A Year Begins with Mercury Retrograde

Property of Stormberry

 Happy 2023. The year started with us dipped in Mercury Retrograde season, and truth to be told, it didn't feel much like Mercury Retrograde once we were in it. Or at least it didn't feel so for me. Could it be that I'm learning to surf it better? I did try to be careful and concentrate more in the introspective part of the equation, taking time to meditate instead of jumping into action with a now-or-never attitude. There were lucky strikes through this season and really good stuff I had not expected.

But at the same time, I did saw people being roughed up in the waves of the retrograde, getting bad news and trying to start things that worked against them. Not in the least, I saw that in politics, but then again most of politics nowadays seem to be living in permanent Mercury Retrograde, independently of what are the celestial bodies doing or where they are.

I'm taking my time with my thesis (again), which shows in the fact that I have taken several weeks off active thesis work, dealing mostly with thought process and organizing my ideas, but without commiting anything or much to paper. Then, notes started jotting on scraps of paper, into the notes section of my planner, or the margins of the printed out versions of the chapter drafts I have specifically put on paper for this reason: so they organically catch the notes and ideas in a way that I can see them and relate to them easier. I don't cease to admire people who can do all their notetaking digitally, on so many tablets, phones and apps, because that to me seems so dry, so lifeless and more messy than my own handwritten notes. Not that I'm entirely analog, mind you, but paper and pen will always trump the electronic options. At least for now.

Today I came to a Starbucks store I recently discovered, at La Ribera in Belén (Heredia, Costa Rica). It's not the closest one to my place (that would be the one in Plaza Real, Alajuela), but I like this better. The place is small, calm, not overly cold and is located is a good neighborhood, in the front court of a hotel I have not heard much about, and frequented by people who pull out their laptops to do laptop-things. Let's not pretend that everybody here work or study, as I am here and I'm doing neither. Tomorrow I'll come again, but then I'll meet for afterwork coffee with my dear friend Mario, and probably his wife Arelys too. That will be a social visit. This one is a Me-Date, and as such I'll get to strike out two things from my List of 13:

• Have a me-date
• Blog

Cool, huh? I love doing stuff from my List of 13 (which is the whole point of the list). I also was in need of a little brain-break, as I was working at home, and also took the chance to do some thesis work in the down time. I felt tempted to continue BUT that would have not been wise: the brain needs to be rested regularly to keep it working well. I had also a practical excuse to get myself out of the house, namely that I had to tank the car because my brother borrowed it on Tuesday and brought it back with the fuel light on (not cool, really), but also because I'm running low on groceries so I have to go shopping for sustenance. I would have come yesterday, but after work I wasn't feeling much like it, so I procrastinated.

Today, however, that was no longer an option as I really had to deal with the fuel and the food, and leaving it for tomorrow, when I'm meeting with Mario and Are is not really an option. I wanted a relaxed, enjoyable outing, and worrying whether I've enough fuel to make it to the nearest, acceptable gas station is not enjoyable in the least. And besides, I wanted my me-date. I needed my me-date.

Last Saturday I met with a friend for her birthday, and, well, the outing wasn't all that pleasant. There was an awful experience there, where she tried to return some skincare products she had bought but which had fallen and broken. The store didn't take it back and my friend got upset. Really upset. Honestly, I was taken aback, as I have never heard of a store here that would receive back a good that has been broken by the customer, whether on purpose or not. The whole experience was awfully unpleasant and uncomfortable, and then she didn't let go of the topic. It could have been such a nice day, otherwise.

There was something else though, that was strange. Her husband and Mario are very good friends and are part of a friendly gambling group that bets mostly on the outcome of the NFL. The five of us have gone out and met a couple of times, so one could say that we are all friends. And we five have also gone out in the prepandemic days on #NFLtours, which were the Costa Rican Twitter buch parties that we organized to go see a game together, open to anyone who saw the tweet and wanted to join. I met my friend and her husband in one of those gatherings. So, all this to make clear that the NFL games are a thing for us. All of us.

