From the Mind of AlphaBetsy

This Memorial Day weekend is packed full of strange excitement for my family.   Tomorrow I head with Seth, my mom and Seth's mom and dad down to Mansfield to take a tour of the Ohio State Reformatory . This historical and supposedly haunted former prison is famous for being the setting for the film, The Shawshank Redemption. My mom stumbled upon an amazing Groupon for self-guided tours so we are headed that way. I am taking my camera and I am hoping I can capture the image of a ghost while we wander.       On Sunday I am volunteering with my mother at the Columbus Asian Festival , This is my first time attending this particular festival, but I am excited to see what it has to offer. I am hoping for delicious food and fabulous booths, and hopefully people selling fun stuff. :)       Beyond all that craziness life is interesting in my world. I have been trying to find a way to finish my bachelor's degree in English. I applied to a ...

And it is 2015. I will be 34 in a couple months. We will celebrate our third anniversary. I will have a year without school so we can get ready for the chaos of finishing my bachelor's degree.    I am looking at this as a rebuilding year, getting ready for the things ahead.   My word of the year is: Evolve.   This year I am going to work on making my life work more efficiently. I will be adjusting and adapting in preparation for what is ahead.   My 2015 goals are: to complete 6+ 5ks, 10ks or whatever, to do a mud run, to take a pole dance class, do more with the lost vikings, attend Earth Warrior's again, do a ropes course or zip line, attend another pagan event, get bowling ball drilled, bowl a 200 game, go hiking 6+ times, go camping, take a class from Heather at Violet Flame Gifts, Find a new gym that offers group fitness, keep my house picked up at all times, do paintball, get necessary house repairs done, work on meditation.   ...

Today has been a good day. My new function at work is fun and challenging. After work I picked up my new KitchenAid mixer. When I got home tonight I had a letter waiting from my lovely penpal in the UK Hannah. And accompanying the letter were some sweets, and an adorable tiny elephant candle. I made grilled cheese to go with my soup for dinner tonight and it was delicious. I did a mini spell that my brother and sister-in-law and their family get approved for the wonderful new house they applied for, so they can get settled before Christmas. Especially since it is the first one for our tiny nephew Gideon. I am snuggling with my cat and my dog, while watching the Columbus Blue Jackets play the Philadelphia Flyers.   Gideon with his Grandma (Seth's mom)   My new toy. He's so little, heehee. Sweets.   I am feeling more like myself again. It was a little rough there in September and October. But things have been really good...

On Memorial Day, we had just finished a little cookout just my husband and I, when I went to shut the porch door ahead of our cat slipped on a slick spot on our porch and fell. During the fall I heard something in my left knee pop, and knew I was probably not coming out of this unscathed. I went to the doctor the next day and found out that I had sprained my knee, just a tear in my MCL. I have been given a massive brace and advised to RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate). In my convalescence I have learned that I am really shitty at resting. I just don't sit and do nothing well. It sounds like a dream, but when you are being forced to sit all you can think of is the active things you could be doing. Like I bought myself a hoop for dancing for $5 at a garage sale. I am so ready to go hiking. I want to roller skate in a bad way. My little sister got me a complete zumba kit from her store. So much to do, so cannot do it. In spite of my temporary infirmity I have actually been reall...

Graduation from level one ATS with Sacred Shimmy Belly Dance My new tattoo, Muninn. Huginn is still to come.   Workshop with Paulette Rees-Denis! Hell City Tattoo Festival A taxidermy bat head in a necklace. Bought from a jewelry vendor at hell city. I call him Bertram. My sister, Traci and the amazing Enigma.   Ashville Viking Festival! My husband the viking. Me as a wench showing off my new sheep skin. The gorgeous Abernathy dances while showing off Dark's Valkyrie Helmet. Odin's Orchids She belly dances as a viking long boat   The fabulous Amani Dancer showing off her skills.   More beautiful belly dance Laylia dancer. One of my favorites in the world. Me in my viking garb, borrowing Seth's helmet for a minute.   Beautiful henna'ed tambourine I won in the Ashville silent auction. Me at the zoo on mother's day. Can you see my stegosaurus spiral plugs?  ...

