10. Started a bad habit again.... when am i going to learn. Must stop Must STOP!

9. Wooooooo to all those needing it, even if they are not aware of it.

8. Hugs to all that will accept one, I could use the hugging back.

7. Congrats to all that deserve it, and mostly to those too humble to ask for it.

6. A hand to those I can help, and if that is not possible, then my moral support in your journey.

5. A shoulder offered if you need to cry and want one to lean on.

4. Words of wisdom from my years of experience is offered should you want it, and an ear is out for any words that come back to me, I could use some.

3. A laugh for all... we all could use one. So here goes.... How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer is after number 1.

2. Rest for all that are weary, a scenic view is just ahead.

1. And the number one boring or at least random thought from me tonite is... here is an offer to swap lives for a minute or two, I would be grateful for the break.

Oh the answer is one, but the lightbulb has to really want to change.

Namaste

Huge hugs LD! You are loved!!!!!

LD, if the bad habit you've started again is smoking, and if something like nicotine patches would help you quit, I am realllllllllly happy to contribute to a "help LD get off smoking" nicotine patch fund. Really. . .
And, if the bad habit is something else that I have no idea about. . .I wish you well in loving yourself well and being gentle with yourself as you ease away from that bad habit. . .
actually, if the bad habit is smoking, I wish you the same thing. ..
with immense gratitude for all the many ways you're a gift to the world. . .
SKWD

yes it is smoking, and yes patches help, and yes i am broke they are expensive.... but so are cigarettes. thnks for offer.
Bb

LD,
You've got mail. . .
hugs!
SKWD

1. Hello my lovlies, have been catching up and love hearing about your lives.

2. Had a wonderful easter dinner with my family today - our tradition is lobsters, home made blueberry muffins (made with blueberries my sister picked last year) and butter peacan ice cream. Lobster shells are really hard this time of year and my cousin and I had to resort to using a hammer to crack the big claws on ours!

3. C. and I still having fun shopping for potential camper upgrades. Although she lusts after the ones that would take a much larger vehicle to tow! May wind up keeping the little pop-up, but will see.

4. My older sister is riding a motorcycle through Africa. How cool is that? She wrote us that she had an "exciting" time with charging elephants yesterday. Can't wait to see the pictures.

5. My younger sister hemmed a bunch of pants for C. and I and brought them over today.

6. I guess I am the untalented one in the family - middle child!

7. The Fest piles grows higher by the day. Picked up the pop-up at the fishery yesterday so some can get redistributed into it.

8. Going to physical therapy for the shoulder I hurt falling down my front steps in January and the leg I injured running in the woods a year ago in February. I am not a good example for my patients!

9. C. says that I make her laugh every day. I think that is as good a recipe for falling more in love every year over 25 years as any.

10. Belz has to have surgery on her paw. She is 14 so it is a little scary, but the fatty tumor really seems to be bothering her and she still loves running in the woods with us so we decided to go ahead. Please send my dear fur child healing woo.

1. So glad I actually had a few mins. to catch up on hearing what's up with my sisters!

2. Streetsweep: 80 pounds! You are AMAZING! :D You should never question what you can achieve again!

3. indigeny: So glad you're ok! We strong-legged womyn gotta pull those puppies out every once in a while! ;)

4. tori: What is a CSA? I'm uneducated about them. Sounds like maybe a farm you do workshifts on and take home some veggies?

5. HappeeCat: Nice to meet you! Also, I love the Peepalope idea! Literally made me LOL in a computer lab on campus. :) Also, "I never buy men's jeans; they just happen to put MY jeans in the men's section." ...brilliant! :) I look forward to getting to know you more!

6. Trixie: Yay, planners!

7. LD: Huge hugs to you, as well as all of the body parts and services you were so willing to provide! Be patient and loving with yourself: quitting smoking is soooooo hard! It's not taking a long time because you are weak, it's because this is a process with a lot of steps!

8. Belz: Easter at your house sounds amazing! :D I'm so glad to hear things are going well with you! Good luck with your bum leg and shoulder!

