Day in the Life of an Idiot

I dragged Mason to the Heart of the Beast's 39th Annual May Day Parade and Pagent yesterday. I had a great time. He did pretty well just sitting on the hill where the pagent was setting up until the crowds rolled in. He was enjoying reading in the sunshine and eating all the fun food that vendors had set up around the man-made lake in the center of the park (fresh cut french fries! Italian ice! Hot tamales! Stuff too expensive but excellent smelling from food trucks!). But Mason started to get grouchy when it became wall-to-wall people, many of whom refused to sit down (we were right next to a traffic aisle, unfortunately,) when the action started.

I brought along the camera, but I accidentally had it stuck on movie mode, so all my "pictures" are actually micro-movies that all end with shots of my pants, because I think I'm setting the camera down... hillarious, really. Anyway, I may attempt to crib some other folks pictures just to give you a sense of the strange and awesome that is this yearly ritual.

This year's theme was Hallelujah, or something like that, but the pagent was its usual cryptic strangeness. There was what I could only describe as a live-action powerpoint presentation (in 15 languages!), the ghostly moose of doom, the Sun Goddess arriving from across the lake, and the dancing renewed moose.

At one point Mason leaned over to me and said, "If there's going to be an obligatory pagan quiz, I get it. Cycle of death and rebirth, right?"

The hilarious part? I hadn't really gotten it, until he pointed it out to me. I was all, "Wha...? Moose???" Although I should have figured it out because moose are one of those animals (as my friend Bill pointed out, like the polar bear,) that are very sensative to environmental changes--as he says, 'a proverbial canary in a coal mine,' and so Minnesota is in danger of losing its moose population to global warming. In my defense, moose make super surreal creepy puppets. Plus, the Heart of the Beast puppeteers are really good at mimicing animal movements and clever enough to take advantage of the natural hidey-holes in the terrian. So, when the ghost moose appeared, it was like s/he came out of nowhere. And then she led all the 'dead children' away and people clapped so I was all, "Do we like the moose of doom?"

Very spooky.

It's probably hard to imagine the scale of these puppets, too, but they're HUGE. Here's a stock photo of the Maypole Goddess to help you imagine:



It was a beautiful day yesterday. Both Mason and I managed to get sunburn on our faces. Also, I think we had the misfortune of sitting next to some people from Minnesota Normal and I might have gotten a slight contact high from all the pot being smoked in the vacinity. Perhaps that's why the Moose of Doom struck me as so DEEP and MEANINGFUL. I'm not sure.

Mason also got a balloon hat and sword, neither of which made it home intact. We almost never watch the parade, so a large part of our frustration every year is the waiting for the damn thing to start. Pagan Standard Time, don't ya know?

Not much to report here, except that Yule with the folks was extremely pleasant. I got the VERY BEST Solstice present EVA, which I will have to post a photo of tomorrow as I forgot to bring the camera to the coffee shop.

It will take some explaining, but it belonged to my great aunt Clara, a devout Catholic, who has recently moved into hospice. At any rate, it is a holographic image of the classic-blue-robed-lily-white-hippie Jesus knocking at the door. If you flex the plaque, his knuckles rap. It is MADE of awesome. I spent a lot of time when I was helping with one day of cleaning out my great-aunt's house marveling at this spectacle of cheese, but reluctantly put it back. My mom rescued it and gave it to me. How cool!

Plus, my folks gave me money for coffee, which I divided evenly between my current hangout and my old place.

Mason, of course, got the usual embarrassment of riches. He has already completed two of the three LEGO sets he got.

Of course, even though we also celebrate Christmas with Shawn's family, I now feel very DONE with the holidays -- because my important one is finished. We'll have a nice little Solstice-Actual celebration tomorrow night. I may have to break the new rule I just instituted about Mason's bedtime, since there will be a lunar eclipse on Yule for the first time in some 450+ years. Seems like powerful magic to me. And, considering that Mason has not yet seen a lunar eclipse, it might be nice for him to stay up/wake up for it. On Solstice-Actual, we give simple, sometimes homemade gifts that are more sentimental than commercial. We also buy things like puzzles or other board/card games for the family. It's a nice tradition. We'll light the Yule Log and keep one of the candles going all night. Sometimes I've tended a "bonfire" in our chimena, from which I'll light a candle, but that often depends on how bitterly cold it is. It's the symbolism that counts more than anything.

Anyway, school vacation has officially started, so I may be very spotty here (or not, depending on how much time Mason wants to spend at the coffee shop.)

First of all, for those of you who tune in for writing tibits, I posted this morning over at SFNovelist: When Writers Don't Write. And yes, I was thinking of pegkerr, who has never, in my opinion, stopped BEING a writer in any sense of the word.

This weekend was really quite pleasant. For once, Shawn and I had nowhere to go. We happily wasted Saturday playing video games with Mason and napping. On Sunday, our friend jiawen came over for brunch. I had such a blast making all sorts of treats for her: bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and potatoes with cheese. Mason chattered on about "Luxor 2" a game that comes standard on a lot of computers. He's really into it -- as are Shawn and I. It's not terribly complicated. The idea is to "blow up" a chain of balls (kind of like in Centiped) by making chains of three or more of the same color. You have a little scarab beetle that you use to "toss" the balls. But, Mason really loves "adventure mode" because you follow a map that has themes and place names. He thinks it's pretty special, but has a tendency (like all us geeks) to sometimes just start talking about things without providing any kind of context. I'm sure he'll baffle grandma and grandpa Morehouse this weekend.

We've decide to let Mason sit out the funeral in Indiana. Before you get up in arms, hear me out. Mason has a double handicap. Not only is he four, but he's also not being raised Christian. A LOT of what happens in a traditional funeral is going to baffle him. Plus, there's going to be a second ceremony that he *will* attend. Shawn's dad had, during the course of his life, two wives. One, Shawn's mother, who died when Shawn was fourteen, is buried in a double plot in Grand Rapids. Pat (Shawn's dad) had decided some time ago that he wanted his ashes split between Shawn's mom and Margaret (his "new" wife.) Shawn and her immediate family (her brothers and their spouses) are planning a spreading of the ashes ceremony in Grand Rapids some time this summer. I think that this ceremony is going to make a whole lot more sense to our little pagan. He's heard a lot already about the cycle of life -- how the seed becomes the plant, which bears the seed... etc. Because it's going to be a lot less formal, he'll be more able to take an active part in the ceremony, too. I think this is a really good compromise.

Plus, with Mason with grandma and grandpa Morehouse, I'll have a chance to focus on saying good-bye to Shawn's dad too. Otherwise, my attention is always going to be on Mason. Let's only pray that the pastor doesn't read that crazy-ass story of Lazarus. I freaking hate that story, especially at funerals where it's especially creepy.

In the meantime, can I just ask? What's up with the universe? Several people I know have had an incredibly crappy month of March. I've sent more condolences cards this month than I ever hope to again.