pay dirt

yesterday i was all happy about how accurately my monthly horoscope mirrored my life right now.. i even gloated about the fact that it told me i was going to have to spend my entire paycheck. even after spending $350 on my car, i was happy it wasn't actually my entire paycheck. 

but this morning when i went to pick up my car after its oil change, new wiring harness and new inspection sticker.. the check engine light turned back on before i even pulled out of my parking spot. $80 diagnosis later.. i owe another $350 for replacing the glow plugs themselves. 

universe - 1, megan - 0. 

so what does a virgo do when the world pushes her down? cleans her room. restores some kind of order. 

in the process of cleaning my room, i came across an envelope full of dirt that my [ex-boy]friend, [if we're being honest], keith, had sent me from canada. we met while were were both teaching in taiwan. 

i wish i had done this a long time ago, but he included nice notes about not only the city and province location.. but also kind of a description of where it was from. 

(i added the more detailed captions to the back of the tag so i would remember later on). 

after filling three little container store containers, i added the leftover dirt to our garden in the back. now it's an international garden. 

saturn in your money house

today i read my monthly horoscope for november. you have to see some of it.

It's not your fault that you aren't making what you feel you deserve, dear Virgo. Saturn, the taskmaster teacher planet, has been touring your second house of earned income since October 2009 (the month the internship in DC began when I was living on savings alone), and while Saturn had a brief absence from that area for your chart from April 7 to July 21, 2010 (while I worked at camp for the summer), it was too short a period to notice much difference. You have been coping with tight funds for so long now, it must seem forever.


Joint resources - funding and infusions of cash from outside sources - will take your total attention the full moon, October 11. Saturn will oppose the full moon directly, so if you do get money, the sum you get seems to be already spoken for, and so the money will go out of your checking account as fast as it goes in. 
that's today. and today, i dropped my car off at the shop to get an oil change, and then i decided to have them replace my glow plug wiring harness so i can get the inspection i need for november, so today i spent a few hundred dollars on that.. which is almost the same amount as i deposited this morning from my latest check. 


this is my favorite paragraph: 
This has been a lesson you've been dealing with since Saturn entered Libra from October 2009 to April 2010 and then again from July 2010 until the present day. You may be saying, "I've learned! I'm reformed! I am done!" Yet Saturn has his own schedule for you and will continue your cosmic course in money management until October 2012. Agreed, you HAVE become remarkably good at finding ways to find - and buy - quality goods, at bargain prices, and often below retail. Indeed, in time you will be pleased with the way you negotiate savvy bargains. You've also become good at finding ways to bring in more money too, and you are more careful about avoiding identity theft and losses through not keeping track of your belongings when you travel.


and this:
Starting next month, Mars will enter Virgo and stay not the typical seven weeks but an astounding EIGHT MONTHS. During part of that phase, Mars will be in perfect angle to Jupiter and Pluto, forming a grand triangle in the night sky. This will happen in time for the holidays. You are about to assume your rightful place at the head of the parade, as the one sign given some of the most outstanding romantic aspects. All this will start in mid-November, so be patient, dear Virgo. Your time for love is coming, and when it arrives, it will be a big trend!


..we'll talk about that in mid-november. 

football

jeff and i have been watching football together on the weekends. we always watch the longhorn game, and then lately we've just been watching any old game we can find a reason to cheer for.

me: lawrence. mr. hunter lawrence.
..a couple of seconds go by..
jeff: aren't you going to try it on for size?
me: you're right. mrs. megan lawrence. ..nah.

maybe a year ago, i decided that since i don't know who i'm going to marry, and with no boyfriend, i have the freedom to choose my own new last name. all i need to do is find a guy with it. the holy grail of last names is Mango. then i can be Mrs. Megan Mango. ..but since that's unlikely, i just try out all kinds of last names.

i guess jeff has been around a lot when i try out last names, so it's kind of become a thing. we usually try to find M last names. there's a football player with the last name mintsy. mrs. megan mintsy.

