Mab of Dream

I was up again around 7, but this time not afraid to pop the kettle onto the hob. I nipped out back for my first fag of the day (you realize all of the Americans reading this are tittering because fag doesn't mean cigarette there?). I heard the bin-men were coming around. I peeped over the wall and instantly decided to be one of them when I grew up. The bin-man was holding onto the side of the wagon and riding it around the corner before jumping off. I want to do that!

I heard Shonna stirring so had her a brew on by the time she came down. It was sad having to say goodbye to her every morning, because I kept thinking on that Wednesday when Georgia was here, how I just blew at work and poor Sarah got the full heat of my temper. Shonna seemed to either be naturally good-natured, or very good at the brave face thing. I had William off her as she sorted Elen's breakfast, then off they went.

I had the most beautiful eggs ever for breakfast. Eggs, in America, are white, not tan. I closed the box and read the top to see if they were quail eggs or something posh, but they seemed to be out of a hen's arse, just like in Britain, just a totally different colour. They've got a great pan. The eggs were cooked in butter and didn't stick to the bottom. I've tried that one since I've got home and nope, they don't come cleanly off and onto the plate here like they do there. Here I ended up with bits of egg and burned bits, before having to scour the pan; there, I got two perfect eggs. And ate them while watching 'Charmed'.

Stephane and I scutted off to Albertson's (with William). Because I'm a vegetarian and none of them are, I wanted to ensure that they didn't have to buy extra food because I was there. I didn't want them to be any more out of pocket than they already were, because of me. So the plan was for me to buy veggie food for my stay. In we went and ended up standing in the middle of a massive grocery area. Fruit and vegetables of all kinds, including pumpkins so big you could scoop out the insides and house a family of five inside. There's cool, except Stephane was just looking at me quizzically.

So we weren't in the middle of all this healthy stuff so Stephane could shop for his family then. This had something to do with me. Ok. It occurred to me that he thought I could cook. I was halfway through explaining that I was actually after ready meals or Raman noodles or something, when it occurred to me that I didn't actually recognize most of the fruit and veg around me. Squash I'd heard of because of Roxanne's Indian Squaw story, but most of the other things...?? I ended up fascinated by all this unfamiliar stuff, roots and the such like. Americans actually have DIFFERENT food! :-o

Just to the side, there was a big fridge full of fake meat. I got a few things which I knew would fit most occasions. Like fake sausages and bacon, in case of a fry up; fake slices of things in case of sandwiches; fake joints of things in case of meals. Then I could fit around whatever was happening with them. (In actual fact, I didn't touch any of it from thereon in, so if there are any Vegas vegetarians reading this, it's worth nipping to their house for tea, as all of this is still in their fridge-freezer!)

Next, the shock of my life. EVERYTHING IS SO CHEAP! Contact lense solution, which is about £20 here, worked out to about £3 there; Jameson's whiskey for about £6; cigarette's for about £1.20. I was quickly wearing out my 'OH WOW!' quota for the day, I swear.

Back at the house, I went on Operation Delete E-mails (and put myself on no mail on the groups), while Stephane cooked a sauce in preparation for the Wiccanning. Mid-way through that, William was in need of changing. I volunteered and picked him up to take him upstairs, then realized I didn't know where his clean nappies were. I asked Stephane. 'Nappies?' he asked. I knew the American for nappies! Everyone knows the American for nappies! It's the first American word everyone learns! But do you think I could remember it? I ended up holding William up and pointing to his bum. 'Oh! Diapers!' RATFLMFAO!

On the subject, later on, I managed to block their toilet. *blush* I'd been having trouble with the flushes, because it's like a suction thing, not a ballcock thing, how their toilets flush. I wasn't sure if you hold it down or one push and it's done. Whichever, it wasn't going away. I had to take a deep breath and go downstairs to ask Stephane if he had a plunger. He knew immediately what had happened and tried to reassure me that it was Elen blocking it before me. But he wouldn't let me have the plunger and was upstairs before I could argue the point. If that wasn't bad enough, the next day, I managed to block the downstairs as well and this time Shonna wouldn't let me have the plunger! After that one, I made it my business to find out where the plunger lived, but didn't actually need it again. I did a happy dance the first time I managed to have a number two and flush it properly! By then, I'd mastered the flush. Such small skills gratefully mastered...

Corey 'phoned to see if I wanted to come out and play, but Stephane and I had just decided to go out for lunch. It was agreed for Corey to meet us there again, then take me off for the afternoon. Stephane gave me a front door key, so that I'd be able to get back in. Yes... the same key as is sitting on the desk in front of me, on the wrong side of the world, as I type this.

We went to Sweet Tomato, which was self-service and pay at the end. You took your plate down and chose whatever you want from loads of salad-type things (bit like Morrison's salad counter, but a lot bigger... Hell of a lot bigger). I was just working out which of this strange money would pay for whatever the lady behind the counter had just said to me (I couldn't lip-read and was trying to surrepticiously read what the till said), when I was ninja hugged from behind by an excited Corey. *big grin* This was even better, because I could cover my money/hearing troubles with, 'Sorry, how much did I owe you?' Then letting Corey deal with it with my purse. LOL Great timing there, cariad fi!

Corey got me as far as the fizzy drinks counter, then went to sit with William, so Stephane could get his dinner too. Had she hung on a few seconds more, she could have told me that the root beer I'd just poured wasn't root beer. It was the sodium filled yucky stuff that comes out when the root beer has all gone. How should I know?! I've never seen root beer in my life and I was only trying it because it's American. It was only when I took a sip at the table and thought, 'Urgghh!' that Stephane and Corey asked what it was. When I said root beer, they quickly dissuaded me of that idea and it got replaced.

