The dragon spirit works, almost too well.

My coworkers have given me sidelong looks all shift today and I eventually got an answer why when my manager explained we haven’t had a robbery or incident with a customer in a week. I think it’s unnerved my fellow employees, but I told them what I was doing, so why are they surprised? They’ll lose their nervousness about the protection on our store soon enough. What’s funny is their reaction to not having a dragon among them at their next job, if they leave.

No luck still with catching the milk-and-honey petitioner. Or maybe patronizer. I still can’t tell, mom and Angie are still stumped, Jack thinks it’s funny. He might have the best response to this. The offering does no harm, though warning prickle crosses my senses every time I see it’s been replaced.

On Jack, we’ve moved from stellar and planetary Gods to ones on life and death. It seemed the next good place. Anubis is a favorite probably because He resembles a jackal, which is pretty close, visually, to a dog. Jack loves dogs and I can’t wait to get him one.

Life is quiet at the moment, but that’s not anything to worry about. The first real taste of warmer Spring weather makes us all happy, even mom. Less quarrelsome. I’m happy for the reprieve before Summer starts.

Blessed be.

I went to work an hour early on Sunday and called for the dragon spirit behind the shop. 6 AM is nice, quiet, deserted. Perfect for this kind of work. My coworkers know I cast, but I chickened out at the last minute and gave them some vague fluff about a protective charm for the shop. They seemed fine with that. I won’t give more details unless one of them asks. Maybe they think I’m crazy or something. Doesn’t matter much. Magic seems to work best when one forgets about the hows and wherefores. I’m okay with that.

There’s something weird going on with my boss though. He’s very skittish around me about work problems, though he’s almost ferocious when talk turns to personal matters. Maybe he’s trying to talk me into something. Not a relationship. I wouldn’t go in for that. First, he’s already heavily involved with a nice woman and has been for some years, and second, while he’s tall and dark and calm, there’s a warning that crosses my heart when the thought manifested the one time when I first met him. Probably best I stay on my guard with my words around him. I’d hate for something nasty to happen because of something I said to him. I need this job too much to jeopardize it.

Jack took to the stellar Gods with particular relish. A favorite is definitely Saturn, though another is Poseidon. While the second is a water God, I figured, since I was already teaching him the Roman Gods, I’d teach him the Greek ones at the same time. If I’m not careful, he may end up a pirate.

Blessed be.

Good thing I demanded to only work days at the start of my new job. The weekend overnight guy was robbed at knife point. I think it’s time to heavily fortify the shop with the strongest protections I can manifest. Maybe call down something big to prowl the store. Would a dragon spirit be overkill?

There are a lot of benefits to having a dragon spirit as protection, though keeping them interested enough to stick around is a challenge when not everyone would be comfortable with it. Some of my coworkers are leery of my witchy ways. Then again, this group is pretty laid back, so they might not comment at all on it. If someone becomes uncomfortable, I can always dispell the spirit. Dragons create a heavy presence, after all, even if they’re unseen.

There hasn’t been any luck so far on catching the person leaving the bowl on our doorstep either. I’ll catch them at some point, but what to do then? I guess it depends on why. I’m off to calm and ground myself. What a week.

Blessed be.

Job hunting is a pain in the ass until the best circumstances, a long tedious selling of oneself just so one can have money to pay the bills. It’s harder to find employment with a ten year gap in employment history, I figured out, because I couldn’t explain the gap until an interview. I think most employers assumed the worst when they saw it, not that I was a house mom.

With a lot of luck, and some minor workings, I managed to find one. Bottom of the totem pole work, cashier at a convenience store, but I’ll happily take what I can get at the moment. The area manager is an overbearing ass, the store manager is a decent fellow, and the assistant manager is a funny little string bean who I really enjoy talking to. My new co-workers are a mixed bag, but they seem pretty nice. I think I’ll be fine here for a while. Thank the Divine.

Angie has disappeared the last few days. I’m not exactly worried. It’s a stunt she’s pulled since she was sixteen and it was her birthday Friday. I’m uneasy though. Something about it doesn’t smell right.

