Creatures of the Night and Why it's Been So Long

Hello again friends and family.  

I recently read a blog entry by my current favorite fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss.  He had reentered the blogosphere after months of absence and expressed exactly what I've felt for the past 3 years.

I feel like I used to love to come here to express myself.  Emotions good and bad. Life mundane and interesting. 

It was good practice for writing and a good brain exercise.  But for the past several years life has felt heavy.  Like I was dragging myself through the same mundane tasks over and over again.  Waiting tables, living in Columbia, same old same old.  I felt as if there was nothing interesting enough to put in an entry that people might read.  And any time I had a spark of inspiration I would start an entry and then the idea of completing that entry in the same state of inspiration it started in became exhausting and cumbersome.  I couldn't do it.

Then I moved to Utah.  Exciting, right?  So many new things to experience, so much beauty and variety to spark the imagination.  A new home, a new life, surely there would be so much to share!

But when I got here I found myself in the same drudgery that I had left back in Missouri.  I'd actually taken a step back. I was working at a PIZZA BUFFET. 

(Shakes head sadly)

Those were dark days. 

In any case to sum things up, life was tough when I first got here and the last thing I had mental energy for was writing a blog entry.

Fast forward almost a year to RIGHT NOW!

I have my dream job which builds me up rather than breaks me down.  On top of that for the first time in years I have a fairly regular work schedule giving me late afternoons, evenings, and most weekends off. I live in a good place.  Ogden is just waiting to be explored by me. The mountains are beautiful and inspirational.  I can't wait to build up my outdoorsey muscles.

More importantly I finally find myself in a head space where creativity is a things I strive for again. 

So here I am, starting small so I can work up those brain muscles. 

Below are a few photos I've taken recently of the mountains in Ogden and of a really fun Halloween event we held at Ogden Nature Center called Creatures of the Night.

It's a family friendly, no scare event for young children with a couple food trucks, hot cocoa, "carnival games" (in quotations because they resemble carnival games but are nature/Halloween themed and are all hand made by us), an evening hike called the crepuscular creep (where staff member dress up as creatures active at dusk and teach about those creatures), a few other really fun activities, and ME.  The fortune teller. I think my costume turned out well.  I had on owl puppet that I used sometimes.  I called him Bartholomew.

Children entered my tent and I sat at a table, welcoming them to Madame Greentree's tent of fortune.  There were some lights strung up for effect.  I would ask them some easy, cute question like "what is your favorite thing about Halloween" or "what is your favorite candy".  After they answer I tell them to reach in the cauldron and draw out a creature (there was an assortment of small, mostly African critters made of rubber.  The kind you can buy in bulk.).  I see what they pulled out and then tell them I must consult the spirit of the creature they drew.  I close my eyes and maybe put my hands to my head or something-then I tell them a scripted "fortune" based on the creature they drew.  All the fortunes were based on what that creatures represents as a spiritual totem.  This information I just looked up online.  But it was fun and cute.  I wasn't telling specific futures per say but I would say things like "The spirit of the bear tells me you have great strength" and throw in something silly like  "and that you like to sleep all winter long..., wait...that's not right.  The spirits must be confused".  The I go into something like "the spirits tell me your are mindful and that in your future it will be important to save your energy for when it is most needed."  Something silly like that.  I might tell them a few other traits they have or will have based on the bear.  If they are older I can give more specific fortunes.  Then at the end I would task each child with a quest.  Their quest was to use the power of their animal (the bear, the giraffe, the tiger, etc.) for good and not for evil.  To use it to help their friends and family.  And if they accepted they would receive good luck, good fortune, and much candy in their future. They get to keep their little animal figurine.

It was cute.  It was fun.  I loved it!  (Except when I had a string of 6 teenagers come through...it felt weird giving them childish fortunes they had to know were fake.  One kid asked me if he would be a businessman...I said I couldn't tell future specifics.  All I could do was read auras.

Below are some pics.

I hope you enjoyed this little window into my life.  Look forward to more in the future.  Madame Greentree foresees it. 

My tent made up of carefully clothes pinned sheets and blankets.  It did little to protect from the cold of those two nights.

My cauldron set up.  I really wanted to add dry ice but no one else seemed excited about that idea so I let it go. 

I really wish this owl puppet looked more real.  It would have been more fun that way. He looks very muppety. 

Apparently I have the perfect face (and face shape) for this role.  At least that's what someone told me.  Clearly I am in the wrong profession and should be making my money conning people as I tell them their fortunes.  

There's been some snow on the mountain tops as a little moisture arrived.