A trip to UNM and a different kind of learning experience............

I have some laundry to air.....an irk to voice.....a rant to rail.

So hold on my lovelies.

GK, my grand, goes to a charter school which includes in their curriculum off site teaching opportunities. Glorified field trips. Friday GK's class went to the University of New Mexico to the world renowned Maxwell Museum. GK was super excited because of stories I told her of the Maxwell when I went to school at UNM and because she is my geeky, loves museums grand.

After visiting the Maxwell, and while waiting for the bus to take them back to school, she sat down on a low retaining wall to read. Three other girls joined her on the wall. GK noted that the other girls were throwing rocks and jumping around. In a very short time, her science teacher came roaring up to the four girls assaulting them with anger and accusations because "some lady" in the building across the way complained that she saw "those four girls" throwing rocks at the windows.

Her science teacher went on to say how humiliating is was to be wearing the same shirt as the girls, to be associated with them and to have them as representatives of the school. When asked what they had to say for themselves, GK said that she didn't throw rocks but was just sitting there reading. Before the other girls could even speak, this "teacher" jumped into GK's physical space and said, was GK calling an adult a liar? Before I continue, let me put this statement into perspective....was GK to say, no never, adults never lie and then become a liar for saying that? Or was she to say yes and have the vexation of this "teacher" rise at the gall of a 12 year old knowing that adults lie all the time? No, she just restated that she had not been involved in this incident. And still this "teacher" pushed her for confession. The other girls tried to interject that yes, they had thrown rocks but GK was not involved. And still this hard ass biotch pushed only GK for being disrespectful and probably the ring leader. At this GK broke and said that yes in fact she had thrown rocks, just so the "teacher" would get out of her face and go away. She tried to talk to one of the other teachers but the solid party line would not even look at her.

Needless to say, she was in hysterics by the time Shel picked her up. When GK explained to Shel what had happened Shel called the school and asked to talk to "the teacher". When she got her on the line "the teacher" was hateful, rude and talked down to Shel. When Shel tried to explain why GK had confessed, "the teacher" wanted no part of her explanation and said that either GK had lied to "the teacher" or she was lying to Shel now. And that was the end of the conversation. Period.

Now let me clue you in on the part that pisses me off. These tactics are the same ones that GK's abuser used to keep the "secret" of the abuse and keep her in fear. The school has a zero tolerance for bullying.  I guess the zero tolerance only applies to the students.

We have written a letter outlining our disgust to the principal, the teachers involved and to the administration of APS. GK will take her punishment under protest and we've asked that the teacher educate herself as to who GK really is by asking last year's teachers of her demeanor and character.

Funny thing, Fridays are GK's therapy sessions. She was able to talk it out with her therapist, work out a plan of how to stand like an Oak Tree with deep roots in the earth supporting her and letting the wind of the world blow through her branches not dwell inside her. She came home feeling like this was a good thing not a bad one because she is loved, this will pass and we were all proud of her for standing up against "the teachers" incorrectness with grace and directness. She stood up to a bully, gave in to move on and will be a better person and probably not back down as easily next time. And she is proud of herself for even trying to stand up to an abuser. Progress in her character building and she shows very little scarring from the incident.

I of course have a very personal three pronged reason for this irksome irritation. First, I too had an abuser who whittled away at me constantly to keep me in check so I felt it immediately as GK related the story. Second I love my granddaughter and hate to see her have to do the middle school bs anyway let alone from a teacher she admired up until yesterday and third, that biotch also disrespected my daughter.

Oh yeah, I can hardly wait until parents night visits to the classroom.
Might have to leave a charm for "the teacher" or a poison apple??????

Nothing like new technology to teach an Olde Bagg new tricks

Well it took me two months to come to the conclusion that: 1. if I was ever going to get to do the digital collaging and artwork that I wanted to do before I'm too old to do it,  I was going to have to give in and let other things that were on the waiting list move further down, 2. if I was not going to have a disappointed husband and granddaughter because they want me to have a new computer, I was going to have to give in.

So I am the proud, if not a little guilty feeling, owner of a wonderful 6G laptop. I can run all the applications on this wonder and not have a "freeze" up of all my CPU. I am having a great time learning all that I can, as quickly as I can and still have time for my other daily do's. Truthfully, I would much rather be on the computer learning than washing clothes, fixing meals and dare I mention it, cleaning house but all in good time.

