Family Clan

One would think that my sister would know more about this than I do. After all, she’s the one who does the Highland Dance, plays bass drum in the Pipe Band…and hangs out with the bagpipers at all times. Sure, my high school was the Highlanders (pretty awesome, of course), but I wasn’t involved in any of the ultra-Scottish heritage activities. I just never had any time for them, not after all the band activities that I was already in.

Our family is Irish, but within the Irish family line, someone along the line had come from Scotland, probably moving to Ireland and marrying into an Irish family. Because we know which Scottish clan we come from. If I didn’t know this little fact, I would have no clue whatsoever about any of these little facts. So I have to here thank a cousin somewhat removed from me for doing the family research into the family history to find that little tidbit out for us.

“Ancient” – Bruce clan tartan

Our family’s Scottish tartan is from the Bruce clan. So somewhere back along the line, our family came from that clan, before moving to Ireland. That was pretty interesting to learn, since it’s a unique little thing to learn about our family. And it is a pretty cool tartan. I actually like the family tartan in the ancient tartan form, it’s pretty to look at.

My sister went to Scotland in 2011, competed in the Highland Games, and wanted to bring back some of the family tartan to sew with. But, she had no clue which clan it was before she was going to be going off to Scotland. As to that – how I’m the one who knows all this (and I’m the one who knows far more about our Eastern European heritage and family) is beyond me. But I had to be the one to tell her. Of course, my sister doesn’t like the Bruce clan tartan much, and to be fair, the modern one is a bit too bright for my taste. The orange is more bright, not an orange-brown like the “ancient” pattern is. So she wasn’t terribly thrilled. Instead of our tartan, she brought back some other one.

It’s not a huge deal, but I like knowing where our family comes from. And knowing which clan our family originated from is something nice to know. It’s one part of the complicated history of our family.

Rose II

I took my kitty to the vet this morning. She got a lump on her side at the end of December, and I’ve been kind of watching it since (mom too, to be honest). So we finally found a cat hospital in the area, so we took her this afternoon. She hates the vet, majorly. As soon as I went to put her in her carrier, she spazzed out and started snarling at me. I felt awful. But, I got her there, and then met with mom.

Vet gave us good news, which was a huge relief.

The lump on her side might be a tumor. We have to keep an eye on it. If it keeps growing in size over the next 6 months, we have to take her back in. Or if she chews at it, scratches at it, or otherwise shows signs of distress. But, as long as she seems fine, the vet said it is most likely a cosmetic cyst that they won’t mess with, as it is very small, and it isn’t worth the problems to go in and try to remove it. Medically, unless it’s causing Rose trouble, it is actually safer, if it is benign, to leave it alone.

Other good news – she hasn’t lost any weight, which is something to look out for with other cats her age. She’s still just over 6 lbs, and feisty. No change in moods or behaviors, which is great for her age too. But best news, her teeth. Himalayan cats, or cats with Himalayan blood like my fur-baby, usually have bad teeth over the age of 10. Himalayan cats teeth tend to be really bad the older they get, don’t know why, but the vet said so. So he was surprised at the fact she has all of hers, and they’re in pretty much perfect shape, considering we don’t take her to the groomer constantly. But, she’s got perfect little fangs, my little kitty.

All of this means, I get vet-approved permission to spoil my little baby now. He said that since Rose isn’t a “young” cat anymore, we can go ahead and give her canned food more often. At the moment we give her a specific brand, 1 flavor (my cat is a picky little brat, she only likes this 1 type, 1 brand. She hates all other types of canned food, even all the seafood types but this one salmon & whitefish type that we buy) as a special treat, if she’s well behaved. Or rather, that’s what my mom does. I kind of give it to her randomly, whenever I feel like it. So, I gave her a cup of it today after the vet, because we always give her a “special treat” after taking her there or the groomer — she hates both. But, since the vet said we can feed her canned food more often, I get to officially spoil her now. — Mom is not so delighted with this prospect I think, because I’m the one who is going to spoil the cat delightedly, because I’m not living in the apartment full-time yet. But…she totally gets to deal with it, because she loves the kitty as much as I do, and she’ll go along with it and spoil Rose too.

