Heh, I like it too.

To say that yesterday was a hard day at work doesn't even begin to describe it.  I did a "field trip" to educate myself about the animal tests in medicine. What I saw and the conversations I had with the professionals of the field made my blood boil. Before I started this research, I didn't have strong opinions about the subject and believed that most of the medical research done by animal experimenting is necessary. Duh, well, yesterday broke those illusions. What I experienced resembled a time machine visit to Germany in early '40:s and talking about theorethical ethics with people from the Party. Nice, ordinary people -certainly, as long as you look as Aryan as they do and agree with them that in the great project of gaining Lebensraum you are entitled to do whatever you like to to those you deem to be "lesser" beings. It seems that humanity has learned very little from near history- except to cover its gravest mistakes under the name of science instead of the name of ideology.
Today, my goal is simply to calm down and bring myself back into the calm state of mind where I can transform my experiences into good philosophical thoughts that have some small hope of changing things. [/venting]

   So, I'm enjoying a free day at home: doing chores, enjoying my beautiful, peaceful enviroment, exercising and meditating. I feel I've totally earned some time to paint my toenails, decorate my bun with extra beautiful hairsticks (Blue Wings with their blue little flowers and butterflies seem to be the perfect therapy sticks) and play with Lumibunny. She has become absolutely adorable- besides bouncing around, she enjoys being stroked gently. I know it's the calm before the teenage kicks in, but I'm enjoying it!
My hair is a little dirty. It seems that I've slipped back to washing it twice a week. But, if that's the schedule it prefers then so be it.

Spirituality: My tarot cards and the accompanying literature have arrived. I did my first, simple reading. I had a bit difficulty in determining the method as I'm not interested of the fortune-telling aspects of tarot divination. But, I got some food for thought from the reading and it was a positive experience. It seems that it is possible to use the cards to bring new thoughts to my mind. Without an external aid like that, I have sometimes felt that my thoughts are sometimes focused to just few aspects of a given issue. My hope is that sometimes using the cards will bring new points of view to my mind and help me see things in wider perspectives. Nothing too mystical in that, I suppose, but then- my path of spirituality is quite a down-to-earth one.

I got Zerner-Farber's Enchanted Tarot. Right now I'm in total awe -I really connect with it. I've done a couple of more readings about different issues (I have questions in storage!), and my meditations have been truly enlightening and comforting.
When I visited Helsinki, I bought two other decks, Classic and Castelli's Art Nouveau that featured so beautiful artwork. But reading them was difficult. I suppose that me being a total beginner explains it, but it doesn't explain how effortlessly I read Zerner-Farber and the quality of answers I gain from it. These are strange things indeed. Strange enough to be magical, I suppose.
     So far, I'm glad I chose to ignore my preconceptions and to approach tarot with open mind. I'm definitely going to learn more about this and to work more with the Zerner-Farber deck. Maybe, when I gain practice I will also have success with the other two decks. If not- at least they have interesting artwork and may work if I ever read for someone else.

Life, Hair and Everything: I'm happy to tell that I'm feeling today much better. I've even been able to work with my seminar essay and to draw inspiration from my experiences to my writing process. That's a good sign. I am still going to take this day easy and pay attention to relaxing.
I'll still have to visit That Dreadful Place twice, but I'll arrange it so that there will be only one visit per week. I can handle that, especially now that I know what to expect from the visits.
      After yesterday's exercise, I took a shower and washed my hair. Soon I'll have to place a shampoo and soap order to Ida again. I checked her webpages, and it seems that for this winter, she has quite a few interesting new products. I have a strong feeling that I'll end up ordering the full 8 bars again!
       I found some small pink and lilac claw clips, and secured today's bun with them. Resulting style is far from stylish, but it is cute and fun- I like it! Speaking of hairtoys, I hopefully have some time to shop for Secret Santa exchange tomorrow. I already have some ideas, but now that the stores stock up everything for Christmas, who knows what I'll find.

