And another thing

Another piece to my puzzle-self.

Cats. I am allergic to cats. Have been since late 1988/early 1989. And, as luck would have it, a number of people I love/love to spend time with, have cats.

Last Wednesday night I spent an overnight at a cat house. I medicated myself out of desperation that night and was out of it for two days (following being out of it before the medication, too...that's one of my reactions).

Then, Saturday, I spent the day at a cat house. I did not medicate myself. I was semi-out of it, but tend not to react strongly to my sister's cat.

This afternoon we went to B's house, another cat house.

Sometimes I am hyper vigilant about bringing cat hair/dander back into our house, but don't really have the energy to keep that up. So, I hug my cat people indiscriminately, ignore the cat hair/dander that tracks into my home via clothing and socks, I mostly am able to not think about the sheepskin insides of my slippers having cat stuff felted into them :-)

I am considering Vinny's suggestion of burning some cat fur and ingesting it as part of a tea. I would love to build a tolerance. I would love to thin out the cottony fuzziness of times like now in ways that I can.

In the meantime, I sniffle and snuffle and work harder to focus and attend than usual...

Turn

Yesterday, when this picture was taken, I was in my Air element.  (I took it because I thought my hair looked really good and realized it was probably because I had used an old Kiehl's conditioner sample because we're out of conditioner...sometimes you really do get what you pay for...though Cap saw no difference in how my hair looked...)

It's been slightly off, how I've been feeling.  Not uncomfortable, but ungrounded.  My attention to down-to-earth daily activity went out of focus and instead I flitted from one thing to another, out of routine and somewhat out of my body...out of my mind...I'll call it disruption between mind and body.

This morning,  I woke with my period starting.  I peed and shuffled into the kitchen (last night's Thai iced tea a not-quite-distant entity in my system...kept me up till 2) and took out ingredients for bread from the fridge and set them out on the table to warm to room temp.  I sat at my desk, looked out the window and saw faces on the houses I've been seeing not that way for years.  The children and Cap were up already and involved in (home) industry.

The Sun.  The Sun's light is bright and beautiful this morning.  The days are now beginning to grow.  I can feel it.  It feels good. I feel less Air-y. Grounded by the Sun's light and the Earth upon which I stand.

An excerpt from a Robert Wyatt's Sea Song:

You'll be different in the spring, I know
You're a seasonal beast like the starfish that drift in with the tide
So until your your blood runs to meet the next full moon
You're madness fits in nicely with my own
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own, my very own
We're not alone

Rocked it

This cold weather season's Target sweats have been pilling like crazy, the waistbands are beginning to lose their elasticity, and are overall already wearing thin (the economic downturn showing its face at Hanes...bought these items less than 2 months ago).

When I got the e-mail from Hanna Andersson this morning that their 60% off sale was starting I went online but my kids' sizes were sold out. D was up for it so we went to our newish local Hanna store with my two and her youngest.

The kids know what they like (and are pretty particular) and so it's actually easier to clothes shop with them than without. We went through the racks quickly and painlessly and left with 15 items (including a fleece hoodie, two pairs of snow pants and one down jacket) for $300 (all but a couple of things I bought were 60% or more off...the rest was 50% off).

They should now be all set thorough next winter. In lovely colors and designs and no pills or holes...unless of course Hanna A. has suffered from the downturn, as well. We shall see.

For now, it feels good to have been able to afford to buy quality items that look great :-)

Winter Solstice 09

A walk in the wintry woods with our friends L, A, S and R.  A wondrous way to welcome the new season.  Wishing you Love and Courage and Peace this Solstice, one and all.