The computer's name is "Hello Handsome". I feel very naughty calling him that but it fits. I've got to transfer some files and get my sea legs but then.....digital arting here I come. Wish me and my new boyfriend good luck. We are going to be spending a lot of time together.

Magical gifts............

I am wishing my sweet friend Stacy from Magic Love Crow a Happy Birthday evening. Waving hi sweetie. This dear one and I have a love of stones and crystals in common among other things. Earlier in the summer she went to a "rocky" show and brought gifties for some of her fortunate friends. My grands and I were lucky enough to be among those stone recepients. We got a beautiful red tiger eye, a fabulous fluorite heart (fairy stone), sea glass, and a squid fossil. Happy dance for all the Cuckoos.

A short time after receiving our gifties and before school started, GK and I went to get some crystals at our fave rock and mineral place, "Mama's Minerals". We were cruising the fossil aisle looking for a megladon tooth for Ry for winter solstice and came upon a whole bin of squid fossils....just like the one Stacy sent us. Here's the irony I wanted to share. We met my hubby for lunch that day at an Italian restaurant and he ordered a appetizer tray for us to share. Included was calamari. GK who is a picky eater, tried some, loved it and then asked what is was......I told her what Stacy sent us. Long pause....ewwwwwwwwwww. Funny Bunny.

Also I wanted to show you what the lovely and talented April of The Angry Gnome fame sent to me. She (and I'm sure all of you do too) knows that I adore turtles, red polka dotted mushrooms and what she didn't know is that I am a huge Jan Brett fan. I once stood in line for two hours to get her to sign two books. It was so worth it, we own every single book she has ever written or illustrated. Talk about the perfect surprise. This is a tote sent to bookstores (where April hangs out to the delight of the children) for the newest of her books, Mossy which came out today.

And lastly my bounty includes a gorgeous turtle totem from my wickedy darling Magaly from Pagan Culture. Magaly has been a heart string valued partner in the magickal work for all my cuckoos. I am such a fortunate one to have good friends who allow me to gift them with love and fun. They back to me in kind.

And I thought I would include photos of my crone stones and of a seer quartz stone. These have proved as of late to be very helpful in my work. I also purchased these crone stone on Etsy. The seer stone was purchased at a Ren Faire this year.

And last is a giftie to me for Mabon, Fall Equinox.....a family of Gnomes, I purchased from a lovely shop on Etsy, Joys of the Spirit. We have a  Papa, Oma, Mommy, GK and Ry, as well as the hamster and mouse (our two dogs). Our house has gnomes in almost all the rooms and these now stand guard on the computer desk making me smile while typing.

I sometimes feel odd putting pictures of gifts up on my blog, but then, I want to thank those that sent the lovely items to me and mine. So I hope you will bear with me in my gratefulness. Be well, Oma Linda

Whatcha been up to?

My postings here have begun to get farther and farther apart. I would say that I am sorry, but that would be a lie. Just been up to my usual no good, just more of it. I, like so many of you out there in bloggyland, just love fall and have in recent years simply let the season escape my grasp with the business of life. I decided this year to stop and smell the green chile, as it were. Create my own enjoyment without the worry of pleasing a soul but me.

So I have taken my own field trips to savor the season. Gone to places that herald the season of nesting and gathering. In doing so, something had to be put on the back burner so to speak.....and that was the blogging. But I am back and looking forward to all the upcoming fun activities of fall equinox, autumal frivolity and of course the celebration of spooky ooky and things that go bump in the night. Followed by dumb dinner, Samhain and Dia de Los Muertos.

There has not been one frantic day in the past 10. Just rainy, cloudy mornings filled with a crispness in the air and some bright golden afternoons warm but not hot. The kind of days that heretofore have made me want to embrace them.....but the worker ant in me always reined in the grasshopper with a fiddle and I restrained my wandering spirit, until this year.

I've gotten the cuckoos off to their destinations each morning and then let the spirit guide me on my day. It has been grand. Nothing particularly noteworthy but mine alone. Quiet, calm, peace filled moments or hours during which I did as "I" pleased. With the exception of one obligation that was scheduled during my "me" time, I've "had no strings on me", as the Disney song from Pinocchio goes.

