Strange end to an odd day...

I guess the early part of the day wasn't particularly odd. However, I was lazy and didn't make it to the park to practice taiji, then never really had any breakfast. I had a yerba mate tea (which apparently contains matein, not caffeine) and a small piece of chocolate. Then for lunch I had apple slices and peanut butter. That was about all I ate until evening. However, I started preparing the chili for dinner around 15:00. It turned out quite tasty, though I think I may add some more tomato sauce before I heat it up next time (there's enough for me to have a bowl a day for at least a week; I may freeze some for meals during the semester).

Incidentally, I'd never made chili con carne before. Chili, but not con carne. However, the veggie chili really disagreed with me the last time I made it, so I put in some dead cow. Organic dead cow, but dead cow nonetheless. I didn't really follow a recipe, except to check how much cumin and chili powder were customary. Basically, I went to the store, bought a bunch of every kind of pepper that looked good, grabbed a few carrots and some tomatillos, and an onion (a very sweet onion, I might add), and some garlic. I put in a small can of tomato sauce and one of tomato paste, some salt, a bit of red pepper and oregano, and that was it. (Addendum: I forgot to mention the chili beans [very important] and the mushrooms) Hmmm... I'd been planning to put some corn in. Oh well. Chili is even better with fresh bread, so maybe I'll bake some bread tomorrow.

Okay, so that wasn't the odd part. The first odd part was this morning. I had two knocks at my door (quite unusual for me). The first one was a Qwest guy, coming guy to check out my phoneline since I ranted at them yesterday. Either the problem was at their end (the guy I talked to mentioned a card that the DSL modem connects to) or it was due to some sort of utility work further down my street, because everything worked perfectly last night. But I'm just as happy they sent someone out to doublecheck my line. Another knock was my next-door neighbor, Kevin. He's a nice guy when he's not stalking my roommate and chopping up my raspberry plants, and he lost a leg in a car accident last summer. From the sounds of things, he was lucky not to lose both legs. Anyway, his wife had just left and he realized he was out of cigarettes. I don't smoke, but there didn't seem to be any real reason not to help him out. Though I felt very odd going into a store and asking for cigarettes. Thus ends the morning oddities.

I spent most of the afternoon on the chili, then while it was simmering I popped over to Kim and Spence's house. They weren't there. This has been the case more and more often of late, and tonight I found out why: their roommates. I had heard some of this before, but from the sounds of things, it's gotten even worse. They met last spring, became friends, and a few months ago April and Ryan moved into Kim and Spence's house. I don't know the full details there; something about a fixer-upper house that was REALLY a fixer-upper. Anyway, these two do not clean up after themselves, their infant, or their cat and kittens. The house can be perfectly clean, and an hour after they get there, it's a violent mess. There were other, more specific complaints, but I think the filthy house was the last straw. Neither of them even wants to be at home any more.

So we brainstormed ideas for a bit. I still think the most practical idea is to get a cleaning crew together to clean out their room, whether they like it or not. So we'd need a relatively large group. Also, take anything specifically theirs out of the main house and put it into their room (unless it serves a specific function by being in its current location). Throw away anything too dirty to be recognizable, anything remotely resembling trash, etc. Apparently, they have full litter box that stinks to high heaven, so throw that out and make their cat stay outside. Spencer is hoping it doesn't come to that; I think Kim would like to take a shotgun to them all. But I guess Kim's dad really gave them hell a few days ago, and Spencer gets the impression that it might at least have made them realize how bad things really are. Hopefully that's the case and it will be resolved soon.

To complicate matters, Kim is pregnant again. I would be very surprised if this was planned. In addition to the nausea and constant "morning sickness", she also has dizziness this time (pregnancy does not agree with her). Anyway, I got a strong sense of...something...from Kim. I don't have words for it. It would help if I actually saw 'auras' (whatever they really are) rather than just sensing them. But I had a strong sense that she needed her aura cleansed, and I know the basics of doing so. So I offered, and she accepted. Basically, I used my hands to 'brush' the negative energy away from her. There was a knot of energy at her heart that I opened up, and a bright blue bubble around her stomach that I greeted and left alone. I think just opening up the heart center really helped. I grounded out the energy then grounded myself, and (to my surprise) Kim said she felt much better. *shrugs* I'm not sure what the aura really is (if it were really "light", scientific instruments would detect it), but it contains chi, and I know how to work with chi. I don't think it's really seen with the eyes, but some people perceive it as visual and so assume it's the eyes seeing it. At any rate, I'd never tried to cleanse an aura before, but Don cleansed mine for me once. I'm...happy, relieved, surprised, puzzled that it did some good.