What is Samhain? I know the word but not what it means.

eta: except that it means November in Irish.

Do I email her back and say 'please respect the fact that ...' or just ignore it?

I would e-mail her back, but I have little tolerance for fear-mongering, pre-judging, and mass-emailing.

It's Hallowe'en in Irish too. I think in ye olde days it was a festival for the beginning of winter.

ETA - what Dana said about the e-mailing.

She's a teenager, right? It's a good time for her to learn about netiquette (don't like that word!). Perhaps you can explain, nicely, that not everyone thinks the same and regardless, you try to keep your inbox limited to actual information only.

Happy anniversary, House Of Reason!

Skippity-skipping today. Mucho exhausted from work - the weekends I work, I have to go in five or six hours earlier than weekday shifts, and no amount of trying to get to bed early works out for me. So I stumble through my weekends, and sleep hard Monday morning to make up for it. Well, this past Sunday, I ended up staying an extra 4 hours so someone else could go home sick. Then I had to go in an hour and a half early on Monday to free up the supervisor to rest up for doing the overnight as we are once again shorthanded. It also meant that I was working the shift alone. Also I had PMS, and the only way I made it through the shift was to tell myself that if I survived and got everything done, then I could watch Dancing with the Stars with the clients. Also, Tuesday I had to go in early again, and my period started. Oh, boy, was I glad to see the part-timer (whose attendance has been more interesting than reliable) actually show up yesterday afternoon. And, thank the Powers that when she is there, she runs full throttle.

And so this morning found me swearing and wanting to punch the OneStopPlus.com website for repeatedly TALKING VERY LOUDLY at me, when I was trying to be subtle and get a gift cert. for Daniel on the QT. Mind you, this was what I had decided to do, beforehand, but didn't want to put it in the works too soon, as I wanted him to get it today. It's just that last night I was too wiped out to manage it then. I actually went to bed early, by which I mean 1am, last night.

Harvey, who slept on my pillow last night, is PuRRRRRRRing insistently now. Sammie, bless her furry little heart, is steering clear of me for a while. As she fumbled herself while attempting to hop up onto the desk earlier, she managed to accidentally hook a very sharp little claw into a highly sensitive portion of my anatomy, resulting in me yelping in surprise, followed by bringing out the nail clippers. Poor little spaz. And poor little nipple. Ouch.

Since I actually have tonight off, I am faced with the choice of buying a bunch of candy to hand out to adorably dressed little beggars while barring the cats access to the door, or turning out the lights and snuggling up with the cats and a book.

Did I mention that I fired off an email to the OneStopPlus.com people in which I substituted a torrent of verbiage for the cussing I was thinking?

x-posty.

um. Do I email her back and say 'please respect the fact that ...' or just ignore it?

I vote...well, actually my vote is not condusive to the continuation of her services as a babysitter, so scratch that. But, yeah - I'm all for opening her eyes to the startling discovery that not all good, normal, family-loving people are Christian. I mean, I'd also want to try to make her read the bleeding books before setting out to burn them, but it's not my battle.

You could email her back and point out that Kidman is not only defending the film and her role in it but is a devout Catholic, but I suspect the kind of person who'd send that email would also deduct points for Papistry.

And, damn, what an unpleasantness. Especially since this is someone Iris actually likes and is happy with, which ought to be worth its weight in gold. Sending an email like that in the first place, let alone cc'ing people she doesn't know that well and whose beliefs she can't begin to guess at, speaks poorly for (at least some aspects of) her judgment.

I want to post happy 'versary things too, but those belong in a separate post.

I vote...well, actually my vote is not condusive to the continuation of her services as a babysitter, so scratch that.

My first thought exactly.

But rejection won't help her to learn anything about tolerance...so yeah...scratch that.

Samhain is the end of the Celtic year, time to close up the old year and prepare for winter. According to legend, it's a time when the veil between the living and the dead thins. Its celebration has included leaving out food for the dead, sacred bonfires and predictions for the future. Many of its traditions got rolled into Halloween and, as part of the omnivorous Christian co-opting of existing religions, All Saints' Day.

The people who celebrate it could do a much better job than I'm doing.

Samhain is the end of the Celtic year

And a really annoying punk band.