9. I have talked to the director for "The Vagina Monologues" for next year, and she gave me the all-clear: I get to sign the Monologues next year!!! :D

10. I just added a Women's Studies minor yesterday! I have decided I want to look into jobs such as advocacy for deaf womyn, etc. Excited at all of the doors opening to me! :)

1. I hope it's cool to just jump in on this thread 10 pages in.

2. I've been reminiscing about my mom lately and how beautiful a person she was.

3. I'm glad my daughters look like her.

4. I'm extremely sad to be missing fest this year.

5. But I'll be a certified massage therapist at the end of August!

6. Which hopefully means I'll get a good group of clients so I can pony up the $ to make it next year.

7. I need more fest-minded womyn in my life... it's too suburban where I am.

8. But it's rent-free, so I can't complain too much.

9. I'm on a mission to become a healthier person both inside and out.

10. Easter candy does not help, but it sure is yummy.

1. Welcome aboard JodyC; sorry you are missing your mom- I know how you feel, but it's my dad I'm missing. Look forward to seeing you next fest, perhaps you can barter those mad skills next year! Glad you are here.
2. Katie Star- your enthusiasm is contagious- love it!!!! Congrats on the VM and the school decisions- I'm thinking you are right about the doors that will be opened.
3. Belzmom- sorry about the shoulder and Belz. Pretty cool about both of your sisters, lol- Africa and having a sister to hem your pants.
4. LD- good luck on whatever you want to do in regards to smoking. Take care of yourself.
5. Things are crazy at my house; twins turning 6 at the end of the month; my oldest turned 15 in February and going to her first prom Saturday night- she is so excited (I am too.)
6. Work is crazy, but good; "job security is a wonderful thing". That is my mantra on days that suck.
7. Let go of a lot of stress and anxiety about my dad and things look so much clearer now. It is truly amazing how muddled things can look when muck is all you can see.
8. I have also made peace with some junk regarding family members. At first, it felt yucky but I realized it was yucky b/c it was outside my comfort zone and also that I finally stood my ground and refused to back down. Once the yucky feelings ended I was so happy I stood my ground and rid myself of some of the "old" way of doing things. Yay for me!!!!
9. With this crazy weather I am wondering what fest will be like this year; so hoping for somewhat tolerable temps.
10. Thinking of all of the beautiful souls who will be with us on the land this year; there are so many!!! Peace and love to all.

EVO: Thank you! :))) First prom! Oo, Mom!!! Good luck! :) I love it; totally the kick in the perspective I needed. :)

1. I got an interview for the job! MY JOB!

2. It's a teaching demo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is my specialty, so I am going to rock it.

3. The idea that I may get a tenure track job at a teaching institution is making me so happy, I want to explode.

4. I am trying to balance my excitement with a sense of realism. I don't want to get too excited and then be totally destroyed if it doesn't happen.

5. I have been on the job market for 4 and a half years.

6. I have only had one interview in that time, and I got the position... so.... Good odds, though not a representative sample.

7. Anyway- the interview is April 27th, so please send woo.

8. Then I went to see Rachel Maddow tonight. The crowd was very odd. But she was obviously hilarious and great!

9. This week has been super blah, so I am excited that it didn't end blah.

10. My kitty is fine, though I am glad I took her to the vet to check.

:) No shout outs today, but I am thinking of you all and reading you all. :)

1. hello lovely ladies!

2. katie star, CSA stands for Community supported agriculture. We join a farm, pay for a portion of the yield in advance, so the farm can buy seeds etc. Each week we get a portion of the veggies grown. Our farm has 2 ways you can join. Pay full price or pay about 1/2 and do 2 hours a week of work shifts on the farm. We get fresh organic veggies all spring/summer and have a good time at the farm. Our farm has the veggie csa along with one for flowers, herbs and meat as well.

2. Belzmom, East dinner sounds amazing! Do you know where or how the menu was developed?

3. LD, Sending Woo. Hope today finds you feeling better.

4. JodyC, Welcome to our thread. Of course it's fine to jump in! Actaully HF keeps our thread going but this has to be our 10 or so home. When we get too many pages (I think it's like 100) she starts a new thread for us so we don't bog down the bb.

5. Evo, it's good to see you around here again! Can't wait to see you on the Land!

6. Cora, Congrats! What an awesome opportunity. I can't wait until the 28th when you tell us how they offered you the job.

7. We have a weekend of parties lined up. Last night was "firepit friday" at my house. Just a gathering of who-ever is free around the fire for fun. Tonight is L's going away party. She is moving to Singapore for 6 mos for work. Sunday is Birthday brunch for Tracey. I'm going to need to go to work on Monday to rest!!

8. I really must do some laundry today. Anyone want to come and help???

9. I'm eating leftover chili from last night. I put cheese, onion and sour cream in it. yummy.

10. We are watching Chopped while my gal snoozes in her chair.

11. We got a cat door for our cats and they love it. The only problem is that a neighbor cat is using it too! He is a mean little cuss and I don't like him. Not sure what to do about that though.

