Life has obviously changed a lot since he has arrived. Sleeping more then an hour at a time is a thing of the past, for example. Also gone are luxuries like a quick trip to the store, or a long bath. Soon enough he will grow up though, and I will look back on these days fondly… maybe.

Rome was pretty good, even though it was far from accurate. I really appreciated how they didn’t make the city itself the beautiful marble megalopolis that most of us picture when thinking of Rome. The city wasn’t clad in marble, as it were, until after the series took place. (Octavian used the captured Egyptian treasure to start the transformation.) The city was dirty, the people rude and rough, and life clearly hard for anyone not a patrician. The depiction of Egypt, at least in the first season, was a bit disappointing. I’m not sure where the idea for the ratty wigs and face paint came from. In the second season, Egypt was a little better. However, Alexandra was more a Greek city than an Egyptian one, but that’s me being nit-picky and not appreciating that Rome is about the drama and not about the “copyright-free history of Rome”, as Miss Q has reminded me.

I am very surprised by some of the changes made for the sake of drama, though. For example, in Rome, Caesar’s freedman, Posca (a fictional character), steals Marc Antony’s will from Egypt and takes it to Octavian Caesar in Rome. In actuality, Marc Antony had left his will with the Vestal Virgins, as was the custom. Octavian (or someone in his employ) broke into their home/temple and stoled the will. Much more interesting and dramatic in my opinion. What about Marc Anthony’s wife Fulvia, who is thought to have tried to start a civil war in his name? And as for Cleopatra and Marc Antony’s deaths, more than a little artistic license was taken there. Surprisingly, Cleopatra still used a snake.

I wonder, though, about how genuine it is to set a story in a well recorded historical time, and present it as a fictionalized re-telling of events, and then change so many things. Sure, it is TV and it is all about the drama and the ratings. But how many people are now going to think that Octavia was an adulteress, when in fact she was held to be a paragon of Roman virtue; or that Marc Antony had an affair with with Octavian’s mother when nothing of the sort happened. Maybe in the next series about Rome, the creators will assume that Remus defeated Romulus, and call the show Reme.

This is why everybody should get sex education.

Luckily this is how it worked for me and my sister. Not only did my parents teach us about sex, our schools also had sex ed in their curriculums, usually as a part of biology lessons. We were taught everything from how an egg gets fertilized to how to practice safe sex including putting a condom on a banana.

Of course there are teens who think that they don’t need to practice safe sex, that they won’t get STDs or they won’t get pregnant (and soon realize how wrong they are), but most teens and young adults are smart enough to buy the condoms and get on the pill to prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs.

I feel that teaching “abstinence only” is like stirring glowing embers of a fire. You tell children that there’s something they should not do, and it’s the only thing they’ll want to do. And when they do it, and have not been taught about safe sex, it’ll turn into a disaster.

Children need to be taught that there’s nothing wrong with sex, as long as they know how to protect themselves and their bodies. And they need to be taught to be responsible to meet the consequences, if something doesn’t go exactly as planned.

I was lucky to be taught all these things, and I grew up to be a responsible, sexually active young adult, and I know the importance of safe sex – lessons I am passing on to Regan.

Seriously though, this is an exciting and scary time. I can’t wait to hold my baby, but I’m also concerned about his healthy and happiness, and wonder if we will be able to provide him with a good life. These are things all new parents worry about, I’m sure. Life, I know, will proceed the way it will proceed. The baby will either be colicky or not, he will either happily breastfeed or not. Although he is a helpless being (at least for a little while) he is also his own person. All I can do is provide love and support.

In some respects I am looking forward to the end of my pregnancy. Spending the last nine months carry around a baby has been surprisingly easy (except for two and a half months of Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy [a more severe form of morning sickness]). I’ve enjoyed the closeness that I feel has developed between the baby and me. But, I’m also looking forward to getting my body back, and to eventually eating and drinking what I like again. (I miss sushi!) I hope that I will also eventually find time to return to my spiritual pursuits and reconnect with the Tarot, both things that just haven’t seemed to work during my pregnancy. Oh yes, and it will be heaven to be able to sleep on my back again!

Things will likely be quiet around here for a little while. The baby is due on the 15th, but could show up any time. With some luck, it will be after I’ve managed to get in one more full night of sleep

As with all generalizations, though, there are plenty of exceptions. There are those Wiccans who are just as caught up in the yearly gift giving and parting frenzy as anyone else (and I admit to being one until a few years ago), and there are those Christians who slow down during this time to honour what the birth of Jesus meant for humankind. (Just because I’m not Christian doesn’t mean I don’t think that Jesus wasn’t a pretty cool guy.)

Growing up, it was always the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day that was the downtime for the year for me. Presents had been opened, the turkey mostly eaten, and family gone home. Now it is still a nice time to relax. Holiday visiting is done, and Regan is off school for at least a few days more. It is all the more sweet this year, since we are also counting down our last few weeks as our small family – Caden Bryce will arrive sometime before the end of January and make us into a trio. 2011 will be much different then 2010, but the changes will be welcome, even if they bring sadness, but most especially if they bring happiness.

• Your first deck must be given to you as a gift–if this were true, I’d never have started reading Tarot
• Your deck must be wrapped in black silk to keep out any “bad vibes”–I’ve never done this, although I did wrap one deck in faux-silk, and still do. It seemed to suit the deck’s temperament.
• No one should ever touch you deck–While I do keep a few decks just for my use, when I read for another person, I feel the reading works best if I allow them to shuffle

From these three myths proceeds the idea that one should never buy or trade for a used deck. By buying/trading, the deck is not a gift, there is no way to guarantee that it was wprotected from bad vibes, and it clearly has been handled by hands other than one’s own.

