I'm sorry I used non-iyawo-appropriate language in that last post (someone also took me off their friend list after that, but it was someone I don't even know anyway). But that kind of thing makes my blood boil and steam come out of my ears.

Anyway, I've been meaning to write for a while and apologize for not doing so. I was even going to use bullet points, but I don't have the presence of mind for that at the moment.

Mom has been doing surprisingly well. The last few times we've seen her she's been alert, engaged and seemingly content. Yesterday she had one of her sweaty/clammy/dizzy spells again and apparently passed out briefly while they were getting her dressed. They called the hospice nurse to come out and see her. I guess even before the nurse got there she was improving, color getting better, etc. I'm going out to see her this afternoon.

I've been getting at least two good walks around the neighborhood a week. Tuesdays evamoon comes over after work (all the way out from Tualatin, bless her heart) and we walk around for a while. Last week kik_inouye joined us and that was fun. And then on Thursday mornings, byroncaloz and I have started visiting Mom before Byron goes to work. When we're done he drives as far as the turnoff to the St. Johns Bridge, drops me off and I walk the rest of the way home. It's a pretty good workout. Now if I can just get myself doing something similar the other days of the week.

I'm feeling really inspired to work on Radio Bastet lately. There's a site redesign in the works, and I'm in the process of moving the LP cover gallery to Flickr. When I first started uploading pics, I neglected to consider the "safety rating." Somebody flagged the set as "not safe for everyone," and I got a nastygram from the Flickr overlords. Oops. I didn't realize women in sparkly bedlah displaying their feminine pulchritude = DANGER WILL ROBINSON! So the default safety level is now set at "moderate." FOR GOD'S SAKE WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN? I've been updating the RB pages at Facebook, Tribe, MySpace and here - you guys all know there's a Radio Bastet community here, right? radio_bastet Join today or be uncool forever - and there's even a Twitter page now. Links to all those can be found on the info page at radio_bastet. And, if byroncaloz can get me some space cleared out at Zolac Media (aka his office), I have some LPs I haven't digitized yet and some album covers to scan. I can't draw, paint, or sculpt, but I can sure digitize music and make websites with tiled backgrounds. Yep, I can.

The house reorganization/getting rid of old junk continues apace. The ARC van will be dropping by tomorrow to pick up a bunch of stuff. There is now such a nice clean space on the floor of the closet in the bedroom that Marvin has started sleeping there.

Speaking of the kitties, they are fine too. There are a bunch of new cats in the neighborhood who keep picking fights. Marvin continues to charm the neighbors into giving him treats. Sirius keeps sneaking in and helping himself to the food supply and sleeping in my computer chair or on the futon. He is one bold and brazen cat. If you pick him up he hisses, which is understandable. But the other day I made the mistake of letting him come inside and petting him, and then when he went for the food I said "NO!!", and he hissed at me! I didn't even touch him! He's getting too much of a sense of entitlement. No more petting him when he sneaks in, I guess. Bad kitty. Bad me!

Iyawo-wise I'm doing well. The endless washing of whites continues, and I'm pretty much done with sitting on the floor for meals (done in my head, I mean, not officially yet). Spirit work at my boveda is going well, I've got a Seven African Powers altar going (if I can keep Marvin off of it, that is), I've got my santera supplies cabinet packed full o'goodies, and I'm feeling very centered and grounded spiritually for really the first time in my life. I wonder how that happened? :-D

Speaking of spiritual stuff, I'm thinking of hanging out my shingle again, but only as a spiritual altar worker/candle worker/light setter. I will dress candles, I will pray, and I will try to do candle glass divination. That's it. No complicated spells, I'm not a psychic, none of that sort of thing. I still need to think about this, but the pull is strong. I would probably apply to be listed here instead of attempting another ladyhearted.com type of thing.

And, speaking of other stuff I'd like to do once my year is up, I'd like to take fencing lessons and learn how to play the theremin. Also, I'm going to start growing roses.

So, there you go.

"Conservative" website calls Obama children "street whores" and "ghetto trash"

I say "conservative" because a true conservative would never stoop to such an abomination. If you don't like Obama, fine. Talk all the trash about him you want, it's your right (doesn't mean anybody will listen, but still). You can even talk trash about his wife, if you feel that you must (again, no guarantee anyone will be listening, but knock yourself out).

