So...you've come wandering my way from my fan fic journal...or a friending meme...or a con...or from the ether...and you think you're ready for the ride?

I guess you should know some stuff about me.

You should start by reading my My Profile -- Lot's of tidbits of information can be found there....including a legend of characters who populate my life so that you won't be confused by the random name dropping that will happen.

( So let's talk about this LJ thing we call friends )

Okay...that's out of the way. What's next?

( I'm a right opinionated wench when it comes right down to it )

( I can be quite foul from time to time. )

( Speaking of the Sex )

( And yeah, I should say something about my filters. )

( What? There's more? )

( Maybe I should finish this off with a handful of random bits. )

Okay...that's enough for now I think. Talk to me...tell me about you. I'm leaving this at the top of my journal for a while...so folks can see it as they wander in.

Welcome to the crazy...

So, first thing was I had trouble getting started, not unusual on the Monday after a long weekend.

I finally got myself motivated and out the door, get to my car, start it and look up.

And completely freak out. Seriously. I couldn't speak, or breathe...and then I started to cry.

( Because some asshole did this to my car )

Me and my mother and our cameras went to the zoo yesterday.

Check out my post about it: http://natalie-jc.livejournal.com/1472.html

So, for those of you that don't know, the Pride festival is so much more than just the parade. For one weekend, the heart of San Francisco is closed off to vehicles and filled with booths and stages and all manner of insanity. At the "gates" into the festival there are people stationed with big white buckets and their job is to collect donations.

( I'll tuck the rest back here for those who don't actually care how it all works )

I'm sorry I missed the Portland spectacle last night, it sounds like it was quite the night! I just have to hold to the knowledge that I get to be there on the 12th.

And that was my weekend folks. If I missed anything important, point it out to me, yeah?

I'm home.

I'm exhausted.

As always, made some wonderful connections, new friends, etc.

Pretty brain fried at the moment.

Too hot to sleep though. It's 10:17 and 93 degrees in my apartment. I opened stuff up and turned on all the fans, trying to get some air flow. Then maybe a cool shower before I crash out hard.

More complete recap of the weekend when i can brain.

It's that time of year again!

I'm up early and nearly ready to leave the house to head up to SF on BART. Will be out of pocket all weekend. I'll have my phone, so if you really need me, text or email. I'll be checking it throughout the day.

Have fun y'all.

And, happy Pride.

So, I made one big oopsie with money this week. I forgot to pay my phone bill before I bought groceries.

Now I find myself needing to pay it (about $100) & I don't get paid until Friday.

I'm offering Tarot readings. $10 for a simple 3 card spread. $25 for a traditional Celtic Cross. $35 for a two person relationship spread.

Paypal to revamara@comcast.net if interested.

Today was kind of like Christmas...and my apartment kind of looks like the aftermath of Christmas.

My camera came in today. To my surprise, they upgraded my order from the two manual lenses, plus wide angle conversion lens, to two auto focus lenses. Only one of them has the image stabilizer though, so on the long lens, I'm going to have to learn to hold still and use the tripod when I can.

I played with my toy, of course. Wanna see?

( An image of Morrigan Kitty hides back here )

We're coming up on Pride, and as usually, the heat is on. The Pagan Alliance is still down a few volunteers for Saturday. And I just lost another three shifts. So you! Yes, you! The one who lives in the Bay Area and is reading this right now. Got a few hours to spare on Saturday? Willing to help out in a fun afternoon of community, half naked (and sometimes completely naked chaos? Swirling colors, loud music, cheerleaders, drag queens, leather daddies, biker babes, femme fatales, boobies, balls, bare butts, meat on a stick, snow cones, and me all decked out in my baby-girl pig tails and butch dyke biker hat, large and in charge.

You get a free T-shirt, water and snacks for the day, plus an amazing experience that helps the Pagan Alliance. This one event provides more than half of the PA operating budget...provided we fill all of our spots. I need to cover 20 shifts (2.5 hour shifts; 10am-12:30, 12:30-3 & 3pm-6) and I only have 13 covered. Work one, work two, work all three.

As an added bonus, you get invited to the PA's volunteer party sometime later in the year. We love our volunteers.

Okay, on that note, I think I'm going to go monkey around with this story that won't finish itself before I call it a night.

I'm kinda cranky and irritable and hibernating.

This actually isn't unexpected considering how full the last few weeks have been with people and things that needed doing, and knowing that next weekend is Pride.

Next week at Pride I will be dealing with bigger crowds of people than I have since P-Con. It takes a lot for me to work up to, and a lot for me to recover from. I love what I do though. I love the money it raises, the people I get to meet. I love that it plays to all my best skill sets. I plan to maybe channel a little Ereshkigal to get me through. She seemed to do me good at P-Con.

I also kind of over spent this week, and need to play the next seven days until payday a little close. I may even postpone my Monday Dr.'s appt. until friday when I get paid, because that's $20 I just don't have. ( All this because I have a small obsession at the moment. )

In case you missed that, yes, I'm going to Portland again in July. My flight gets me into Portland on July 11th at around 3. I fly home on Monday July 13th at OMG-what-time-is-it-thirty in the morning so I can get to work when I get home. I'll be bringing my shiny new toy with me.

And, speaking of shiny new toys...I've started a new LJ that I'm going to be using just for travel-logs/photography. Not just pics of the boys, but pics of places I go and random things that catch my interest. Once upon a time I was a pretty decent photographer...and I'm feeling the pull to go back to it now that everything is digital. natalie_jc is where you'll find that. There will be no obvious ties between that journal and this one. I want to keep that one as professional-sorta-kinda as I can. Feel free to friend it if you like, but I'll probably post links from here when I post over there.

It is linked to the Flickr account where I will also post pictures.

So...what else? Um...health wise, things are...not encouraging. My sugar numbers spiked in the last two weeks again, particularly the fasting number, and the pain this week in the arms has been unhappy making.

I had my nerve conduction test on Monday and my neuro basically told me I was screwed. But she said it with a laugh and a smile and she's a wonderfully warm and witty woman...so I took that to mean essentially that I'm still looking at surgery on the left arm. She said the median and ulnar nerve in that arm are screwed and apparently in my babying of the left arm, I've manage to re-fuck the median nerve on my right.

Lovely.

So is it any wonder that I'm cranky and irritable and hibernating? No, I didn't think so.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Thursday night.