Today is the Spring Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere, a date which pagans call Ostara (from the same root word as Easter, estrus, estrogen, etc.)
The Goddess of Spring awakens under the earth following Her long winter repose. Her Divine Feminine energy spirals upwards to the surface to bring growth, renewal and new life to the world once more.
Sure, an' tis a grand day for to be gettin' drunk and havin' that tattoo done what ye've always been hankerin' for. Ye know that St. Pat hisself would approve, now. Faith, an' ye should have seen what HE had tattooed on his arse, the old divil what was. Go now -- the Guinness awaits ye.
[Reposted from 2010. So sue me, I was busy this week and didn't have time to write anything new. I figured a Blast From The Past would suffice!] [Also, just to be clear, I can use Irish stereotypes because I have Irish heritage myself *hic* so feck off!]
Taking her cue from Monty Python's infamous skit, Leeanna Henderson of Can We Have a New Witch, Ours Melted has now started up her own BLACKMAILING home business. To cite one of her recent posts, "Yeah, just wave the pretty shiny things and the paper money and I'll take those incriminating pictures off my blog."
Ha ha, pretty funny, right? But then, just a couple of days later, this photo shows up in my email with a demand for HUSH MONEY! "Where's my check?" Leeanna wrote menacingly. I was so rattled, I didn't even correct her appalling American misspelling of the word cheque. And then, clearly upping the pressure, she repeated her evil demand in the comments on my last post!
OMG, she's accusing me of seducing STRAIGHT WOMEN! Unless I pay her BIGGA BIGGA BUCKS, she's going to put my REAL name on that photo instead of the pseudonym "Gloria" (*nervous laughter*)
I have, of course, retained legal counsel to fight this. THE BEST LAWYER MONEY CAN BUY! My attorney Bill Clinton has issued this official statement on my behalf:
"Debra She Who Seeks categorically states that
she did not have sexual relations with that woman!"
He'll settle your goddamn hash, Leeanna! You picked the WRONG LESBO to blackmail, you bloodsucker!
Today's post is kind of a sequel to my Monday post about the introductory calligraphy course I took in February. Dezzy of Hollywood Spy -- ever the hard-nosed journalist -- demanded "Where's the photographic evidence?" Stacy of MagicLoveCrow and Debi of Puddleduck Grange aided and abetted him in making these demands.
So okay, okay! Here are my three best practice sheets (all from the final class) -- blots, splatters, erratic letter sizes, wonky spacing and all!
On this day every year, my blog post always focuses on how WONDERFUL women are, rather than focusing on the many, many struggles in which we must all still engage to obtain, guarantee and preserve equality rights. Those struggles are what the OTHER 364 days of the year are for. Today is for CELEBRATION! *cue Cher*
So in February, I took an introductory evening course in calligraphy. The short course just covered the basics, like understanding the characteristics of different nibs, learning how to dip the pen in liquid ink, acquiring the central skill of making thick and thin lines and practising some basic alphabets.
Dipping the pen proved to be a challenge for me. After the first class, I was ink from ass to tea kettle, as the old saying (sort of) goes. It took days for the black ink to finally wash off my hands. Good thing it wasn't red ink or I'd have looked like a serial killer.
In the second class, for reasons unknown to me, my efforts at calligraphic writing produced a loud skritch, skritch, skritchnoise that was literally heard throughout the whole classroom. Perhaps I was pressing too hard, I don't know.
One of my coworkers signed up for this class too, which was great because she's fun to be around. She took to calling me "Inky and Scratchy," which I actually thought was quite clever. I certainly butchered enough calligraphy paper to warrant comparison to that violent duo, LOL!
