Mean People Suck, But Cheesecake is Great

All Sorts of Baking fun today getting ready for the Beltane circle & potluck dinner. We made frybread (note the hammer & scissors on the stove, yes, these ARE cooking implements), more dandelion cookies, and goat cheese sauce / spread. We also took the remainders of the radish salad from yesterday's birthday party. *laugh*



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We were 15 minutes late leaving the house for the potluck because we accidentally burned 14 cookies and had to bake another batch. We will have happy squirrels in the morning when we toss the "bad" ones into the yard. *laugh*

I put my last $5 into the gas tank so that we could get to the Beltane circle & potluck. We drove across town to the park. Wrong park. Drove All the way north to another park. It too was empty. Beginning to panic, and soaking wet from searching two parks, We drove to the house of the person holding the event. Of course they weren't home, they were at the park! This whole time, the gas gauge is wandering between dying and a quarter tank, so I have no clue how much gas we have left because the $5 I spent bought about two gallons for our gas guzzler. I broke down. Everyone else was in the car, so I cried alone on the vacant porch. I've had so much stress lately with everything that has been going on, that the very possible chance that we were going to be missing Beltane was quite a blow. When one is stressed, even the little things get to a person. *sigh* So I get back into the car, where Keebler asks me if I checked the email before I left the house in case there had been a change of plans. I respond that with last night's internet snafu, that I still had not managed to catch up on all of the backed up emails. I later find that it was a good thing to not have read them all, or I may not have even left the house. More on that later. Anyway, back to the story. So Keeb asks me if I am calling myself stupid because of a hardware failure. *sigh* I wasn't doing any such thing, so then I'm angry on top of feeling helpless and somewhat incompetent. I start driving again, desperately searching for a way to find the danged event. Across town yet again to the dungeon we go, and finally find a friend! He guides us to where we need to be, and 1.5 hours late, we arrive. It's not that we're usually on time for anything, but darnit! This time we were only fifteen minutes late leaving the house, and we had a good excuse for that too! *grr*
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We finally get to the event, and tell our tale of woe to our friends (and the video camera). A good time was had by all, we got to see friends from far away, eat some great food, have fabulous conversation, and a good circle. The kids ran rampant in the rain, and one of them fell and was in a bit of shock for a bit because the pavement was really slick. We called his place later and found out he was just fine, no doctor needed. *smile* So we left with a nearly untouched bowl of day-old salad (nobody wants salad when it's raining), half a plate of cookies, and leftover homemade raspberry cheesecake (no red #40!) that we traded for our leftover frybread. *grin* On our way home, we encountered a small hailstorm. Luckily it wasn't enough to do more than make it a bit harder to see, and we got home safe & sound, even though we were drenched to the bone. *grin* It was so worth it.
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Remember when I said I had been banned from a Yahoo group? Well the group was a new pagan community group in my area. I finally discovered that the "reason" I was banned was because I was "trying to take over their group". *laugh* I don't want their darned group I have enough of my own! I don't want to control their event (PPD), I have enough of my own! Yet they continue to say (in another, MUCH better established group), That I am ill-informed as to why I was banned, but still refuse to tell me the reason. Both the female and her mate are continuously defaming me personally, and even those members fo the other group by telling us ALL to read the book "Antagonists in the Church". Now I have never heard of this book, nor do I wish to read it, but I can get the point as to what she means by it. Calling everyone in the group uneducated fools doesn't really help her credibility either.

If that weren't bad enough, their incessant pompous attitude has raised the ire of most of the group. I myself have not been blameless in irking some of my friends there, but only in responding to them.

Her last message was the worst. She called me the most.. Well, I'll just copy her last email:

"First of all, your birdie is not properly or completely informed. For a quick look at why you were banned, please read 'Antagonists in the Church.' I recommend you *all* read it and take a lesson. Second, why the h*ll is this news?!? What business is this of [group]'s? They have nothing to do with [group] and it should have no effect on them, [me]. Before you came along, we were coexisting as best as two groups can. You continue to stir the shit, even when you *AREN'T* part of my group. Why do you think this is going to win you love and adoration?

Your cutesy honey crap makes me want to puke. You are the most fake and vile person I have come across in a long time. I refuse to give you more attention that that. This is my last word on this and I highly advise it be yours, too."

This was in reference to my letting the group know that a little birdie told me why I was banned. As for the "cutesy honey crap", I have been nothing but polite & kind to her instead of saying how I really feel, which was not something I wanted the other members of the group to hear, as I am not childish enough to play her stupid little games. Sometimes, saccharine sweet is all I can muster when I'm flaming mad.

