10:30pm Tuesday. Heather has utterly tanked from the travels.

This was a wonderful trip.

Wednesday night I got absolutely no sleep. I geeked out hooking up the DSL and other such attractions. Thursday at 4:15am the car arrived to take us to the airport. Muchly use of the BoA/USAir debit card had made it possible for me to upgrade our roundtrip flight to be first class.

LAX at 6am is dead. We should have known this from the fact that it took 15 minutes to cross the city to get to the airport. But it was nice having net access at LAX. The flight was okay. I remember when first class got you complimentary champagne and warm towels. Now, it’s broader seats and that’s about it. I also learned on this trip NOT to call ahead and request a special dietary meal. Apparently a non-lactose meal means a fruit-cup and a croissant with butter. The in-flight movie was Bruce Almighty. However, the first 20 minutes, the tracking was horrible. So I watched my “Family Guy” DVDs

tailerouge was waiting at the airport and with that I met the parental unit. Maine was absolutely beautiful. I hadn’t seen leaves changing colours in a few years. Kinda made me homesick. Didn’t last very long on Thursday on the lack of sleep and the 6+ hrs of flight. Also discovered that Maine had very light cell coverage. Ah well, more time with the family. We got to see the venue where mass would be and meet the “Thea” (sp?) Back to the house, light dinner, and crashings.

Friday: Got to go to “Two Lights” It was a park on the Atlantic. After Babalon Puja, this meant that I managed to be at both the Atlantic and the Pacific within a weak of each other. *heh*. We introduced Bill & Nina to Fight Club and then went hot tubbing. A pleasant day all around.

Saturday is a bit of a blur. I have no idea why. I know we did some mass shopping. We went out to the local shopping center and I logged onto the net for the first time at a Borders. This was kind of neat. We picked up some books and a journal for our mass travels. H picked up the new Spider Robinson ‘Callahans’ book. B&N picked up a pair of DuQuette books (Magick of Thelema and Chicken Quibbuluh) That evening we did a quick and dirty mass run thru.

Sunday… Mass day. I was nervous. We knew the Boston folk were coming up to Maine. We had an asset list of what they were bringing… but the first time is still the first time and you really have no idea what to expect. Well, we got to the church at 11:30 and the Boston folk were already there. Along with the entire Maine OTO contingency. Yes, folks 100% of the Maine initiates of the order were there. And he was a great guy.

The group that showed up included our deacon alleged along with sbank who designed the mass setup, atlien a recent initiate who’s setup help can not go without thanks, and the Maine folk: exnomine who helped with everything from setup to chatting with the local pagans. sbank also helped with running the music during the mass and remembering audience cues to help a rather new congregation.

Setup was awesome and quick. And a really well designed mass layout. We did a quick run thru and then I treated everyone to Subway for lunch. We thought we might delay but after lunch things still looked fine and we managed to start on time as announced. I even got to do a Star Ruby banashing. We were worried going in because originally it looked like we were going to be in at 2 and out at 5. Turned out we were in at noon and wrapped up and packed by 5:30.

We ended up using a censor from the local pagan chapter. It turned out to be one piece of metal. I didn’t notice H put it down quickly because it had heated up. I really, really tried to make all five crosses on the priestess look strong and stately with the consecration, but by the time I picked it up, it was very hot and I nearly burnt my hands on it.

Other than that, the mass went off very, VERY well. We do have pictures, care of Bill’s camera, and I hope to have those soon. After mass, a quick breakdown and some nice schmoozing. About 80-85% took communion which I feel was a positive reaction from the relatively new crowd. We said our goodbyes to Boston and looked at the donation box. Yay. Expenses. That evening we went to visit the ‘Thea’ again and help celebrate her pre-b’day. Then it was back to the house to crash.

Monday we went out to one of those wonderful bay side towns in Maine. There is this huge occult and newage shop (that has since branched into two stores on opposite sides of the street) We also stopped in the only open restaurant in the village (as it was post season) I tried an authentic Maine Lobster Roll. Umm.. yum!!!! H had a Crab Roll and we had to restrain her a bit. A bit more shopping at the occult stores. I picked up a Unicursal Hexagram with a pentagram in the middle and a garnet at the absolute center. (It’s about a 1-2″ necklace pendant), I also got a laser pointer to play with the cats, and a copy of “My Life with the Spirits” for B&N. I picked up a ‘gift’ for my OTO bodymaster as well. (evil cackle, my last gift was a duck with a fez)

Monday evening we had a long chat about thelema, the OTO, and thelemic ritual. I taught B & N the Star Ruby. And H & I answered many questions about thelemic paradigms, philosophies, etc.

This morning, we headed out to a store called “Three Sisters” in Sanford. It is a smaller occult store where Heather’s artwork is on display. You can see and even buy gaia, broken wings, and Spring of our Discontent, there. For those piquesd with curiosity, the rest of Heather’s paintings can always be found on her site at FireSeaStudios.com

A nice quick chinese lunch and off to the airport. For Some weird reason the guy in Portland believed that we needed a whole bunch of paperwork stapled to our boarding passes. Thus to let the person at the gate know, we didn’t fly ultra-true first class. Portland… then 20 minutes of circling over Philly. A quick walk from C to B terminal. Onto the 321 without phones. This time the movie was Alex & Emma which looked like… a task. So I watched 4 of 6 episodes off my Ultraviolet DVDs. (Rock on Jack Davenport!)

The driver was waiting at the baggage claim for us. Complete with a standardly misspelt sign. (Sigh, 1 a 2 o, not 2 a one o) He was a chatty Russian Jew from the Ukraine who had heard of Bug (pronounced Boog) where my ancestors were from before Brooklyn.

Home, pick up a pile of mail. Including the long overdue DVDs from WWDC 2003 and into bed. (Heather is already asleep.) 10:15… Body feels like 7:15… stare… stare…roll, stare. Watch planes cross window. 10:30.. get up and write.

11:25 post, 11:26.. Attempt more sleep.

G’night