The roasting of green chiles, the grilling of corn in the cob I bought at a roadside stand, mid week back country walk along a winding spring where I was greeted by 3 deer, some rabbits, a wild mare and her foal and a very angry pinon jay with a bone to pick with me. Sitting near a well traveled path in the nearby foothills, I met and had conversation with a lovely woman who was visiting New Mexico from France. During our conversation I asked if she knew of the castle Wildenstein (my husbands surname) between France and Germany and we were both tickeld to find out that she lives less than 100 miles from the castle, has been there on several occassions and told me much about the surrounding countryside. We also had so many other things, places and life views in common. It was like meeting an old friend for the first time in a long time for both of us.

Small world indeed. Chance meeting? Or is it? If my new friend had made her trip last year as she originally planned, I wouldn't have been out treating me to small pleasures and reconnecting with the universe and we might never have meet. So now I'm left to ponder. Do I believe things happen for a reason, or do I believe that our chance meeting was just that, a serendipitious meeting of two like minded people from different parts of the world. Or did the Goddess' design for my new authentic self lend proof of itself in these last few days of autumnal bliss?

I would have been afraid to venture out alone into the "nowherelandness" until my recent cleansing by compassionate depossession of the old fears. Having all of those dark thoughts holding me back from living and the accompanying heavy feelings removed from me has allowed so many more possibilities into my heart and mind. I am in control of me.  That may sound odd to some of you because you have never been occupied by a controlling force, not your own. I am living autenthically for the first time in my memory. But that is the past (literally) and all I have now is the now. I have always been a version of me. But this reintegrated, whole me is enjoying the dickens out of being in control of myself and embracing life.

This new me isn't half bad. The authentic me is a bit less frantic, a lot more calm, much more self assured, and far more able to embrace "what is". Throwing caution to the wind probably doesn't fit into my chronological age bracket but it sure is a happier way to greet the day and grace my heart.

What happens around you sometimes is not reality and other puzzles of life

This broken down computer time of not being able to just comment or add my two cents worth has been as hard as not being the "chatty cathy" when I was in elementary school. The first adult to call attention to my shortcoming in this area of life was Sister Mary Geraldine, the most evil nun whoever wore a habit. She let me know that I was bad and wrong by the use of the infamous Catholic school torture device called a wooden ruler. It was applied in oh so many ways and locations. As I have gotten older, it has become increasingly harder not to have a response to what is happening around me, since I figure that Sr. M.G. has long since passed on to her "rewards"?????

But seriously, it is hard not to have an opinion about life in the culture in which we live. I've been around the block several thousand times so I have some life experience to draw upon and I am alive. I figure those are the two most important criteria for forming opinions. That and I am relatively intelligent.

I hate politics. My father would have voted for a knot in a board before he would for one party and my mother's father would much rather vote for a dog than the other party.......so you see the turmoil. So having all of these "people" on TV droning on about how awful one side or the other is can be for me.....distressing. So yes, I turn it off. Then there is FB where normally lovely folks are beacons for their "person" and I have avoided that as well as best as you can and not unfriend someone. And these beacons....shine all the damn time. You know there are still other topics out there besides politics (honest). And being hateful just because you can just isn't an option in my small and walled world.

See that is my issue. Lies, compounded lies, hurtful half truths, maligning BS in both arena all make me want to state my opinion.....which could get me into even more trouble than Sr. M.G. ever thought about punishing me for. So, I just don't. So the reality for me is.....I know how I feel, but I don't have to make you know how I feel......even though I may have to eat my own tongue in the process.

Is that a fair way to behave? Yes. And here come the platitudes to prove it.....
When in doubt, don't.
You can never take back words spoken in haste.
If you can't say something nice, then don't speak.
What you send out into the universe, visits you again three times.
Nice Matters
and my personal favorite...........don't be ugly Linda Sybil.

But never once does the memory of a wild canon nun's swipe with the wooden ruler hold sway over my voice. I just know better.

So the soap box is now empty for others to borrow and I'll go back to muttering my opinions to myself.