Now that I’m not worrying that my baby kitty is sick and going to die from some unknown lump anymore, I’m feeling much better. I’m calmer again and not freaking out. It does feel better to be calm, to know that my little fur-baby is safe and sound. Now, she’ll be around to play with me, curl up in my lap and purr for quite a long time. The family joke is that she’ll live to 30 to spite my mom (which should give us 15 more years of delightful kitty company)!

Rose

Rose – March 2013

This is my “baby”.

We (and by we, I mean my parents) bought her when I was 7, back in 1998. Her birthday is July 22. We actually got her just a few months after my dad lost his pet, our Chow-Chow, to old age (he was 10, almost 11). Me and my sister had been begging for a kitten for months and months, and my mom finally convinced my dad to let us get the cat. Of course, we promised our parents we’d feed her, clean the litter box, etc etc. But, at 7 and 5, we weren’t all too good at helping out with that stuff. Though we were really good at feeding her treats and spoiling her.

Rose is a Himalayan-Manx. So she’s got the no-tail feature of the Manx breed, but the features of the Himalayan. Her fur is three inches long and very silky. She’s so soft and silky, it’s absolutely unbelievable. This photo doesn’t really do her any justice to just how gorgeous she is. She has the markings of a Siamese though (the Himalayan is a Siamese-Persian cross). So she’s a Blue Point, technically. She’s not quite so sharply featured as a pure-bred Siamese would be, but she also doesn’t have the smushed in face of a Persian — much to my sister’s disappointment and my delight. She’s got gorgeous blue eyes though. They’re a stunning sapphire color that can look lighter at times, or darker.

My baby is also very tiny. She’s only 6 pounds. Which is hilarious if I could find a photo to show how big she is in comparison to another, more “normal”-sized cat (i.e. 10-12ish lbs). Her fur though, which she has an impressive ability to fluff out to great defensive capability, makes her look like a 20-pound cat when she’s upset or angry. The vet says she’s healthy though, and not in any danger. So she’s a tiny little 6-lb fluff-ball of a cat.

Rose – June 2009

She always comes and greets me at the door. And if I don’t put my stuff down and immediately pick her up on getting home, she’ll headbutt me in the shin until I pick her up and give her attention. And when I’m at home, she sleeps in bed with me, curled up at my side, purring and with her nose burrowed into my neck. She’s absolutely the most affectionate cat I know, and just so cute and loving.

She’s my 15-year-old (almost 16) baby, that I adore. She sleeps in my lap when I read, and just generally makes my life more pleasant.

Back in the Day…

I wonder sometimes if anyone else has the same interest in old family stories that I do. And by that I mean, people my age. Because my friends always seem shocked to learn that I enjoy hearing the “old fogeys” talk about way back when.

I know lots of stories from my great-grandparents’ times, and their parents as well. For me it’s all fascinating. I mean, how often can one say they know strange little stories from that far back. Now to be fair, in my family, great-grandparents were all born in around 1920′s, my grandparents all around mid 1940′s. Which I know makes my family extremely young. My great-great-grandparents were all born round about early 1900′s, to the last one around 1910 or so I think. Which always engenders shock from my friends, because a lot of my friends’ grandparents were born during/just before the Great Depression, a few just after. So I had some of my great-grandparents until I was about 13/14. Actually, 1 great-grandma is still with us. Which I’m the only one of my friends who can say that. But it does mean that with great-great-aunts and great-grandma’s, I heard lots of fun stories.

A cousin of mine got married back when I was 12, so it was kind of a “family reunion” of sorts as well. Whole extended family got together, well over 100+ people. So I got to hear stories from my great-grandma’s, great-great-aunt and my grandma too. My family has a fascinatingly crazy history too, from the stories. I know what Scottish clan we hail from, way way back thanks to this. I also know what my grandma’s grandmother’s maiden-name was: Koehler as Americanized, her family was from Germany. Sadly, no one knows where in Germany they came from, no one can remember, because the woman was adopted as a like 2-year-old, and no one ever bothered to tell her where her family came from (Which is a pet peeve of mine, because everyone here in Germany is excited to learn I’m German, but I have no clue where my family comes from). But while we were at the wedding, I got to hear loads of old family stories.

