I Have Returned! :-D

I have returned from the wilds of Edmonton! :-D

And I come bearing Jewellery! :-D

And new information! :-D

It was totally awesome! :-D

(Are the exclaimation marks getting a little bit tedious? ;-)

But it was wonderful. Despite the sudden changes to the program, and some mixed up rooms and panels, it was absolutely fantastic. :-) I had a great time. :-)

I gave a paper on Pagan Parenting. People wanted to hear what I had to say, and they said that it was interesting, and that they enjoyed it, and they wanted to talk with me about it afterwords! :-) Yay! :-D I feel so accomplished! :-D

I also participated in two panels: One on Gender and one on Pagan Families.
They were also fantastic, with lots of contributions from the audience. It was really great! :-)

I heard papers on language difficulties and the difference between Neo-Paganism and the New Age, and on Norse Seide Magic (Jenny Blain). I also heard discussions on Witch Wars and Why They Happen (*very* well done) and on the theme of "Institutionalizing: Why We Don't Have to Do It" (And also on "Institutionalizing: Why Some People Want to Do It"), both of which were also quite good. :-)

And there was a baby blessing on the Sunday, just before the banquet. (Three weeks old. Her name's Victoria. :-)

And I got to perform a song a the end-of-conference banquet! :-D (I did "Song of Shadows" because I thought it was appropriate. I think everyone quite liked it. :-)

The whole weekend was just faboo! :-)




Oh, that reminds me: On another note:


Attention All Canadian Pagans:

My former professor (Dr. Sian Ried at Carleton) is doing her ten-year follow-up study on Canadian Paganism, and she needs as manyCanadian Pagans as possible to fill out surveys. (Antra, I'm looking at you in particular as I think it would be good to get Dievturi (sp) on the map, so to speak. I don't think she knew of any Latvian (or other Baltic) reconstructionists when she did her last one).

Her contact information is on the Carleton Anthro/Soc. faculty web-page (she's a part-time prof). If you e-mail her with something like "Paganism Survey" in your subject line, she will be extremely happy to send you one. :-) Please help her out. :-)



Oo. And my new jewellery is this:
One ring -- big, flat piece of purple rock from Siberia (about the area of the first joint of my thumb, but not the same shape. I think the stone is called "Cheroite". I could be wrong -- It's like a moss-agate, but instead of being green and brown, it's purple with black and white threads in it).

And

One necklace -- A long strand of white pearls (spaced with cheap steel spacers ;-) interspursed with big balls of jet. The bottom piece of jet is carved to look like a... ball-shaped rabbit (if that makes any sense).

I'm quite pleased with it. :-)


Anywhoo. That, plus a lot of sleep dep due to hanging out 'til all hours discussing research and/or singing bawdy Pagan songs (and Canadian classics such as "North West Passage"), was my weekend. :-)

It was great! :-)

- Nam'ara,
- Amazon. :-D