In my opinion, trading for or buying used decks is an excellent way to obtain that illusive deck that you’ve been dying to get your hands on. (Yay, Hello Tarot!) It is also the perfect way to get rid of decks that just don’t jibe well. Sometimes it feels as if half my Tarot collection is a revolving door–decks obtained through trades are traded again and again until just the right deck makes its way into my hands.

So, what to do with a used deck? Firstly, make sure all the cards are present. A great way to do this, and to help realign the energy of the deck, is to reorder it completely. The next step is to clean out any smells that may be clinging to the deck, like cigarette smoke. Some suggestions for this include laying the deck out in the sun for an afternoon, or sealing it in a Tupperware/Rubbermaid-type container with cloves, dryer sheets, incense, or a cotton ball scented with a few drops of essential oil (protect the cards from these though).*

Once the deck has been rearranged and cleaned, it can be safely treated like any new deck. Sleep with it under your pillow, if that is your normal procedure for new decks, or carry it with you for a week or so. Study the images and get to know it. And if it turns out that it isn’t the right deck for you, go ahead and trade it for another one. Just be sure to give it a chance before you pop it in the mail.

* Be sure to take care with these methods, as they can possibly damage your deck.

Oh sex, how I miss you.
I miss everything about you.

But I especially miss being able to tie a girl up and tease her.

I’m also the first person to quite happily announce that I am a kinky fucking bitch. A dominant one. Who especially loves bondage and spanking. Miss Q isn’t quite the submissive that Shay was, but she does enjoying playing around, so that’s good. She’s very adventurous sexually so I’m slowly introducing her to the BDSM side of things. And she’s liking it.

What I really want right now… she’s dressed as a naughty schoolgirl: white blouse unbuttoned to reveal her breasts, tie loose through the collar; hair in messy pigtails; short plaid skirt that barely covers her ass, revealing white panties; white knee high socks and flat black mary-jane’s.
She’s bent over a desk, with her legs spread wide and her ankles roped to the legs. The skirt is flipped up and her panties are pulled down.
Her hands are tied behind her back.
She’s gagged.
And I’m caning her.

Yes please

I am Welsh, and I am a practitioner of Wicca. However, my path isn’t that of Traditional Wicca, the path most heavily influenced by pseudo-Celtic elements. Instead, I consider myself an Eclectic Wiccan, which means I follow the general Wiccan framework but incorporate aspects of other paths. In my case, I don’t focus on Celtic, or even Greek/Roman divinities (the next most common influence on Wicca), instead I am drawn to the goddesses and gods of Ancient Egypt. I wonder why sometimes, since They are obviously very far removed from my ancestry. (I harbour no illusions about being a priestess of Isis in a past life.) Sometimes I even feel a little guilty, like I should be honouring the divinities my ancestors likely honoured as a way of respecting family history. Of course, there is really no way to know how my ancestors may have worshiped beyond the past few generations. It will always be speculation.

Rather than trying to be true to a family past that may not even exist, I think that it makes more sense to be true to a spiritual calling that I experience every day. Family, ancestry, and traditions are important, but so it personal spiritual satisfaction.

I often find myself wondering how life is going to change come the middle of January. No sleeping through the night, I know, but what else? Will I really be run off my feet? Will I never have a minute to myself? Will Miss Q and I grow distance because we will be so focused on the baby? I don’t expect life with a new baby to be perfect, but I also don’t expect the world to cave in around me. I suppose all I can do is enjoy the calm before the storm, and be prepared for anything afterwards. One day, maybe fifteen or sixteen years down the road, I’ll have time for myself again.

In the meantime, here is a picture of one of my most recent cross stitch finishes. It is Jade Dragon by Enchanting Lair.

The book deals with Mr. Jacobs attempt to live by all, as in 700 some odd, rules in the Bible for a year. Some of them he tackles only once, like living in a hut in his living room, and others he tries to follow all year, like attaching tassels to his clothing and not trimming his facial hair or side locks.

As part of his project, Mr. Jacob also visits with people who take the Bible literally, to varying degrees. He visits an Amish bed-and-breakfast, an orthodox Jew in Israel (his ex-uncle, Gil), a group of Red-Letter Christians, snake handler Jimmy Morrow, a Falwell mega-church, and the Creation Museum.

While the Creation Museum was still under construction when he visited it, Mr. Jacobs managed to give a fairly good impression of what its creators believed–creation happened literally as described in the Bible. Dinosaurs, they say, walked the Earth with man, which is demonstrated by a display of a young cave girl playing next to a (vegetarian) raptor. If you are interested in learning more about the Creation Museum (from a sceptic’s point of view), I found this blog entry: Your Creation Museum Report and accompanying Flickr photo set. Be sure to note that signs that state that venom only became harmful after “Adam’s Sin”. Also, thorns are given as proof that dinosaurs lived along with humans, because thorns appeared only after “Adam’s Sin” and they have been found in the fossil record next to dinosaurs. (Also notice that Eve doesn’t even rate high enough to be considered as part of the “Sin”…)

I did get more out of this book then a few laughs at the expense of Creationists. I gained an understanding of some of the Biblical rules that many people in our society follow, often unknowingly; chief among these include the passages people use to condemn homosexuality. I also gained a better understanding of Judaism and Christianity as a whole. But like Mr. Jacobs, a confirmed atheist, my religious stance has not been changed. Rather, I think I am now more committed to following the rules of my own faith more carefully, because I am now more aware of what they mean and why they exists.