But you have ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING RIGHT to say this kind of thing about CHILDREN. NONE. ANYONE'S child. Do I make myself clear? I hope so.

So if you are too, please add me at deviantART, OK?  OK.

Our coffeemaker DIED today.  Did we keep the one we got from Mom's place when we sold her house?  Of course not.  So Byron is out buying a new one.  That's really the only major thing that happened today.  Byron worked from home, and I sat here on the laptop all day.  Did I go and read like I wanted to?  NO.  And it was 90-something degrees again today.  BLARG.

Or at least when he's supposed to be working... He finds stuff like this!



Don't quit your day job, Buzz.

Avoiding the upstairs computer this weekend due to the stupid heat wave. Around 95 yesterday, low 90's the rest of the weekend. Blarg. I hate summer. However, I have this intense desire to read. I'm sick of TV. I just want to sit and read and read and read. Should probably do that.

"This is too much, cats. Too much. I have dutifully watched your videos since you first took over the Internet, but this crosses the line. Warning: Do not watch. This video may be evil. It's like that video from The Ring, but for cats."



MY GOD HE MAY BE RIGHT

Minnesota Supreme Court is Unanimous: FRANKEN WON

Man. If you look up "sore loser" in the dictionary, Norm Coleman's face is right there. Dude. You lost. OK? Get on with your life, for cryin' out loud.



(Al Franken-Stein, ZOMGLOL!!!!!!)

2tonebeatnik is now danceswithfish.

Oy, she's done it again.  Well, I think this one really fits.  I love to dance, and I'm going to start taking bellydance lessons again after my year is up.  And then there's Yemaya, and the fish angle, and the mermaid angle, etc.  I like this name because it's goofy but reverent - just like me.  I've finally figured out that that's how I roll.  So there ya go.

I had an excellent walk this afternoon with evamoon, and she stayed for dinner (it's veggie taco night, you know) and 2 episodes of Monty Python.  That's what I call an evening well spent.  

I also got 3 new podcasts up at Radio Bastet.  You guys know there's a Radio Bastet community here, right?  radio_bastet   Check it out, won't you?  Thank you!

Faux News gets legal go-ahead to lie, lie, lie

Journalistic integrity? Any kind of integrity? Has anyone seen it lately? Anyone? Does it even exist anymore?

I'm just.... I'm flabbergasted. This leaves me speechless.

ETA: This story is a month old! How come we're just now hearing about it??

(tip o'the hat to the mighty plague_of_frogs at FB)

There ya go. I feel so much better now.

ETA: Photoshopped. Still - that woman is 100 times braver than I'll ever be.

I think we all will. Peaceful rest with the real angels, Farrah.

I has Skype now!  Got it mostly for overseas chats with odelenu, but if anyone else would like to add me, doooo eeeeet.  My username is omilade77.  I'm still trying to figure out how it works, so bear with me.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled activities.

In other news, I helped casperini celebrate her first ocha birthday this past weekend! A good time was had by all. Maferefun Oshun!

Life is just humming along. Mom is doing OK considering. The kitties are enjoying the nicer weather, byroncaloz has some interesting projects in the pipeline, and I need to work on getting some more Radio Bastet podcasts up. I'm trying not to let the news depress me too much.

And OMG did you guys know about this????

CAN. NOT. WAIT.

I want to take this opportunity to give a major shout-out to Mystic Hollow Farm Goat's Milk Soap. apocalypso23 and I bought some at the little feed store near her house; I think the gal who makes them works there. It is THE GREATEST SOAP EVER. The iyawo is using the unscented kind, but it's still incredibly yummy. Will not dry out your skin, it's (for Oregonians anyway) locally made, goat's milk is one of the best things for your skin EVER, and the goats are ADORABLE. So try some today, won't you? Thank you!

Iyawo Meez



I chose the red rose background because there are going to be a lot of red roses in my future...

