Simple Pleasures Sundays - Being Sure (Astrologically)

I know it's been a while.  I don't really know where my mind has been.  Well, I do know that my body has been particularly busy.  So busy that I haven't had time to sit and write a blog post on Sundays!

I'm not really complaining, though.  But onto this Sunday's post!

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In the past week, people have been flipping out about their horoscopes.  At first, I thought it was another silly quiz on Facebook, but apparently it's because the news was blowing a story about astrology all out of proportion (No! The news never does that!).

I'm not really going to go into why people are so wrong.

Except to say that I don't know why the Earth's wobble is new.  Hasn't this been happening for, well, ever?

If you really want to understand what's happening, I really honestly suggest going to About.com's Astrology page.  She has interesting blog posts about what's happening in the world and in the stars, and breaks down the idea that there is a tropical zodiac (which follows the seasons) and the sidereal zodiac (which follows the star charts).

Again, why is this such a new idea?  There's the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese calendar, the Jewish calendar, the Muslim calendar, the Mayan calendar...I could go on, really.  All these ideas somehow are "understandable" to most people, and yet it would be ridiculous to think of there being variations on the zodiac.

Can you spot Ophiuchus?

Honestly, my favorite part about people who are freaking out is the fact that they barely believe in astrology in the first place, and yet they are extremely adamant that their sign isn't changing (for some silly made up reason, such as "it only affects people born after a certain year," or "I've been a [insert sign here] all my life! I'm not anything else!"

Sure, one can't claim that astrology is necessarily a science.  But then, I would feel wrong about discounting Traditional Chinese Medicine (which I've seen work better for some folks with strange ailments).

Now, I've been interested in astrology from a very early age (I'm going to blame that on my Aquarius Rising Sign).  So, I've done some reading and I've even know what my chart looks like (which, you should know what yours looks like as well! Click here to get it done for free!)

I've known that I'm on the Aries-Taurus Cusp, and I'm quite proud of that as is evident by my tattoo.

Tattoos are probably another reason why people freaked out!

I am not only proud, but I am not feeling any nervousness about being the "wrong" sign.  Sure, my chart my read differently if it were created through a sidereal perspective, and I would be a straight up Aries.  But, the sidereal perspective would probably interpret the signs in a different way as well.

And that doesn't change who I am and who I was as a person.

Our signs don't rule over us.  They can be for entertainment, and they can be some guidelines for understanding yourself a little bit more.

We all carry bits and pieces from the other signs, as we carry bits and pieces of our experiences with us.  There's more to it than just the Sun sign (which is what everyone is freaking out about).  There's a whole sky's worth of information about us that we've yet to discover.

But, it does help to have your feet on the ground and feel sure about your footing, especially while your mind is exploring the stars.

Star Gazing

The first two weeks of August have been all about the stars.

On the weekend of August 6th and 7th, I joined my friends to go on a yearly trip to Vermont endearingly called the "All Night Costume Dance Party."  The event started as a birthday celebration, and has turned into a yearly reunion and summer celebration.

The area where the party happens is called Quarry Hill, right by Rochester, Vermont.  There's no phone reception, and thus no internet on my phone.  It's the one time I really get to go camping.

Now, let me be honest here.  I'm a city girl through and through, and I don't pretend to be anything else.  This one weekend of camping is mainly about having an awesome time out in nature with awesome people.

And while the all-night dancing and blueberry pancakes in the morning is pretty awesome, there's just something about being around a bonfire under a sky full of stars.

Quarry Hill bonfire.

I wish I had a camera that could take a picture of those stars.  Being a city girl, I am used to the city glare being part of the night sky, though I am often to see a couple of stars here and there.  In Los Angeles, I can often spot the constellation of Orion. 

But being in Vermont, the stars and the moon are the main source of light.  I couldn't even begin to name any stars.  It's so beautiful.

To add to the beauty, the Perseid Meteor Showers have been crossing the sky.  To celebrate the boyfriend and two other guy friends' birthdays, we decided to head out to Boston's South Shore area to do some meteor watching.

The Perseid Meteor Showers is a yearly phenomenon that happens around late July to mid August.  In the past, I don't know if we had ever been able to see them, so it was great to make a plan to watch them this year.

Whoever decided on those constellations were tripping out, man...

We ended up finding our way to World's End in Hingham (pronounced "Hing-am," for you non Massachusetts folks), though we were mainly looking for a dark enough area to enjoy the stars.  It was amazingly appropriate to end up there.

World's End

So, the 7 of us set up our picnic blankets and sleeping beds and got settled in for another all-night event.  We snacked on some delicious goodies, and laughed about really random things.  We would  point and "oooh" and "aaah" at all the meteors we would spot.  It was amazing to see so many shooting stars, some back to back from each other.

I honestly don't know if there could have been a better way for the first two weekends of August, considering that this is the last full month of summer.  I feel blessed to have been able to spend so much time in nature with great friends.

Let's hope that the next couple of weekends are just as awesome, even if I don't get to spend more time under the stars.

Brain Wrinklies - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Another Saturday is here, and I've enjoyed the company of the Science Channel.  As I'm doing my thing around the house, my mind is being blown away by a show about telescopes, specifically a large binocular telescope.

I love shows about the universe.  I'm sure I've geeked out about this already.  But for me, it makes me feel like the tiniest little speck, and I am in awe of all the amazing things that I will never see in my lifetime.  I think I'm lucky enough to be privy to the pictures they show on the shows themselves.

But I wanted to geek out a little bit about one specific fact I just learned.  Forgive me if any of you scientists are like, "Sheesh! I knew that already."  But my brain seriously grew another wrinkle.

twinkle twinkle

Stars themselves don't actually twinkle!  They only appear to twinkle to us!

Okay, so, if I understood the explanation correctly, the twinkling is caused by pockets of hot air, or turbulence.  We know that light travels fast.  But as the light shines towards the earth and our sights, it will travel through pockets of hot air, making the light waver a little bit.  Thus, twinkling!

Seriously, I never knew that!

I love looking up at the stars.  Though I've lived in cities for the majority of my life, I've had the pleasure of the stars company.

In Los Angeles, my neighborhood wasn't overly polluted with light, so I was able to see the stars as I stood in my yard.

In Santa Cruz, a small oceanside town, having the campus on a mountain top and living so close to the ocean aided in looking at the stars.

In Boston, I unfortunately don't have the same kind of view, living in an apartment complex located in a heavily populated area.  But there are so many places I could easily travel to if I wanted to see the twinkling.

Now, I feel like I will have a whole new appreciation of those heavenly bodies star gazing.