I hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Hopefully, everyone was able to relax, have fun, and spend time with loved ones. My brother brought his dog, Yogi, over--Yogi is only 7 months old, but he's already 70 pounds. Yogi, while unintentionally, kept scaring the heck out of Tsuki because he's so large and would come running up to her. He was excited to have a friend, but Tsuki didn't perceive it that way. My brother kept trying to force them to be friends; he'd pick Yogi up and basically shove him into Tsuki's face. Unsurprisingly, Tsuki didn't appreciate that, and my brother's efforts blew up in his face: Tsuki puffed up, hissed, and left a deep scratch on my brother's hand. Yogi caused unintentional havoc at Thanksgiving dinner, too; my brother insisted on bringing Yogi with us, and my aunt's dog, Chevy, freaked out; he wouldn't stop barking. Oh, the drama that ensued. My brother ended up spending the evening in the basement with Yogi. Hopefully, everyone else's holiday went smoother. Then when my brother decided to do some yard work, he shattered my dad's car window. It got rather intense when my brother was around, although he didn't mean for it to. There was some weirdness this week, like when my recent story got accepted into a challenge only to be reject the next day. I reviewed the requirements and couldn't discern why it was rejected. I decided to reach out to support to find out what was going on; they looked into it and said that it was an "error" that it was reject, assuring me that it was re-added to the challenge. That's never happened to me before. It was strange. On a brighter note, the YouTube channel broke 100 subscribers this week, so hooray for that!
My dream from Sunday night/Monday morning involved school. I was in some class. They were doing some kind of scavenger hunt around the classroom. There was a list of different things, and each item was worth a different amount of points. At one point the teacher was discussing popcorn or "poppers." Not sure why exactly, but it might have been involved with the scavenger list. Some of the items on the list were like logos/mascots for different schools--I think they were schools that the teacher attended. I think one item was worth like 88 points, but most were worth smaller amounts like 2 points. I didn't recall anything else from that part of the dream, but eventually I started hanging out with the boys I babysit. That part of the dream was hazy. The last thing I remembered from the dream was being in some cafeteria with my coworker from before care; there was also a new coworker there, and we were setting up to provide child care. We were discussing the upcoming visit from the state licenser. That's all I could remember upon waking up.
I didn't remember all of my dream when I woke up on Tuesday morning, but the main part I did recall involved hanging out with April and Corliss. We had been driving around, deliberating on what we should do together. April's mom was with us, and she wanted to go back home to get something. We ended up ordering Denny's online (or over the phone). We went back to April's old home back when her dad was still alive. He was there, being his usually goofy self. April's mom started talking on the phone with one of her sisters. We got ready to leave to pick up the Denny's and reminded her mom that we'd have to leave soon. Her mom got absorbed into her conversation on the phone and kind of ignored us (although I don't think she was doing it intentionally). We ended up missing our order completely because April's mom wouldn't get off the phone, and it became the next day. April's mom asked us if we were still getting our food, and I told her it was pointless because the food would be extra cold (if it was even still there waiting for us). I told her I was getting a refund because apparently I paid for everyone's food. More definitely happened in my dream, but that's all I could remember upon waking.
A lot seemed to happen in my dream from Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, but I didn't remember everything. At one point in the dream I was hanging out with the boys I babysit. We ended up meeting with their dad. We went through some drive-thru to get food, but for some reason their dad had to go inside to get it. I had been driving but decided to move to the back and let their dad drive. We waited in a parking spot but one of the boys started driving the car. He started freaking out, insisting his dad would kill him. I got him to calm down and pull into another spot. His dad came out ticked, demanding to know if he'd rather use his money for college or to pay for my car because he could have wrecked it. The boy (he's in middle school) insisted he wanted to use it for college. We ended up going to go-carts so he could drive us. Another part involved the kids from before care. They were finding crickets and managed to acquire a whole bucket full of them. One of the little girls asked if I wanted to see/have one. I told her no thanks, but she refused to listen. She threw a cricket at me, shoving it down my shirt. I was rather irritated about it and seemed to have an allergic reaction to it, immediately becoming extremely itchy. Another part involved Sesshomaru. There were two different parts involving Sesshomaru , but I only remembered the one that had him basically cleaning up InuYasha's mess. Bankotsu had been brought back to life, but he apparently was more kind this time around, befriending people. Rin was hanging out with Kaede, Shippo, and a few others (there was some kind of weasel with them, too). Sesshomaru came to check on them. Bankotsu and his friend happened to be there. InuYasha showed up, and Sesshomaru insisted he be mindful so he wouldn't cause havoc. InuYasha didn't really listen and caused chaos. All the people, excluding Rin, basically started withering and decaying due to InuYasha (he seemed to have some new ability and wasn't being mindful of controlling it). Through sheer determination and willpower, Sesshomaru was able to stop it and return everyone to normal, despite the fact that he had been affected, too. That's all I could remember upon waking.
