Dear Internet,

I don’t know if you believe in woo, and I don’t know if I do either, but!, I do like pulling a tarot card every day to get a sense of what is going on. I source the meaning from a few books, pull the keywords, and do my interpretation. Most of the time, it’s about reflecting on touching base on things I hadn’t given much thought to, and a lot of the time, it helps clarify my thoughts.

I’ve been reading my cards for a few years now but I’ve decided to dig deeper. I’ve been following a few tarot readers on the line and bought a few decks over the years. The deck I’m using now is the Everyday Witch tarot by Deborah Blake with art by Elisabeth Alba.

The card that I pulled three times in a row this week is the Ace of Cups.

In the upright position, which I pulled, the card means creativity, spirituality, joy, and contentment.

Each day I pulled the card, I racked my brain on what this could mean, and my answers were paltry. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that things were happening, as I was doing these things the card surmises, but I could not articulate it.

This past Friday, I pulled the Queen of Pentacles (upright). If the Ace of Cups is the most joyous of the deck, the Queen of Pentacles is her BFF. She is about abundance, stability, financial security, and success, as well as progress and an increase in resources.

Imagine my not surprise when Saturday’s card was The Magician (upright), which is associated with Mercury, the king of communication (which, as a Gemini, also plays a huge role in my life). The Magician is another card that complements the Queen of Pentacles and Ace of Cups. This card represents leadership, unity, and the beginning, as it is the beginning of the major arcana (the fool starts the deck at zero and is the trickster, while The Magician is at one and thus the beginning).

What the actual fuck is the universe telling me here?

First Snow of the Season

A couple of weeks ago, I was downstate for Weekend for Good, a yearly volunteer event where creatives and tech people volunteer their time and energy to help non-profits with whatever. (Round up and pictures here.) My team was in great shape by Saturday night, which worked to my advantage as I was randomly scrolling through Facebook for the first time in weeks and saw a post from a local news site. It was the weather forecast for the next few days, and the post specifically called out my county. I checked other weather sites and yep, the call was for 3-6” of snow on Sunday.

I spoke with the president of the non-profit as well as the weekend coordinator and it was all agreed I should leave first thing Sunday morning before the storm really hit. Home was 2.5 hours away, and I wanted to get an early start. I handed my presentation off to one of my teammates and took off Sunday morning as planned.

As I drove north, sure, there were flurries, but they were barely there flurries. I hit Cadillac, and it was blue skies. I drive another 15 or so miles north of the city and still nothing. When I got about 25 minutes from home, BAM! Whiteout conditions with about 5’ of visibility. I usually drive around 65 on county roads, but this time I was barely doing 25.

Images above of what I pulled into. I had to walk in 7” of snow in my Chucks (and thus wet feet).

The snow stopped shortly after I got home, and by Tuesday, it had melted. I checked last season, and we got a dump on the first weekend of November as well, and then all was quiet on the western front. I haven’t read any predictions for 2025/26 winter, but I just hope to hell it is not as bad as last year! (146”!)

Update on Mortimer

(Mortimer is my 2016 MINI Cooper Countryman.)

Mortimer turns 10 next year, and we’ve finally hit 100,000 miles. While I was downstate last weekend, I took Mortimer in for his oil change (only MINI dealership on this side of the state), and other than getting a coolant flush, all is good and well in Mortimer’s life.

Mr. Lisa and I have talked about the possibility of needing a second car, and so far we’ve not needed to yet. Last winter was the test winter for Mortimer, and with 4WD and beefy as fuck tires, he handled the roads and conditions perfectly. Even with Mr. Lisa working in an office, we’ve got our schedules down pat and have yet seen the need for a second car.

This isn’t to say we haven’t talked about getting a newer or second car. We’ve been eyeing the new Broncos, Mavericks, and other mid-sized SUVs. Mr. Lisa is convinced that with our 1/2 acre, we’re going to be some kind of farmer and he wants a bigger trunk to haul shit. Since this has not happened in the 14 years we’ve owned this property, I’m not rushing to buy a mid-sized SUV let alone a new car.

The Countryman, in theory, is what I refer to as the fat people’s MINI, while the State of Michigan categorizes it as a station wagon, and MINI itself promotes it as an SUV. Considering I live in the area where large trucks and SUVs reign supreme, you can barely pick us out in a parking lot. If we didn’t have a bike rack (which we’ve never used) on the top of the car, we’d get lost in parking lots.

I love Mortimer. I know all of his foibles, how he handles on gas, what he offers, and how he drives. And even with MINIs being ubiquitous, people love talking about my car. He has Bluetooth AND a CD player. Heated seats and USB plugs. He may not have a fancy touch screen or a backup camera, but he is still a great car.

