I find myself wondering about inflatable boats, it might seem a bit strange. I think the thought process came about because we were at a pool party yesterday and they had lots of inflatable devices in the pool for the children to play in.

It’s very relaxing lying on something like that and floating with the bobbing of the waves. I think it might be a good visualization for some people during hypnosis. Floating and bobbing, breathing in and breathing out, letting go of the tension. It wouldn’t work if people were afraid of the water, but for people like me it might be a good one.

With others I’ve used just experiencing a warming sensation, or imagining being massaged with lotion, or walking through a beautiful garden or along the beach. It’s all in what the client finds relaxing, and that’s what the pre-interview is for.

To all the US mothers out there, and the others that celebrate today, I know in the UK where I was born it was Mothering Sunday a few months ago.

Right now I’m watching “The Golden Compass” with closed captioning on because my own offspring is being very loud. I’m being taken out to see “Iron Man” courtesy of my husband and my own mother who is babysitting.

It’s a nice relaxing day, which is good, we had a similar relaxing time yesterday because we went to a pool party and hung out with some friends and had some fun. It’s nice to have a few days to relax, especially after the stress of my husband coming through surgery.

I hope everyone else is having a nice day. Remember to honor those who have given you life, or those who have raised you, and hold you in their heart.

My laptop has taken a dive again. I wish it was something simple like computer memory being the issue, but it’s not. I’ve replaced the power supply, or at least have an order in for one, but it seems like the monitors not working either. It’s very frustrating.

I’m locked out of quite a bit of work, and all the email I received in the past two months as well as the article for the Tarot World Magazine and a couple of stories as well. It’s very frustrating. I’ve put a new screen, and a new keyboard in already in the past two months, and replaced a battery. Now I’m going to have to replace the battery again, no doubt, because the power cord will probably have killed it, and then I might have to replace the screen again…but it’s very frustrating, I’m wondering what’s going to go next.

It might be better for me to buy another laptop for cheap, and refurbish it and start over from scratch at this point. If I keep having to replace parts on this one I may as well.

I do have the desktop PC that I can use in a pinch, as I am now, but I like the laptop because I can take it outside and do work on the patio while the munchkin builds sandcastles and I can take it in the bedroom if I’m feeling ill and things like that.

I keep getting calls from companies which are offering me excess advertising pens from their inventory. They tell me this is a great deal, but I’m always worried that given they’re just randomly calling me from the phone book that this is some kind of scam.

If I was going to shell out for pens I’d do research first, and I’d contact the company. I’m just not going to trust some one that’s randomly calling around going, “Here have these pens,” I’m imagining pens that don’t actually work, or that are extremely ugly if they’re this bulk stock that they just have lying around. Why would someone cancel on them at the last minute if their pens are that great. That sort of thing.

This is something that ticks me off because police charities are near and dear to my heart, given my husband works for the police, and often donates time to their endeavors.

I’ve had several phone calls in the past week from someone claiming to be from the Police Athletic League. Normally I joke around a bit with these callers saying that I’m not going to donate until policemen’s wages are raised, or that giving my husband is all the charity I can afford at the moment, and they’ll understand and stop calling, but PAL weren’t, or so I thought.

But it turns out with a bit of digging that this was not actually the real Jacksonville Police Athletic League but an extortionist of some sort. They’re using a number which just pops up saying “St. Johns FL” on my caller ID which may mean they’re actually using a cell phone. 904-547-0514 is the number which shows up when they call me.

Today I asked them if there was anyway I could be taken off the list because with my husband being a police officer, they should realize that we’re too broke to donate, I was told, “Oh, well, my wife’s a teacher, so you should know how broke I am too,” I said, “Touche, but seriously, how can I get off your list so you’ll stop calling me because this is getting ridiculous,” “Send $25 and we’ll stop calling you.” Well, that got my back up, understandably so, I would think. After I hung up on them I realized that was a kin to blackmail or extortion and wondered how many other people they’ve gotten to donate that way, that’s just shoddy business practice and despite his insistence that the PAL was a legitimate organization I figured I would do some digging.

First I tried calling back the number to speak with a manager, but all I was getting was the busy signal. Googling the phone number itself gave me several listings like the one I’ve linked above saying that the number was people saying it was PAL or saying they were other things, but often times when people called back they got a recording saying the number was disconnected.

I wasn’t about to wake my husband up with this so I instead googled the Police Athletic League to check if it was a legitimate place and found the Jacksonville PAL’s main office and called them. I spoke to a lady called Vicky who works there was mortified that someone would be calling me in such a manner. She said that whenever PAL calls someone it’s going to show up “Police Athletic League” or PAL or something like it which makes it clear, and they would never tell someone such a thing. She suggested if I get another call that I tell the person I’m recording the call and will be passing it on to the proper authorities.

I’ll have to check with my husband what the legalities on that are but you can bet I’m going to be a bit more harsh with them from now on because that’s ridiculous. It’s one thing if he was from the charity and just needed to be educated on call etiquette, but to be masquerading…that’s a whole other level of illegal.

I’ve been looking into ways that I might be able to do promotions around some of the local businesses, but with a business like mine it’s not like I can just drop off a gift basket which makes things difficult.