• Part of our family might be illegitimate. Not a huge deal for today, but for great-grandmas, great-great-aunt and so it is. See, couple had 2 or 3 kids before they got married, then 2 or 3 afterwards. Our branch of the family is either the last illegitimate kid, or the 1st legitimate one, and no one can remember. So, old-timey scandal for my family.
• Then we had a whole other couple somewhere along the line that their families hated each other. Some kind of business feud going. So son from family A and daughter from family B went and eloped. Huge scandal with that I guess, and both families disowned them for a while. Family story is, once they had a kid everyone kind of just dropped it and tried to get along from that point on.
• Supposedly my great-great-great-grandparents on one side ran a hotel, where my great-great-grandma worked as a kid. One story goes that the first story was a restaurant, laundry in the back, lounge/bar all that kind of stuff. Second story was the hotel. Rumor is that third story was a brothel. And I’ve seen photos of the great-great-great-grandparents. They look like they belong in the Chicago Mob, just….oh about 50-60ish years too soon.

So my family has really interesting stuff happen. It’s just so much fun to hear all these old stories. And, since I hear them, I know lots of little things about my great-grandparents and even some things about their parents that none of my friends have a clue about. I even know stuff about my grandparents that my friends don’t know about theirs. Obviously not everything, but I do learn a lot from listening.

One of the first things I’m doing when I get back home is going to my grandma’s old company’s “Old Fogey’s Barbecue”. Not really a barbecue, but a huge get together. They all used to work together way back, when my mom was a kid. They do this every September, just get together, chat, have a great time and relax and enjoy the (hopefully) good weather on a Saturday. My sister finds it boring, as do my cousins and my aunt. My mom loves to go though, and I find it fascinating. I get to hear all sorts of old stories, hang out, get free food (always a bonus), and just enjoy the day. Plus, it’s always fun to hear about how other people went through life.

This time though, I’ll actually get to speak German. One of the old guys hails from southern Germany, right on the Austrian border. So his family speaks Sueddeutsch mixed with Oesterreichisch Deutsch (southern German with Austrian German). It’s fascinating to hear. Strange too. Especially since in school they only teach us Hochdeutsch, which is academic German that they use at the colleges. But…he speaks German, so I have someone to chat to in German for at least part of the afternoon. This makes me very happy, because I’m going to miss speaking German. Plus, I can hear all sorts of fun stories about growing up in Germany way back, and family stories from the region too.

So all in all, my “strange” fascination with old stories is good. I know lots more than quite a few friends. But, it’s also just neat to know where your family comes from. Which I definitely learn a lot of.

Related articles

• Heritage (witchsjourney.wordpress.com)

When Things Go Well…

I should know to look for the trouble.

I’ve been doing okay. Extremely busy with school, but that’s nothing to worry about. It’s normal. In fact, being busy is preferable to being bored to death. But…I should know better than to think too much on it. I’m just generally having trouble in believing anything that my family says. Or, for that matter trusting my sister. She’s decided that now, after years of calling me a liar, that I’m telling the truth. Not really in the mood to listen. And my family all seems to think that I’m just complaining. No. I think that I’ve done a good job about not complaining, considering everything they’ve put me through over the years. In fact, by patience standard, sometimes I think I deserve a medal. (I kid here) So it’s been a rough few weeks. I’ve got 4 history classes finally sorted out, so I’m catching up in one of them, since I started in week 3. I’ll be good by the end of this week. That means I’ll be all up to speed and can start researching my Hausarbeit themes for 2 uni courses, while writing the Hausarbeit for a program course. Should be a busy time until end of July when I go home.

However, in awesome news – I am moving into a campus apartment. So I get privacy and freedom. I’m looking forward to having my own space all to myself. It’s a 1-bedroom suite, so I don’t even have roommates to worry about, which is the best part. So I’m planning on how to set up a simple little altar with simple things that are in no way objectionable to university policies. This makes for more fun in my life, and it makes me a happier person. So at least there’s some good news in my fun times lately.

No Guilt

Though I probably should feel some. I just don’t. Not sure if I’m okay with that or not. I’m leaning towards being okay with not having any guilt, though.

