First Snow!

Ahhhh.... Joy of Joys! I love Snow! Here's a quick snapshot from my bedroom window as the snow began to fall late last night...

First Snow!

Days of Sparkle & Green

Although we participate in Christmas with most of the same ideas of giving and trees, and lights, and so on... I don't LIKE the idea of what Christmas has become or why it came into existence in the first place (as a way to blot out original pagan celebrations, etc.) Christianity has proven itself to be one of the ugliest and violent religions ever to grace this planet, causing more wars and destruction than any single belief system I have ever seen. Oh... just don't get me started...

Anyway, I still love the experience of the season, so I've been thinking of renaming this period of time to something less religious and more about the spirit and happiness of the season, such as DAYS OF SPARKLE & GREEN. I like that idea because it captures the seasonal lights, the refraction of snow, the trees, yet it also implies Giving since Green symbolizes the heart and generosity. Hmmm... What do you think?

So here are our Sparkle & Green decorations to help manifest the season in our home! Despite the continued beatings from an unknown assailant to our silver tree, here it is in between attacks, in all its glory!


We use a silver tree

because we think it's silly to kill a tree as a way to celebrate life

Looking from LR into DR Looking from DR into LR

First Icicle of the seaon!!

The Ghost Hater

Well, ever since I restrung all the lights and added more, replaced all the christmas balls on the tree, hung garland, etc., there has been no incidences at all. I commented half-jokingly to Cyprus that I thought I must have overpowered the ghost energy with all of the decorations, but Cyprus stated that she has been insanely concentrating on exorcising the apartment of the ghost! She is a Ghost Hater! She is a Skinist! She only likes people who have bodies. She has control issues.

Me, I don't mind a troublemaking ghost anymore than I do a troublemaking person... [raising my eye at some of you] Mmmmm..Hmmmmmmm...

The Ghost Who Hates Christmas II

So I got up this morning and I seem to have had a nice night of happy dreaming, even though I couldn't remember anything. I just felt... Good. I go into the living room and the tree is totally fine. I think, "well, it must have had a logical explanation." It wouldn't be that hard to explain away, really.

So I make my phone calls to Cyprus and Nick and talk to them about the tree and how everything is normal... but, while on the phone with Nick, I walk back through the living room and nearly all of the Christmas balls are pulled off of the tree and strewn about! It was NOT like that in my first few passes through the living room! It was only like this AFTER talking to Nick and Cyprus about it! The Christmas balls were mostly shoved behind the couch, but several were about the living room, too.

Some of you may think our cat could be behind this, but really, it's not her. She does not play, nor is she active. She has never been a playful, chaser cat. She's just a purring, squawking cat who is just there. I can't stress how much we know it is not the cat. Besides, IF it were the cat, why wouldn't I have heard the balls falling in the minute or so between seeing the tree as normal and then seeing it in shambles.

I spent another several hours today fixing the tree AND putting up the rest of the decorations. Lights, garland, blinkers, giant snow flakes, you know, all the corny fun stuff. It all looks beautiful (pictures to come!)

I await the next spooky event...

Troy

The Ghost Who Hated Christmas

Well, it may be that we now have a visitor in our apartment. And not the kind with skin, but otherwise. It's not unusual for me to find occasionally a disembodied presence hanging around for a few days (I work with the "other side" for a living, so it's not that surprising), but I haven't had a visitor in a long time. Cyprus hates when we have a haunting, so I tend to suppress my sense of invitation and curiosity a great deal. Even if I do notice a presence, I rarely mention it to anyone because for one thing, it just makes me sound loony, and for another, it does nothing to announce it. The paranormal things that happen in my life are not for novelty or for attention, so I keep most experiences to myself.

After our last Michael Speaks (a channeling session) we started talking about the concepts of ghosts and hauntings, which led to some people asking me about my own experiences and understanding of that phenomenon. I was open and discussed my experiences, my theories, and Michael's insight. I knew as I was discussing it that the discussion was also freeing up suppressive energies I keep in place to hinder any paranormal experiences because of Cyprus' fears. I felt that I had kept it in check, though.

Last night, I came home from reviewing a band and our little Christmas Tree was knocked over. I didn't think much about it because we have animals and who knows, one of them could have somehow knocked it over. The tree is about a 3-foot silver tree all rigged up and cutely lit in our bay window behind a curved couch. It is not in a place that would be easy for our dogs to get, and our cat is so near death (she is very, very old and does not do anything wild or playful) that she really could only knock it over, but with a lot of effort. Still, it was easy to chalk up to the cat, and although I was annoyed, nothing else occurred to me. I set the tree back in place with some effort and went to bed.