Working with the local bead shop might not be too hard. I can make some items with their beads and see if they’ll show them, things like that. I might be able to organize tarot night with a few places, but others…not so much. I can send out promotional flyers, but that’s an expense I really don’t have.

The yellow pages seemed like a decent option but with the move and the phone company screwing up my phone transfer I haven’t gotten any hits from the phone book in some time, other than people trying to sell me things or looking for astrologers, or bath supplies (don’t ask).

I think I might benefit from asking some of the small business owners for tips themselves, not only might it be good to help me, but perhaps I can compile some tips into my next article for Tarot World Magazine.

I’d appreciate it if people who leave comments would leave a valid email address, especially if they’re trying to contradict or refute something I have written. It’s not for any reason other than I like to discuss things and would love to hear a differing point of view.

Recently someone left a comment on one of my Ask Catriona posts. A post where I talk about people not being able to be hypnotized without giving their consent. The person said.

Lol actually people can be hypnotized without consent. I’ve seen it and it happens everyday.

I wrote them back and said.

Really? People can be?
I’d love to hear/see some examples, generally if someone’s being hypnotized, in my experience, they’re aware of what’s going on. I know from being hypnotized myself that I’m aware the entire time and I give consent in some way or another and I’m always, always aware of what’s going on, so if I didn’t want to be hypnotized I could just shrug it off and not be hypnotized, and I have before.
I’ve seen people get up and walk out of group hypnosis sessions because they didn’t like where it was going, and our teacher did group work with the whole class and there were people who didn’t go under.

So, please, enlighten me as to your reasoning.

But the email bounced back saying their email address was invalid. That frustrates me because I’m interested to hear how and why that reasoning is in their mind. Other than just “because I said so,”

Seriously I would love to see some cited examples. I’m going through my notes right now looking things up from my hypnotherapy instructor to give actual legitimate citations, because it’s my understanding and my experience that if you don’t want to be hypnotized you aren’t. I know movies are full of it, so I don’t want movie citations. “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Stir of Echoes” are not valid reference points, because that’s cinema, theater and things are completely exaggerated for the plot.

I’m at the point where I feel as though I’m going to always have spots on my face. It seems like no matter what I do they keep coming back. I can scrub, not scrub, use creams, use fruit, use just about anything and I always have spots.

I’m never going to cut chocolate completely out of my diet, so I figure I’m just doomed to have zits. I’m not one to wear make-up it’s too much hassle, so you see me you’re going to see some spots. I pick at them. I know I’m not supposed to. I try not to but some times I just have to. They sit there on my face taunting me. If you just pop me I’ll be gone! Some times it works some times it doesn’t, as with anything that’s a force of nature some times you’re just doomed. I can’t stop the need for using the bathroom, and I can’t stop zits.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this new natural acne treatment and it’s tempting, but I feel like with anything else my zits may well just be too stubborn like me to respond to it. We got our tax return in though so maybe I’ll give it a go.

One of the issues that I can see with psychics is the fact that what you see is extremely open to interpretation. I know movies and films and television shows make it look as though you’re transported right into the vision and see everything as clear as I see my computer screen right now, but it’s more like being short-sighted or long-sighted and looking around without glasses.

Every once in a while I’m graced with a dream that is fairly clear but even with that it’s not so straight forward. I once dreamed that I was at my college graduation. My grandparents were there and as I walked down from the stage my grandfather walked up to me waved, shook his head sadly and disappeared while my parents and my grandmother looked on.

Two weeks later my grandfather died. So, he was not at my graduation. My grandmother though still alive also didn’t attend my graduation, so that part of the dream could be viewed as incorrect, but given my grandfather didn’t fade out of existence I must view the dream as symbolic. He was leaving the family and the rest of us would remain.

Another time a friend had lost a ring and asked me to see if I could tune into where it was. I told her I felt that it was at the edge of her carpet in her bedroom. She snorted at me because she didn’t have any carpet in her room so I was therefore wrong. Two days later she found the ring wrapped up in the fringe on the edge of her rug, what I’d seen as carpet was a rug, so I was somewhat right, but not really, because I had never seen her room so didn’t know.

In short, like anything else you have to hone your skills. You have to learn to understand the imagery that your brain uses, and how it applies, and you have to get used to the fact that things are going to be hazy, and sometimes just downright weird.

Before I found out I was pregnant I had a dream that my husband was talking to a little girl in his parent’s kitchen. He was joking around with her because she was opening and closing the fridge door constantly and shouldn’t be doing that. He told her, “If I can lift your mother, I can sure as Hell lift you and stop you from doing that,” and then she giggled and he ran off chasing her. When I found out I was pregnant several friends guessed that I would be having a girl because of that dream, but our son was born in April 2006. Who the random girl was in my dream I have no idea. My husband and I have no plans to have any more children. Perhaps it was just a dream. We may never know.

There are both pros and cons to being a small business, on the one hand I’m probably never going to be big enough to need business performance management software, or a huge phone system with extensions, or warehouses, staff, have to deal with insurance and things like that, but on the other hand I’m so small that it’s hard to get customers except for the loyal ones that I have who keep coming back and back and things like that, but again that’s both good and bad, it means that if I have things to do like I do over the next few days I can just not work.
I like that.
Although I do wish that I made enough money that I could afford an accountant some times. Taxes and things like that are a major headache.