ferrumaeternum | Entries tagged with holidays

Arrrgghhh! I haven’t had as much as a mild cold in over a year, but I somehow contracted strep last weekend. (I suspect it’s from the guy who sneezed on me in the crowd at the Morrissey concert, since I started coming down with it on Sunday night.) At first I figured the sore throat was just from fatigue, since I’d been up 'til 5:00 AM writing that midterm I put off when I had a week to write it. By Tuesday my throat was so swollen I could barely eat and ended up sleeping through two of my classes because I had a high fever, joint and muscle pain, and nausea. After class on Wednesday I went home to go to urgent care, and by then my tonsils, ears, and nose were infected in addition to my throat. I’m not contagious now, but I feel bad about all the people I may have unknowingly infected as I also went to most of my classes on Thursday. Catherine is also home this weekend for Easter, so I’m not sure if I should take a chance and hang out with her when the end of the semester is upon us. I still feel like crap, so I’m thinking not anyway.

But at least I’m getting $168 for my tax return after not get anything last year! The timing couldn’t be better with my next tattoo appointment a few weeks away and will cover most of the cost if not all of it.

Remember my astronomy professor I complained about all of last semester? He was just featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for having a record amount of students drop his class and the lowest GPAs of any subject taught at the university! I guess this justifies all the bitching I did. It’s no less than he deserves, though.

I’ve also been obsessively listening to Eluveitie’s new album, Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion, that leaked. I figured a Celtic folk metal band doing an acoustic album couldn’t go wrong if they tried, and it’s even better than expected. (Then again, I do love straight up Celtic folk music as it is.) It still has lyrics in Gaulish and their signature darker pagan feel to it, but very minimal use of harsh vocals. There are several lively jigs and reels with plenty of flute, tin whistle, and pipes as well as slower, mysterious, ethereal songs. I particularly like "Carnutian Forest", "Momento" (bagpipes!), "The Cauldron of Renascence", "The Arcane Dominion", and of course "Omnos":

Also, No Doubt covered "Stand and Deliver". What? Somehow I can only imagine Adam Ant pulling off campy pirate new wave, so I’m not too keen on the cover, but it certainly is an…er…interesting choice.

Anyway, Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it and a happy belated Ostara to my fellow pagan friends!

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: The Smiths - I Know it's Over

I’ve been keeping up with my friends page, too. I have just spent the past week using my free (and not-so-free) time keeping inventory of all the activities I did each hour as part of a tedious anthropology assignment about time. Now I get to spend the rest of my Spring Break taking field notes for another week, reading roughly 150 pages, and writing a paper on top of all my other classes’ homework. That, and I really haven’t had much to say. (Do I ever?) ;)

I’ve been making the time over break to pick up the flute and guitar again, and I’m glad I haven’t lost my chops after not playing for months. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I played a bunch of traditional Irish tunes on flute and Pogues songs on guitar. Nothing else was really out of the ordinary, since I listen to Celtic music regularly anyway. I’ve also been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather outside with my cat, despite constantly having to chase her out of the dirt. This was also my last sober St. Patrick’s Day at home. Next year, it’ll be me and a pint of Guinness, granted I’m still alive of course. On a side note, is it weird that whenever I consider a future event, I bring up my mortality? I guess I don’t want to jinx anything, since it seems that whenever I’m hopeful about something happening, it doesn’t, and vice versa. I mean, accidents do happen.

I’ve been waiting to see Coraline over break, but it’s no longer playing at the theater in town. For the past several months, I feel like I’ve been missing out on everything that happens, only to experience it well after the fact, after everyone is done caring or wanting to hear about it. Such is life in the Midwest outside of the metropolises, I suppose. However, I did see The Reader with Catherine today. ( Read more... )

I have also been dealing with a few irresponsible people lately, and it’s really starting to get on my nerves. They think because they have very involved social lives and I don’t, it’s expected for me to get back to them in a timely manner, but they don’t bother getting back to me until the last minute or simply not at all. I think it will end up being the latter of the two come Friday, so I’m expecting those half-made plans to completely fall through. (The few previous entries allude to what that’s all about.) I’m just sick of these people putting everything and everyone before me, after I’ve made contact with them repeatedly, trying to arrange things. It’s not just that one person, either. Just because I don’t have a bunch of friends or have a job right now doesn’t mean I don’t have a life too.

