Well, this is me, Melissa Kluey aka Kethera.
Well, this is me, Melissa Kluey aka Kethera.
| Who the heck IS this person? |
Mundane Stuff
|
Spirituality |
I went to several different public schools, following the many changing school boundaries for french immersion students. So that meant that I went to elementary schools in King City, Richmond Hill and Aurora, ON. I went to King City Secondary School for grade nine and a part of grade ten.
I moved to Delta, British Columbia in November 1991. I've moved around a few times in the Vancouver Lower Mainland area, and now reside back in Delta. (Hey! I'm a glutton for punishment).
I went to Delta Secondary School but finished high school in Richmond's Matthew McNair Secondary School. I graduated in 1994. GO MARLINS!!
(Wed., Jan. 31, 2001) Wow, I've not written on here in a long time. Sorry about that,
it must seem like I'm not doing much. I've been writing a lot in my private journal, but hey, I can't really post
all that online. :-)
Shannon is four years old now. I have her signed up for skating (which she's never done before except for her
first time last week) and for ballet/movement class. She loves them both. In fact she insisted that she wanted
to try skating. Her Aunty Ashley figure skates and skates really well, and Shannon has seen her at competitions
and sometimes on video tape, so I'm guessing she wants to try it because of that. Not that I mind, I think it's
great she wants to learn. Unfortunately this week, the second week for both classes, she had to miss them because
she's got a nasty chest cold. Stuffed up and phlemy cough, I don't want her getting too tired or spreading the virus
around. She's kinda cranky too, so she may not care to follow instructions in a pleasant manner until feeling better.
What have I been up to? Well since I haven't written in so long I guess there is a few things I could write about.
in December of 1999 I started volunteering at the local Cable TV station. I've worked on sound editing a little bit,
but mostly I do the occasional camera work. It's fun, except for filming the municipal hall meetings. (BORING!) I liked filming
a youth skating show, lots of camera angles, it was tough but a great learning experience. So I've been doing that through
2000 now and then, got enough volunteer hours for a mug.... woohoo! (smile)
I got to go over the island to visit my brother and sister-in-law and my niece and nephew in December 2000. It was the first
time I'd met the kids and my sister-in-law. My brother and she aren't married, in fact I don't believe they are together,
but they are still on good terms though, for the kids. And they both love the children. My nephew, the child of my sil's
first marriage, is six years old. My niece, my brother's first child, is 1 1/2, she'll be 2 years old in May. She's a real cutey.
So elf-like in size. And she and her brother seemed to get along real well with each other. I was so glad to go.
(Sat., Nov. 21st, 1998) I thought I was getting better, but no, I still have a bloody cold. The
previous one went away (I'm guessing) but left my immune system low and I've gotten sick again. I've been
drinking lots of herb teas, and taking echinacea, it seems to be helping me in regards to my energy level, but
I'm still stuffed up, coughing and sneezing. Bummer!
Okay, how was my Hallowe'en, you might be asking? Well, my father came to visit us from back east. He stayed
with my sister and he walked around the neighbourhood with Shannon, myself and Shannon's daddy. We were
supposed to go around with Ken and Connor, her cousins, but they ended up staying with their other
cousins in another town that evening. No biggy.
I dressed up as a Gypsy, dripping with lots of gold and silver, huge
hooped earrings and lots scarves and a shawl, I looked good. Shannon had on this cute
little orange dress with black edges and a black spider web all over it. It had a black
belt and we had an orange and black cone hat we kept on her head with an elastic. I let her use
my little besom and she walked the neighbourhood as my little witch. Once I have pictures developed
I'll be sure to scan them and put them up. At least one of Shannon.
My mother dressed up as a mother gopher/rodent thing. Hard to say exactly what kind of
animal she was but she had a brown headdress with little brown ears, a brown bump of a
tail sewed to the back of her skirt, an apron, and she put make-up whiskers on her
face. Needless to say we were a rockin' family of dressed up pagan folk (exception of my mom, but
she's pagan at heart, I know it!)