So, on Saturday this friend tells me that Mario and her husband are planning a grill party at Mario's to watch the Super Bowl, and if I'm going. That it was something just the five of us. I was surprised, because I would have expected to hear of this first from Mario, not from this friend. Mario and I are really close, like siblings. I would have thought he would tell me before asking my friend's husband. I assumed there was a reason Mario had said nothing, so I told my friend I would have to check my calendar. The next day or maybe on Monday I asked Mario, as Mario had still told me nothing of this close party I was supposed to be part of.

Well, it turns out that it wasn't a grill party for the five of us at Mario's place, but an activity for the NFL betting gang, it was going to be at a party ranch at Mario's condo, with a small gathering of max 20 people. Mario was a bit confused but said that of course, if I wanted to go, I was more than welcome, but he had said nothing because it was still just an idea, nothing had been arranged or booked and it was a betting gang thing, not an "us" thing. I told him not to worry, that I still have to see if I can fit the activity in my agenda, as the Super Bowl is on Sunday, at night and I would still have to drive home and have someone feed my furry children. However, I do was upset that my friend had mislead me.

I messaged her, and told her that I heard something different from Mario about the activity, and I still wasn't sure I would be able to attend. Then she doubled down, said "Oh you know how Mario is..." and claimed that the original idea was only the five of us, but Mario made a huge thing of it. So she would need me to be there because sure the men would be doing their thing and she didn't want to get bored, so it would be good if I was there to keep her entertained. The audacity. I thought for a moment about unloading Mercury Retrograde on her, but then, if I haven't unloaded it on Sinner, why would I waste my anger on her? She also noted quite upset that the founder of the betting gang (M) would be there, since she's terribly jealous of this woman. Mario did tell me that M would be there, as she was the founder, though M had taken distance from the group and was pursuing other interests, so it wasn't sure she would be there.

I left most of her message unanswered, and told her that, again, I wasn't sure I would go, but even if I did, wasn't going to be anyone's lady in waiting, because I would be watching the game, so probably I would be bunched up with the men, as well as all the people who have an interest in the NFL (all attending), but that she could try and talk to Are, that it would do her good to expand her friend group, and maybe talk with people who have things in common with her.

Since doubling down here was no longer an option for her, she messaged back saying "Oh, I wasn't aware you liked American football!". Does she remember how we met?

Sunday Breakfast

 

Property of Stormberry

These last weeks have been really something, and I mean that in the most stressing and absurd of ways. I wrapped around my witchy side, my path and flicked my hand and said "Oh, this is all Mercury Retrograde", and though I want to believe it has exacerbated some things, trust me, not all of this crazy is due to a god up there - or a planet - doing a rendering of Michael Jackson's Moonwalk. 

But what has been happening? Well, let me tell you. It's quite crazy, I promise you.

First of all, there was this project at the office on which I was working last year, and which had a lot of "special circumstances" surrounding it. You know, the typical case were a task gets wrapped in office-politics. A lot of people had to give data for it, a lot of it wasn't matching, and then there were differences in opinions about how to do this or that, what should be included, what not, and so on. It becomes extra-complicated when there are a lot of opinions, but basically only one person actually doing the document, and trying to fit the unfitting parts others want in it.

But, in the end - the last workday of 2020, the project was finished, reviewed by the group and sent on its way. Or... well, maybe. Anyway, then it seems that other people were also working on the same project, and they didn't know about the document I compiled, and so some feathers were ruffled. THEN, in these past weeks, it happens that we noticed that one of the annexes of the document weren't updated. The info in the document was, but not one item in one annex. Well, that was enough for hell to break loose. Before you ask, no, actually the outdated data wasn't all that different from the previous one, and the impact on the whole was minimal. Not like it reflected on the content of the document, because there the calculations were done with the updated information.

