Halloween preview!!
Let's get in touch with our darkness, shall we?
Here is my beautiful daughter Bea as Inferno.
And here's Ingrid as a duck. Ducks can be very dark, especially if you're 21 months old.
Round here, the ladies of the house take Halloween very seriously. I am possibly more excited about Bea's costume than she is.
I'm going to be a highwaywoman. (photo to come on Halloween)
Check out the October 21 journal entry for Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriuez. The "Bea" mentioned three times (who provided bread sticks) and mom Julia is none other than Parthenia and offspring of Parthenia!
As mentioned before, it was a fantastic show.
Ever notice when you really start thinking about a thing, that you realize that it's been with you all the time? No? Well, that's okay, too. This entry does contain the word "freaky" in it, so maybe I'm alone in this.
I never thought I had a thing about octopuses. I like cats, bears, dogs, wolves, sheep, chickens figure prominently in my life, dragons, etc. But not octopuses really. At least I didn't think so. And then I started pondering the whole freaky octopus sex tattoo. I've toned down the idea so that the woman isn't included in the image. I just want a Japanese style octopus tattoo. I've never thought to tattoo cats, cows, dogs, wolves, or sheep on my body, so why octopuses? Stylistically, they lend themselves well to a moving body. There are many Japanese style images of octopuses.
And here's a few places where they have been popping up in my life:
One of my favorite hair toys in a cheap-o clip I got from CVS, called an Octopus Clip
Tako is one of my favorite sushi. I like ika (squid), too. (For some reason, whenever I like something I want to eat it at least once. What better way to get to know something is to know what it tastes like?)
And there's the whole thing about giant octopuses, and the mythical, mysterious Giant squid and Colossal Octopus. Then again, things that are really big or really small are interesting.
There were others, but I can't remember them. I'm not about to start an octopus fan club, but I'm not adverse to becoming an advocate for an octopus positive world.
Preface: it was a great end to a beautiful day, one of the best concerts I've seen in a while, and Carrie Rodriguez and Chip Taylor are wonderfully kind people.
Went on a date with the husband last night. Had a delicious platter of sushi and glass of sake. Forgot to order octopus (tee hee). Then we met some of the husband's co-workers at Packard's for their bocce league season wrap up party. I admitted to one of his co-workers that I still have Ingrid's placenta in my freezer (gotta do something about that...) I went home early, because we had a new babysitter. An awesome babysitter! Anyway, I stayed up late, and woke up late the next morning.
Went to the farmer's market 1/2 an hour late and set up my table. Had a great time, saw the usual suspects, lamented with many folks about how much we're going to miss going to or working the market. Beautiful weather, made $26, and met lots of nice folks. I even got to give a couple of herbal product schpiels. Later, a woman came up to me and asked one of the hair FAQs I get asked: Is that all your real hair? Yup. "Wow!" She said, "If I could grow hair like that, I'd throw a perm in it and make it nice and straight." Um, uh, yeah. I smiled and nodded. Not even worth it. I took it as some sort of compliment, and wrote what she said since it tickled me so much. Lord bless her and help her.
Went to the toy store with Bea to get birthday presents for her friends. We have 2 parties this weekend. Whew! We missed a harvest party at Meg's sister's farm in Plainfield, but for good reasons. I can't be two places at once, and I was to cook for the bands at our coffee house, gave up on the idea of crock pot curry (or anything else from scratch), and resorted to fine frozen lasagne's from BJ's, salad, breadsticks, and grapes. Went over just fine, and many praised my cooking, or rather my ability to pick out good frozen entrees, and not burn them when I cook them. The concert was great, I got my CD's autographed, heard a chillingly beautiful version of "Angel of the Morning" that took my breath away, adored Carrie Rodriguez's fiddle playing, her cool mandobird playing, and her awesome red boots.
And somewhere in all the fun I realized Bea and I were the only black folks in the entire crowd (at least 250 people). I really hate it when that happens, and it really bummed me out. Not enough to ruin the night, but enough to wish we lived somewhere like Atlanta for the rest of the evening. Alas.
I've littered the internet with dead blogs apparently. Here's a knitting pattern from the very first (or maybe second) Parthenia's blog, written sometin in January 2003:
I am a fantasy knitter. I knit (and felt) things like wizard hats for everyday wear, gauntlet mittens. My hats would look good on faeries and gnomes. I interpret literature with my knitting. Sometimes I take it a little too seriously. Sometimes I don't take it seriously enough. If I wear my hat, scarf, mitten ensemble, I look like an elf--a really tall elf. When I add the green cloak, I just look ridiculous to everyone except maybe elves--elves who live where it's cold. But I'm warm, so who cares? It's 0 degrees F tonight. The elves have the right idea...Tonight I finished Bea's "Ollie's Ski Hat". It looks exactly like the one that Ollie wears in Elsa Beskow's Ollie's Ski Trip. All the lamb's in the flock want one. The husband even stopped gloating about his new snowboarding helmet and boots to admire the hat.
