The Den of Debauchery's Subannex

Hello! And welcome to the new folks or the old folks who just haven't wanted to ask.

We're talking about who is who in this ongoing soap-opera of a journal (14 years and counting!)

I'm Angel, your host. I am a grouchy old witch-byke with strong liberal feminist leanings. I work for Action link, mostly training Sears employees, and for Michael's crafts, as a cashier (I'm going to be training as a framer) I'm an old school geek-chick, a former trucker, former university library paraprofessional, former writer and former casino worker. I failed out of the nuclear engineering program and took an English degree. I wrote 16 novels 92 short stories, 3 children's books and published with half a dozen houses. I am a crafter. I am a Hellenic pagan in service to Hermes and Hera.

Mudd is my husband, Richard. We've been married for 27 years (as of this coming Friday). He's brilliant. He's got a master's in Physics and a math minor. He teaches high school science and is president of the local PFLAG.

We have 4 kids:
Bun, Victoria, 24, who is a camera model and dancer.
Obi, Christopher, 21, who is closing in on his sergeant promotion in the Army.
Jonner, Jonathan, 18, who is headed off to college as a chem major in 3 weeks
Dollface or Oli or Ollie. Olivia, 16, who starts high school and is doing a double program with the local community college, as a welder.

Here's where it gets interesting. I not only have a family, I have a household.
I am the dominant alpha female of the pack, and Crone of the grove. I stand like the mountain between my people and trouble.

My peoples:
Gabriel Belthir-Rodgers. My junior husband. We got married accidentally last Festival of Souls by walking the Labyrinth together. This suited us both so we just went with it.

Kevin, Gabriel's legal husband. They got married at Frolicon 2015. I helped officiate.

Cat. Cat is complicated. She is my on-again/off-again girlfriend. She is the wife of one of the personalities that lives in Angel's head. She is Gabriel and Kevin's ex. She is a people I am responsible for.
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Finn. Finn is Gabriel's slave boy. He kind of comes as a package deal with Gabriel.

Gwen and Sarah. They are Gabriel's schmoops, and I like them a great deal. They mean enough to be included under the "my people" umbrella. Gwen in particular makes me all protective.

Extra kids:
I acquire these in phases, with each of the kids. They always have friends who need an extra mom.

Tabitha and Bradley, friends of my older two. I have taken tearful late night phone calls, given advice, and offered endless comfort to both.

Alex needed a place to stay when booted out.

Brandon just needs an extra mom, the kind who gets him as a gay kid.

Imani needed support and a hand back on his feet.

Cameron needs a place where he can be himself.

Jamie, who dated Victoria and discovered my oldest is a psycho. But she also got us Tribble and stays in touch.

And more I'm sure I missed (I'm tired)


On my extended family:

My Dad is 71, has fought cancer and won and is doing his best to keep going. He's buried two ex-wives and his surviving ex is incarcerated. (tax issues)

Mom lost her battle with leukemia in December 2014. She buried her last husband and two ex-husbands (my dad and Wicked Stepfather) showed for her funeral. The third could not be reached. (not that we tried)

I have two bio sisters:
Jennifer is my half sister on Dad's side. We are very similar, despite being raised apart. She has never married but does the Cool Auntie thing. She has her BA and works for a lumber company.

Brenda is my half sister on Mom's side. We are very different. Her ex is putting her through hell, trying to bankrupt her with endless court proceedings and take away their youngest daughter, who doesn't want to live with him. She has an MBA and works two jobs.

Sherrie is my step sister from Mom's second marriage. She is a real estate agent, and has grandkids. She also has a sister of whom i do not speak.


And Darren. Darren is a more complicated relationship than Cat. He was Richard's best friend forever. If my husband was gay, they would have been a couple. (Olivia is a Daddy/Darren shipper.) For me he was many things, lover, brother, beloved enemy, solid friend. He's no longer with us.

Hopefully this clears things up a little.

First, a big thank you to master_chatnoir for a large box of yarn. I'll have fun working it up and Project Linus will appreciate the blankets!

Second, Obi has the Gift of Timing. Tonight, we were discussing pump sneakers. I said "You know, like in Men in Tights." Understanding dawned on Jonner. "Like Ah-choo!" Obi: "Geshundheit!"

And then he pulled a knock-knock on his sister.
Knock-knock
who's there?
Doctor.
Bun groaned. And I said "The punchline had better be, 'Exactly. Jelly baby?'."


Noodles are made for Yule. Cookie cutters are found.
Coloring book is compiled.
Shopping tomorrow to get food ingredients. I begged a pizza box from Pizza Inn. The manager thought it was a terrific idea.

Today, on the way home from school, Jonner informed me his class had a pair of pet tarantulas. "A male and a female," he said. "Or maybe two males."

He seemed confused, so I asked, "Jonner, you do know the difference between male and female, right?"

He thought, shook his head and said "Uh, no."

I rolled my eyes, laughed and said, "Son, we have a problem on our hands. Maybe you need a talke with dad."

He said, "I know about people, but not tarantulas!"

Only my kids.