So I checked, I found other mistakes, corrected them, and sent the document revised, corrected and updated. No biggie, right? Well, no. Those who were there, giving opinions and sending a flurry of documents my way, act as if the London Bridge has fallen down. It did upset me, honestly, because it was an honest mistake, and the ones berating me actually were tasked with revising the document, so they should have caught the slip earlier. It took me sometime, some meditation, calming rose quartz and grounding hematite, but I let it slide. You know, it must be the Mercury Retrograde.

Found at
 https://www.horoscope.com/

I did consult on my Tarot decks, and the first one showed me The Tower. Yeah, catastrofe, but also the moment when false ideals fall, and the truth is revealed. This certainly was a moment where this sort of message seemed to fit like a glove.

Then... because these kind of things never come alone, classes at the Master's Program really got heavy. We had accumulated for this week four projects for three classes (yeah, in one we have two), and though I had worked in one of them before hand, and on the other I'm with some classmates that really pull their weights, all of that got toppled with an insane amount of readings, just for this week. There is an average of how much our readings add up per week, and the normal amount is about some 60 pages per week. There have been outliers, like weeks were it goes up to 120, but this week alone we've got  600 pages just for one class, and a homework that's taking most of us over two days to at least have the outline.

I haven't been able to read anything (I mean, like novels, my leisure readings and stuff like that), because I'm constantly busy, and it's driving me crazy because it feels like it never ends.

And my house also got a leaking pipe (there was one, but now we found another, and this is really big, and in a complicated place), so yes, there are plenty of issues to keep me even more occupied.

So, what to do?

Property of Stomberry

Well, first, make yourself a coffee, maybe order some brain-sustenance (donuts, I ordered donuts), and make a plan of what can you do, what needs to be done now, what can be pushed back for later, what can you just leave without doing (like summarizing tasks or sharing them with others). Break those tasks in smaller chunks and do as much as you can. So you may not be able to finish it all, but see what can you finish and what really, really needs to be finished and when it is due.

I know the assignments and the essays need to be done because my grades depend on that, but not the readings. I can skip reading, or do it later, after the class, just reading the parts that weren't clear from the presentation. Thankfully, these classes have no tests, so there's no problem with that.

And when you have had such a stuffed week or two weeks or month, take a break, start your Sunday with a special breakfast. Today I tried making a poached egg for the first time, and I made a hot sandwich with roasted mushrooms (crimini mushrooms), chives and pepper slices. A nice tea, and then ordered my donuts and made a coffee, and sat down to blog.

A much needed break, before delving again into homework. And you know what? I feel less stuck, less blocked already.

Happy Sunday!

Express Love!

Mercury Retrograde is finally over, and I can't be happier. I won't blame the astrological phenomenon on the lagging of my posting (though I could), but let's just say that I am really happy it's over... for now. Yes, I have witchy plans to put in motion that are better done under clear skies and direct planetary influences. Ah, I do live being Pagan and a Witch, even when it has these pecularities. Then again, these all make life all the more fun to live.

Last week was also a bit of a tough week for me, because I had a lot of things lined up. Thesis pre-defense, my nephews and niece staying over for the weekend, my Mom's birthday, and then I lovely, surprise meet up with a dear friend, that left me emotionally charged. Last week I didn't go to yoga (I stared a few weeks ago), and I was also carrying around negative emotions about that.

Yoga: Yes, about that, quickly, what happened was that I was so happy with a new alignment yoga class that was taught on Tuesdays at 18.00 hours. Management decided to move it to 19.00 hours. For me, who don't live in the same city where the classes are taught, this meant getting home at the same hour I used to get home when I was taking German lessons. We all know how that ended, so that was not an option for me. I could go another day to another class, but the other classes were not of alignment, and I wanted alignment. So yes, I was a little bitter, mumbling troll under a bridge, upset by the change.