OLLIE'S SKI HAT
Ingredients: a little more than a skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky in Raspberry.
Needles: 10 1/5 US circular 16" and dpn's. I probably could've used 10's, and it would've been tighter but I didn't have any.
Gauge: Sorry, kids, no gauge this go'round.
Fits: Well, made to fit a preschooler who's the size of your average 5 year old, but it's supposed to be big (look at the picture) It fits this shepherdess with my big head o' dreads, fits the the husband with his big long haired head. One size really does fit all sometimes, I guess.
Cast on 72 sts on circs. Join and place marker at beg of row. Knit in 3/3 rib pattern (K3, P3) for 10-11". Decrease as follows: *K3, P3, K1, K2tog, P3, K3, P1, P2tog* rpt from * to the end.
Next round: follow new pattern (*K3, P3, K2, P3, K3, P2*)
Next round: *K3, P3, K2tog, P3, K3, P2tog*.
Next: follow new pattern (*K3, P3, K1, P3, K3, P1*)
Next: *K3, P2, K2tog, P3, K2, P2tog*. Eventually you'll have change to dpns.
For each round keep decreasing in the same manner. Just follow the pattern you're making, till you're K2tog all around. Break yarn, pull tail thru all rem sts. Make and then attach a tassel or a pom. I think Ollie's got a tassel.
Ollie's Ski Pattern copyright Parthenia. Reproduce, share, and enjoy, but please don't sell.
This hat needs to be washed and reshaped regularly, but it's still warm. Enjoy!
Here's what I think gaming like a girl means, in reference to blog entry linked above. I meant to write this a long time ago, but I couldn't get my thoughts together. Then today, I was picking up Ingrid, and it came to me. I still can't vouch for conhesiveness, as it is late and I'm very tired but wired due to post migraine insomnia.
First, "Gaming like a girl" is really "Gaming like a woman". (I went to a women's college, not a girl's school, thank you very much.) Just as boys can run like girls, men can play like women.
When gaming like a woman, your character doesn't have to be a woman. Your character doesn't have to be a bitch goddess. Add more dimensions than that. Your character isn't necessarily frilly or cute, but if she is, these are played as strengths or benign features, not weaknesses or ways to manipulate (unless your character is manipulative by nature, not by virtue of being a woman). Your character doesn't have to be a woman (or a feminine man.)
Your character might most likely delve into themes of body image, domestic abuse, children, sex, control and power over one's body and faculty, pregnancy, blood, finding work with a family to care for, breasts, perceived whore vs. virtuous woman, being as strong as a man, but still just considered a bitch, all in a manner that reflects how these issues affect women IRL. These themes come to mind immediately, I'm sure there are others (Anyone who reads my blog?)
So I consciously played a character like a woman the last time I played Dogs in the Vineyard. Her name was Polly, as in Polly, Pretty Polly. She was that very one [Theme of domestic violence]. But after Sweet William buried her, she jumped out of the grave, and went to the steward (Willie was going to be a Dog). Polly took Sweet Willie's place at Bridal Falls. She didn't have much else left for her in the town, since she had a fast repuation that was so shameful to a fine upstanding Dog candidate like William, that he'd try to do her in. [whore? nope, she was virtuous at the time, but a victim of small town gossip] She was a little bitter about it, but she had tried to let go of her anger about the whole stabbing through the heart and her heart's blood flowing, being thrown into a grave and the dirt thrown over her thing. She preferred a knife to a gun [blood], she liked fashionable clothes that walked a fine line between Faithful modesty and Eastern whorishness [whore vs. virtue], she was a chain smoker who offered tobacco as an ice breaker, and she had a very foul mouth (That was just me. Since I've had kids, I've really worked hard to hold my sailor's tongue. I took the oppurtunity to cuss to my heart's content.) She also had poor people skills (would insult them to their face, then apologize, then do it again.), and she really disliked children [Because being a woman doesn't make one a natural mother!] She ministered to prostitutes (converted one, too!) without passing judgement. And she was once a midwife apprentice, which gave her an in with the prostitutes (free cervical/vaginal exams! Whoopee!). [body stuff]
Over the course of the game, it came to pass that Polly often relied on other's perception of what a "lady" was and how one conducts oneself around a lady. She avoided getting arrested by insisting that the deputies wait behind her closed door as she got dressed. She believed that spouses shouldn't withhold sex from each other (nor force one to have sex, or to marry). She had no interest in marriage. [power].
I tried not to play her as an stereotypical rpg strong woman. She was strong in some areas, and very weak in others. She was not terribly soft, not hardened, although being stabbed and buried alive could have easily made her hard. I imagined that she liked to sing. She was not conniving or sneaky. And she was definitely not a bitch goddess. Cranky at times, yes, and quite human.
