Zombies! Run! and Pcon Handout

It's been madness since I got back from Pantheacon and I promise I'll get you a nice chewy blog post soon.  In the mean time I just have to plug some awesomeness for anyone who likes zombies and enjoys running.

First, if you haven't heard of Run For Your Lives, you should.  It's a 5k that you run through a zombie infested obstacle course.  This sounds like more fun than should be legal.  I'm going to be doing the Seattle/Portland run on 8/4.  I'll be a shambling zombie in the morning (11:20am-2:40pm) and running the course in the afternoon (3pm).  Signing up to be a zombie cuts the registration fee by more than half, but spots are limited.  If you want to join me as a zombie you should sign up soon!

Second, there's a great new app for smartphones called Zombies, Run!  It's a running app where it integrates your normal running routine with a really well told zombie story.  As you run you pick up supplies for survivors and get chased by zombies.  I have never sprinted so fast in my life as when I heard the radar beep getting faster and faster and that voice telling me that the zoms were gaining on me.  If you run and you like zombies it's a must have.

For those of you weren't at my lovely Pcon workshop, Magickal Munitions - Magickal Protection for the Urban Practitioner.  Here's the content of my handout:

Cities Are Alive – Fortify. Refine. Respond.

Fortify – Define and Defend Your Space

-  Define the borders of your space

-  Cleanse and purify your space

-  Ward

-  Sanctify

Refine – Learn More About Your Surroundings

-  Mundane

◦     Neighbors (personality, energy, proximity, discretion)

◦     Neighborhood (crime, tolerance, engagement)

-  Divination

-  Energy sensing

-  Spirits of the city

Respond - Adapt Your Protections Accordingly

-  Offerings to the mundane and magickal

◦     Community Service

◦     Food

◦     Incense

◦     Art

-  Subtle, contained protective measures

◦     Chameleon aura

◦     Grounding shields

◦     Witch Bottles

Dreams of the Zombie Apocalypse

Last night I had a series of really weird...not quite nightmares, but rather worse than dreams.  I only remember bits and pieces, but I know it started off with me living in a small town in the forest.  The town looked like a picturesque fairy tale village except for one small detail.  Rather than having a wall or fence to protect the town, the town was ringed with ghost lamps – human skulls on pikes lit with magick fire.  The ghost lamps protected the town from the evil spirits that roamed the forest after dark.  (Yes, my dreams are often freaky.)  Normally, the fire from the ghost lamps burned a healthy orange-red, like any other fire.  But, because this was one of my dreams, this was the day where at sunset the lamps fire went from orange to blue and slowly guttered out.  At that point we knew it was only a matter of time before the town was overrun by the angry dead.

Of course, here’s where dream logic comes into play.  I was living in this town and was aware of everything that was going on, but I was still in my actual house with my husband.  Our friend Scott was over fixing a car for some reason.  He saw the lamps go out and shouted at us to warn us that the zombies were coming (at this point they’d morphed from angry ghosts to shambling zombies – it’s a dream, whatcha gonna do).  I scrambled for my emergency kit and hurried to find shoes.  Then for some reason Ty and Scott started arguing over our exist strategy for what seemed like half an hour (zombie horde bearing down on us mind you).  Then the dream skipped forward to us driving to Priest Lake because we figured there wouldn’t be zombies there.

It was a very odd dream.  It’s more odd because I’ve had a series of similar dreams lately.  In all of them some serious metaphysical danger was approaching, but in none of them was I really frightened or panicky.  Are these dreams a result of stress or it something more interesting going on.  I may have to call my witches for readings.