MedusaInTheClouds

Okay, I’m just going to stop making entries about this goal until I’ve managed to go five nights without sleeping in. rolls eyes

I was actually in bed by midnight last night, and I have to admit, there may have been a hint of a bounce in me this morning when I got up at 8. Sleep is good.

I don’t know how you do this, but damn it, I want to!

This is definitely a long-term goal, because I don’t have the knowledge or maturity I’d need to do this and won’t for quite a while. Still, I think I’ve been doomed from birth to be clergy… I just started out in the wrong religion. (I used to think I wanted to be a missionary Bible translator.)

I managed to somehow squeeze a dream out of my memory this morning, but it felt like squeezing water out of a rock. Yesterday, I woke up from my nap and I’d been preparing to record the dream even before I was fully awake, but this morning, I had to completely jolt myself into consciousness and THEN try to remember the dream, after the effort of waking myself up had already erased a lot of it. sigh

And after all that, it was a dream about buying insurance and moderated websites. Though I was amused to see that websites look like little islands in my dreamworld.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a nap and had a partly lucid dream. Thing is, I always want to fly when I get lucid, because dream flight is so awesome and I always wanted to be able to fly when I was a kid, but I drop right back into the dream after a minute or so. I kept it going for what felt like almost an entire minute this last time, though, which was the longest ever.

I don’t know how I got up this morning, but I did.

Hellenion, which is a religious organization I belong to, has a group libation the second Saturday of every month to honor a different Olympian god. Since we’re scattered all over the country, we each do these libations in our own homes. I’ve been less than dutiful about keeping up with the schedule, but I think it would be a great experience for me to put my best effort into doing a complete series of twelve libations.

Here are the libations I have to look forward to:

• August 13 – libation to Hermes
• September 10 – libation to Demeter and Kore
• October 8 – libation to Poseidon
• November 12 – libation to Ares
• December 10 – libation to Dionysos
• January 7 – libation to Hera
• February 11 – libation to Aphrodite
• March 11 – libation to Hephaistos
• April 8 – libation to Artemis
• May 13 – libation to Apollon
• June 10 – libation to Zeus
• July 8 – libation to Athena

I’m going to give people a chance to accept their invites to this team before I starting working on choosing the ideal date for this 24-hour Objectivist marathon… I should probably wait for a week or two until I’ve finished my move and gotten the book out of whatever box I’ve stuffed it in, too! Always easier to read when you can find the book.

I decided to stick with a good thing and let the shawl(ette) stay the way it was. Now I’m all revved up to start a new one that’ll be big enough to wrap around myself to ward off winter chills… but this one is pretty cute tied around my waist!

I didn’t get a dream written down this morning, so I took a nap with the firm intention of recording whatever dreams I had… and boy, did I ever dream! I think this one gets the award for “Most Macabre, Yet Still Amusing.”

Okay, this pattern has suddenly gotten confusing… or maybe my brain just isn’t working properly. When I’m supposed to “pick up and knit” 436 stitches around the edge of the shawl, do I knit each stitch as I pick it up, do I pick them all up and then knit a row and THEN start the pattern, or do I just pick them up and then launch into the pattern? Do I “pick up” with the wrong side facing and then “knit” (with the right side facing, of course)? Or should I pick up the stitches with the right side facing so that when I get to the end I can knit a row with the wrong side facing? Ack, I’m so confused. It’s so pretty – I don’t want to mess it up!

I just found out that CoffeeGeek.com has a podcast. Oh, the joy! Is it sad that I not only just spent an hour listening to the podcast, but also spent an additional half-hour writing them feedback on the content?

I’m as far from being able to pour latte art as ever, since there’s no sign of me even getting drip-coffee equipment for my apartment any time soon, let alone an espresso machine. Perhaps I should try to get a coffee-shop job again… the extra cash would certainly help with my “go to Pantheacon” goal.

Well, here’s to yet another day of getting up at 8 AM!

Since the idea here is to be up by 8 AM, I’m not going to start the count over on August 2 or August 10 when I have to get up at 6 AM to drive 4 hours to my new apartment. Really, I think that’s quite forgivable.

I started out with 68 entries in my journal recounting dreams from the last four years. After 3 days, I am up to 71 – good on me!

I think I’ll take myself as having met this goal when I’ve double the number of dreams I have recorded – from 68 to 136.

A bunch of my Hellenic friends are going to be at Pantheacon in San Jose next February, and while I initially wrote it off as too much of a trip, I’m starting to think it’s workable.

The conference rate for the hotel is $89/night, and if I share with 3 other people that’s only $22.25/night each. Then admission to Pantheacon is $55 with early registration, but I might be able to work some of it off by volunteering to help run the conference. That leaves food and plane fare, which looks to be around $250 round-trip unless prices go down.

So basically, I need to raise about $400 between now and February. Wish me luck.

Yeah, I’ve decided the shawl just needs that little extra bit of width. I can wear it as is, but… well, I figure if I’m doing a lace shawl, why not go all out? I’m feeling bereft, anyway, because I wasn’t expecting it to be done so soon. I knit almost the whole thing in Greece and then when I got home it was just done all of a sudden.

I took a picture so that you can see how the snowdrop pattern looks close-up. I’m using the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s pattern from http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/images/Snowdrop_Shawl_v1.0.pdf, in 2-ply merino wool with #4 Brittany birch needles – so I could take it on the airplane!

I’ve been working on my first lace shawl since the last week of May, and I’ve finally bound off the top edge! I’m about to go check out how it’s turned out now I’ve blocked it, and then decide whether I want to add a border.

Here’s how it looks now.

Didn’t manage to get out of bed today until almost 9:30. I suppose this starts the count over… sigh

Just submitted another lesson for my Latin course. I need to have all the lesson submitted and be done with the midterm and final by August 22 to avoid having to pay $60 for an extension… and also because I want to be starting Latin 2 at the same time as I start the fall semester of my other classes.

I’ve been procrastinating like hell on this (did you know that the root of the word “procrastinate” is the Latin “cras,” meaning “tomorrow”?) but I’m hoping that if I get to working steadily I’ll get it done. Only problem is, I still have to move all of my stuff down to my new apartment between now and then.

Wish me luck?