My dad also recently announced that he wants to move back in, after leaving us a year and three months ago. Long story short, he’s not going to, since he just wants to do it because he’s sick of paying rent for his apartment and is lonely. He’s never apologized to us, says he still loves us, or makes any kind of an effort to do things or talk. Until he does these things, agrees to go to counseling, and gets on medication for his depression, we’re moving on without him, and it’s really for the best.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Tarot - Follow the Blind

It’s kind of strange that I’m going out tonight when I’m single, but it just so happens that Catherine is home from Eau Claire for the weekend, so we’re going to Panera to celebrate her birthday that was over a week ago.

Oh, and never mind my last post. Peter (from Norse Mythology) finally wrote back after a week, and he’s interested in having a blót, so hopefully this will go somewhere. I’ve been feeling pretty bummed out lately about Children of Bodom not coming to Milwaukee this spring on their North American tour with Lamb of God and haven’t been having much of a good week in general, so this certainly made me feel a bit better. I hope they’ll come back within a year or so, though, because I miss Janne.

Since I’ve been talking about it so much and probably will continue to do so, if you’re not already stalking me on Facebook, feel free to add me.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Moonsorrow - Tuulen Tytär including Soturin Tie

“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.” – T.S. Eliot

2008 came and went so fast, and I still don’t have enough time to type up a real entry by midnight because I've got a party to go to soon. But I’ll have time to reminisce tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a happy new year! See you on the other side.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Eluveitie - The Endless Knot

Lunch with my mother’s side of the family on Christmas Eve was a three-ring circus. Everyone on that side of the family is beyond social retardation – even the ones who don’t have Aspberger’s. In a nutshell:

My grandpa complained about nearly every gift he got. Before my aunt even began to explain that the granola bars had blackberry in them (his favorite fruit), he was like, "Mary eats those," and threw them across the sofa.
My cousin has scarred me for life by farting directly in front of me. His stack of presents were next to mine, so I was sitting on the floor behind him, and he let the loudest fart I've ever heard rip across the floor for a good four seconds like it was nothing. The only other one who seemed to notice the sonic blast and vibrations was my sister on the other side of the room, but she thought it was my uncle or grandpa. It wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't so annoying and disgusting anyway, but it just amplified it.
My grandpa also complained about my grandma receiving one of those contraptions that helps you reach things high up because she's been getting bruises on her arms. He claimed that she never asks him for help and if she did, she wouldn't need the device because he'd be able to get it for her. He never stopped to think about what she'd do when he's gone hunting, fishing, or running errands.
Kyle also bent over and licked his plate at the table after a few attempts to pick up the food with his fork.

I can’t believe my aunt and uncle never taught their children any manners or etiquette because they need it badly. Then again, these are the same people who see every animated film that comes out, were still cutting up their children’s food well into their teens, and laughed uncontrollably throughout an entire mass because they could see the top of the man’s ass that was sitting in the pew in front of them.

Christmas Day with my father’s side of the family went surprisingly well. My uncle, who is a sheriff’s captain for the county, even gave me cider despite my being underage because of Gaelic Storm’s “Johnny Jump Up”. I've never had it before and it's quite good; like a sweet beer that actually has a good aftertaste. He never has anything bad to say about anyone, so I was fairly surprised when he scoffed at the mention of my father and mumbled something about his “midlife crisis”. The only things that didn’t go so smoothly were my grandma wanting to leave right after we were done eating and my aunt complaining that we didn’t bring gifts to exchange after my mom and I had left with my grandmother. My grandma has always been the first to arrive and first to leave, so there’s no surprise there. As for my aunt, we had all decided that it wasn’t appropriate to exchange gifts with her parents there, and my dad waited to inform them of this hours before we arrived. We arranged to go over to my grandma’s on Sunday to exchange gifts, but my aunt was angry because it interfered with her time getting drunk and throwing darts at the Mukwonago VFW. I am still asking myself why my uncle married this woman. At least my dad is working on Sunday, so they won’t be able to bicker with each other.

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Týr - Valhalla

I. Today is the first day of winter, which means Yule has officially begun! It sure feels like it here with the subzero temperatures and -30˚F wind chill. Whatever you are celebrating this season, I hope you have a good one. As far as my family goes, I’m having lunch with my mother’s side on Wednesday, which should be fairly predictable, yet entertaining. Things could be interesting on Thursday, since it’s with my father’s side of the family. It will also be the first time we’ve all been together in a year, and my father hasn’t even seen his own mother since then.

II. I’m finally done with finals! I was fortunate enough to have a snow day Friday when we got 13 inches because I had just started my final painting the night before the critique. Unfortunately, I worked my ass off in a panic and missed two episodes of The Office, but at least I didn’t have to get up early and rush to finish the piece. Even though the exam was to be rescheduled for Saturday, my professor was nice enough to put it off until as late as tomorrow and let us submit pictures, so I still got to go home on time.