Anyway, back on track, I was already strained, but coping (or so I say), when I met with this dear friend of mine, who is going through a bit of a rough patch. And no, his yoga class wasn't moved an hour later, but he was having Mercury Retrograde lean in elbow first in his life, with all the other gods, goddesses and planets piling on like it's a rugby scrum. I was really, really happy to see him and spend time with him, though I am afraid I wasn't as useful as I could have been, have I had all my marbles in place.

As he unburdened his chest, I tried to convey often that he can deal with it all, he's strong enough, he has the resources he needs, he's smart enough, and that he can always draw strenght from the love of all those who surround him. Me among them. I did try to make this clear over and over, beacuse I'm afraid that Mercury Retrograde (I'm so not taking the blame for this, even if it is my fault) messes with my already strained emotions, and I ended up telling him things I probably shouldn't have. Like how deeply I used to dislike him when we were in college.

I did talked to him like it was the last time I'll see him ever, and so I opened up my ribcage and unloaded everything I felt he might need through the rest of his life. The exercise was so intense, that it left a mark on me, a print, and so I spent a couple of days after thinking about him and the message I transmitted. In the end, it all came concentrated in one word: Love.

Love

Many people guard the speaking out of this word quite jealously, and often fear or feel that it can be cheapened if used too much. Many also link this word, and the sentence "I love You", to a romantic declaration that must lead to marriage and forming a family. Fairly tales and stories in books and movies and series, also often sell us this idea of the "One", or the "True Love", and how there is only one real love and how lovely it is when someone has never known love and then finally finds love and feels it for the first time. Doesn't ring a bell? Well, how about the corny expression "I never felt this way before"?

In my opinion, these ideas put in people's heads a dangerous concept, which my itself degenerates the feeling and the word. If there is one love, and you fall in love with someone but then fall out of love, or that emotion ceases, you could end up feeling guilty and unworthy because a) you lost this important thing and there was only one of it, or b) you are so silly you couldn't see it wasn't the true one.

You see, love is like a muscle, and it's also multiple. There isn't one love or one true love, but many, many types of love. Also, love is quite tailored, and it's nearly impossible to love two people with the same kind of love. This doesn't mean that one is bigger or better than the other, but that each molds perfectly to the person you are loving. You love your mom one way and your dad another. You love each of your siblings and each of your friends in a different way. You also love each of your lovers and exes in a different way. And that's alright.

Maybe we should start saying it aloud more often, tell our friends that we love them, tell or family that we love them, and not me frugal or scared of the words. Use them! So far, there is no charge and no tax on expressing emotions or showing love. Hug, kiss, hold a hand, smile, say "I love you" and keep smiling.

Saying it more often strenghtens both the emotion and the ease to express it, and also to express other emotions. Strenghtens your contact with your own self, your feelings and your thoughts, and also strenghtens your bond with others.

Choose to say it when you feel it, not when you are expected to, and strenghten your honesty, both towards yourself and towards others.

Saying "I love you" often doesn't cheapen the emotion, saying it without feeling it, or to get something, does.

Reclaim love.

Welcome Again to Mercury Retrograde

And here we are, back again, in Mercury Retrograde. People's opinion on this is matter is quite divided, with a lot of people being skeptical about the phenomenon. What can be denied is the astrological phenomenon itself: Mercury does look (for those that can see it, I don't really bother) like it's going backwards. As for the effect in human life... well, that's up for debate.

Be it as it may, truth is that Mercury Retrograde has come early this time around, for many of us, that work with the Fiscal system of this country. Official websites are not working, the Ministry isn't giving any useful information to fix issues, and that's when they deign to even give information. In the meantime, a whole smorgasboard of opinions and rules and herasay runs around freely leaving more than one accountant (me included) thinking about closing shop and doing something else with our lives.

The gods know I would love to just throw the whole thing off the window, and I actually do have a job as an economist - and I'm actually working towards writing the first novel I do intend to publish, not like that would ever resolve my life in the financial aspect of it - BUT my clients are people close to me, friends and family I can't leave behind in this mudpuddle. Time to strap on, try, cry, while, search information, grow a handful of greyhairs and keep on doing it.

