Karial 03

Past

The oracle moved tonight.

Not a full rotation, or even a quarter of one, truly. Nothing that could remotely be called a whirl, which is what we are told to look for- but it did move.

For a moment I assumed I had brushed it with body or limb, but then I remembered- no mortal hand can move the oracle.  The sister who served before me invited me to try, as the sister before had invited her.  I touched it tentatively at first on that day- I was awed enough to be handling a device of the Ancients, let alone attempting to manipulate it- and then with more force.  It did not move for me then, and it did not move for me tonight.

But it moved for something.

The chronicles speak only of whirling, of spinning- no mention of incremental movement.  I do not know what it means- and so I continue as I always do, and watch.  Perhaps with warier eyes than before.

***

The oracle moved again tonight, near-on a half rotation from the position it held at dawn.  And when I laid my hands on the body of the temple, I realized that the [living flame?] seems agitated, stirred up.  There is a sense of… rising tension, which I have never before felt.  Almost as though it is waiting for something, and gathering itself in on itself as it does so, as a [predator?] does before it springs.  I wonder- is that what the oracle is reacting to, when it moves?  And is it different from what brings the travelers?

Time will tell.

***

I no longer have to lay my hands on the temple to feel the [living flame?]’s growing intensity.  I feel it thrumming in my bloodstream, calling out to me and to all living creatures, whether they know it or not.  My earlier wondering, if the agitation was connected to the oracle’s movements, seems correct.  The oracle is now moving steadily- very, very slowly, to be sure, but it is never still, now, and I feel certain it will begin to “whirl” soon, as I swear it is gaining speed by the hour.

But if I am correct, I don’t understand why we need the oracle- how could anyone miss this rising pressure?  Yes, the mothers who spoke over me praised me for what they called my extraordinary sensitivity to and dexterity with the [living flame?] but surely this swelling is so great that anyone who is trained to use the could feel it?  Couldn’t they?

I have prepared a place for the traveler- not that there was much to do beyond what is perpetually kept in readiness- and I watch always for their arrival.  I do my best to keep my mind still, my inner self calm, but it is difficult, with the ever-moving oracle preventing me from putting it out of mind.  During meditation earlier today, two of my legs would not stop curling in anticipation, a problem I have not had since the earliest days of my novice-training.

Come soon, traveler. My dignity cannot stand long delay.

I Am a Person in My Neighborhood

I've wanted to check out our neighborhood association pretty much since we moved into our house, but I just never seemed to get around to it.  I would forget and miss the meeting, or something would come up, or there wouldn't be a meeting that month, or I'd just be too damn tired.  For five years.

And then we had a kid, and suddenly I realized I needed to up my frigging Adult game and actually get my carcass to a meeting.  I wasn't able to make the one last month, but the one scheduled for this month promised a speaker involved in the Fourth Plain Forward project, a proposal I've been very excited about, so I 100% committed to being there tonight.

And I was.

It was my first time at that sort of thing, and it was very interesting indeed.  Well, most of it was.  There was also stuff that I didn't much care about- but that's going to be the case no matter what sort of gathering you're at.  It made me realize that I might need to start going to meetings on the City level, as well- which sort of makes me recoil in horror because it's not like I don't have enough on my plate already... but I also feel like I have a civic responsibility to be involved in my community.  So.

Baby steps, O.  Baby steps.

Foolish Fortunes

My writing group has started up again, which means at least once every two weeks I'll have some sort of little prompt(s) to work with.  Whee!

***

Yesterday's fortune cookie got everything wrong:

A day off is a long-awaited reward

Last year's fortune cookie, on the other hand, got everything right:

Third time's the charm

Sick Day

Today was a sick day, and I spent it being sick with my equally sick child.  Have a doodle:

Heart-breakingly sweet, even when he doesn't feel well.

My Father's Face

So remember how earlier this week I was all, "Blah blah blah when did my brother become my peer blah?"  Well I had a moment today blew that away in terms of freak-outs.

I was going through some old photos with my friend Kayla (I was trying to find a "baby photo" of Kink to show how small he was when I adopted him), and we came across one of my favorites of my dad:

See, the hat is funny because we were living in Alaska at the time.  Holy shit was my dad a proto-hipster?

I was getting all nostalgic and happy, saying, "Oh, he must have been about-" and I flipped it over to check the date, and made a sort of strangled noise, "Thirty two?!"

As in, three years younger than I currently am.  And he had a five year old daughter and six month old son and I look at this photo and see "Daddy, who of course is older than me" but actually he is a dude who is pretty much my age right now.

What the actual fuck.

Time gets extra weird when you involve dead people who can't age.

(side note: I pulled the photo of my brother back up and held them side by side.  Yep, definitely his kid.)

Adulting

I had plans for today.  They did not include taking my son to the doctor.  But that's what I did.  Because parenthood.

(He's fine, by the way.  Just a little upper respiratory infection contributing to/paired with bacterial conjunctivitis.  Whee!)

I also prepped a crap-ton of food, because I've come to the begrudging realization that if I want to eat healthy, that's what I'm going to have to do: meal-prep on the weekend, followed by a rousing round of seal-and-freezing.  Otherwise during the week I'm all, "Ugh no energy.  Pickles are definitely a meal."

::sigh::

Adulting.  It is what it is.

Kablooey!

The scene:

A professional woman in her mid-thirties has just put in her order at the pizza counter of an upscale grocery market.

Cashier: You can pay for that now, or if you want to do some shopping you can pay when you pick up!

Woman: That's okay, I don't want anything else, thanks!

The woman pays, then wanders about the store a bit.  She comes to a display of sodas in glass bottles and decides, on a whim, to pick up two to go with dinner.  She returns to the counter and sets them down with a rueful grin.

Woman:  Guess I was wrong about that whole not wanting anything else thing!

Cashier: (laughs) That's not a problem!

The cashier rings her up, and the woman pays.

Cashier: Do you need a bag?

Woman: (reaching into her purse) No, that's okay, I have one!

The woman unfurls a black fabric bag, printed all over with white moose.  As she reaches for the sodas, she accidentally knocks one, and it tips over onto the counter-

only to SHATTER IN EXPLOSION!

The woman and the cashier stare at one another, dumbly, blood-orange flavored soda water dripping from the counter and their faces.

Woman: (eyes huge) ...I...I...I am so sorry!

***

I don't know who was the most traumatized- me, her, or the little boy standing two people back from me.  (He kept saying to his dad, "That was so scary!"  His dad, on the other hand, kept his head and went and fetched me a new soda.)  Fortunately no one was really hurt- the cashier had a little cut on her forehead, and I had to pick glass particles off of me, but honestly it's a little shocking how little damage it did.

Well, except to my ego.