III. The very thing I’ve been dreading for the past two years finally happened: my dad discovered my tattoo work. I was home earlier in the week, since I didn’t have exams on Wednesday or Thursday, and he saw it when I was putting on my boots before I left for a dental appointment. That morning, I purposely decided to wear high-waisted jeans and a long shirt to avoid this, but when I bent over, a tiny sliver of my back showed. I basically told him “no comment” and left, but my poor sister was grilled with questions for fifteen minutes. When I came back, he was smiling about it, but was mad that he’s “scraping the bottom of the barrel and I’m going out and wasting money on this”. Maybe he wouldn’t be in that situation if he didn’t decide to randomly up and leave a year ago. He also has like 130 acres of land and two farming tractors he doesn’t need, and works two well-paying jobs, so I don’t know what he’s talking about. After I explained that my appointments have been few and far between, he seemed okay with it, but still felt the need to remind me that it’s permanent. He also said he doesn’t know what Nana is going to say when she finds out. He’s such a blabbermouth, so I’m sure he’ll tell her, even though she really doesn’t need to know. Most of the comments he made were totally out of line and irrelevant, since he doesn’t even know me or what I’m interested in anymore. I just hope he doesn’t make a scene on Christmas. He thinks it’s smaller than it really is and doesn’t even know how far it goes down. That will not go over well with his side of the family, as they are all Catholic. However, it’s good to know that they aren’t entirely opposed to tattoos. My dad has been talking about getting a shamrock on his bicep since I can remember, and my aunt has Celtic knotwork on her back. Hopefully he will have enough tact not to say anything and the issue can be avoided entirely.

IV.

July 22, 2009
Reverend Horton Heat
Nekromantix
Miramar Theatre
Milwaukee, WI

Keep 'em coming! 2009 isn’t even here yet, and it already looks like it’s going to be a great year for live music in Milwaukee. Reverend Horton Heat always puts on an impressive show, and I really want to see Nekromantix live, since they’re my favorite psychobilly band. This is convincing me to study abroad in Ireland next summer instead of this one because it’ll mean missing this show. I’m also crossing my fingers that a Milwaukee date for Paganfest II will be announced, after the success of last year’s North American tour. That and Korpiklaani, Eluveitie, and Moonsorrow are in the line-up, among plenty of other folk metal goodness. If not, I’m sure Robbie will still want to go to Wacken and/or Tuska, or any of the other European festivals one of these summers.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Wintersun - Starchild

As usual, my mom hosted Thanksgiving dinner. The only person who decided to come from my father’s side of the family was his mother. Most of my mom’s family lives on the east coast, so my grandparents, aunt, uncle, two cousins, and my sister were the only others present. I’m just glad my dad’s brother and his wife didn’t invite themselves over this year so they could eat the vast majority of our food, steal all our leftovers, and go on about themselves like they usually do. However, there was still plenty of dysfunction, partly because my grandpa, uncle, and cousin all have Aspberger’s Syndrome. Here are some highlights from the evening*:

My dad lied about having to work and actually went to a friend’s Thanksgiving dinner instead of his own family’s.
We found out that morning from my dad that my grandma had broken her wrist and still made three desserts using only one hand. She has trouble balancing, but she refuses to use a cane or a walker, and she fell. (Not to mention the fact that she drinks and weighs about 80 lbs.) Last Christmas, she fell into an end table, broke a lamp, and sent a bowl of food flying facedown into the carpet. Needless to say, I ended up being her chauffeur for the evening.
My grandpa freaked out in front of everyone because no one else was “dressed up” and my grandma made him wear gray dress pants that weren’t as comfortable as his typical navy blue trousers.
My aunt forgot my sister’s birthday present, so she decided to make the half-hour round trip back home to get it. In the meantime, my mom was trying to keep the food warm and my grandpa was chomping at the bit to eat. He proceeded to make up all these scenarios of how she could possibly be delayed further, which would mean he’d have to wait longer.
We had to have white rice, even though no one in our family is Asian. My cousins, uncle, and grandpa are too picky to eat wild rice (which is native to the area) or mashed potatoes. At least it wasn’t as bad as last year when we had six starches.
Even though we had the table set with our best silverware, crystal goblets, and white lace tablecloth, we used paper plates. I can understand that my mom didn’t want us to have to deal with more mess, but it was still pretty white trash.
At the table, my grandpa couldn’t stop farting, my cousin dropped food onto the floor, picked it up and ate it anyway, and also licked his plate when he was finished. My grandpa refused to try anything with pumpkin it in because he didn’t like how it looked and said if the milk wasn’t Roundy’s that he wouldn’t drink it. (Luckily, it was.) He, as well as my aunt, told all these pointless stories about people know one else knows and when my grandpa didn’t follow the details exactly, he demanded a repeat. My grandma got annoyed and said, “Who cares? You don’t know who these people are!” and my sister and I tried not to die of laughter. She always makes snarky comments to us about him at the table, the best being, “He’s kind of slow sometimes.”
I got yelled at by my grandpa and aunt for saying that the Falls Baptist Church is a cult, even though it really is. My mom and my sister were able to back me up on that one. Everyone I’ve met that goes there is nuts, including my old band director that cheated on his wife with a seventeen-year-old student.
My 16-year-old cousin tried to tell another one of his lame “jokes” (usually ones by Dave Barry), and he unknowingly described the amp scene from Spinal Tap, which he has never seen before. Only he could take the humor out of that movie.
My aunt had brought a cat encyclopedia and not only got my cat’s breed wrong, but also read all the pages aloud on the wrong breed. (She’s a RagaMuffin, not a Ragdoll or a Turkish Angora.)