However, This female (If you can't say anything nice, state a known fact) obviously bears a severe internal inferiority complex, low self esteem, horrid personal view, and many other cerebral difficulties that have obviously kept her in the mind frame and thought patterns of a Jr. High control freak with severe psychiatric problems! I bet she feels really big & bad and powerful since I decided to not respond to her messages BEFORE I read this one (at request of a fellow group member whom I respect-anyone but she & her mate qualify-)

I cried so hard that I got nauseous. I thought this kind of crap stopped in high school, but I guess some folks never grow up. Just because I understand the twisted mental reasoning and thought processes behind this kind of behavior, it doesn't make it hurt any less.

I'm calling the PPD people tomorrow to let them know that I have reason to believe that the folks who are running the event for my area are unstable, unkind, and not proper representatives to show a positive unified face to the general community as PPD is supposed to.

In an interesting turn of events, I just discovered that the person I banned from the Freecycle(tm) group for posting an ADMIN instead of taking her ideas to the chat group as suggested, was the SAME PERSON who owned the pagan group I was banned from. She was using a different email address, so I was completely unaware that I was dealing with the same person, and had innocently thought the two events were separate from eachother. *laugh* Oh what a tangled web she weaves. *sigh*

A bit of backstory on the admin person: She badgered me for a month trying to get me to ask the members of my FC group to keep God out of their posts because it offended her. I told her that everyone had the same rights in my group, and she was welcome to sign off "Blessed Be" if she so chose, and that if it really bothered her that she could take it to the chat group (where the members decide the rules, not I) and let the members decide if there should be a rule about it. I was even nice enough to suggest she use her delete button if she was so offended by the freedom of expression enjoyed by everyone in the group. She then proceeded to post an ADMIN (as a member, that's illegal) to the group asking for what she wanted because I wouldn't give in to her wishes. In her admin, she singled out several members for insulting, and caused several other members to simply leave the group. *sigh* I banned her for her flagrant disregard of the rules.

THEN she decides to post to every pagan group in the area asking for pickle buckets "because she was banned from the Freecycle group for speaking out pagan". *sigh* Each time she posted one of these, I stopped her in her tracks and replied on the public groups as to how & why she was banned, and this last time she did it, I told her in no uncertain terms that I would not stand idly by and watch while she outright lied to the members of the community about why she was banned. I also clearly stated that I could finally tell her such things as I was no longer speaking as the owner of a group she was a member of, and could thus speak more plainly. It was after I said this in an entirely different group that she posted this last letter publicly to me in the other of our shared groups (now only two, was four).

I'll never understand some folks, not that I want to, but I sure do wish she'd get back on her meds before she does more damage to herself or the community. I have stopped responding to her emails (and her mate's) on every group that we are both members of. Ponderous...

Another recent update, since it took me so long to get the images uploaded for this post: Seems now that I've shut my trap in my own defense, others on the big group we share are piping up to add to the discussion of who's right. Seems the general consensus is that the new group will fall due to their controlling tendencies, and that suddenly nobody likes the owners of that group. *Mock Shock* The offenders are likely wondering what brought this huge backlash upon them and thinking everyone else is being judgmental and hugely unfair (as most criminals think when they get caught doing something wrong "blame the ones who caught me"). *wry smirk* I suppose in this instance, I can honestly say that they had it coming?
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We got home, put the food away, and went to give the remaining radish couscous salad to the vegetarian neighbor (two days and we're sick of it). He wasn't home, so we snuck inside (the door was open) and put the entire huge green bowl in his fridge. *laugh* Two hours later, he arrives home, and we wait for him to discover the gift and come blaming us for it. *grin* But... Nothing happens! So Keeb went over to say hello. An old neighbor was there and they chatted for a bit and he came home with the report that Mordi (the vegetarian neighbor) hasn't moved from his chair since he got home. This was an odd dilemma. So I waited about 10 minutes and went over myself, on the pretense of saying hi to the rarely seen visiting ex-neighbor. *grin* While there, I informed Mordi that there is a present in his fridge, at which point everyone in the house goes over with him to the fridge to look. *chuckle* Ex-neighbor said "Gee Mordi, how'd you miss THAT?!" Exclaiming at the massive bowl of salad that takes up the entirety of the bottom shelf. It was too funny *giggle* Of course I came clean about us sneaking into his house to give him food. *smirk* It was a good way to end the day. *smile*