gathering my strength

Today is a day, according to my pagan-flavored dayplanner, for strengthening one's intuition. Only my intuition is working fine. I've been getting HUGE vibes from my friend Tan, all weekend long. I got in touch with her, finally, to hear that her mother has had a crisis, she'd had a hell week, and her lover's high maintenance-ness was about to push her over the edge. We had a nice long talk, she vented, I listened and lamented that we weren't able to do this in person, but we were both impressed, anew, at how when one of us needs to talk to the other, we just throw it out there, and ZIP! the other calls. It works that way with my friend Yolanda, too; I'll be thinking of her and she'll call me up. It happens too often to call it coincidence. Both Tan and Yolanda are women I'd say are operating along the same witchly lines as me; not good at a daily disciplined practice, nevertheless, we are users (and abusers?) of practical magic.

No, I'm thinking more of anchoring energy tonight, into something more solid and able to sustain me through this darkening season, and through the insane holiday madness that is ripping through my school, as we get ready for the Winter Program, which I'm told, is the biggest fete of the year. Le sigh. Yolanda used to tell me it was madness to do night performances with Kindergarteners, yet here I am, making little red noses and reindeer antlers and taping lines on the stage for them to stand on. Performance anxiety, much?

Brief interlude, while I tended my chicken soup, and had a nice chat with Patrice. Our respective spouses (spice?) are flung about the Pacific right now, so we had the usual laundry list conversation about dogs, our man Cesar Millan, irritating co-workers, the impending U2 concert, and cocktail recipes.

In an unrelated digression, I must say that I am enjoying my new habit of drinking an espresso right after work each day. Driving home over the Pali, feeling utterly spent and defeated by work, I find myself envisioning 2 options. One involves my bed, "All Things Considered" on NPR and reading "Entertainment Weekly" til I doze off, and the other involves firing up the Barista and dripping myself 2oz of the Elixir of Life, which can bring me up to speed for a few more hours to walk the dogs, figure dinner and have an evening. As much as I long for the first option, the second is probably the wiser. It works well, too.

Off to run a bath, and work on this sustaining energy project.