And then there are breasts. If one plays like a woman, your breasts enter every scene with you, and generally before you enter the room. Especially if you're like me, and you've breastfed 2 kids, suffered through sore nipples, thrush, gravity, and the cruel joke of gaining 2 cup sizes when you're already too busty to buy bras at Victoria's Secret. My breasts and my hair have lives all their own. There was a funny scene in a playtest of a game Emily's working on called "Sign in, Stranger", where my character was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader (can't get any strong girlier than that!). She was sitting around with a bunch of guys, and one woman she had determined to be so "manly" she needed a makeover [a little catty, but not a bitch goddess], and breast and penis jokes came up. I played her getting very uncomfortable, and saying so. Another character made the comment that she was a "real lady". Yes! Real ladies don't sit around and let the conversation make them uncomfortable.
In the next game we play, I will be interested to see where my character goes. One theme that popped up early in creating her was pregnancy, still birth, and child loss. She has a baby born still and her granny tells her how to get a demon that will give her live babies (and all the joy that's involved in making them), but those babies keep disappearing. The demon offers the coldly comforting assurance that they can have another one. It's a common comment made to real women who've had children die. It's a cruel assurance, so there it is, said by a demon with demonic sincerity.
It is an issue that can tear a person apart, male or female; but a woman whose baby dies in utero has an experience and view that only a woman can have. I was not a worrier when I was pregnant. I don't dwell on worst case scenarios. But when I was nearing the end of both pregnancies, every morning I would poke at my belly to wake up my babies. And sometimes those 2-3 minutes before they would start to kick would be very very long 2-3 minutes. I so enjoy playing my darkest fears.
Anyone reading this is going to think I'm a freak. But, I don't think many people other than my friends read this, so I'm going to let my freak flag fly.
In December I'm going to have my 1/2 sleeve tattoo worked on, hopefully to completion, or very near that. I'm always thinking of what I would like next. I have mostly committeed to a Japanese-inspired style, sort of a cross between Horimono and manga. I have a few things I would like to cover up, and I'm a tall woman, so I like to think big. And maybe a little freaky. For my next piece, I would like a full back piece of Hokusai's Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
Now, when I think of getting tattoos, I don't really delve into the deep personal meaning of tattoos. I like dragons and Japanese style art (for tattoos), and I like this style and the dragon, because in my heart of hearts (and not so much in my wallet of wallets), I would like to be almost totally tattooed, full sleeves, half legs, full back (can't bring myself to tattoo the front of me while I'm still bearing, birthing, and breastfeeding babies. If I had to put a "meaning" on my tattoo choices, I guess it would have to be this: I was an exchange student in Japan when I was in high school, and the experience definitely changed my outlook on life, but I am not a fisherman's wife, I don't really have a thing for the ocean (totally earthbound), or octopi, and I definitely don't think about having, um, conjugal relations with octopi, or any other invertebrate or non-primate vertebrate, for that matter. For me, it's all about Japan, Japanese art, and a striking image that I have been strangely drawn to for years. Deep, huh? Well beauty is only skin deep, and apparently so is my inspiration for tattoo art. I'm deep in other areas, I guess.
I asked my husband what would he think if his wife had this tattoo, and what he thought about my wanting this tattoo. Here is his reply:
"I don't know... it's kinda hot.... It would look good."
In his second email he expounded a bit and gave feedback about where he thought I should get the tattoo. I'll keep this blog clean and let you let your imagination go where it wants.
We're going to start playing Sorcerer, and I have created a character who has this tattoo (among others that are violent and erotic, including a headless mermaid), is Japanese, and is an ethnobotanist and professor. I added other creepy things about her, too, but this image probably says more about my latest rpg character than about me. So what does my rpg character (or characters) say about me? I'll have to leave that to the long anticipated essay on roleplaying like a girl, cuz I have determined that I totally roleplay like a girl, and I love it.
I write this with a sleeping Ingrid on my lap. I will be play-testing a game I'm working on tentatively called "Steal Away Jordan" at JiffyCon November. Here's the intro that I actually typed up. Most of the game rules are written, but they're handwritten in my cutie-pie kitten composition notebook. [I work upstairs from an office supply store.] Anyway, the blurb:
Welcome to New Orleans and outskirts of southern Louisiana, ca. 1825. Slave quarters of a large plantation or a city mansion. Or maybe you’re in Memphis, Tennessee, where cotton is king, and the Mississippi River brings commerce and yellow fever. Or maybe you’re on a tobacco plantation in the Carolinas. Wherever you are, it’s at least 40 years before Juneteeth and you're a slave. Maybe you were born on American soil, maybe you managed to survive the trip from your home in West Africa. Wherever you came from, you dream of escape, of going home, of seeing your family again, of uprising, or just waking to another day...
This game will have themes of murder, slave rebellions, brutality, violence, curses (of the conjure kind), and sex.
There you go. Hope you'll help a sista out with her game and come and play.
Update! Playtest available!