So, yes, I fell off the wagon this past week - even though Mercury Retrograde started only this Sunday - and hopefully this coming week, I'll be able to post another post... and do something about my again-abandoned Hungarian blog, but yeah, Mercurt Retrograde.

I do choose to believe in Mercury Retrograde mora as a matter of hope. After three weeks this is gone, so hopefully this status won't drag on forever.

Happy and Easy Mercury Retrograde!

Oh Boy, Mercury Retrograde

I started the week following the wrong week on my Witches Datebook. This is the datebook I use to keep my non-work related appointments. My filofax contains all my appointments and notes, and so, at one point I noticed that the dates, the appointments, but above all, that the Mercury Retrograde period wasn't matching.

In the past several days I've been reading voraciously, and when I say "voraciously", it means that I've been reading at a speed of a book-a-day in several cases, but even a book in three days. Considering that I usually read a book in 2 weeks, this speed is unusual for me. Specially sustained through several books. Ok, well, a lot of those books have been gay stories, so I burned through them like acid. From these books the following:

1. The Alaska books or North Series of Cara Dee were delightful, though none of the books were on te same height as Aftermath.

2. I really like Alessandra Hazard's writing style. From her Straight Boy series (was that the name of the series? I don't really remember), all of the books followed the same formula: older, taller man dominates through some degree of violence the younger man, who usually displays some degree of "attitude problem". Even so, I read through her whole "Just a Bit" books and loved the last one like you have no idea.

After that I tackled a Mexican novel "Los Corruptores" (The Corruptors), by Jorge Zepeda, and kinda liked that one too. This one is about four friends and how they find themselves involved in a murder with deep political roots. What I liked most of this book was that it had a lot of talk of political situations, and political antics.

Politics in Latin America can be a really exciting thing, from a very morbid point of view. The intricacies, the weaving of corruption, drugs, human trafficking and so on, are all actual parts of the real scenario of real Latin American countries, and as such, are depicted in the novel in a way that might seem a little too extreme, a little too fictitious, but then, as the author himself explains, the extents of corruption in this part of the world reaches so far, that when put on paper in a novel, they look like nuking the fridge. Funny thing is that, politics nowadays are a long string of outrageous maneuvers hardly even bothering to cover.

This reminds me of that person I think I wrote about, who actually considered corrupts and thieves to be incredibly gifted people with a superior intellect. Well, what can you expect from someone who as managed a lot of things in life by dropping to the knees, if you know what I mean... according to what's said, which actually explains the given persons lack of intellectual capabilities.

Well, through all this, I was suddenly taken by a bout of literary inspiration - I consider it an advance on the usual October Inspiration Season - and I actually started drafting up an original story. Go figure. It's been a while since I've actually typed something that's not a fanfic. Whether I'll finish this one, I'm not sure, but one thing is for certain, I'm typing it and letting it lose. Whatever happens after, well, it will happen. Nah, you'll never get to read that one, I don't publish.

Through all this time, I've also been quite snowed wth work, and the college project is also going on and we need to move on that, but there I've been a little stuck. Boy talk about Mercury Retrograde! Supposedly, when we are on Mercury Retrograde you should avoid starting new things, and rather concentrate on revising things you are currently doing and keep on working your projects. It's a time to slow down, look closer to stuff, thread carefully, talk carefully and above all, avoid risks. And what do I do? Start a new story. Am I normal? Then again, my Muse has been on a long vacations and she basically works only one month of the year (October Inspirational Season isn't a coincidence, no, it's like the only time my Muse is willing to work. Like the bitch is an accountant or something, working only to do the yearly balance, end of the period, and then she's off again, vacationing in the Bahamas with the money made), so yeah, if she wants to work on Mercury Retrograde, who am I to say no?