...and had a dream:

I dreamt that I got up the next morning and the tree was seriously smashed up. It's limbs were all mangled, the balls strewn everywhere, and the tree pushed forcefully down between the couch and the windows. I don't know who was with me, but we were all annoyed and asking how that could possibly have happened. As I stood there looking at all of this, I noticed the fluffiness of our green floor rug after a good vacuuming. Right at the edge of the rug, pressed prominently in the fibers, was a small child's footprint. I said slowly, "oh my god, look at thisss..."

...and I woke up this morning.

I thought how creepy the dream was, climbed out of bed, went into the living room, and there was our Christmas Tree in shambles, smashed and bent, pressed between the windows and the couch, with Christmas balls strewn everywhere. There was no sign of a footprint in the rug like in my dream, but I distinctly felt scared. I am sure it was because of the dream, but what I can't figure out is why I would dream that and how synchronistic it was with the progressive destruction of the tree!

It took me nearly 2 hours to get the tree back in shape. It's still a bit out of whack! For one thing, I know it was not my dog, because she was shut in my room with me all night. I really don't think the cat did this because she never does and because it would be a huge amount of effort on her part to do the multiple things done to the tree. I don't think it is my room mate's dog because he was in bed with Cyprus the first time the tree fell, which happened BEFORE I got home (according to Cyprus). It startled her, but it had only slightly leaned sharply enough to scare my dog and she had arisen and fixed the tree, which I just found out about tonight. That means the tree has been altered on at least 3 occasions, progressively worse and more violently.

Furthermore, tonight Spyder (my dog) was in her bed and yelped, jumping up and running into the living room. A bit later she cautiously went back to the bedroom doorway and gingerly sniffed the floor, then flinched and leaped back from the doorway, running up onto the couch. Now, first of all, Spyder does not yelp or flinch or act skittish in any way. Something was tangibly affecting her, but I don't know what it was. I checked her bed for a bug of some sort, because I like to go the logical route, first, but I couldn't find anything. Who knows... but in synchronicity to these other events, now I am concerned.

And this time, I can't see a thing. I don't see a ghost anywhere. I don't know what this is...

But I have a few plans to find out!

Sweet Dream

Awwww... I had the oddest dream last night:

Taren and I were lying in a bed with our clothes on, giggling and facing each other, poking and playing and being super silly. Some song was on and the lyrics sang something about "listening with an open mind" and something about how truly listening is the equivalence of Love. When we heard those couple of lines from the song, Taren kept saying all big-grinned, "You LOVE me!" Then I would say, "I LOVE you!" and then she would say, "And I love YOU!" and I would say, "Love", and we both kept tossing the words and phrases back and forth and laughing hysterically as we hugged happily!

Hmmmm... interesting. This is SO much better than that PISS DREAM I had about her a long time ago! d'oh!

Troy

Back to Dreaming

uggh... my bad dreams have begun to return. I haven't had bad dreams in a while, and I used to NEVER have bad dreams, but after 9/11 my dreams took a much darker turn.

Recently I dreamt I was in a building where large chunks of it (or another building) were crashing to the pavement and sidewalks outside. After the initial fascination and shock, I realized I had to get Nick and Cyprus out of the building with me. Cyprus waited for me near an exit while I began searching for Nick. Things began to progressively get more chaotic and I kept thinking I could NOT leave Nick inside and I would keep looking! I ran back to Cyprus and told her to get outside and I would be there as soon as I found Nick. As I ran to go search for Nick, the ceiling began caving and falling in chunks and I saw out the window that Nick had already long escaped from the building, standing outside. My last thoughts were about how I was so bound to die before even thinking of leaving him, yet he was outside perfectly fine without me.

Then last night I dreamt that Cyprus, Nick, and I were in some indoor, multi-level mall, which must be the one at Columbus Circle (I have never actually been inside.) As we were riding the escalator, a bomb went off and part of the floor on one of the levels collapsed in with people screaming and falling through. The bomb didn't have a fire explosion, just kind of a concussion explosion, but it worked. As we stood sort of shocked, I saw some guy with a brown boxcase the size of a large lunch box, toss the brown case a distance away from him as he ran down the divider between the escalators. The box exploded similarly to the first one and glass and concrete and people went flying. I then noticed there were at least two other people walking quickly with the same box-like cases. I told Cyprus and Nick to follow me; we had to get out of there. As we came down to the street level, there were men armed with machine guns and they were just beginning to nonchalantly lock and block the doors. I knew we could not stay in that building.

