The realm of the wee folk

Good evening!

Tired and a little worn down at the moment; I have been developing some sort of wheezy-lung condition over the past two weeks. It started with respiratory issues and a thoroughly blocked nose, right when all that wildfire smoke was drifting over our city and making the air opaque and orange. I have to wonder if that had something to do with it, but the smoke has been gone for about a week now and I still feel odd in the old airways. I called in sick today so I could have more of a chance to recover; might do the same tomorrow, though it does feel mostly better now. I went to the clinic and they're sending me for a chest xray just to make sure it's not pneumonia but the doctor said it's probably just a virus or infection of the upper respiratory tract.

I would love to have another day to rest, as I feel like today wasn't very restful for some reason. I guess because I had to do a huge pile of dishes, and then go out to the clinic, and then pick up a few groceries, and then come home and take the Fox to the same clinic so he could get the further tests ordered for his condition, and then come back home and make dinner. Kind of too busy for a sick day, eh? I'll see how I feel tomorrow morning, but I think I'd like to call in sick just to be sure I'm recovered fully. I hate calling in sick, but sometimes you just need a bit of extra time to rest. I know a 40-hour work week is normal, but for me it gets a bit much at times, particularly when my life is busy in other areas as well... and then I get run down, and then I get sick. Oh well... hopefully one day I will make enough money to only have to work part-time. I think time is more valuable than money. As long as I can get by comfortably I don't see the need to work so much that I feel like my other interests are being neglected. Time is such a precious resource...

Anyway! I have exciting news: I'm going to Faerieworlds this year! I've wanted to attend ever since I heard of the event a few years ago, and this year is finally the year it can happen. I'm super excited mostly for the bands that will be playing, three of which are some of my favourites: Woodland, Faun, and Wardruna. I feel like those three groups might never play at the same event again, and now is my chance to get there and experience it. I booked the time off work already, just in case, and I'm glad I did! I bought my ticket yesterday, and now I just need to book a hotel room. I will be driving down in our car; it's near Portland, Oregon, so it's about a 5-6 hour journey. I've always wanted to see Oregon... it sounds like a beautiful place, very woodsy just the way I like it. And still in "Cascadia", haha.

The Fox will likely be coming with me for the trip, but not attending the actual event. He'd like to, but it's probably going to be very loud, and loud music/noise makes his vertigo much worse to the point of crippling him. Not to mention the fact that he can't walk without holding onto me. However, he would still like to come along, and probably just hang out in the little town nearby doing some of his computer programming. We'll see how much he has improved by September and decide how to organize it then.

I've never really felt the need to attend a music festival before, but this one feels like it might just be my scene. I don't do drugs or particularly enjoy most types of music that are normally at festivals like Burning Man, and hanging out in a desert with a huge crowd of strangers who have nothing in common with me sounds pretty awful. However! After following the Faerieworlds social media for a while and seeing what kinds of things happen there (think spiral dances, drum circles, vendors that sell all manner of magical and fantastical things, and pagan folk music), I feel pretty drawn to it. At the very least, I sincerely think it'll be a great source of inspiration for my own creative pursuits. Even if I fail at making new like-minded friends, I think it'll still be good market research, so to speak, to see what other people are making and selling in the fantasy/mythology field. And it's in the woods, not the desert. There's another plus.

Plus, a lot of attendees seem to dress up for the festival -- whether as faeries, satyrs, gnomes, elves, green men... so many wonderful-looking and original costumes. I like original costumes that are based on a loose interpretation of some mythological creature rather than the kinds of costumes you might see at a sci-fi convention, which tend to be based on very specific characters from specific series. I find it allows for a lot more creativity and inspiration, for me at least. I don't think I'll be dressing up very much, as I don't know anyone there and it's my first time, but I am certainly going to enjoy seeing all the interesting costumes on display.

Speaking of me not knowing anyone there... well, I'm pretty nervous about that actually. I was kind of hoping to connect with some other newbies online before the event, maybe get to know some regulars so I have at least one or two friendly faces to find, but my post on the Faerieworlds Facebook page seems to have been deleted. I wish there were some kind of forum rather than just a Facebook page. Maybe there is and I just haven't found it yet.

Well, I might just have to take a deep breath and plunge right in. I'm not particularly outgoing or extroverted, so it's going to be hard for me to make friends to hang out with, probably. I'll have fun even if I'm by myself, but it would be nice to socialize a bit while I'm there, or I might start to feel like an outsider looking in. I want to be part of it. Maybe volunteering would be a good idea. If I really like it, I can try signing up as a volunteer next year.

Ooh, and one of my favourite pagan artists, Stephanie Lostimolo, is going to be there selling her work! I have two prints of hers that I still have yet to frame. It would be cool to meet her and tell her how much I admire her art.

Anyway. I feel very lucky that I have the means to go this year. Even if I'm a bit nervous about it, I still know it's going to be a great experience.

Hmm, what else... I've been doing my daily morning pages as part of The Artist's Way course. Haven't seen much difference in myself yet other than being particularly tired from getting up at 4:30am to do them before work, but these things need time to kick in. I'm a little behind on the other course material; hoping to catch up tonight before I go to sleep. The exercises include a lot of writing about events in my past that have shaped my artistic self, and writing down affirmations (which I've been forgetting to do, argh). And having an "artist date" with myself, which involves taking some time to do something for myself, just for the fun of it, like going for a walk in the woods, going to a favourite shop to browse for no reason, or whatever it might be. Sadly, my artist date for the first week fell through a bit. I planned to go to this locally famous new-agey bookstore that I've been hearing about for years. And I did, and it was great, but my friend who I was doing life drawing with beforehand decided to come along, which made my artist date invalid because it's supposed to be done completely on my own. Oops. I couldn't turn her away after she expressed interest in wanting to come along, though. And besides, I enjoyed having her there too. But I guess it doesn't count as an artist date since I was with someone else.

Oh well, I'll forgive myself for that and move on with the course. Maybe if I call in sick tomorrow I'll have a bit of a chance to do something else for myself. Lock myself in my room and do some playing with my tarot cards. Perhaps go visit that bookstore again and have more time to browse (it's full of all sorts of amazing things, from crystals to drums to incense to meditation CDs to hundreds of books on any eccentric topic you can imagine). When I was with my friend there I picked up a nice little velvety bag for my tarot cards, and an essential oil burner since I've wanted to try that for a while. I was tempted to buy a book on paganism too, but I still have a couple that I haven't even read yet so I held myself back from that. At least until I run out of reading material.

Anyway... that's a pretty long blog post, about as non-coherent as usual, ha. I'll leave it at that for now, and hopefully the next time I post I'll be in excellent health again instead of this weird wheezy-lungs run-down state! Goodnight, dear readers, if you exist!