I realized (thank you supermisty) that I just kind of jumped into the iyawo thing without a real explanation of what that is. A newly initiated Lucumi priest is called iyawo for their first year and seven days, known as the iyaworaje. "Iyawo" literally means "bride," so it's kind of like you're "marrying" the orisha that crowns you, even though he or she is considered your parent. (Same-sex marriage? No problem here!) The iyawo can't be addressed by their ocha name unless "iyawo" is in front of it. For example, you can't call me Omi L'ade yet; it's Iyawo Omi L'ade. A iyawo doesn't enjoy the full benefits of priesthood until their year and seven days are up. It's kind of like being a baby; you slowly grow into it.

Some of the iyawo restrictions are: (BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: This is how we do it in our house. Your mileage may vary.)

* Wearing all white for the entire year and seven days. After several months certain restrictions like sleeve length are relaxed. Part of the initiation rite included getting your head shaved, so you have to wear two head coverings for the first few months, then you should be able to just wear one. (BTW, I LOVE being bald! But no worries, it's already growing back. I do like the peach fuzz effect, though.) Plus when you go out you wear all your elekes (orisha necklaces) and bracelets.

* Sitting on a mat on the floor for meals, which are eaten in silence on a special plate your godparent got for you (you get a bowl and cup too), and only with your special spoon. After several months you get to sit at the table, but you still use your special dishes and spoon.

* Sleeping on a mat on the floor next to your orishas, which are also on the floor. After a few months your orishas get elevated, and so do you!

* No make-up, jewelry other than your orisha jewelry, perfume, nail polish.

* No looking in the mirror for the first few months. You have to cover up all the mirrors in your house, or at least the ones you pass by every day.

* No getting your picture taken.

* No touching or being touched by anyone who isn't a close member of the family or an initiated priest/another iyawo. This includes having things handed to you. The person should put whatever it is down in front of you, and then you pick it up. (Naturally, the reverse is true if you're giving something to someone.) This is so you don't give away your ashe (vital life energy you received during initiation) needlessly.

* No being outside at the noon hour, or after dark (it's preferable to get your butt indoors half an hour before sunset).

* No going out to restaurants, movies, big gatherings where there will be lots of people. No major traveling. You need to keep yourself as calm, cool and collected as you possibly can. That crown needs to settle in.

That's all that readily comes to mind at the moment. It's been pretty good so far, but I'm kind of over having to sit on the floor for meals. Oh, well. Offer it up.

So we have hospice all set up, and Mom gets to go back to Harvest Homes at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon!  She was pretty much back to her old self today.  She even said several times that the view from her window was "beautiful."  That's a word I haven't heard her use in a long time.  So things are looking up, a bit.

Feeling sad and weirded out about the death of David Carradine.  I don't know if it was autoerotic asphyxiation or not, but I can tell you that's not how you want to go.  When I worked at the pathology lab in Mt. Vernon I typed up several autopsy reports, and one of them was a case of AA in a young man who was only 24.  It was ugly and horrible.  Orgasms are great, but worth dying for?  I don't think so.  Anyway, I always enjoyed him whatever he was in, so I'll try to remember him that way.

Weather is getting windy, muggy and stormy.  It was 90 yesterday.  We're in for some thunderstorms, they're telling us.  I definitely feel like sleeping for hours.

We had a really good talk with the doctor on call at the hospital today.  He said that often with elderly patients with a chronic problem like Mom's, each time they are hospitalized they are less able to bounce back afterwards.  The "rescues" take more and more out of the patient and deplete their resources.  He said Mom will always have a problem with aspiration, and that will increase her risk of pneumonia, and so it goes.  He also said something we hadn't considered before - dementia in and of itself causes death.  It messes with the mind so much that the body eventually starts to shut down.  As we say in Lucumi in a slightly different context, "the head leads the body."  Mom's body is beginning to shut down.

Since we don't want Mom to suffer and want to keep her as comfortable as possible til the end, we've decided to get her some hospice care.  We had an excellent discussion with the nurse who is the hospice coordinator.  Thankfully Mom would be able to remain at Harvest Homes since they work with the Providence hospice caregivers.  It sounds like they have all the bases covered, so all the worry would be off our shoulders.  All we have to do now is let them finish the course of antibiotics, and she may be able to go home by the end of the week.

She was barely conscious when we saw her today, but she did know it was us and was glad to see us.  We kept saying "I love you" back and forth.

This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  Thank you all for all your love/support/best wishes/healing mojo. 