Afterwards Corey took me to her house in her truck. She wouldn't let me have a ride in the back because of the small matter of that being illegal, despite me thinking on the bin-man from earlier and wanting to play. But I got to ride in the front with Corey instead and that's great too. She offered to carry me over the threshold of her house, then bottled out. :-(

Corey's flat is great. She's got interesting things dangling, perched or squirrled away on shelves everywhere. I'm standing there thinking ''kin Hell! I'm in Corey's house! She's famous!' and Corey's immediately on the computer telling the Grove that I'm in her house! She also told me that the dude I sat next to on the plane could be a famous ice-skater named Brian Boitano. She googled for his picture and YES! There was my plane friend, Brian! Ok, I'd never heard on him beforehand, but Corey informed me that he'd won Olympic gold medals and was an amazing skater. There's cool! It shed new light on part of our conversation, when he'd basically been canting about backing off from the killing wheel for a bit. I just hadn't sussed at the time how big the killing wheel was he'd been backing away from.

Sean came home while Corey had just popped in her room. I was on the settee and he looked like he was going to cant at me like I was his Mum. Then he gave a double-take, there was a pause and he said, 'I thought you were my Mum!' I informed him that I was his Mum. I'd done a spell this afternoon and changed into this, but I was working on changing myself back. Corey started giggling and gave the game away. Tsh! LOL

Sean did his homework, while Corey and I sorted her bed out and generally chilled out. Sean was asking me about Edward Longshanks and so I was in history mode canting away, until Corey pointed out that his homework was maths, not history. After he'd done, I showed him Wolverhampton and then Dudley Castle on the internet and he gave me a tattoo. After that, we nipped up the 'Psychic Eye' to find tokens to give the children at the Wiccanning. I'd got them the teddies, but already given them that, so I wanted to find something to put in the boxes with their Aud-made cards. I settled on small pentagrams to go with the Welsh pound coins I'd already found for them.

Psychic Eye reminded me of half the shops in Glastonbury. Full of witchy type things, but with no atmosphere. Corey told me that Shonna calls it the Metaphysical Wal-Mart and I could see what she meant. To be fair, Corey had warned me of this beforehand, saying that there is nothing really witchy in there. I disagreed. Me and Corey were in there.

Next we nipped into Albertsons again, where Corey discovered that I'd never heard of Krispy Kreme Donuts and had never tasted pumpkin pie. She bought both for me to sample, with a view to taking them back to Shonna's, then dropped me off there. First I couldn't find the key, then I put it in the keyhole wrong. Corey and Sean didn't pull off until I was in and, at the last minute, got out of the truck to see if I was alright. Yes, just a bit useless! LOL But I got in then ok and hadn't been in five minutes when Shonna and the children were back.

Stephane, bless his cotton socks, had left us our tea, so we dug in and canted away. I never lost the sense of the magical the entire time I was there. All these characters from legend come to life and myself stepped into a story. I was sitting at the table, eating my tea, with Shonna at the table with me. You know how surreal that was?! But she, like all the others, is an old friend. There was never a moment of awkwardness, it felt as though we'd always been face to face, other than that magical air. *grins in memory*

Corey and Chelle arrived, with Sean, a little while on. Both of them dressed up and looking stunning. They had wine and I had whiskey, plus the kettle was on. Judy from the Nevada Pagan gang was there, with the most gorgeous pie ever. It was really gooey and lovely. I soon got that down my neck!

Chelle and I were outside having a fag and putting the world to rights, when Brianne called to say she was on the way with Pixie. I didn't find out until Pixie was practically at the door. I just froze and said to Chelle, ''kin Hell! I think I'll just give up being nervous at meeting everyone, it always turns out ok.' Chelle laughed at me and said, 'There's no need to be nervous about meeting Pixie, she's lovely.' Point taken, but THIS WAS PIXIE COMING HERE!

We walked in just as Shonna was opening the door to Pixie and Brianne and I hid behind the wall in the play-area, while they tried to convince Pixie that I'd gone home. Therefore I had a view of the room and a sudden moment of an even greater unreality - a taster of what the weekend would be - as I watched Shonna, Pixie, Brianne, Chelle and Corey, part of the Grove come to life. I was so busy staring, thinking, 'wow', that I forgot about being nervous about meeting Pixie. I wish I had words to describe what that scene felt like, or how it felt to be me on the outskirts looking into it and knowing that I was part of it too. But before I could be swept too far away into watching the dream, Pixie was there hugging me.

Pixie is the only grown adult in the world shorter than me. LOL She is exactly like she is on-line (in fact they all are) and a complete force of nature. She handed out beer and CDs, and presents for Roxanne, and we all tucked into the Krispy Kreme donuts that Corey had bought.

To be honest, I could hardly hear a word. Much of the time, folk were talking over each other, so it went into white noise. I'd hear one in every ten words or so, and so was lip-reading from one conversation to another. But that gave me time to step back and really feel the bouncing energies in the room, and realize fully where I was and who I was with. I felt like a child on Christmas morning; so touched, so honoured, so utterly disbelieving that I was there, in that time and place, with those people. People kept catching my eye and we'd exchange grins. I know they were all feeling it too and I remember sitting there and it occurring to me that I must be the stuff of legend in their eyes too. That gave me pause. I just tingled all over and went out for a fag.

Shonna and I were still buzzing when everyone went home. It was knocking on half 11 by then and we bounced around tidying up, before sitting canting. We were both tired, but determined not to miss a moment! Yes, we were still there when Stephane came home again, but we had to sleep sometime. So we went abed.