The milk and honey showed up on our doorstep again. Mom says it wasn’t her and Jack says the same. I want to assign a benign meaning to it, but something niggles in the back of my mind. I don’t like it. We’re not quiet about our witchiness, but this feels like a taunt. Until I figure out what’s going on with this, I’m on guard. I hate to worry. Maybe it’s time I set a trap for this unknown person.

Blessed Be.

Jack hasn’t stopped badgering me about the Gods. I love his ability to focus on a subject for days on end, but in this instance, I really wish he wasn’t so good at it. Mom laughs every time he brings the subject up to me. Says it’s the price I pay for such a smart, perceptive son.

In dodging Jack’s questions though, I’ve come to think on all the reasons why I respect and petition the chaos Gods with the level of reliability I do. Both answers are true, in that I do like how they roll and I honestly believe it’s better to stand in the eye of the storm. There are less volatile versions of chaos than Set and Loki, on the other hand. Why these two? Set is God of the storm and the foreigner, of endless wandering and death in the scorching desert. Cunning Loki, silver-tongued and the destroyer of the world in His need for revenge. Maybe it’s because I have something my sister calls a ‘wild soul’. Even though I’m contemptuous of my fellow humans in general, I enjoy being out among them with the same kind of fascination a scientist gives to research of a subject. And while I am a homebody kind of person, that doesn’t stop me from wanting to go and go and go. Just to see places. Maybe They’re a reflection of my desire to back out into the world an explore all the secret places I can find. And maybe I will do exactly that, once Jack is grown. I can wait eight more years.

For now I have to divert Jack’s attention to some other thing. He’s really not old enough to have dealings with chaos. I think I’ll start him on the light and birth Gods for now. Best to give his spiritual education a good foundation. And then I’ll teach him about the stellar Gods. He does want to go to Mars, after all.

Otherwise, life is good. Quiet. Ryan Reynolds said it in one of his movies. “Boring is best.”

Blessed be.

Ugh.

Daylight Savings Time rolled into the middle of my work week like a tank through a brick wall. I hope the moron who thought this ridiculous way to deal with the time remaining at the end of a day had some sort of nasty crab infestation. I hate DST. What a nuisance.

Ra loves it though. He was loafed on the windowsill, soaking up the sun before I even woke up this morning. It’s my day off today, so I’m jam packed with a list of housework about as long as my arm and that jerk gets to lounge all day. I have to get it all done before I pick up Jack from school. Maybe I can con Angie into helping me with the housework. She hates it, but is easy to bribe with chocolate. Speaking of, I have to hide my chocolate stash so my mom stops stealing it. I honestly can’t wait until me and Jack have our own place again.

The second murder of ravens disappeared. I don’t know what happened for sure, but I think the first murder drove them off. The quiet in the morning unsettles me now.

Someone left a bowl of milk and honey next to our doorstep too. A greeting? Or a warning? I don’t like these kinds of mysteries.

Blessed Be.

It was nice to have mom out of the house for almost a week. She went to California for vacation, even though she hates the place. Too liberal in her opinion. I find it funny that she’s a witch and yet has such a conservative mindset. Takes all kinds, I guess.

I wasn’t so lucky with Angie being around though. Once mom had headed out, she reverted to her less savory habits of being out all night and sleeping all day, general bitchiness and emotionally poking everyone around her with sharp sticks. Good thing she doesn’t have her own children, nor wants any. She’s a great aunt for Jack and doesn’t bring her drama around him, but she hasn’t got a maternal bone in her body. Good thing she knows that. Makes her scrupulous with birth control.

Otherwise, it’s been a quiet week. Work, home, Jack is doing great in school. Nothing major has blown up in our faces. Yet.

Something distressing, though really minor, did happen though. Jack asked me to teach him about the chaos Gods I favor. Worship isn’t the word I ever use, because I’m not that kind of person. I’ve seen what happens when people worship. They turn into that lunatic who came into my shop last week. I petition the Gods and they help or don’t, according to my petition and their feeling on the matter.

I don’t want to teach him about Them just yet. Chaos Gods are tricky by nature and aren’t for the faint of heart. Set especially isn’t one to trifle with. Why do I favor them, my friend Jeff once asked. I figured it was better to stand in the eye of the storm, so to speak. Also, I like how They roll.

