Halloween

Halloween is an interesting holiday. Today, for kids, it's about dressing up and going door to door and getting a treat. The tricking part is left for the teenagers. Shaving cream, toilet pappering, egging, rolling pumpkins down the big hill in town (in the little town I lived in), or just smashing them along side the road. For adults, it's about dressing up and get getting drunk the Saturday before at some bar or a party. Good times.
This is how it is for some people. There are a lot of people who believe that Halloween is an 'evil' holiday and that it celebrates satan. I've done a bit of research on this because I LOVE halloween and it always bugs me when people say, I hate it..it's satans holiday. Well..guess what...here is the truth about halloween.
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year. Keep reading, it will all make sense in a minute.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
See...starting to sound like the Halloween you know now??? Keep reading....
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
So, as time went on, customs change. Holloween might be about death, but death isn't evil. So, what do you think?? Is it evil? Is it a Pagen holiday?
I stole the history from http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm but read a lot of other views that were the same, just longer.

New format

I changed my format. I'm not sure if I like it. I wanted to be able put links to all my wonderful friends blogs. There are so many. I can't find where to change it. I didn't have the patience to deal with it today. So keep looking for some great links. (as if you don't already know them all)
Paid my rent until the end of my lease today. That was sorta depressing. I'm going to give up my cute little apartment. What keeps me going is that someday, after I get out of school, I can have a cute little house, with a cute mid sized dog. Then, I'll have everyone over for a cook out. So like 5 years from now..plan on coming over to my house.

Step One

Step One. Doing some testing on Monday so I can live my dream of being a college kid. I've been doing some research on the chosen profession of teaching. One of the exciting things is they expect teaching jobs to boom in the next few years. 2 Million jobs. Not bad chances of finding one I'd think. I'm open to relocating if need be, and am excited about the whole learning process again. Who knows, maybe this will help me get my Mrs. degree too ;)
Healthwise I'm doing ok. I haven't had any pain for a few days. Now that I don't have health insurance more testing right now unless I have pain, is out of the question.
In other news, I carved a pumpkin last night with my neices. It was fun. Have fun, carve a pumpkin.

ARG!!!!

Ok..so the scan was fine. Normal. Because I feel better, they aren't going to do anything else right now. Soooo..I just wait to get back to normal.

NO NEWS!!! I called again today...didn't get a call back. I do feel better today though.

No News

My doctor hasn't gotten my results back yet. Or if she has, she hasn't given them to me. I called on Friday and they didn't call me back. I'm feeling more good than bad most of the time. Still have minor pain after I eat, and still sleeping alot at night. Both are better than they were, even earlier in the week.
In other news, I think I lost my job. I didn't know until 2 days ago, that my leave was subject to approval, and it wasn't approved. I've been off almost 2 weeks. As long as I'm careful finacially, I'll be able to make it thru the next few months until my lease is up. It's in God's hands, can't worry about that. So readers, send sunshine thoughts my way again.

Let's see, what's new. Off work on a personal leave which I have a feeling is going to end up getting me fired. Still not feeling right. Had some scope yesterday, I'm hoping they find out what is wrong with me and fix it. Since I've been off so long, I've been thinking about the jobs I might like. I was thinking I would like to be a teacher. After a bit of research, I see that I can take all but one of the classes locally. So, if I've lost my job, I've got a back up plan. Wouldn't be able to start for awhile though, have a few other things I'd need to attend to first. When I was in school, a good teacher made a huge difference. I'd want to be the teacher who cares, who understands, who takes the time to make sure the students get out what they need.
What do you think? Can you see me standing in front of 3rd graders (I like them because most of them are still shorter than I am) teaching them?

A long long time ago...

I'm old. We all know this. I got the oppertunity to read some things that reminded me of being in middle school and having a crush. Don't you remember having your friend run interference? "Go ask him if he likes me" Our friend, loving us as they do, runs to ask them and usually get told.."no way...ewww" Our friend would come back, and say, "he didn't say it, but I really think he likes you!!!" This whole 2 minute span is DAYS and hours of coversation. The 'friend' repeats things over and over again. Recalling every facial expression, every tone of voice.
That was fun. Why do we start getting mature about relationships? That banter would make dating fun again. You could find a good friend who could run over while he's on the swingset and ask him if he likes you, and let them do the hard work. Sigh..the easy days.

Blah Blah Blah

This weekend I got to go on a trip I earned to one of the casino resorts in our area for being in the Top 25 of sales rep in our division. I ended up as number 10. Not bad. It was really nice to be celebrated, and to feel like I was worth something. That being said. I don't like my job anymore. Yes, it pays well. Yes, it's a good job. BUT..something is missing. I just feel...unfulfilled. I really hope that I can get past this. Jobs are hard to get, and a good jobs are even harder to find. I guess I see this job is a going no where job, and I want to go somewhere. Just where, I don't know. Any suggestions on how to get over this?