Frustration Levels

I don't mean for this to become a complete rant about the coven dynamic. I love the people who are in my coven. They're all wonderful people, and each have so much to teach me.

I do think that a lesson that many of them need to learn is how to play well with others.

I suppose that the biggest part of the problem is that they've not done real teachings without Don Draconus. He used to do class once a week. You showed up at that date and time. There was no haggling with the date and time of class. It was when it was convenient for him. And if it was important to you, you made the time to be there.

We've had 10 classes now. Some of them have been at Donna Incendia's house, so the entire coven was there ('cept Pantera who moved to Tampa). But when class is at Amaranthea's (because either she or Corvus is teaching), Incendia can't make it and Rubesca doesn't show up. Last class, on Herbalism, Corvus didn't even show up. And Kelin didn't bother to sit up for class. Instead it was more important to study for mid-terms. And when I say study for midterms, I really mean goof around with her brother by running from room to room, coming out occasionally for cookies, and then going back to her room.

Much like Kelin didn't stay for the ending of the class on Dragons that Corvus did. It's *really* frustrating to me. Don Draconus stressed that the information you get in class is only a part of it. The other part is that spirit of the class that is passed from teacher to student. And you don't get that by reading someone else's notes. You must be there to experience it. It helps make the class your own.

*vent*

So I showed up for class. I spoke with Amaranthea when I was leaving the house. I told her I'd be there by 7. It takes about an hour, with traffic, to get from my office to her house. She knew when I'd be there as I was in the car, on the highway, when I spoke to her, because she wanted to know if I wanted any spaghetti.

So you'd think that at 7, when I got to her house, she'd be there, with Kelin, and my spaghetti, waiting to start class. You'd think that, because it makese sense.

So, of course, that's not what happened.

I got to her house (see, I can start a paragraph without "so", even when I'm mad) and she's not there. Kelin and the spaghetti are, though. Kel says that Amaranthea found out that she could have beer while on the medication she's taking, so she went out to get some. She must be tired of wine and alcohol, I suppose, to numb the pain.

I'm there for an hour. I know this because we watched cartoons, and we watched two sets of cartoons. When the third set came on (explaining Fairly Odd Parents to Sean was fun), she finally shows up. She puts stuff away, then takes out the fixings for cosmopolitans.

*sigh*

It's only after she's had the bulk of one that we're ready for class. Kelin, at that point, says she's got to study for midterms she has on Friday, and won't be attending class. Amaranthea gives a bunch of handouts, then rushes through class (at least, it felt rushed to me). At the end, when I should've been given a list of herbs and their medicinal usages, I'm told "You know a lot about herbs, and the bulk of this informtion is in books, so you can look it up later". I suppose it's because it's almost 11pm. Had she been at home when she knew I'd get there, rather than out buying beer, it would've been 10pm and my notes might've been complete.

But that's okay. Because I finished typing up my notes and they're a bit more complete than the class was. I looked up information, found out stuff that wasn't given in class, found out stuff she didn't know about the herbs (egads, I mean, if you're going to use them, you should know this stuff????), fixed misspellings I was given, etc.

*fume*

Class was disorganized. This from a woman who wants to be a teacher. That's the part that kills me. She's going to have to go home each night and make a lesson plan and stick to it. She hates repeating herself and gets frustrated if you don't "get it". I don't know how she's going to do with a room full of children who will be being introduced to the material for the first time.

But how can I fix this? Should I go to Incendia and advise her how classes have been going? Would that just be bitching? I mean, I'm greatful that they've taken me on as a student, but it feels like, since Mayfest, it's just fallen apart. Part of that's because Incendia's not taking as much of an active hand, it seems, because of the military thing. It's just really frustrating...

Jesus, Save me from your followers

Oh sweet jesus.... your followers.... they make my head hurt

There are some Creationists who don't make my head hurt incredibly. They can talk about their theory, and understand the flaws and holes. Of course, I know that evolution has flaws and holes, too.

But not ones you can drive whole planets through.

He says that scientists discredit creationism because evolutionists don't like their facts. But isn't that what he's doing here? He cites incidents that occur, but give no facts to support them.

He says that human footprints and remains were found next to dinosaur bones. But he doesn't say where that was, or when the find was made, or if scientists had carbon dated the bones to say that they traced back to the same timeframe.

I understand that Creationism requires a leap of faith. But beliving in Evolutionism doesn't mean that you don't believe that the God and Goddess had a hand in the evolution of our planet. But discounting scientific belief because it doesn't jive with the Bible is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Creationism and Evolution are not mutually exclusive. There's a driving force in the universe that is rushing us forward, causing us to evolve. That force is the spark of the Divine in each of us. Yet that spark is still limited in its power to evolve due to our physical nature. It helps us to evolve into what we are meant to be, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically.

Busted

Saturday was our office christmas party. It was so nice to see everyone in a very relaxed mood. We had great food. Great drinks. Great service. A wonderful time was had by all. We had been given access to a club for an "after party" after the, well, party. But I didn't go because it was already after midnight and I was supposed to have a class on Basic Herbalism on Sunday morning at Amaranthea's house.

Notice, I said "supposed to".

She calls me at around 9am and tells me that she and Kelin have a lot of stuff that they need to do, so they wanted to postpone class. Now, I'm thinking that they knew they had all this stuff, and class, and should've figured out how to get everything done like mature human beings. This does not bode well for Kel being off in college by herself. And I'm thinking that they knew that they'd be wanting to postpone class the night before. Had she told me the night before, I'd have known that I could stay at the party a little later and have more of a good time. I don't go out too often, and this was a wonderful time.

So, fine. We'll have class on Tuesday. That's fine. Whatever.

But I had been planning to drive down there to hit the new age store by her house. I won a gift certificate to the store at some event at the UU and I wanted to use it towards my Befana present for the grab bag.

So I drive down there, got there around 1p (which is about an hour after class was supposed to start), and whose car is in the parking lot? Amaranthea's. She's at the shop. I nearly blew a gasket. I was so mad that she blew off class to catch up on work, and here she is perusing the fine goods at the shop. I had to sit in the car for a few minutes to calm down. I blew off my friends the night before because I wanted to be able to not be too hung over for class, and she cancelled to go shopping?????

I walked up to the shop and she walked out, on her cell. She turned around and saw me. The look on her face was priceless. She was cold busted. I was really nice to her - overly nice. That'll kill her for the rest of the week. She was really suprised to see me. I told her that I was really suprised to see her, too, cause I thought she had a lot of work to do. Well, she was blowing it off to get some Befana gifts for Natale. She apologized for class again and I told her that it was okay, but next time, if she could give me a little more notice, cause if she'd told me the night before, I wouldn't have left my office party so early and miss having a good time with my coworkers.

I know that this will be eating away at her for the rest of the week. I figure she'll worry herself into an ulser over whether or not I'm mad at her. So I didn't really feel the need to be a bitch about it.

So I got some stuff. A lovely book on animals. A GORGEOUS statue of Apollo (damn but I really want the matching Diana). And some nice stuff for the grab bag. Now I've just got to WRAP EVERYTHING.... *sigh* I hate that part of Christmas. But it always looks so nice and neat when it's wrapped. I'll have to lock myself in a room so the cats can't get at me!