Giving to the ghost.

Well, I was supposed to meet with the beading kit project chair at some point between Tuesday and now, but I’ve not heard boo from her.  I know she goes to the most alarmist doctor in town, and she said she wanted to meet up after an appointment, so now I’m worried she got alarm all over here.  And- big surprise, as per my previous post /sarcasm font -I have no idea what the correct procedure for calling about this might be.

To catch everyone up, the kits are for our local bead store to sell and hopefully help keep it open during the ghost town months of summer.  My design and the adaptations thereof are just the first of many kits, or so we hope.  I’ve already surrendered the copyright.  Well, on the condition of getting to name the different versions and a cutesy thank you note at the end of the instructions.

Beaded things turn out to be way easier to name than characters.

I’ve gotten a lot of remarks, about the kits and otherwise, about being generous and helpful and such.  I think it’s mostly because I carry this bead box crammed full of beady accouterments with me to beading day, and am usually the first to whip out a thread burner.  ”Here, you can use mine.”  I’ve been known to pick up other people’s tabs if they’re near me during checkout and only have one or two items.  And then there was that time I bezeled my thumb for exhibition purposes.  Hearing people say that makes me want to do that sort of thing more often.  I suppose this is the ultimate aim of beading as a group.  Well, that and showing off that we are all crazy people who will sew five-hundred individual 4mm crystals to a bracelet if given the opportunity.

It’s probably also worth mentioning that I even have a cartoon character roll.  I’m Empirical Smurf.  And I’m OK with that.  A lot of the group’s into ghosts and godlight and other things that can’t be researched.  Which is also OK, but you can understand this makes me stand out something fierce.  Someone asserting knowledge over the fact once informed me that my mind is the psychic equivalent of a cel phone dead zone capable of frightening away ethereal beings at a mile radius.  In other words, I don’t believe in ghosts so hard, I MAKE GHOSTS STOP BELIEVING IN THEMSELVES.  Coincidentally, other people claiming the same fantastic knowledge as this person have declined to psychic me even before I had a chance to ask one way or the other, not that I would have.  Can they sense my fantastical void aura, or did I do a bad job squelching the eyerolls? You see, I go “totes the eyerolls” and most of the beady ladies, bless their hearts, go “Well, now that you mention it…”

Bottom line: you don’t have to be into love as a vibration that improves qualities of water to want to share your toys.  I much prefer to know what I’m getting into in that regard, however.  A person sitting across from me is going to return my needled.  The lady I check out will show me her topaz glass choker when she’s finished.  The bead store will be more likely to stay in business with my help.  And the money from Help_Japan had better damnwell be going TO JAPAN.  Kudos to that last one for the list of reputable charities.

I remain suspicious of say, those dollar add-ons at checkouts and people occupying booths at public events who don’t go into the nature of their cause beyond orphans or dogs.  Both worthy causes but dude, worth causes are even more in need of tax writeoff paperwork, thank you. 

So, what am I getting at? Two things.

One, this debacle from our local paper.

http://www.sonorannews.com/archives/2011/110608/frontpage-CSHS.html

Being skeptical does NOT preclude you from also being generous.  Here’s a good example of why it’s good to be skeptical, even about charities.

And two, who else wanted to help pay the legal fees for that cheerleader who got told that rape victims aren’t people by her school?

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/06/08/cheerleader-texas-rape-sketches/

Because not only can you now donate to her family, but there’s art in it for you, and that’s a win-win.  Also, it’s more productive than creative vandalism directed towards the houses of the administration, as many of you may have been contemplating.

I love you too, day-glow spray paint and lawn flamingos.  But, this is not our hour.  I’ll save you for the day there’s nothing better for me to do.  Say, if Dr. Alarmist has given yet another person a heart attack.  

In other news, I don’t appear to have scared the everloving crap out of my <a href=”http://www.eonism.net/?p=3373”>Summer Sessions</a> interview partner.  I’ll take that as a great sign!