Oh!  And today I finally got called out.  Byron and I went to the grocery store on our way home, and this man stopped me and asked where I got my necklaces from.  "Um, [ACK how do I frame this?] my godmother."  He said, "But what country?"  I said, "Right here."  He said, "Is it a religious thing?"  I said "Yes."  He said, "Which religion, please?"  I said "Lucumi."  He said, "Is that Oriental?"  I said "No, it's more Afro-Cuban."  He said "Ahh....  Yoruban?"  I said "Yes!"  He said, "Ah, OK!  Thank you!"  I'm not sure if he was an employee there, but he had a nametag on - Luiz.  Hmm....

Mom went to the ER again last night.  She was cold and clammy (but hot on her forehead), very agitated and had developed a lump under her chin on the right side.  They discovered she has pneumonia - AGAIN - and admitted her.  The doctor was very frank and said with everything that's going on, keeping her comfortable is the main priority.  She's barely eating and is refusing to take her meds orally.  So, it looks like this may be the beginning of the end.  How long the downward slide will be, it's hard to say.  It's been difficult accepting the fact that she probably won't make it through the year.  But we'll all be relieved when her suffering is over.  Thank God for byroncaloz .  If it wasn't for him I'd have gone stark raving mad a long time ago.  We got home about 1:00 this morning.

First of all, THANK YOU so much to everyone who sent their best wishes on my initiation.  I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that it finally happened!

This last week or so has been challenging, to say the least.  Mom went back to Harvest Homes from the skilled nursing facility last Monday, seemed to settle in OK and we were all relieved.  Then, first thing Wednesday morning we get a phone call from Harvest Homes:  "We need to move Betty to the Alzheimer's unit immediately."  Um what?  I had planned on going over there that morning anyway to accompany Mom to her anti-coag clinic appt.  So Byron and I head over there all worried and a little bit peeved.  Turns out that she is still a handful for them in the residential care unit.  They thought she was a one-person transfer; she's really not.  She's getting harder and harder to understand.  She definitely has a degree of dementia going on, but she still recognized Byron and me so I wouldn't call it Alzheimer's just yet.  They took us on a tour of the Alzheimer's unit, called "The Garden," and we were pleasantly surprised.  It's much smaller and quieter there, there's more nurses aide-type staff, and she can eat on her own schedule (even though she's hardly eating anything anymore; she's lost about 12 lbs since her hospitalization).  Her room is much smaller but she doesn't seem to mind.  All in all, it's a smart move.  So we moved her there after we got back from her anti-coag appointment.  She seems to be doing OK, but almost all she says anymore is "sister please."  She started saying that during her hospitalization last year when she had her surgery.  Not sure where it comes from; a remnant of her Catholic childhood, maybe?  At any rate, we'll see how this goes.  Keeping her comfortable is priority #1.

How is the iyawo doing?  Pretty darn good.  I gotta say, having to sit on the mat for meals really makes me think about what I want to eat and when.  I've definitely been eating much healthier than I normally would be.  Tonight we're having Cincinnati chili.  Will absolutely be breaking the perciatelli noodles in half to make them easier to eat with a spoon!  I've been out and around a few places, and have definitely gotten some looks from people but so far nobody's strong-armed me and asked "So why all the white?"  Oh, and you know something else?  Being bald IS AWESOME.  Well, I can't really say I'm completely bald anymore, but having peach fuzz instead of a full head of hair IS AWESOME too.  I'm definitely keeping it short once my year is up.  Maybe not that short.  But you know, the pixie gamine look, maybe.

Gotta go get ready for dinner!

Oh hi! So what did I miss?

I was initiated as a priest of Yemaya Okute one week ago today by my beautiful godmothers, odelenu and apocalypso23 , and many other incredible people.  My father in ocha is Obatala.  My ocha name is Omi L'ade, which means "Yemaya has given me a crown."  It was a beautiful, mysterious, intense, life-changing experience that I will never forget.  I arrived home yesterday from my week on the throno and am starting to get reaquainted with the world again.  It's good to be home, and it's even better to know that the world is my home.

And so my Iyawo year in white begins.  Maferefun the Iyaworaje!

Your old and yet new pal, Iyawo Omi L'ade