3 is the magic number.

I try not to write sad posts.  But I'm pretty sad at the moment, and this is my blog, so I'm going to write.

August has been a fairly challenging month for me, at least more than the last year and a half has been. Yes, I have it very easy - a husband who loves me and provides for us, food on the table and a roof overhead, a new pet kitteh, a permanent visa so I can live in Australia, lots of family, and effin snuggies, man.  However, despite all of these bonuses, I feel pretty down in spirits.  So, in the last month, I have come to realize three things:

Weddings, Beltane, and decorating, oh my

There's us and to the left is Janina, who was our lovely celebrant.

Good news, everyone.  I got hitched! Will and I got married on the 22nd of October.  We are excited to finally have entered such a wonderful stage in our lives together.  Once we started talking to each other those three years ago, I remember distinctly thinking: This is it. He's the one. And yup. I was right. :)  I'm the happiest I've ever been.

Also good news: not too long until Will and I get to go to the US! I'm super excited to introduce him to everyone in my family stateside, as well as my friends.  He's looking forward to the trip as well - though he insists on getting the majority of the window seats on the flights...

Even more good news: Beltane is coming up (for us down under), Halloween as well, and I am super excited.  Growing up, I loved Halloween, it was my favorite holiday.  It still is.  Though now I am preparing to celebrate Beltane, a majority of my 31st will be taken up by watching some good ol' scary movies with my husband and hoping some Trick or Treaters drop by.  I even bought a little witch hat to wear, ha ha.

For Beltane I think I may encourage Will to drive us out to Wangi for a little bit of a walk in nature.  I'm not used to Aussie seasons yet, and I have to say this winter felt like an autumn or a spring to me.  I mean heck, my neighbor's flowers were blooming all winter.  But I am beginning to notice the little things - really gorgeous flowers were blooming on the side of the road today, it made me want to pull over and take a look but we needed to get to Tuggerah to get my ring resized before huge amounts of people started arriving for late shopping night.

I have been thinking about what I want to do with the spare room now. I think I want to add some colorful cloths, lots of pillows, some small tables, assemble some speakers there, and turn it into a place for relaxing and meditation.  I've been feeling the need to find a comfortable place to do that for a little while now, and Will doesn't seem opposed to the idea.  A little bit of color and rope lights would make that place so much more welcoming and comfortable.


☽☉☾

Have Your Cake...

To "have your cake and eat it too" can be simply translated into, "you can't always have it both ways," as I understand it.

 As I type this, I am sitting at my computer desk, wondering about what life has in store for me.  What am I to become, what will I accomplish?

I want so many things in this life.  I want to lead a guild in WoW, but I also want to follow a leader.  I want to be a teacher, or a psychologist, but I also want to be a small business owner.  I want to live in America, but I also want to live here in Australia.  So many choices, so many appetizing looking slices of cake, I'm not sure which to choose.

Woot! A Quick Update

Our immigration agent sent our visa application this week, and when I last checked, it was on its way to its destination. Yay! I'm so happy to have all the paperwork and stress of that off my chest. Now the most we've got to worry about is the approval of the visa application and repaying the loan we had to take out to pay for all of it while staying afloat with other stuff.

We discovered a book store in Sydney by Central when we went to pay off our application fee. It's called "Basement Books" or something to that effect. It's under the street, in a pedestrian tunnel thing that go to the trams I think. I don't know for sure. But the prices there on books were AMAZING. I bought a new book, The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Practical Magic by Susan Greenwood and Raje Airey. I found it laying amongst books about dream interpretation, and figured that it would be a good read.

Nightscreeching

Imagine yourself sitting in a chair at night, enjoying an episode of one of your favorite shows, reading a good book, or talking to a friend on your computer. All is well, calm, and peaceful. You are sipping your favorite coffee while listening to your favorite tunes, snuggly in your jacket on a chilly Winter's night.

Now imagine that perfect moment of happiness being ripped from you like a band-aid from your skin.

Instead of listening to your favorite show or music, you are now hearing the sounds of some crazy teenagers revving their car's engines so loudly that your windows shake. They scream random profanities at your house. And to top it off, they are holding their car's horn down the entire length of your street.

This has been happening lately. Usually every weekend, at night, someone will rev their engines loudly while holding their horn down and screaming in the direction of my house (it could be a neighbor, but I have my reasons to believe it's me). It is startling, for such loud and obnoxious noises to appear from nowhere, and to be honest kind of frightening.

It's been a while...

It has been quite a while since my last post; several months in fact. I've been pretty busy with things lately, as you might have guessed... But I suppose I should start updating this more often, so here goes.

In March this year I took a flight to Australia again (hooray!) and have been living here in NSW since, with my fiancée. We have our own place (finally) and our prospective marriage visa application should be ready to send in by the end of this week, so that's exciting! We've got to head into Sydney to pay the $2,525 fee that it costs, and then afterwards we've got to bring our receipt back to our awesome agent E., and then he can send it in via courier.

Autumn

Autumn is my favorite season of the year. Being from the Pacific Northwest, that means most of my Autumn is filled with rain and power outages, but there's something mystical about this time of year that just draws me to it.

As nature begins its slow waltz into the somber and dark world of winter, we can see the beauty that life and death have. While trees can flower and bloom in the Spring, stand proudly and beautiful in the Summer, there is nothing else like seeing the leaves changing as they begin to drop from their chilled branches. There is beauty in life, and there is beauty in death. It's the story of our lives; we're born, we live, we fade, and die, just like how it happens in nature.

Someday, I hope to have children. I understand that there is no simple way to explain the complexities of life and death to children... But I hope that the graceful spiral that nature dances as she is born, lives, and dies, will help me in explaining these concepts to my children when the time does come.

That all being said, I love the Pacific Northwest. I love hearing the rain pour down on the roof above me. Some find it distracting, making them unable to sleep. I find that it's extremely calming. When it's pouring, I'm much like the old man who's snoring.

One thing that I can't easily sleep through, though, are lightning and thunder storms. Ones in the Pacific Northwest are fine. But there was one in particular when I was visiting in Australia that made me uneasy and unable to sleep. It was extremely loud and bright, and felt like it was right over my boyfriend's house. Scary. o.o

-Manda-