A couple of months ago, Leon and I went shopping with friends to Oakland Nursery (I know, right? Move from 10 miles north of Oakland, clear across the country to Columbus to shop at… Oakland Nursery…) and we picked up a bunch of plants. I just transplanted the last of them today. We’ve had everything to do so, but, well, we were lazy. So into their new homes they went.

Among these was an aloe plant. I love having aloe around. It’s wonderful for burns, sure, but more than that, it reminds me of growing up. (My mother, for all she professes to be a strong Lutheran (and she is, don’t get me wrong), taught me more kitchen witchery than anyone else in my life, books and pagan teachers combined. Come to think of it, so does my dad. He cooks by feel, and it always comes out amazing. I hope to be as good at that craft as those two. It’s no wonder they raised one full pagan and three half-pagans.) In any case, Mom always had aloe around, and usually, we have anywhere in the neighborhood of fifteen to twenty aloe plants at any given time.

So, in the course of the last two months, this aloe plant has been… indiscriminate, evidently. I now have three aloe babies. I’ll be gifting one of these to some friends, but if anyone local would like one of the remaining plants, I’ll gladly gift them out as well, as I’m sure that I’ll have more sooner rather than later. And plants, especially aloe, are good to have around. And these don’t take much upkeep.

My knitting has slowed WAY down lately. I’m working on the second of a pair of socks for Leon, and a mesh market bag for us to use. There’s a store a block away that, in order to keep consumer costs down, sells their plastic bags at a dime each. We have far more plastic bags than anyone really truly needs, and they’re clogging the landfills at an astronomical rate every day, so with my vast stash of cotton yarn (yay for Sugar ‘n’ Cream!) I’m knitting up mesh bags. I’m just doing a basic garter lace (row 1: k2tog, yo, repeat to end of row; row 2: knit) and I started with a modified toe-up cast on that took me a while to figure out, but one of which I’m proud. I think I’ll have to go back to Joann or Hobby Lobby or Michaels and get more of the colors I have, since I’m sure it’ll take more than two skeins to finish each bag. It’s cheap, though, so I’m happy. I prefer to use the more eco-friendly bags than the crappy plastic anyway. And what ever happened to “Paper or plastic?” anyway? Responsibility goes right out the window, evidently.

Jobhunting continues. I interviewed with Adecco on Thursday, and got to actually sit down with the rep who handles the admin positions at Limited Brands, where Leon works. She’s the same awesomeness who got him his job at Victoria’s Secret. I’m hoping she can work the same magic with me. There are two positions for which she’s submitting me: one is a temp data entry job and the other is a temp-to-hire position at Bath and Body Works. That’s the one I really want. The extra money that it has over the other one is just a bonus, really. Being able to get in there and maybe make a difference in the company is what I really want. I haven’t said anything about it because I wanted to continue to process about it, and I really don’t want to jinx anything. So here I sit, quietly praying and hoping.

JaguarMoon’s class period started at the beginning of the month. I’m still learning some of the pieces of what we’re doing (from the technical side of it; I’m the coven’s technospecialist as well as the webweaver, and there are new things we’re working on for the tech side), and it’s caused some snarls that we’re getting unsnarled. We have what seems like a good group of women this year. Note that I said “women”. We have zero men in the class, and that’s stressful and saddening to me.

It gets hard being the only guy in the picture, and while I know that my covenmates are supportive, sometimes they just don’t get it, y’know? So many women tend to get into Wicca because it’s a goddess religion. They promptly forget that, to paraphrase my friend Toby’s email .sig file, a religion without a god (as well as a goddess) is halfway to atheism. Male energy is just as important as female energy, and sometimes, I just really feel marginalized in my faith. I work with Bast and Hecate on the Goddess side, and Pan, Neptune, Lugh and Coyote on the male side. I’ve always been more male-centric spiritually, and I feel it’s because I’ve got to have that balancing force with all the female energy around me so that the male energy doesn’t get ignored or pushed away.

I have some really wonderful friends. In the last week, I’ve gotten “because I love you” care packages from Theo (she sent me Taming the Tiger Within) and Lisa (she sent me a few body products from Magickal Realism, a book that I’ve been wanting to read and review [Faith and Magick in the Armed Forces] and SEVEN Inkubus Sukkubus CDs.) as well as a bunch of email and support from so many other people. I can’t express my gratitude enough. I really can’t. It’s kind of overwhelming sometimes.

I walked in the AIDSWalk Central Ohio yesterday. It was a great way to start the morning, but I was kind of disappointed with the ending. It was a 5k walk, and while the beginning was very upbeat (well, except for the frickin’ Wilson Phillips CD on repeat), but once we got to the end, there was nothing. Just “you’re done, go home”. Kind of odd and disturbing. I guess I’m just more used to more pomp and revelry in my AIDS walks. And, um, not one drag queen. NOT ONE! What the hell?? An AIDS fundraiser without queens? What good is that?

Then Leon and I went to see Hancock. Fun show, with a great take on the Generic Superhero mythos. It’s good solid entertainment. We ran into friends between the walk and the movie, and have decided that next week, while half the damn country is at Dark Knight, we’re going to see Hellboy 2. Anyone else want in?