Now, for Samhain we did something a little different this year. I'm
on many email lists, one of them is the bcpagans list. Some of the people on the list
were getting together to create and host a Druidic-style Samhain ceremony for
those of us on the list who wanted to participate. Well, several problems arised, and a couple
of folks had to drop out. So I decided to volunteer. By the end of the whole thing it was just
Ainne, myself and Josh. The fellow, Doug, who'd designed the ritual had to drop out
because of urgent family matters and we sadly couldn't have him there to guide us.
We pulled through it okay. We had to use scripts, but everyone who came was sympathetic and
seemed to enjoy the evening. I broke down at one point while listing the names
of unborn fetuses, babies who've died and children who have passed on. I'd promised to read this
list for other people out there who want these spirits to move on peacefully.
Afterwards we went inside the hostess's home and shared food, chatted and later music was played.
I had to leave not long after the ritual was done because it was getting late and Shannon was getting
really tired and cranky. Although she did get to meet and play with several other kids
who were there. Three girls and a boy in total, if I remember correctly.
Oh yes, one developmental note I wanted to put up, the whole reason I'm writing today,
Shannon is now saying "nose". Yes, yes, I know, that's not a big deal. But for awhile now
she's known, and could say, the names of other body parts but whenever I asked her about her
nose or my nose she'd only make sniffing noises. She knew what it was, just didn't say the word.
She walked up to me this morning, while I snoozed in bed, and touched my noise while saying,
"nose!". I smiled and said, "Yes sweety, that's mommy's nose." She beamed and walked away.
Some other words she can say now, Milk, food, cheeseburger ("cheebooger"),
fries, coke (trust me, she gets these rarely but she obviously was impressed with
this junk food because it's one of the first names of foods she learned to say), juice ("jew"),
cheese ("cheeees"), please ("pleash"), etc.
She knows another word that I'm not too pleased with, but I blame myself, and not her,
and hope that if I don't react to her and watch my language, she'll forget about it. This is what happened,
about two weeks ago she was up at the fridge and her daddy was getting her something to drink. While pulling out
the water jug he accidently knocked the plastic bottle of pop out of the fridge. He gently
pushed her back and said "Watch out honey!" And as it hit the floor she looked at it and said,
"Oh shit!" I was at my computer, I saw what happened, heard her say those words and literally
had to hold my breath so as not to laugh out loud. Her daddy looks at her and
says, "What did you say?". She looks up at him and says, "Shit."
He frowned and said, "That's what I thought." He ushered her out of the kitchen and got her the drink.
As soon as she was in her bedroom we broke out laughing. Gods! Needless to say we know now
not to be saying that word anymore. To give her credit, she did say it at an otherwise
appropriate time. If I was in her situation I might have cursed the same thing. (sigh)
(Fri., Oct. 9th, 1998) So, I've been getting over this cold that I've had for
a couple of weeks now. It's reduced to the occasionally stuffy nose and
sneeze, but it's still annoying. And Shannon still has a bit of a rattly chest,
but all in all she's in really good humour. Especially since she's watching
Disney's "The Little Mermaid" for about the gazillionth time. I try to restrict
to only ONCE a day and some days I can convince her that watching a different kids movie
isn't such a punishment. I'm either turning out another Disney fan (merchandizing, merchandizing!),
or it's in the genes. I suspect a little of both.
I've been trying to figure out what to do for Shannon's birthday. It falls on a
Wednesday next week, so I can't really have kids over until the weekend. And this
weekend is Canada's Thanksgiving weekend.
Plus, what am I going to dress her up as for Hallowe'en. PLUS, I have
to figure out transportation to my friends place for Samhain. Oh, the
trials and tribulations of being a parent. lol!
I'll have to pull out the cobwebs, bats, and other ghoulish things for this
favourite of holiday seasons and sabbats.
(Sat. Aug. 29th, 1998) Well, my new nephew, Lucas Robert Leanord Sampson, was born 10 minutes to 5 pm on July 31st.
It was great, I was there, as was my mom and Bob's parents. As well as Bob and Tea, of course.
My mom and I were called in around 4:30 am and we got to the hospital around 5 am. I think many
of us were looking forward to a little girl, but when Lucas was born, well, it was just wonderful. So amazing.
