Mabon circle

It was a fairly busy weekend for me but full of good and productive things. It seems like I’m finally starting to adjust to an early sleep schedule, but I still need to work on keeping my apartment clean when I don’t have unlimited time to pick up after myself. It’s not terrible by most people’s standards, but I’ve gotten used to keeping things tidy, especially when I have company over (which is a lot rarer occurrence these days).

So this weekend, I left directly from work on Friday and drove up to Middletown, NY to visit with Buck and Donna so that we could transcribe a poly timeline that was created back in March at the national poly leadership summit I attended as a volunteer. The original scroll of the timeline will be housed at the Kinsey Institute, which has a poly library of historical documents, but we wanted to capture the information on an Excel spreadsheet so it can be used and expanded on a future Web site. Friday night we all had dinner together at a Mexican restaurant, followed by some group cuddling on the couch back at Buck’s place before bed.

Saturday Donna had another engagement upstate, so Buck and I had the day to ourselves. We started with him getting a haircut at a nearby salon, which was also hosting a bridal party that morning. It was actually quite fascinating watching the bride getting her hair done, and it gave me a new appreciation of how much work it takes to create these beautiful hairstyles for special occasions.

Afterwards we had brunch at a Perkins restaurant and then went to Sunshine Studios so I could buy the Woodstock Chimes Emperor wind gong I saw last month when we visited for the Open Love NY leadership retreat. We spent the entire afternoon transcribing the timeline scroll, which extends from about 500 BCE (before Common Era) to 2050 CE and charts the growth of polyamory in the categories of Self, Group, Movement and Culture.

On Sunday I went into the city to meet up with Polina and attend my first group circle at a friend's house for Mabon. It was quite a big step for me to share my spiritual practices with other people, but as part of my continued growth and dedication to my practice, I felt it was a good opportunity to see how it feels as part of a group. My friend Katie (who is married to Patrick, one of the board members of Polyamorous NYC) organizes a family-friendly circle with her five-year-old daughter Evie to teach kids about paganism. Katie and her girlfriend Laura, and her daughter and I joined Evie in circle, and it was a lovely experience. The presence of the children made the circle feel more casual, but also brought a nurturing energy to it.

As Mabon is a time of harvest where we give thanks for the bounty we reap from our efforts throughout the year, I have two major things to be thankful for – my new job and my relationship with Polina. As I said in circle, these are the things that I’ve worked on and put effort into this year that I’m thankful have borne fruit.

Polina arrived afterwards and joined us for the potluck lunch party around the same time that Patrick and little Jasper came home from gymnastics class. I gave Polina a DVD of the MTV True Life episode she hadn’t seen yet (my big national TV debut) and she brought me a present from her trip to Switzerland, an aluminum water bottle with pictures of Swiss postage stamps on it. She also returned my copy of Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon, which she managed to slog through so we can see the movie together when it comes out on November 20.

Polina and I left around 3:30 p.m. and decided to watch a movie, but we couldn’t find a theater nearby that was playing anything we liked. So we stopped in our usual frozen yogurt place on Christopher Street to relax and have another check-in about our relationship, which is moving toward a more poly structure as we both pursue new people while continuing to nurture our bond to each other.

We both acknowledged how our relationship has progressed in the past several weeks, even given the disapproval of her family and the limitations we currently have on spending time together (although I think we are both a little surprised that we’ve managed to see each other three weekends in row after our month-long separation in late August and early September). We had a very candid talk, followed by as much snogging as we could get away with in public, before heading back to Yoshi and dropping her off at her grandmother’s house for Yom Kippur services that evening.

In other news, the job has been going very well so far, other than the commute is rather long. Through familiarity with the route, I have it down to about an hour’s drive time each way. I get to focus on writing all day long, without having to deal with budgets, team supervision, client meetings or any of the other managerial/administrative things that I had to do at my last two jobs in public relations agencies. I also keep pretty regular hours since I’m a contracted employee (unless they want to pay me overtime) and it’s nice being fed a nutritious lunch every day in the free company cafeteria.

However, I’m getting renewed interest from PR firms I interviewed with over the summer as the economy bounces back, and I admit it would be a good thing to live and work in the city, all else being equal, so that I could spend more time with Polina and my other friends. Career-wise, I’d probably be better off staying in Princeton and getting more in-house communications experience, but we’ll see if I get an offer that makes it worth making another jump.

