I don't believe it

People, the media, and "everyone" says that one can find friends on the internet - either through a blog like this one, or a myspace page, or facebook. I don't believe it. I've been blogging for a short while now (since January of this year) and I haven't really connected consistently with anyone....Yes, a couple of you have been kind enough to leave comments. And yes, I appreciate hearing from epota and Time Out of Joint and Reya. But I just don't understand how others find all their cyberfriends. Am I just not "advertising" properly? Is it because I'm not looking for a relationship? No thanks, I've already got a really good one. Or is it because I'm not looking to be all suggestive and "dirty" with a cyberpal? Again, no thanks - I'll read my silly vampire romances for that, and then get all cozy in my hubby's arms. But isn't it better to have as many friends as one can truly befriend? What's wrong with that? Don't adults (people over 35) desire friendship anymore? Am I the only one who has discovered it's veritably impossible to make friends in your 40s if the people you work with are isolationists and not into communication...you don't have access to social outlets...and you don't like to hang out in bars? So just HOW can a 40+, married, pagan-focused, conservative, kind of nerdy woman make friends then!?!?

And to top it off, I hate sounding like a whiner....yeesh.

Holidays

Being born and raised a Christian (mainly in the Episcopal church) and "converting" to paganism in my late twenties has caused a bit of a quandary with my family and the "holidays"...Granted, I'm now in my 40s (and I live hundreds of miles from anyone in the family), so I should have figured this all out by now...but things have changed. These years my parents have become a bit more complacent about Christmas, mainly due to two of my brothers....about 5-6 years ago they stopped speaking to each other, and now one of them has two families due to his divorce...so organizing anything gets both complicated and frustrating. Not to mention that I'm not real happy with ANY of my brothers (I have 3) these days, due to the screw-up they made of our parent's 50th wedding anniversary back in 2006. Because of this "not-speaking" situation between two of them, as well as the budgeting abilities of a flat worm by the third, my mother did not get the one (ONE!!) thing she really wanted - a family reunion (which really made my mom sad). I have come to realize that there probably won't be another reunion - until one of my parents dies. And isn't that just totally depressing.

Adding to the brother difficulty - I now have 10 nieces and nephews - ranging from a 1-yr-old to a 26-yr-old! AND the oldest nephew is married and a dad now (making me a great aunt).

So. Back to me and Christmas. Should I send gifts? If so, should it be to the "family" as a unit, to each person or just to each child? I'm not really that flush $$-wise, so buying for each person is out of the question. And as I said, there's 10 "kids"...11 if you add in the niece-in-law, or even 12 now, if you add in the grandniece....I was thinking of getting something just for the three family units - making the "new" married nephew #4. But I should mention - I am SO not consistent with my gift giving...either for Christmas OR for birthdays. I actually haven't sent gifts for Christmas for a few years now...so it's not like they're expecting anything, but for some reason this year it's really on my mind. And I know one shouldn't base gift GIVING with gift RECEIVING....because I'm amazed when I get a holiday card, let alone a gift from my brothers - never have gotten anything from the nephews or nieces....but it does color my thoughts.

I just don't know. But I do know that families are a pain in the neck sometimes.

some Vegas details

So. My wonderful friend J. was having a BIG birthday on Halloween. I told her she needed to celebrate it in some fun/crazy/wild way, and she chose Las Vegas. Neither of us had ever been there before, so we did some research, found a great air/hotel package and flew out on the morning of Wednesday the 31st. We checked into our hotel - we stayed at Circus Circus (which made my hubby who is a fan of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas rather jealous) - and then prepared for our night out...by taking a nap.



HEY! We had to! The show was at 9:00pm that night - which just happened to be midnight "our time"...So to be wide eyed and ready for fun, we napped.

And boy did we have fun that night!! If you're ever in Las Vegas, I highly recommend going to the Excalibur and seeing the Thunder from Down Under!! Woo hoo! Fine, mostly-naked, VERY nice Aussies!! Check them out:

http://www.thunderfromdownunder.com/

Here's the three of us (her friend drove up from Flagstaff to join us) all dressed up.



The next day we walked the Strip...the WHOLE thing...almost. We walked from Circus Circus all the way down to Caesar's Palace, and then back again.



....more later!!

Vegas

Sin City

Food

Gambling

Men

FUN!!

(more later)