*All of this is in good fun. They are all nice people that I love dearly, but can be very embarrassing at times.

At least there was some good food. We also celebrated my sister’s birthday that was two weeks ago, so we had a huge frosted chocolate chip cookie from Mrs. Fields. My mom also made fruit punch-flavored jell-o with orange sherbet and mandarin oranges and there was sherry cake, pumpkin and apple pies, and a pumpkin and nut dish. I also consumed the majority of the mashed potatoes and gravy.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses

I. I found this little gem in my MySpace inbox yesterday:

Subject: you probably won’t add me because i’m not the right zodiac sign, psycho

Body: wake up, astrology is bullshit

What a nice thing to say to someone whose affections you are trying to gain. This is from a third guy that I blocked who made a fake account to contact me with. He’s posing as Skwisgaar, complete with sending the occasional message with poor English grammar. Fortunately, I haven’t met this one in person. Although he lives in Milwaukee, he’s apparently a college dropout from Sheboygan and an all-around self-important douche who thinks we’re destined to be together just because we both like Sabbath. Also, he’s a Pisces, so we aren’t even compatible. ;)

II. My suitemates constantly blast M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”, which samples the guitar intro from The Clash’s “Straight to Hell”, and I can’t get the song out of my head. I’m walking to class, and all I can think about is the Vietnam War. (The guy who’s always shouting in Spaight’s Plaza about how McCain’s going to draft us all doesn’t help either.)

III. Joaquin Phoenix is quitting acting.

IV. For Halloween, I’m getting a flu shot, and going to a fish fry at the Bavarian Inn with my mom, sister, and grandma. At least I won’t be stuck in the dorms and have to give away my Twix bars when trick-or-treating starts, though. Maybe I’ll try to celebrate more appropriately later in the evening and into the next day on Samhain. Anyway, Happy Halloween, Samhain, and Dia de los Muertos!

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Nekromantix - Gargoyles Over Copenhagen

Today was Columbus Day, and although my best friend is in Spain right now, still...fuck it. Leif Ericson was the first European to come to North America, and he did it centuries before Columbus did. Even then...

"Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected." - Oscar Wilde

My sleeping schedule is getting a little better. I will try to avoid going to bed later than 3:30 AM as well as waking up after 12:30 PM. Not being able to fall asleep until around 6:00 AM last Wednesday because I didn’t wake up until the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday was not fun at all, and I will be trying to avoid repeating it at all costs. Especially while I’m in school, since I skipped astronomy that day to get a couple extra hours of sleep.

Speaking of astronomy class, the average for the exam was a 66%. Even though I got a 69%, I don't feel so bad. There's another quiz coming up this week, so hopefully with the extra studying, I'll be able to bring my grade up.

As for my angry nostril piercing, I did some sea salt soaks over the weekend, left it alone as much as possible, and thankfully, it's nearly healed again.

Choke is not (and never was) showing at Marcus Theatres in the Falls. The only other theater I can get to that is showing it is The Oriental, however the only two times it's showing don't work with my class schedule. Damn.