I was a bit out of it when I woke up on Thursday morning. I dreamed I was in some sort of school. It seemed similar to the high school I went to, but one of my college Ceramics teachers was there. I was working on some kind of project. I think I was planning on joining 3 different parts. There was a coil vase, some other vase like piece that might have been made with a pottery wheel, and a set of numbers. I was painting the 1, 2, and 5 when my teacher came over. She started messing with my coil piece and caused it to cave in on itself. I wasn't particularly happy about it and remarked that I guess I would have to reincarnate the piece. My teacher didn't apologize or anything. My classmate asked for me to watch his stuff while he got something. Class ended, and apparently someone took my storage spot for my in progress work. I went looking for my last class (apparently math) but couldn't find it because they completely changed everything around. One of my coworkers from the preschool showed up, asking what was wrong. I explained that I was feeling quite frustrated because I hadn't been there in years, the layout of the school was completely changed, and my last class let out late. I knew I'd be late, and my coworker was really empathetic about it all.
I recalled one main part from my dream upon waking Friday morning. I received a message and business card from a lady who had important information to share. It sounded like she was going to be in the area, so Corliss, April, and I went to meet her. We wandered around the area but couldn't find her. I went to double check my email to confirm where she'd be and happened to look at her business card again, noticing she lived in the next state over. Doing a bit of searching online, I found that there was also a city named the same thing in the state next door. It was several hours away, so we decided to try meeting her another day. Our searching and wandering had led us to some kind of park with a giant play/climbing structure. It was next to a river and was also a skate park. We were getting ready to leave when we were stopped by a group of 3 people. I didn't recognize 2 of the people, but the guy in the middle asked if I recognized him. I informed him that I did, pointing out we went to school together since elementary school and that his name was Oscar. Two or three other cars pulled up, full of people we went to school with. Everyone started talking. Oscar started talking astrology with us. For some reason we started snacking on uncooked angel hair pasta. Somehow we got to discussing Trump, and something big was going to transpire. Apparently, he had made references to it back in 2018. More happened in the dream (like a peculiar camp related to the local children's museum somehow), but the details were fuzzy upon waking up.
Waking up on Saturday morning was interesting. In my dream my sister and I went on a trip. I think my parents traveled with us on the trip, but I didn't remember seeing them in the dream. I decided to look around for a place to eat. I think the place I stumbled upon was called "I'm a Sandwich, I'm a Sandwich" (but the letters on the window was backwards from my perspective when I tried to read it in the dream). Apparently, my sister was already there and heard about the place; she had stumbled upon this guy that highly praised and recommended the place. It was a dine in place, but the kitchen was located in a food truck that would drive into a part of the building. You would earn store credit if you brought back to-go containers after you were finished with them. I remembered they had various pies there, and I think they had ice cream. They had onion rings for sure, too. My sister and I ended up bringing apple, pumpkin, and French silk pie back to the place we were staying at. We ordered other food, but I didn't remember what it was aside from onion rings. April seemed to work at the place we were staying at, and apparently, we were going to meet up with our cousin Drake after 2:30.
Strangeness started happening next. I think in the dream leading up to it paranormal stuff occurred, like a shirt suddenly floating near the ceiling and across the room. I woke up to what seemed like immense spiritual pressure from Bleach. I was being weighed down by energy, and the pressing pressure was so intense that it paralyzed my body. Whatever the energy was was not happy and exuded mal intent. No idea what I did to tick it off. I started focusing on surrounding myself with warm, healing, loving, golden light. I think I also started singing the Barney "I Love You" song. It took a little bit (I think whatever the energy was wanted to frighten me and get me to lose hope/become disheartened), but the entity then left. It didn't seem to be able to handle all the love. Since I could move again, I opened my eyes to check the time; it felt like it was supposed to be time to get up, but it was 6:28 in the morning. I was feeling rather drained from the experience, so I went back to sleep. I wonder what's going on with the energies and all to cause strangeness like that.
I woke up suddenly this morning at 6:18, like I was forced awake. I wasn't sure why it happened. It was peculiar; it wasn't like yesterday morning with that intense strangeness and pressure. I couldn't remember much of anything from my dream, either. It was all hazy. Has anyone else been experiencing things like this?
It was a fun, short week of before care due to Thanksgiving break. The kiddos had me color some more--this time they had me color dolphins. They thought the dolphins turned out really cool and started copying mine. Weenie the wiener dog came back and judged our coloring (lol). Two of the little girls started following me around as "kitties" and told me their names were Sprinkles and Cupcakes. Kids are definitely imaginative, but that's not a bad thing--it keeps things from getting dull and monotonous.