The guard who had just locked the door eyed me as I stood there thinking about what to do, but he apparently thought everything was under control because he walked away from the door and toward another area, leaving a bunch of us just standing and sitting around in fear. I took the chance and walked quickly to the door, swiftly, quietly unlocked it, and waved to Nick and Cyprus to come with me. Cyprus was either in shock or too tired or something and she dismissed me, waving that she was not coming. I was already half-way out the door with Nick, so I couldn't stop. I trust Cyprus knew what she was doing, but I was very upset that she didn't come with me. More importantly, I was worried that Nick and I were going to be shot in the back as we ran across the street. I had to push Nick along, but he wouldn't run on his own because he was in so much shock.

We finally made it a distance away that felt safer, but as we did, we found ourselves near the base of the Manhattan or Williamsburg Bridge (or one like those) and I saw men looking up at the bridge, as if waiting for something. I knew they were waiting for some cue to detonate something that would blow the bridge. They saw us, but because we were moving quickly enough and had only glanced at them, I think they just ignored us.

Nick and I scrambled down a hill toward where we could see cabs. I knew if we could just get in a cab and stop running, we could figure something out. The first cab we came across would not pick us up, and it was a weird cab, driven by a pimp. The car was all "pimped out" with a convertible top and quite elaborate curves and wheels, etc. The driver had the top of the car pulling up and putting his windows back up as he drove away from our request to be picked up.

We then ran to a gas station where I could see even more cabs. As we ran, I saw a sheet of paper with the name CyndiL written artistically on it. The top of the C curved over and made a loop at the end, creating the d, with the letters y, n, i just added in accordingly. I noted that it was cool.

Finally Nick and I got into a cab and I felt so relieved... I don't know what happened after that.

Hmmmm...

Troy

I Resolve

I can't believe I skipped all of November and didn't post a damn thing! Believe me, it wasn't for a lack of livin', it was cuz it was too damn jam packed! So, I am resolving to write in my journal here at least 3 times a week! YAY! Can I do it? Do you think I can? Do you want me to do it?

We will see...

Troy

Halloween Levity

HAPPY

HALLOWEEN!

For a little levity, here are some photos from our super-successful and super-fun Halloween Party!  The theme was "Halloween is a Drag" in which most everyone had to show up in "drag", even the lovely ladies.  Everyone had to choose "drag names", too!  There were performances, Tarot Card Readings, a "bobbing for Apples" contest (from strings) that Katherine, or lovely neighbor, won hands-down (or behind her back, hee hee)!  The party lasted until about 5am!

Taren (cruella) & Cyprus (sugar slit) & Troy (Rainbow Anus)


Josh (Minnie Peters), Taren, Nick (Ginger Snap!) Cyprus, Troy


Nick (Ginger Snap!) & Josh (Minnie Peters)


Taren (Cruella) & Cyprus (Sugar Slit)


Troy (Rainbow Anus)



Rainbow Anus (me) MCing the Halloween events!  I sang (or croaked and moaned out) "The Joker" (the theme to Kath and Kim), Nick performed Disco Inferno, Josh played guitar and sang a Beatles song, and Andrew (aka Soce, the Elemental Wizard), performed "TRAPPED", a HILARIOUS and RAUNCHY new song of his own creation!  (see his recent video HERE!) The performances were perfectly insane!


Gary (Betty Bang-Bang)
&
Nicholas (Girls-Gone-Wild Girl, Kimmee from Cabo!)


More Troy & Taren


Taren, Cyprus, & Jeffrey (drag name?)


Soce/Andrew, Taren, Gary, Nicholas, and Troy



Some of the gang at the party!


Nick (aka Ginger Snap!) performing Disco Inferno!



Thanks to all of you who performed, contributed, attended, and made this such a great night!
SEE YOU NEXT HALLOWEEN!!!
 

Ashamed to be an American

Today is a sad, SAD day. I am ashamed of America and feel very angry that I am going to be seen by other countries as supporting the madness that is evil Christianity, Racism, Classism, Sexism, Homophobia, and War-mongering.

President Bush IS NOT MY PRESIDENT.

I call out to all other Blogs to PLEASE post and emphasize that you DO NOT support this creepy little ego-maniac or the small-town idiocy of Middle America.

We are in for a ride...

Farm Sanctuary: A Hope For People

As a birthday celebration for Cyprus and a way for us to cement our commitment to veganism, our gang took a trip to FARM SANCTUARY!