Blessed Be.

It is very late as I write this. Very, very late and I’ll sum up the week I’ve had since my last post with one word.

Shenanigans.

It was one of those weird weeks that shouldn’t possibly exist, yet does. The day after my last post, another murder of ravens moved into the neighborhood and now there’s a war between the two groups. I can’t tell if it’s a prank war or a real one, but these newest ravens have decided to conduct raids on the first murder an hour before dawn. Good thing it’s still winter, at the moment, but I dread this stretching into the early morning conflagration of summer.

On the work front, a fundy came into my store to by scratcher tickets and lost her mind when I stood up. My pentacle had fallen outside my shirt while I was bent down and she was insensate with Christian rage when she saw it. Called for my manager and made a huge scene. I’m not fired, my coworkers don’t care, and the regulars who were in the store rolled their eyes at the fundy’s antics, but damn. My boss, Josiah, is a good guy and brushed off the problem, though he did pull me descetely aside and tell me, next time, oust her from the store. He doesn’t like it when customers get crazy like that with his employees.

I think I’m going to start casting a circle around my store before I start shifts, to keep those kinds and the dangerous ones out. Yeah, it’s an extra ten minutes early to work, but worth it. And a charm bag. Just in case.

Today was Jack’s birthday though! I picked him up from school early and took him to a birthday lunch, with a green birthday cake. Took him to a movie, the LEGO Movie 2 which was pretty good, and we tore into gifts, dinner and more cake when we got home.

No sign of Cindy for two weeks now. I wonder if she moved out? An opportunity missed. I’d have liked to have known her better. There’s all the time in the world though. Maybe I’ll snare the next one with my bumbling courtship.

Blessed Be.

My birthday passed with almost no comment, beyond an enthusiastic ‘Happy Birthday’ from Jack and a little birthday cupcake he made for me with a single purple candle aflame on top. Perfect way to spend my birthday and leagues above the last five, where my ex-husband always found something to whine and tantrum about.

Lupercalia was a fun little feast us four held in honor of the day, and also stood in for my birthday dinner we didn’t do the night before. I can live with that. Sharing a holiday with a birthday is terrible, most of the time. This year’s was nice and quiet, my preferred state.

The month of the Ash Tree starts tonight though, and I feel a calling to hold a vigil for it. I’m not much in tune with the Ash, we don’t mesh well since I’m more of a Rowan kind of girl, but maybe it’s time to change that. After I finish here, I’ve got to go set up my space and circle. And hang a damned note on the door telling people to go away. Mom and Angie have been randomly poking their noses in my room. They won’t just come out and tell me they’re worried about me. Oh no. They have to invade until I get annoyed enough to snap at them first.

Joke’s on them. I’ve got a ten year old who’s taught me a whole new meaning to the word ‘patience’. I can outlast their prying.

Speaking of Jack, I think I’ll invite him into the circle tonight and begin on his instruction to the Trees. I think he’ll like it. That’s the kind of esoteric knowledge he loves to collect, just because.

Blessed Be.

The secular New Year and Imbolc came and went without me really noticing. Life kind of kicked us all in the teeth, though some more severely than others. On a sort of brighter note, I got the extra time I wanted.

Sent the cheat his copy of my response to his divorce petition and he just sat on it, I guess. Lazy bastard. The court sent him a notice that our divorce proceedings were now cancelled because of the delay in him initiating the next step. Have to start all over again. Divorce is a little expensive. $800 in total, $400 per person. Which is a nuisance.

On the other hand, I can afford it, no problem now that I have a job again. Nothing glamorous, mind, cashier work for a gas station. Ten years of being a stay-at-home mom left my resume pretty lean and I have to take what I can get. Happily, the days I work are the days Jack is either over at his father’s house, or my mother can pick him up from school. I don’t see Cindy much because of it, either, but that’s probably for the best. Getting tangled up with anyone who isn’t sticking around is a good way to get my heart broken.

A murder of ravens moved into the reservoir behind the house. They’re up with the sun and their happy caterwauling makes me smile every morning. A good omen. Corvids are my favorite. I think I need to do this blogging thing more regularly. I’m a lot calmer now than I was when I started.

Blessed Be.