I ended up blocking the people on MySpace I previously mentioned wanting to do so, but feared I’d meet in person again. I figured I needed to keep my peace and sanity at the moment, and that if I actually see these guys again, I can always tell them I deleted my MySpace. I know I’m bending my own ethics a bit with being dishonest, but if it’s the only way to stop these needy, desperate guys from constantly bugging me, then I think it’s for the best. Besides, I already tried letting them down lightly, and they weren’t taking no for an answer.

Also, I have heard O-Town's "All or Nothing", Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", and K-Ci and Jojo's "All My Life" more times this past week than I should in my entire lifetime, courtesy of my wonderful suitemates. Although I'm usually listening to music while I'm in here, I am not when I'm trying to read something technical, meditating, practicing yoga, and sleeping. Unfortunately, all my suitemates do when they're conscious is listen to horrible, old American pop music.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Goldfrapp - Crystalline Green

First of all, Lughnasadh is here! Today is the halfway point between Midsummer and Samhain, and with the heat we’ve been having, the prospect of fall is looking promising about now. There will also be a full solar eclipse, which I will unfortunately not be able to see due to my location. Those of you who can, enjoy it!

Secondly, it isn’t often that I become perturbed at something in pop culture or the media because I can usually ignore it. Right now, there are two things that won’t stop popping up and are driving me insane: Heath Ledger as the Joker in the new Batman movie the Dark Knight and Brett Favre. I don’t know if it’s the fact I live in Wisconsin or what, but everyone getting all upset over the separation of their OTP (Brett Favre/Packers) and the possibility of them getting back together is getting really annoying. American football isn’t serious fandom business, guys. It’s just a game. Think about the meaning of the word here. He should do what he wants, as well as the Packers, and all the fans need to stop being butthurt about it. You can’t blame the Packers for not taking him back if it’s going to be a big inconvenience to the team. As for the Heath Ledger Joker, I am sick to death of seeing pictures, macros, icons, etc. of the actual character and otherwise with their MS Paint-scribbled out eyes and mouth with “why so serious?” hastily scratched somewhere on the image. Obviously, he wouldn’t be getting this kind of attention if he were alive. Yes, he was one of the few actors I actually liked and was unhappy to learn of his death, but there have been dead celebrities featured in films that were being filmed or already filmed at the time of their death, and there will continue to be. It’s just getting really old. I don’t really care if I’m the only one who hasn’t seen the movie. I’m not going to pay $10 for a three-hour movie about Batman.

In other news, I decided I’m going to wait on handing my two weeks’ notice in for another week because I will need the extra money and will feel very guilty for sitting around the house for two weeks. One week is plenty, especially since I will be packing during that time. I need the money because the 20% off associate sale at work starts tomorrow, and know I’m already buying around $200 worth of merchandise. More on that later…

I know I’m going into controversial territory here, but I feel like I should mention something on the subject. My cousin Kyle has Aspberger’s Syndrome (a kind of autism), and he is now in driver’s ed and behind the wheel of a potential killing-machine. I say this because he doesn’t have good control over his anger, and my aunt and uncle do not know about it because it’s Catherine’s brother who tells me what he’s doing while he’s in school. Well, he had only been out driving with my aunt once and she had him simply park the car in the garage. He got flustered, didn’t break, and smashed into the back wall. He annihilated his sister’s scooter and all of the shelving, where the contents fell onto the hood of the car and all over the floor. The car is damaged, as well as the house. I honestly don’t think he should be driving. You can’t freak out in more serious situations on the road, let alone parking at your own house. I’ve spent a lot of time with Kyle, so I know what he’s like. Whenever he is angered by something, his reaction is very violent, and Catherine’s brother also agrees that he could very easily use the car to purposely hit someone in a car or a pedestrian. He knows this first-hand as the two of them actually got in a fistfight a few years ago. I hope this parking incident opens my aunt and uncle’s eyes and they evaluate the situation. They already have the poor kid going down the path of juvenile diabetes and heart disease because they go against his doctor’s orders and let him have all the sweets he wants, and now he’s morbidly obese. Although I’m no longer close with my cousins, I do drive around town and simply don’t feel comfortable with him on the road, which is what motivated me to mention this in the first place.

ETA: I found out that Kyle's driver's ed instructor does not think he should be driving either, so I guess I really wasn't out of line by saying what I did.

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Cocteau Twins - Pearly Dewdrops' Drops

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Don't follow the shadows

They ain't for real, like the guiding stars

Entries tagged with holidays

I can feel the soil falling over my head

I promise I’m not dead

Happy Feast of Vali/Lupercalia/Valentine’s Day

The wheel goes around yet again

Christmas Recap

The beginning of the Yuletide and other various news

These go to eleven

The WTF-ness continues!

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