Sunday, March 22, 2009

Happy Ostara!

Whew, what a weekend!
Classes were good this week, but work was a bit of a grind. I think we were all glad to see the end of the workweek, whenever it was!
Yesterday I got up early, and went to get my truck worked on. There's a church out here, Sagebrush Community Church, that runs a program called Pit Stop Ministries. I found out about them through my college. They hold a clinic once a month to help people in need with car repairs and maintenance. So, I got my front brakes done, with new calipers, pads and rotors, plus an oil change, for no charge! What a blessing! Of course, you know I'm not one to sit idly by, so I jumped in and helped, not only with my own truck, but with a couple of other cars that were getting oil changes and such. Met some really good people, too. Next month's clinic, I'll be able to go back and we'll do the rear brakes (which are really bad) and in between, I can get my idler arm replaced, too. Plus, I have a coupon for 15% off the alignment I'll be needing. Yay! This is really a weight off my shoulders, as I've been quite worried about the truck. I got the wheel hub fixed on my own, and between that and the brakes, I can now go down the interstates safely!
Which leads to today...I was able to go down the interstate to get to Sunflower River for the Ostara celebration. It was a nice simple ritual, with an Eostre Egg hunt! The potluck was yummy, too. There were about 30 in attendance, a good number, but of course not all of our community. There was a later evening event planned by CUUPS, and some folk went to that one instead, I'm sure, and some managed to go to both! I decided to just do the one event, so I stuck around for the music and drumming. A nice relaxing day, which I really needed. My contributions to the potluck were a carmelized onion and pinon pizza, and a carmelized onion quiche, plus a raspberry pie that I had been given.
I do have a nice toasty sunburn on my face and neck, even my ear tops! Most of it's from yesterday, but I'm sure I put a bit more red onto it today. The wind didn't help, either! Guess I'm still not quite New Mexican yet, huh? I wonder if eating more green chile will help with melanin production so I can actually have a tan someday. Probably not ;-) Just too much Irish in me, I suppose.
Time to head to bed, as I have class in the morning. We're past the halfway mark now, and while I didn't do as well as I'd hoped on the midterm for EMS, I could have done worse. It's tied in with my old conditioning, I know, where I have to be the best in order to be anything worthwhile. I'm just hard on myself, that's all, and I'm actually doing better at not getting down on myself for being human and less that perfect. But I still gotta show up on time!