case

stitched together a case for my computer today using some leftover yoga bag fabric. need some kind of closure.. but for now, i'm just glad it won't get as scratched in my purse. 

it rained today! so i did everything you're supposed to do on a rainy day..

stay in bed until at least 10

wear glasses all day

drink a mug of delicious chai

make vegetable beef soup

wear long sleeves and shoes with socks

craft project

about to add 'read a book' just as soon as i hit 'publish post.'

ps here are kara's pictures from the farm benefit last weekend. 

done the deed

jeff is moving out. majjy and i are bummed. she cried.

other than that, life is good. lots of friends, lots of fun, i'm busy at all hours of the day and night. convinced the entire office to go get japanese octopus balls.

woods

had the most fun volunteering at an event in dallas today! we had to get up at 4 and then drive 3 hours, but it was fun to bond with some of the other girls.

somehow i lucked into volunteering in the photo reception room by standing in the right place at the right time, so i took people's bag and made sure they grabbed it on the way out. very exciting. i had a blast talking to the photographer and security while we all waited for people to come inside.

one of the coolest things about events is how the people you meet are so eager to motivate you. i got to sit at a table at the luncheon for a bit once the event got going, and the two people on either side of me were amazing. there's a real sense of support and a desire to see the younger generation succeed in a field that the older generations have carefully set up.

pulling on a line

saturday.was.crazy. i had to leave the house at 10 to be at this community garden in austin at 10:30. so naturally, my day started like this..

9:50: megan goes outside to check on ripley and jigsaw. ripley is always on a zip line because she can't be trusted. jigsaw just wanders and never seems to go further than the neighbors. ..until today. i walk outside, she's gone. 

9:55: i put on shoes and walk down the street a bit. no dog. 

10: text friends to tell them i won't be there on time.. call jeff to tell him i lost the dog

10:02: get in the car, drive around neighborhood 

10:07: see a white tail out of the corner of my eye and find jigsaw, following around the tiny little poodle-furred dog that is constantly wandering around the neighborhood

so then i headed to the community garden where people were volunteering with urban patchwork for the national day of service. we were taking out bermuda grass from half of this woman's front yard and then rototilling it (which i did without hacking off a foot or anything!) and then making these berms and swails (dips) full of compost and mulch to be planted later. the idea is that we create these little urban farms throughout the city to lessen the dependence on trucking in food, and to teach a new generation how to farm so we can sustain ourselves. 

(every time the cat goes missing, i always find him on my bed.)

it was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of cool people. i spent a lot of time talking to a freshman in college who's majoring in international relations.. and a woman in her 60s who's a writer. the woman and i were blowing the girl's mind. she was asking about how important it was to volunteer and what would really help you when you graduated. we told her you have to run things and execute events. i think we should start a consultancy for college students that helps them make smart decisions. because you just don't know what it's going to be like when you get out until it's too late.

also spent a while talking to a guy from india and a bunch of ladies about ayurvedic body types while we ate lunch. we had a long discussion about pitta, vata & how to cook quinoa. it was all very austin-y.

(this picture is jeff and i on friday working on the front porch. it was sooo nice out in the 70s with a nice breeze.)

we finished planting the garden at 4:30, went straight to our weekly meeting, covered in a fine layer of dirt and mulch dust. i was supposed to go straight to this farm benefit, but i was so disgusting i went home and showered and then went back. 

the benefit was for green gate farms to raise money for the farm and for the wildfire victims. when i walked in, the woman at the donation table, who owns the farm, told me they had just killed her favorite boar, and i should try the stew they made with him in the yellow pot. kind of weirded me out a little bit, but it was delicious indeed. i brought lily's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies which disappeared quickly. 

anyway the highlights of the evening were chatting with a guy about education policy and teaching, overhearing/popping into a conversation with another guy whose girlfriend is an ayurvedic health specialist, and getting to wear long sleeves! it was actually pretty chilly by the end of the night. busy weekend.