He was purplish/blue when he first came out but pinked up right away when he started to breath air. I took lots of pictures
but I won't put any up online until after I talk to Tea and Bob about it, don't want to piss my sister off. lol!
Shannon and I are doing well. She's starting to say more words now. She actually can say,
"Mommy" and "shoe", and can say "hot" but not always knows what it means. The other day I had made myself
some tea to sip while watching TV and she came up to touch the cup. I stopped her and told her that the tea was hot and
not to touch it. She repeated, "Hot, hot," while pointing to the cup, and I nodded.
Well, next thing I knew she'd dipped her index finger into the liquid. She pulled it out quickly and sucked on her finger,
looking at me in dismay, but she didn't cry out or anything. Then she seemed solemn for a minute then nodded
her head as she walked away saying "hot!"
And she can say "hat", but it seems that anything that goes on the head is a hat, whether or not it
is or not doesn't matter. My ballcap is "hat", which is fine, it is, but also my shower towel is a "hat" and
so are my headphones. (Shrug!) At least she's talking, somewhat. Same thing with shoes, whether they're sandals, boots
or socks (though she does point to socks when I say "socks" and not her shoes, I'm guessing she either
doesn't remember the right word or just can't say it yet) they're all "shoes".
BTW... Shannon has, basically, moved on from trying to play in the kitty litter to trying to play in the
bathroom toilet. Grrr! I catch her with the bowl cleaning brush spreading water all over the seat, the back of the toilet,
and all over the floor. And she KNOWS she's not supposed to do this. I try to remember to shut the bathroom door,
that way she basically doesn't think about it, but when I forget she seems to be drawn to that watery playground.
It's gotten to the point where, after I find her and clean her up, she has to go to her room for a time out. This goes beyond
having an "accident" to willfully doing something that, although must be tons of fun, really makes Mom angry.
Plus, I don't get it, it's not like we didn't go and buy a wading pool for the backyard or that she can't play with toys when
she takes a bath. Oh well, the temptation to do what you're not supposed to,
I guess I can relate to that.
(Sun., Aug. 2nd, 1998) For those who knew, and care, Lammas, on Saturday, August 1st, went well. (Lammas is a celebration of the first harvest and is the first of three such celebratory sabbats of the harvest.) I had a few guests over and we had a short ritual and had a nice potluck barbeque afterwards. My daughter got to play with another little girl who came with her Grandma and we all had a really good time. Since this was a "public" event, in that anyone was invited, and that it went so well, I think I might organize something similar again sometime. I like meeting new folks.
If you're really fascinated and would like to read a few older entries that I've removed from this page and placed on another page, feel free.
I love to play RPG's (role playing games) like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Vampyre: The Masquerade. The latter is live action whereas the former is a sit down, dice-rolling, version. (smile)
I enjoy going on the IRC, however that interest undulates with time. I get active online for awhile, then I back off for a couple of weeks or months, then I'm back active again for a similar amount of time.
I usually go onto Undernet, but I have been known to occasionally go onto Efnet or Dalnet. I can be found in various places, most often in #paganplace, #vampire, #witches, #witchescoven, #witchcraft, and #vancouver. However, I have been known to travel around, especially in search of interesting talk (usually religious or philosophical channels).
Spirituality
Okay, onto more spiritual and occult matters, I am an eclectic pagan witch. I have been studying
witchcraft since I was fifteen. Joined an
Alexandrian wiccan
coven for two years when I was sixteen. I left that tradition at eighteen, and have decided to follow more of a pagan path (not specifically wiccan). Since then I've been pretty solitary, although I occasionally get together with other public groups to do esbats and sabbats around Vancouver. I gather spells, meditations, divinatory tools, healings, etc. from many sources, so I'm pretty eclectic in my views, craftwork and spirituality.
I am on many pagan email lists and have joined with a few pagans' rights groups. I feel it's important not only to keep a good raport with the public about my beliefs, but to aid and comfort those who are exposed to, and threatened by, ignorance and intolerance.
If you have any questions for me about anything, please let me know.
Let me conjur you back to the main page.
have been here since March 22nd, 1998