Today:
replaced broken window in boys' room
repaired ceiling
shopped
ate
had Bun clean bathroom


Tomorrow
clean kitchen and front room
lots of laundry
sweep whole house
work in study


This week:
finish lord Edward detail rewrites
finish afghan spirals
plan garden size, content and work flow

Next Sunday:
till garden. Moon in Virgo, good time to plow

My younger sister (the one who is not jlm121) has a cold.

This means, she takes lots of chemicals, goes to work, goes to school, gets her kids around and manages some housework. When it goes into bronchitis, she goes to the doctor on her day off and gets an antibiotic. And, on her way home from the doc, stops off at Kinkos and picks up some printing I sent her.

This is where I'm on the phone with her. And she said, "If this were my husband, he'd take a day off to recover and be under my feet all day. Why are men such whiny babies?"

The question was something my mother or grandmother or the women I grew up around would have asked. It was the perpetual lament of women pressed into service by men who were old enough to wait on themselves but just didn't feel good.

So, I found myself explaining male privilege and doing a lousy job of it.

Later in the week, Mudd had a temper-tantrum. I got it by phone, since I wasn't home to deal with the situation. The man does not cope when a plan gets altered by forces outside his control. So naturally, he yells and swears a lot and looks for me to make it better.

And I realized how endemic it is.

At this point, I'm wondering why I'm still heterosexual. Because to me, manhater=returning the favor.

The run went pretty well, but as I was leaving the last stop, I got a phone call from Bun.

"Jonner tripped Dollface! I can't get the bleeding stopped!"

It seems my baby was carrying a gallon pickle jar through the front hallway (stone paved, hardest floor in the house) when Jonner tripped her.

Bun did an excellent first aid job, but Dollface was still bleeding when I got home half an hour later.

I spent 3 hours in our local emergency room with a bleeding kid. I'd never actually SEEN subcutaneous fat before tonight. But Dr. O was a warm, careful lady from Nigeria who made my baby feel better.

Dollface has inherited Mudd's resistance to -caine drugs and the Lidocaine only kicked in at the last stitch. She has 3 stitches on the back of her arm, and two glued cuts.

She was very brave.

Naomi and I are reworking Alive on the Inside, more horror, less sex.
We're discussing freak ways to kill my evil stepfather, who does appear in the novel. He gets set on fire (and, alas, promptly extinguished) by the fire-artist.

Me: "I'd let Precious [the unicorn] gore him. Or maybe an accident with one of the games?"

Her: Torturo is laughing at that idea.

Me: "What? Nobody ever drowned in the duck-pick-up trough before?"

Her [as Torturo]: *laughs long and loud*

It's 90 degrees at 9:30 PM
It was around 110 today. Extreme Heat Warning.

Uh yeah, no outdoor church for us. We're crazy pagans, but not THAT crazy. We'll make Mabon.

I took the girls school clothes shopping. We hit a ritzy Goodwill and an enormous thrift store and Family Dollar for the supplies.

I spent about $200. Bun has a complete wardrobe. Of course, it looks like she raided the closets of Marsha Brady and Stevie Nicks. Dollface is in very good shape. A couple of bras and some sneakers will finish her.

Obi needs everything, including shoes. The boy wears a bigger size than I do! Jonner needs pants and shoes. I have a 50% off your order coupon, valid tomorrow only, at the enormous thrift store. We're talking jeans with the $25 price tags still in for $3.

I've been so wrapped up in myself and my job and health probs, I haven't said much about the kids.

Bun is enjoying her summer. She takes the kiddos swimming and goes on dates. She's working her way through The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes were Watching God. She wants to go to Emory University. They offer a linguistics program and every language she wants to learn.

Obi is at Algebra camp. I considered making a bad joke that he's off. learning to be a numerical terrorist at Al-Gebra camp and coming home with weapons of Math Instruction, but... Well, I don't need a visit from Homeland Security. He's doing very well and enjoying himself.

Jonner's recovering well. He's on eardrops and the packing is dissolving, so it's really gross. He did some serious summer reading. It's good to pry him away from the TV for a while.

Dollface has enjoyed the summer reading program and is kinda scared of second grade. School is so hard when you have to fight the voices. Her meds only reduce them, they don't eliminate them.

There's a special level of purgatory for theater moms who have to be called 20 minutes after rehersal starts because they were still asleep and forgot.

I know, because I'm headed for it.

So, my breakfast date with Mudd wound up including Jonner. Which was nice. He's a good kid.
Mostly.


Then, we took Dollface for her glasses. She failed her eye screening. She is definitely nearsighted. So she's got some cute purple frames, and they'll be in next week.

I out-geeked Bunny's not-boyfriend. He was impressed I owned a Millennium Falcon playset. He was more impressed that I handed him his ass when he asked the definitive geek litmus question: "Kessel Run in 12 parsecs?" I gave him the 1977 "Solo is a braggart testing to see how desperate his passengers are" answer and then breezily dismissed "Shorter more dangerous route" as "EU fanwanking of modern vintage" before he could say anything. I also broke his brain. I think i like this kid.

Our fair entries are pretty much as done as they're getting.


And I offered to edit a couple of anthologies for Torquere Press: one on orgies and one on men in skirts (kilts, etc). I must be insane.