Beltane

Before I go to bed, I wanted to wish everyone a happy Beltane. The Earth softens under the caress of the sun and all the world is new. We emerge from the darkness of a long, difficult winter; our eyes drink in rolling green hills budding branches and tender shoots. We breathe deeply the fresh fragrance of radiant blossoms, as long as our supply of Zyrtec holds up.

My family came over tonight and we watched The Last Temptation of Christ, a novel way to celebrate a major pagan Sabbat, but appropriate in a way since we found merriment in Martin Scorsese's curious casting decisions, and the rhythmic drumming in the score by Peter Gabriel. This is a movie that has always moved me, in the past moreso for the controversy it provoked, or for the memorable visual imagery. But watching it for the first time in more than a decade, I found it to be much more evocative from a spiritual point of view, for the obvious reason that I'm a much more spiritual person than I used to be.

On a personal note, May 1st also marks the third anniversary of arriving in New Jersey from Houston in 2006 - obviously a major milestone in my life. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, and sometimes it seems like ages ago, driving in, meeting my family in the parking lot of the Residence Inn that I stayed at for a month. So much has changed.

Anyway, better get to bed so I can get up early for Free Comic Book Day tomorrow - it's always the first Saturday in May. If you are near a comic book store tomorrow, drop in and collect your free comics!

Imbolc

Today I celebrated Imbolc with a special mention of the Celtic goddess Brigid in my short prayer ritual at my altar. Imbolc has always been my favorite sabbat for some reason, maybe because it's a time to set intentions for new directions in one's life. In honor of Brigid (and other fire spirits in my life), I lit my candles today - the Christianized name for Imbolc is "Candlemass", and the secular celebration for this day that marks the last day of winter and the first day of spring involves groundhogs. Unfortunately I don't have the movie Groundhog Day in my collection anymore, because that is one of the best comedies ever made.

Last night I watched my King Crimson concert video and enjoyed it very much. You might recall that we saw them in concert back in August at the Nokia Theater in Times Square ("King Crimson" - Aug. 18, 2008) and the video was very reminiscent of that concert. Watching the video inspired me to do work on a playlist of cool songs, some of my all time favorites that I'm not ashamed to say I like. A lot of the music I listen to day to day is cotton candy, that I know. But I do know good music when I hear it too.

Speaking of my cotton candy mix, I just finished a mix of music that represents what I'm listening to right now, some of it influenced by my waning Twilight fetish, other bands I'm discovering from checking out random CDs at the library. Combine that with some old favorites that I'm reacquainting myself with, and you get a pretty random mix of tunes. Here it is:

Attack - 30 Seconds to Mars
The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
Extraordinary - Liz Phair
Crushcrushcrush - Paramore
Right Now - Van Halen
I'm No Ordinary Girl - Anika Paris
Stacy's Mom - Fountains of Wayne
Schism - Tool
Shadow of the Day - Linkin Park
What I've Done - Linkin Park
Was It A Dream? - 30 Seconds to Mars
When It Rains - Paramore
Five Minutes to Midnight - Boys Like Girls
Why Can't I? - Liz Phair
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
The Flame - Cheap Trick
I Wonder - Diffuser
To Turn You On - Roxy Music

Tara and I took a quick trip to the Met on Sunday so she could charge her new amulet, and we spent some time in the Asian wing visiting the Buddhas and Lord Ganesha. Saturday night we watched Enchanted on the big screen, which was delightful and every bit as good as the reviews made it out to be. Plus, the weekend update segment on Saturday Night Live was hysterical because it made fun of New Jersey.

I actually did watch a little bit of the Super Bowl, and saw the 100-yard touchdown play at the end of the first half because I was in the gym working out. I've been working out every day this week, trying to get my cardiovascular health back into shape. The net result is that sometimes I get sleepy early in the evening, but other times I still stay up until 4 a.m. reading my Anita Blake books.

I had a long conversation with one of the Board members of PolyNYC on Saturday, and he said they are considering asking me to join as a member of the Board. We discussed some of my reservations about that, and other positive things, but I still need to find out what the organization is going to be like moving forward before I commit to any kind of official role.