I cannot even begin to tell you the emotional and inspirational depth to which this trip to FARM SANCTUARY touched. There are no real words to describe the claustrophobic sadness and elated gratitude that swirl inside you as you look into the eyes of animals who have suffered so greatly. They look at you with such awareness and importance, seeming to understand that the people who originally tortured them were people who are not like most of us. They look at you with a trust that is rare even in the best of your friends and loved ones. It feels as if they know that humans don't mean to be so thoughtless and cruel, but we have been so misled and ignorant for so long about our diets, our planet, and even ourselves. Non-human Animals just ARE. I was not only sad for their history and because every day BILLIONS of animals die and suffer for pointless consumptions and conveniences, but also sad because despite their suffering, they seem to be so embracing of life, so present and trusting.

I, too, have suffered a great deal of pain as I grew up. I felt the distance between being helped and being trapped in a torture that no one wanted to see. I know what that is like because I lived in that prison of abuse for 18 years of my life. I know what it is like to be so discarded, abandoned, and to suffer as a child, which is the only human equivalent I can relate to the innocence of a non-human animal. My decision to become Vegetarian as a teenager (and a Vegan in adulthood) was directly related to my own suffering and recovery. I was in such powerful pain as a child, but factory-farmed animals know a pain and suffering that makes my childhood seem like a simple, dramatic, family episode of Dawson's Creek, The O.C. or 90210. I have always thought that if I felt that much sadness, separation, and pain, then it will never be my right or privilege to participate (directly or indirectly) in the imposition of suffering over another Being IN ANY WAY. It isn't even my right or privilege to SPECULATE on whether or not any other Being can feel the same kind of pain as myself. Just because no one knows MY pain doesn't mean I can't feel it. I believe the same is true of any Being. We can only empathize as a way to know another person or Being, using our selves as reference. A person who ignores his direct or indirect part in the equation of pain and cruelty to another Being is a person who does not know himself.

There are vast differences among all species, but the ONLY common denominator of communication that we all share is our ability to convey that we are suffering or in pain. It takes very little heart and very little brain to recognize that another Being is in pain or wishes for its own survival. This method of communication across the species is as important for our survival as a community on this planet as it is for the creature, itself, but the acknowledgement of that cry is evermore vital. It is hard for me to understand another human being who ignores this or doesn't care.

To my mind the life of the lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of the lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that, the more helpless the creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.
-Mohandas K. Gandhi

I do wish the world would listen. I despise apathy. I wish empathy, peace, and freedom for all humans and non-human animals.

Farm Sanctuary specializes in rescuing animals who have escaped or were discarded from Factory Farms. Many of these animals were pulled from the "dead pile", which is the pile of animals who have suffered such intolerable conditions that they are no longer able to stand or move on their own. It becomes a nuisance and an inconvenience to maintain these animals, so they are thrown away onto piles while they linger for days among many of their own species, dying.

A familiar quote and Our Cabins

Views from our cabin

A lovely rogue cow being gently herded, and Dolly


The cow pasture and an amazing view

Adult Chickens who had been rescued from a tornado disaster of a Factory Egg Farm (thousands were left to die, but hundreds were saved by Farm Sanctuary)


My favorite of the animals were the Goats and Sheep; many of these were rescued from urban places (like Brooklyn) where religious idiocy demands they are sacrificed for rituals, or they are horribly provided as food sources. Notice the artificial leg of one of the goats. Several of these goats had lost limbs due to frostbite, torture, and neglect.

Don and Nick with one of the sweet Goats!

My specifically favorite of the animals! A "mohair" goat! God, I really loved this one.

These geese and ducks were rescued from farms, but horrifying is the practice of creating Foie Gras.

Another favorite of mine was the Turkeys. I made a trilling, cooing sound and their necks would stretch and just look at me so seriously,inquisitively. They are such curious and affectionate creatures. We all know from what these were saved.

Nick, Don, Cyprus (and Josh again in second pic) playing with the extremely adorable giant pigs!

These pigs were rescued from farms and some from skin experiments funded by colleges and the government; Pigs are often used as experiments because their skin is so similar to human skin. They are burned alive to study the damages. One pig here had his own skin sliced off and then replaced in several sections across his body as an experiment in helping understand the importance of "face-lift" surgery.




Leo is at least 7 feet tall and most everyone's favorite animal that day. He was a massive animal rescued as a small calf from the veal factories.







The bunnies!

And let's not forget our own rescued babies! They were able to come with us and freely stay at the Farm Sanctuary! Don and Josh on one of the beds in the cabin with Window (in front) and Spyder

Please take time to educate yourself about the choices you can make to increase the compassion on this planet. It is one of the single, most powerful choices you can make. When you remove yourself from the equation of cruelty in any or all of these things: diet, clothing, entertainment, and products, you make a quantum healing contribution to every aspect of discord on our planet.

If you want to make the choice, here are a compilation of links that are a great place to start: I CARE