Quote:

Trisha & Sakina: /More Tarot talk
Thanks for your comments. Sakina, the book that came with Zerner Farber deck talks a lot about using tarot for developing inner awareness. I like that aspect a lot- just what I ordered. I get very strong positives vibes from that deck- which is good because otherwise I might be a bit disturbed of getting so good answers from it.  I'll try to search the book you recommended.

Today I was at Helsinki, at an informal seminar with other graduate students from my Dept. It was a great little philosophical gathering and I still feel refreshed by it. I also had a little time to do some Secret Santa shopping, and in fact, I found something interesting. I hope to have my SS present ready to go some time during the next week. Hee hee!
   I hope that besides doing wedding preparations I'll have time to check a few more hairtoy stores in near future. Now that the Christmas and party season in general are nearing, shops always have best selections.
  Otherwise, I haven't paid much attention to my hair today. It's been a perfectly normal hair day I suppose- bun it and forget it. During this fall I've become pretty good in the forgetting part I suppose. I'll probably have to make Stop Neglecting My Hair as my New Year's promise.

I'm sure my Secret Santa would like to know that I have now done my shopping and hope to be able to send the gift tomorrow.

I've had a rather busy week- lots of work, chores, and wedding preparations. But all is going well. Preparations for the wedding day are almost done, and then we'll start really working with the party part. We decided that we are going to see if we can arrange some fireworks for the end of the party. Fireworks are sold around New Year so obtaining them wouldn't be too complicated/expensive, we have a good place very near...all we really need is a permission from local fire department, as according to the law fireworks are allowed without permission only on New Year's night. But I'm sure that won't really be a problem either...we'll just need to arrange it. It'll be fun...
Hair-wise I have still kept things simple. Except, that I have played a little with hairtoys. Right now I'm wearing Plum Sophisticate RapunzelStix pair. Worth mentioning, because my hair is today 1st day hair but long hairsticks have kept my bun well in place.

Update time!

Life: The seminar has pretty much dominated this week: first, finishing my paper, then presenting and defending it and finally recovering from resulting brain overload. I guess I'm still suffering a little of brain overload, and therefore I'm avoiding philosophy for today too. Tomorrow, I can hopefully start reviewing the comments and try solving the problems pointed out in the seminar. Brain overloads are interesting phenomena- essentially the set of symptoms one gets after thinking way too much. Headache, exhaustion, mind running too fast even when you're asleep. I've heard that if one ignores the warning signs, it can get more serious. So I have always been careful to take a day or two off when I feel the symptoms and during that time keeping myself busy with unintellectual activities and it always helps. It's important to do something though- if one "just relaxes", the poor overworked mind will start pondering all the unsolved problems, and that's not good. So, I spent yesterday cooking, baking a cake, exercising and planning what to take on "honeymoon". It was a good day, and now I feel much better.

Exercise: Speaking of health, I'm still going strong with my exercise program. Divided program seems to work quite well and during the week my whole body gets a pretty thorough exercise. Of course, it seems that I'm building muscle even faster than before, but I suppose that it can't be helped. In any case, I think I will keep this divided program in future too. Maybe next I could dedicate one session in a week for improving flexibility. I'm naturally quite flexible, but with my current exercise program, I haven't seen much development in that area. Hmm...

Wedding preparations: We still have them- it's amazing how much little things there are even for a wedding day as simple as ours. Our engagement rings are back and shiny, fireworks permissions have been taken where they belong, we are still figuring out how to arrange the care for rabbits. Still no panic- except the little panic resulting from realizing that at the end of next week, I will have a different name and be Mrs. T  Eep.
    I'm trying to avoid thinking of weather- all snow has been gone for days, and we're dealing again with a perfectly ordinary November: dark, wet and cold. I don't dare to hope that it would get better during next week. But, as T said- since our party is in January, we'll get a second chance to have snow and a nice weather.

Hair: Nothing new there. I think the growth spurt is over. Neverthless, it looks that if I don't get overly scissor happy during the winter, I may well reach waist by next summer.

Ooooooo!  You are in the final days before the BIG day!  I hope the weather breaks for you and at least you don't have rain. (We wouldn't want the two of you to melt! )  It has been so much fun following your preparations.  I hope we get to see a picture of the two of you dolls!