12. I think I may be out of boring things about me.... Oh I'm still wearing my robe. Does that count?

13. Love to all.

1. Evo - I miss my dad, too. He was always so supportive of me from the day I came out to my parents, and back then this was an anomaly. He spent his life helping others, if possible without them finding out what he had done. I try and carry that part of him on.

2. Tori - Easter menu started after my dad died suddenly when he was 56. My family was heart broken, even more so if possible as my brother had been killed 10 years before. So we changed all of our holiday traditions in an attempt to survive them, and Easter came to be lobster.

3. Cora - Job woo! Job woo! I think it is harder to get a job as a PhD than most jobs. The promised "mass retirement" of professors always seems about to happen rather than happening.

4. Wildwomyn - How is Dancer doing? Are you home yet? Send me puppy pictures when you have a chance!

5. Kate* - Yay ASL! Would love to learn it myself. Maybe you can spend a few minutes giving me an introduction at fest.

6. Streetsweep - Down 80 pounds? That is awesome! I think women are beautiful at any weight, but when one chooses to change one's weight for whatever reason it is hard to do. I bow to your strength!

7. We bought a new camper today! C., as some of you know, struggled with the communal aspects of Fest due to childhood traumatic experiences. She says she feels entirely different knowing she will have a private place (and bathroom) to retreat to when needed.

8. Our tulips and daffodils are blooming along with the forsythia. The first flowers always seem like such a gift here where the winters are long.

9. Trixie - Are you slacking on your posting goal???????

10. I love Saturday afternoon naps.

1. I'm going kayaking in about an hour.

2. With two wonderful friends. I would have a crush on the womon of the couple, were it not for the fact that she's straight and married; and the fact that I haven't been interested in having a relationship with anyone for about a year and a half now.

3. Having friends like these is so cool. It makes it all the more natural to be Happee in my solo-ness! It's weird but cool to be glad to be single, after so many years of "finding someone" being not very far down the list in my priorities.

4. The possible project for tonight, should I choose to actually do anything on a lazy Saturday, is to get some shower-curtains and enclose my sawhorses down in the basement--sawdust screen. Otherwise it gets all over the place and it's a PITA to sweep it all up!

5. I started some tomatillo seeds in egg cartons this afternoon. Here's hoping I can get them to grow for long enough through the season to actually get some fruit--it's probably been a decade since I last grew a garden!

6. We'll be kayaking in Lake Wingra. Never been there; it's great to find new places to go have fun, and there are so many places I have yet to experience around here.

7. Populations of sandhill cranes are so high that farmers are calling for a hunt. Clever birds have figured out to go right behind the corn-planters and eat the seeds from the ground. DNR invented a bird-repellent, but still they want the hunt; too damned typical! They're so beautiful, and they came back early this year. They make the coolest "Grrr-aa-aa-aack!" sound.

8. I need new bras.

9. It's so cool to read about you all again--been a long time. LD, good luck coping with the habit! Don't judge yourself too harshly for the stumble; the world is harsh enough, we need to be gentle with ourselves because too few in the outside world will give us that gentleness.

10. #8 is a desperate situation. Bra shopping is not my thing! And yet, the girls, who have yielded gently to the downward call of earth as they yield to other things, do not much care for the jouncing they receive when I am riding my bike along Atwood Avenue, which is in great need of repairs.

11. Katie*star--good to meet you, look forward to getting to know you, too!

12. tori, I envy you your firepit, and the company to pull around its warmth. Hurrah for wimmin around fires.

13. Off to inspect the kayak and load it atop the car. MUST get around to inventing some kind of bike-trailer hardware to be able to pull the kayak behind me!

I HAVE been slacking on my posting goal :(

To be fair, I worked 7 horrific days in a row. Things exploded at work on Monday, culminating in my manager getting fired on Friday :o I'm not surprised it happened...I like her a lot, but she wasn't the best person for the position, and there are lots of things she needed to fix. BUT she's a good person and willing to learn, and the reason they gave for firing her was 100% bullshit.

SO because of that, I have "unofficially" been offered her job...I'm not counting on anything yet, because our general manager changes his mind every 3 seconds. But I'm quite sure it will happen. While this is amazing and awesome (although not how it happened, because I never wanted my manager to get fired), it's very stressful because I have to clean up the mess of last week... and organize her office (it's horrifying)... and learn how to do everything she did without her there to teach me. Oh, and keep the front desk running and staffed somehow...which will mean interviewing and hiring someone ASAP.

It's a hard position...we don't have an accounting or HR person, so I would be in charge of all that. Payroll for like 100 employees. Ordering supplies for everyone. It's hard to be excited about this possible promotion when I'm tearing my hair out thinking about everything I need to learn and do to get the hotel running like it should! ahhhhh!