren I couldn't go out to dinner as I had committed to this guild thing. Evidently I'm one of the few who felt it was a commitment. The other folks planning it failed to show. So two folks with low 50s toons and me on my lvl 47 (now 48) Druid decided to try ZF but it quickly became clear that instancing was out unless we wanted to look for random folks to group with. So they helped me with some quests. It wasn't totally wasted but I admit to a certain grumpiness. This is the second time I have re-arranged my life around the guild and been left hanging. This days after being asked if I wanted to co-GM. Do I want to feel responsible over things I have no ability to control? Perhaps not.

However, Russell brought me home some awesome creme brulee from McCormick & Schmick where they had dined. That was full of win.