In my younger days, I used to get a new car every three to four years, so I was constantly paying a car payment. It was when I got my ‘04 Saturn ION and kept it for 7 years, and then Jeeves, on to Mortimer, that I decided having a car bill per month was dumb.

Mortimer is not going anywhere, and I plan on driving him to the ground.

When the Fuck is Menopause Happening?

I realise most of this issue is fluff, and then tada! Let’s talk about my uterus.

Which I’m currently hating right now.

Back in 2018, I had a D&C to scrape the inside of my uterus, and I had a few polyps removed. As I have PCOS, I was promised that my periods would become regular for the first time ever and would start in the next few months after my uterus healed from the trauma.

Hah! Jokes on you OB/Gyns. Nothing happened.

Then, in July 2020, I got my period. Then in August, September, and October. As months ticked on, and I tracked my period, patterns emerged. I would gain as much as five pounds before my period appeared; I would get super hormonal and emotional; I’d constantly graze more so than usual; and then bam! Period appears. And it wouldn’t be a run-up from trickle to heavy flow. Oh no, my body likes to be dramatic, and I’m changing ultra OB tampons, as thick as my thumb, every four hours.

(Do not talk to me about period cups and underwear. I am not interested.)

This goes on for years. Friends in my age group +/- five years are going through perimenopause or going right into menopause themselves, while I’m Amazoning my tampons and pads regularly.

And the thing is, I may be in perimenopause now, but many of the mental symptoms (brain fog, memory issues, etc) mimic bipolar, so who knows! I don’t have hot or cold flashes. My hair is not falling out. The only thing that could be peri is that I have fine blonde peach fuzz on my face, which is annoying.

So, am I in peri? Who knows!

What quantifies being in menopause is not having your period for 12 consecutive months. I’ve got friends who have gone four, five, sometimes six months without a period and then, it returns with a vegence.

When September rolled around this year, I had my PMS symptoms, but this time with spotting. OK, I thought, it’ll be a massacre from my uterus to my underwear later on today. Tomorrow. Or the next day. Nothing happened. I spotted for a few days, and it stopped.

This gave me hope! Does spotting count as one of the months towards your menopause? Yes! It sure does!

October rolls around, and spotting happens, and I am excited, and then nope! My period is back with a vengeance. I am changing out thick as my thumbs tampons every four hours, praying I don’t stain something.

The tracking continues. (I do not use a tracking app due to privacy issues.)

Look. I just want to be on menopause, stop having to buy tampons, and take HRT and call it a day. But my body disagrees with me.

(A good indicator of when you’re going into menopause is familial history, of which I have none. I remain clueless.)

Holiday Cards

Look at me! I’m doing holiday cards for the first time in years! Doesn’t matter if you celebrate Yule, Festivus, Kwanzaa, Hannukkah, Christmas, or some holiday I do not know about, I want to send you a card from N. Michigan!

Fill out this form!

My address is in the form if you’d like to send one to me, too!

No idea on the design yet. Redo Alexander Skarsgard holding a cat like it’s Olson-Mills? Something Jane Austen related? Perhaps something relating to my struggling football team, Nottingham Forest FC? Who the fuck knows!

My only goal is to get them out by December 31. One year, they went out at Easter.

Not Your Mother’s Librarian

If we are BFFs in other spaces, you may be getting tired of hearing me promote this, but who cares!

Anyway, on Tuesday, November 25th at 11 a.m. EST, I’m doing an online presentation on libraries in the 21st C! The hosts are CreativeMornings, a global group of creatives that meet once a month at a local chapter for a continental breakfast and a talk. For those of us not near a local chapter, or who want more CreativeMornings in their life, they have Virtual FieldTrips, which I’m presenting for!

(Everything via CreativeMornings is free!)

The premise is the history of libraries from BCE to librarians in pop culture. We’ll also stop along the way on what librarians do after hours, how libraries support their communities, and more!

• Date: Tuesday, November 25

• Time: 11 a.m. EST

• Location: Zoom

• Cost: Free!

Sign up here!

CM only keeps the recording for four days, but do not fear! I get the recording to do with what I wish after that four-day window, and I’ll be promoting it and the slide deck everywhere! So, if you can’t make it, I’ve got you covered.

And in Other Places

Nerd Girl Industries Presents Issue #27 In Issue #27 of Nerd Girl Industries Presents: The Meet Cute Shop, Content Inc. by Joe Pulizzi, Weekend for Good wrap-up, and more! This issue’s tech tip is updating your phone, tablet, and computer software with tips on how to do that. (You can sign up for NGI Presents here.)

Ms Scarlet Writes a Newsletter Issue #4 In issue #4 of Ms Scarlet Writes a Newsletter: Novel November, moving data from one place to another, and Ms Scarlet considers writing a serial. This issue’s Wonderful Thing is Hallmark+! (You can sign up for Ms Scarlet Writes a Newsletter here.)

Winterly yours,

lisa x