Due to the holiday it was a short week of babysitting, but we still had fun. The boys wanted an update on what's happened in YashaHime. They enjoyed talking about InuYasha and YashaHime, looking at the new Miroku and Sango Nendoroids and speculating which character will be next. They also enjoyed discussing what it would be like if Naraku was a teacher at school, laughing that if he taught the alphabet, he'd stop after the letter 'C' because A B C (as in a sea of bees). These kids are a riot. They also were showing me the new Pokémon remake, Brilliant Diamond; the older brother got it for his birthday over the weekend. They really want me to buy it and play it with them. While I have no qualms with playing Pokémon games with them (I've done it before), I don't feel any pull to get Brilliant Diamond. I don't think it'll be a horrible game or anything, but there's no draw or excitement. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a different matter; it looks super fun. It almost seems like a Pokémon meets InuYasha type of game. That definitely strikes my fancy. Maybe I'll play the Diamond and Pearl remakes if it's given to me as a gift, but it doesn't feel like something worthwhile to spend money on (unlike the upcoming Legends title). Apparently, some Youtuber that the boys watch named his Chimchar Luffy, and they asked for me to explain the relevance. Once I pointed out that Luffy's name is Monkey D. Luffy, the lightbulb went off, and they found it pretty funny.
Tsuki's a little nut, but that's her typical, snatching Perler beads and running around the house in a frenzy. She's been extra snuggly with me lately with the colder weather, curling up on my lap or next to me or even underneath the blanket with me. My brother brought Yogi with him when he came into town, and Tsuki wasn't too keen on it; she was incredibly curious, but Yogi's size and quick, sudden movements scared the heck out of her. She felt much safer watching him with the porch door separating them. Eventually, she felt a bit more confident and tried visiting Yogi on the porch. When Yogi got in my face, though, she raced up and got ready to fight him; she felt I needed to be protected. It was sweet; Tsuki may be small, but she is fierce. Little Tsuki also got into the holiday decorations (and my sister wanted to see Tsuki in fluffy cat's winter sweater--it was way too big for Tsuki lol). It was a busy but fun and relaxing week.
Art for this week included various Perler bead projects; some were inspired by the holiday and the old school group claymation project from years ago:
'
I had new goodies from Spiritual Supermall's Divine $9 this week. I was excited to receive them! Spiritual Supermall even sent me extra free goodies! Plus, for Black Friday Spiritual Supermall had all these deals, so more goodies are on the way! Hip, hip hooray!
This week I did more writing, reading, and anime watching. I wrote a new story this week for the Remarkably Real challenge! The Tale of Water and Melon is about my experiences during student teaching when a first grader decided to rename me after a crayon. Feel free to read it and share your thoughts! I'm also open to suggestions and recommendations for future stories! I have other pieces in the works , so stay tuned for more stories! Fanfic for this week included: Blemished Armor, This Treacherous Heart of Mine, The Lost Moon, The Curse, Because of Loving You, Bridges of Paradise, and Pretend Love. I watched the newest episode of YashaHime season 2, and I'm super hyped for the continuation of the story. It was great to see Setsuna learning more about her new weapon and seeing her show some kindness towards the former local deity. I'm excited to see next week's episode--it looks like there will be a flashback with the original Inu-gang (I wonder if Shippo would have helped out or if he would have been off at the Kitsune school at the time). I also watched the 2nd season of That Time I Was Reincarnated As a Slime. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing how the story continues. Honestly, Rimuru is super OP, but it doesn't bother me. I wonder what Noir is planning. I finished Adventure Time this week, and it got really intense. Corliss had me start watching it with her a while back, and the earlier episodes were kind of meh in my opinion. The later episodes got super deep, delving into some serious concepts for a "kids' show." I like how they chose to end the series, although I kind of wish we knew a bit more about what the characters ended up doing after the final major conflict. I enjoyed hearing the full ending song for once; it's a beautiful song.
It's hard to believe November and 2021 are almost over. Time feels so surreal right now. I hope everyone will take time to provide self care, especially in the busy holiday season. With so many tasks, responsibilities, and errands to run, ensuring our own wellbeing can fall to the backburner. Don't get so swept up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season that you neglect your wellbeing--you'll end up trying to fill cups with an empty cup, and that never works out well (speaking from experience; thankfully, I've learned since then). Taking care of other responsibilities and obligations is important, but it shouldn't come at the cost of your wellbeing. If you don't ensure your wellbeing, you won't show up as your best self, which leads to no one winning. While I could have chosen to be more "productive" this last week, I took time to relax and recharge my batteries; it feels like I'm' going to need it for the upcoming season. I'm sincerely grateful for the extra three days off for Thanksgiving. Rest is just as important as action. Here's to a fun winter season! Stay blessed with love and light, everyone~
Some food for thought from Ralph Smart:
Food for thought to consider for the week:
Comments