This is the year's last Mercury Retrograde and it took me by surprise, walking into it with all the things I would not normally do. Starting things, stagnating ongoing things while waiting for the impulse to get to them... wearing red. What was I thinking? Why wasn't I being more careful?Who knows, but be it as it may, so far it has been awesome. ^_^

Why Doesn't... Oh Hell! Mercury Retrograde

Today I had a wonderful day. I put on my dressy shorts, my favorite white blouse and went out to complete the last remaining tasks of my second List of 13. I was to this antique bookstore I wanted to go for quite a while (I had gone to the original one in Cracow, so I wanted to see what this one looks like - they don't have bagels), and also checked out the antique bookstore of the bookstore chain I buy pretty much all of my books from in Hungary. It was a fabulous trip, though this last one was less than what I expected - honestly, I wanted to see used books, old books, and not the same books they are offering in the regular bookstores of the chain, with the original price. And, note to the chain owners: finding several copies of the same book isn't something you expect to see in an antique bookstore, where all pieces are supposed to be unique. The first one - aside from the unforgivable lack of bagels, which are offered in Cracow - the place was more rundown, with less books and up front with an intense emphasis in Jewish literature. Of course, that's understandable, since the bookstore is located in the Jewish district, but it could have been nice to fill a shelve unit with regular books for the "gentile customers". Still, it was an enjoyable trip, and I've got myself two books and a ginger tea.

From there I went to the Mammut Mall, to get myself a copy of the PestiEst, so I know what movies will be scheduled from tomorrow and up to the next Wednesday. Bad week again. Could it be that nothing good will hit the movies up until August 9th? Then I directed my steps to the Starbucks located next to the Mall (not in it, because that's not as nice as the one outside), where I had a delicious Vanilla Latte Frappuccino with extra coffee, extra whipped cream and extra caramel, all sided with an exquisit and much deserved bagel with cheese cream. ^_^ Ah! I LOVE BAGELS! Armed thus with the most fabulous afternoon stuff, I sat down at one of the large tables, whipped out my trusty smartpen, and started writing today's blog post. (See the picture.) Since I have this fabulous software that turns my handwriting into typed text, I was able to write all I wanted, knowing that once at home, I'll only have to hook up my pen to my laptop, sync them, select the pages, convert, check out for possible mistakes and misspellings, copy, paste and publish. Blogging through handwriting... such a wonderful, EPIC, poetic thing! And I have done it before. ^_^

After I finished my post, as I was waiting for my lovely boyfriend, I went on pulling out the next item from my bag - my Book of Ideas - and worked on it a little (I gara think this book over. It's getting really long... in the fist part, and I have middle parts to add to it!), the when I has over with that (over but not finished!) I continued with a letter - known in the underworld as "the black letter". And things went beautifully. I loved every minute in there, even when a trio sat down close to me to talk over a big budget wedding they where planning along with a professional camera man, and to be held in Miskolc, a city I definitively don't like.

Boyfriend came, we've bought two lox bagel sandwiches, got home, I hooked my smartpen, sync it... and the text converter didn't work. Say, what?? Yes, it didn't work. But how, why, how come...? Then it downed to me...

Fucking Mercury Retrograde.

I'll see if I can have that post converted or I'll type it down - which I really didn't want to -, probably adjust it, rework it, remaster it - I don't know, because it was written in a day-tagged fashion - and publish it... maybe after Mercury Retrograde? Maybe before, but hopefully while it's still an actual and workable topic.

All in all, with the Retrograde and all, it has been a wonderful day and I have spent a marvelous time! Thanks to going out, thanks to making a couple of good decisions, thanks to beating down laziness, and thanks to that great idea called "List of 13". The next one will be different. :-) I plan not to include any weekly activity, all new things! Sure, I'll keep some of my weekly activities "off the record", but this time my intention isn't to keep me entertained and growing, but to break with the rutine, concentrate on the "unique", and find 13 absolutely magical things to do. How's your 13 going on?