Ah, and just a note – this is a massive rant. This is the first time in years I’ve been able to just say this all, well write it out in this case, but still. So it’s a lot. I’m more posting this because it’s cathartic and it’s actually released a huge amount of stress and I’m feeling far happier than I have in years. I feel like I’ve actually got the energy and spirit to do research now, to keep learning, even if I don’t always have the most time to do so. I don’t expect anyone to actually read this. In fact, I rather suspect that even if most people start reading, they’ll quit fairly quickly. I’m fine with that, because this is absolutely personal, and I’m sure that it’s not really relatable to probably 95%+ of the population out there. In any case – I feel better and writing this helped. So, if you really want, do read. If not, then feel free to skip. It isn’t much about my practice at all. This is purely daily life.

Heritage

So, as promised: the reasoning behind my odd mix of interests, and my blog’s name as well I think.

My family is predominantly eastern/central European in heritage. Russian, Polish, Czech, and German. Now, I count the German in this and not ‘western’ Europe because from all the family stories, and from what I know of my family history, it’s likely that my family from the German side were living in the very farthest east regions, well before it was “Germany”, supposedly late 1800s from Germany to the States (that’s a rumor and so a bit unprovable). I’m sure that probably additional research would show someone along the line in the German part of my family’s history that lived in the more western reaches of what we call Germany now, but most came from farther east. Actually, my family name is Czech, so that’s a dead giveaway there. The other part of the heritage is Celtic. Irish/Scottish and Welsh/English. Pretty much I know, according to a cousin’s research which Scottish clan my family descends from, that my family left Ireland before my great-great-grandparents’ time, and that my grandma was 1/2 Welsh, but supposedly one of her parents had a hint of English blood.

Now, to be fair – since no one past my grandparents is alive anymore (minus one great-grandma, but she married into the family, so she doesn’t know my blood heritage for one half of the family…paired with an adoption around 1900 without paperwork as was common at the time – and then you’ve got information that no one can completely sort out) I can’t prove a lot of tiny details. I do know though what I am. No one really kept records, beyond oral tradition type stuff, so if a story didn’t get told, it’s likely I’ll probably never be able to learn it. I do know that my genealogy is right though, so the countries are all in order.

So, splitting these into the particular mythologies that fit: Slavic, Celtic & Anglo-Saxon, Germanic. Celtic was easy to link into, because my family is very Irish about things, not to mention that it was easy to find books about the Celts in what is now Great Britain. Germanic I don’t relate a lot to, but I am trying to learn more, since it is a small part of my heritage. Anglo-Saxon mythology – well the interest in that started with Beowulf. I’ve wanted to learn the language for years, so that always peaked my interest in that culture (Tolkien using them as the basis for the Rohirrim in LOTR didn’t hurt either, they’re my favorites). Then there’s the Slavic. I’ve always been fascinated with Slavic mythology, creatures, legends…pretty much anything about the people fascinates me. I want to learn several of the languages as well, once I can actually devote the time therein. However, it’s really difficult to find anything at all on this mythology, since it isn’t as popular as say Celtic, Germanic, Norse mythologies, Greek or Roman, even religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism/Daoism get more notice in the States. Nothing is wrong with any of this, but it was frustrating to younger me, who wanted to learn more from reliable sources. I have a newer recommendation of a book to get, so that’s a start.

Basically then – I have 3 main interests in my paganism studies: Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Slavic. They draw me the most and fascinate me more than most others. I still surf into random other points of interest, but these three cultures call to me the deepest and I seem to have a greater connection with them than with others.

As for the blog name: “Celtic Witch’s Journey”. Bit of a misnomer, once I’m clear that I’m more central/eastern European than I am of Celtic descent. So, I’m 3/8ths “Celtic/Anglo-Saxon” by heritage and 5/8ths “Slavic/(one small part)Germanic”. And really, by looks and temperament I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I’m far more central/eastern European in nature than I am Celtic, but that’s just one part of it. I chose the blog name because my basis right now is in Celtic mythology. I know most about it and I’m most familiar and comfortable with it. I’m branching out to learn more about the rest of my heritage from that place where I’m most comfortable and knowledgeable. So for all intents and purposes, at the moment I am a “Celtic Witch”, on my own journey to learn about the rest of my heritage.

So, perhaps a bit convoluted as to how I chose my blog name, but there you have it. My heritage-based reasons for research in a very small nutshell.