2013 was an interesting year; it was a mixed bag of good and bad. This year: My sister went off to the army; My mom moved to Columbus; We went tubing for the first time, Traci was medically dismissed and came home from the army; We had an Alcoholic dessert party for my birthday; I held the second egg decorating party; We did the glo run; I got two new ren faire bodices; We did the Komen; We went to the viking festival; We took free zumba classes at the columbus commons; A water pipe ruptured in our front yard leading to us getting a new pipe run and our whole front yard getting dug up; We went to comfest for the first time; The water issues led to us finding that our house was improperly grounded, only after Seth got zapped a couple times and we lost a couple appliances; We took Traci to the casino for her 22 birthday; Mom and I went to the Columbus Food Truck Festival; Mom and I went to the casino to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy f...

This summer has wreaked havoc in the lives of me and my wonderful husband. We had a water line burst in our front yard which we had to pay to replace. They had to dig a huge hole in the yard, and while digging they accidentally brushed a gas line, so then they couldn't finish until the gas company okayed it. Once they got the new line run, we found out that moving out electric ground had completely taken away our ground and for over a month we have been fighting to get someone out here to fix our electricity. They finally did last week, but not before our spotty electricity burned up Seth's computer, my netbook, the microwave and our dehumidifier. I think we are finally getting back to normal now. Or at least mostly normal. The last two semesters I have upped my classes to 3 rather than the usual 2, because if I keep that up I will qualify to graduate in Spring. Woo-hoo. Over the summer I took College Algebra (Which was actually pre-calculus), American History an...

Another semester of school is behind me. This semester was really hard for me, because I have to take more math courses since I switched my major, and Algebra II was on my schedule. I am proud to say that in spite of my mathematical ineptitude I still managed to get an A I also took my final prerequisite English class as well and also aced it. So it was a good semester overall. In fact I am quite proud of some of the papers I wrote for my English class. They were really good. And I'm not just saying that because I wrote them.  Summer courses start on the 20th and I am taking 10 credit hours instead of the usual 7 or 8, because if I take three classes a semester through next spring I should graduate with my associates of the arts this time next year. For summer I am taking: College math - which is intimidating as hell for me as the description includes the word trigonometry, yikes; American history to 1877 - which should actually be kind of fun; and Intro to Folklore - ...

Bring May flowers. And hopefully a lot more sanity for me. :) My classes are keeping me jumping and running, but I am maintaining an A in both classes, so I guess it's worth it. If I keep going as I am I will have my associates degree in English. Soon I will get to shop for a new school to finish my bachelor's degree and hopefully my master's and phd in time. High hopes, but I know I can do it. We are coming into Renaissance Faire season, and my new bodices arrived yesterday. I ordered them from the beyond fabulous OddBodkin . I got a blue and white striped goddess bodice that looks like this... and a black brigantine that I could not find a good image of, but I will post photos of it when I am wearing it soon enough. Our first major faire of the year is the Ashville Viking Festival, which is next weekend!! I am so excited to get out and see my rennie friends.  I am planning a giveaway for Beltane and I know exactly what I am going to create to give. I am goin...

Now that the wedding is completely over, and the final bits of stress have gone, it is time to settle back in to our normal lives.It's funny how crazy things get leading up to the wedding, and then it's over. Just like that. I am gearing up to start classes again at the beginning of the year. I just don't know what I want to do. I began school as a paralegal major, but I just don't have a passion for it which is important to me. My passion, and what my heart wants, is to be an English Professor. I just know it is a huge monetary and time investment, and I don't know if we can afford it. It's really hard for me to make a decision this big. I think the problem I run into is that I can see so clearly both sides of the issue, that I cannot stop seeing all the negatives, and weighing them heavily. *sigh* I need to just make a decision and stick with it; easier said than done, right? With Samhain beginning the witches year, I decided to set myself some Samhain to ...

The Color Run was on July 21 and it was a total blast. Other than getting a big poof of died corn starch to the right ear. Otherwise it was a messy, colorful joyfest. Here is what it looked like. It was seriously so much fun. :) We got messy and colorful and sweaty and loved every minute.  Beyond that I have joined a gym in the last couple of weeks to get my butt back in gear and lose the last of the weight I want to lose. I have about an inch to go before my dress will fit, and it has to happen. So I am working hard now to get there. I am taking a boot camp class and a weight loss class through the gym. I am sore and I feel amazing.  School is almost done for the quarter, thankfully, and then life will become all wedding all the time, lol. 2 months to go as of Monday!! Ack.