Wish pods are specially gathered water caltrops, often called water chestnuts. In order to be wish pods, they must be found floating in the water, not washed ashore. Also when gathering wish pods, one pod must be returned to a body of fresh water different from the one the pods were gathered from, with the blessing "Good Journey."

Once properly gathered, wish pods are generally painted. Although this is not necessary for wishes, painting helps harmonize the luck of the pod. Wish pods always bring good luck, but bring the best luck if received as a gift.

To use the wish pod, place it in the room you spend the most time in. When you place your wish pod in the room, state your wish under your breath three times. No one else should hear your wish. Remember: the bigger the wish, the longer it will take to be fulfilled.

Placement in the room is important. Place the wish pod in the area of the room that most corresponds to your wish:

North — if you wish for money or material items. East —- if you wish to better understand something or someone, or are wishing for knowledge or enlightenment. South — if you wish for change. West — if you wish for love or a closer relationship with loved ones. Center — if you wish for balance, harmony or peace.

I want to start painting and giving away wish pods again. I've given a few away recently, but that has been the more the exception than the rule. In order to start giving them away more regularly, I need to build up a supply again, as most of the one's I painted were given away long ago.

I took my walk rather later today. Missed neitherday and was firmly in morning. But, I did notice several pennies embedded in the rubbery crack sealant. I wonder just how many coins are in the streets of Arlington. My theory is that there are too many to have fallen there during or shortly after construction, and that cars running over coins embed them into the street long after construction. To test this, outside my house I have placed a penny. Assuming no one is insane enough to stop in the street to get it, I'll have my experiment. If, over the course of days or weeks, the coin becomes embedded, I'll know that coins can be embedded at anytime into the street. If it stays on the street and doesn't even make a dent, I'll know that they must be embedded during or shortly after construction or take an exorbitant amount of time to be embedded.

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After placing my penny, I leaned against the side of the porch and looked out at it and smiled. After I stopped leaning, I discovered that the porch had been recently painted, and there was white paint all over the sleeve of my lovely black dress. I went in and cleaned it as fast as I could, and got all but a small white line off. Nothing I can't fix with a black marker.

pillowkisser and I dropped off some paperwork with Jude. It looks like we will probably get the place in East Arlington. It could still fall through, but we are scheduled to sign the lease tomorrow afternoon. Jude is asking for some sort of previously unmentioned finders fee. We're going to have to negotiate that tomorrow as well.

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After dropping off the paperwork, pillowkisser and I went to the Great Meadow. Many of the leaves have started to change. I love the wonderful autumn views of the meadowlands from the Upland Road. The acres of swampgrass and distant hillsides with puffy trees, now spotted with dabs of paint. Breathtaking. Breathtaking.

I need to spend a lot more time in the Great Meadow in the near future. It's not going to be as convenient if we move to East Arlington. I'm really going to miss having it close by. I will still make treks up here to see it, of course. Of course.

My plans got canceled at the last minute last night. purpleglitter was more than happy to come over and hang out with me, and I was more than happy to see her. merryperseis joined us in the playroom where we drank dragonberry wings and played fun writing games.

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Around noon today, merryperseis and I went to the Great Meadow. I'm always amazed at how much the great meadow changes over the seasons: barren in the winter, flooded and mazelike in the spring, lush and overgrown in the summer, and a colorful patchwork in the autumn. The Great Meadow is still very much in summer mode, but will be quickly moving into the painted glory of autumn.

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I was planning to go straight to darkroomman's gathering after the journey thought the Great Meadow, but I missaved the directions to his house. Unfortunately, included in the directions was his phone number. I IMed him, but it was over an hour before he was able to respond. By the time were finally able to leave the house, purpleglitter and I were only able to spend an hour at the gathering.

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I wasn't doing well mentally at all by the time we got back to the house_of_clocks, and since we were running late anyway, purpleglitter and I decided to forgo Glitter Switch. We will try to go next month, providing I'm still living in the Boston area.

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I discovered that I've gotten many voice mail messages that I didn't' know about over the past few days. I've been checking the messages regularly, but somehow didn't hear them. I'm very confused and disorientated about the whole thing. There was a message from the Trauma Center recommending a day program that I could get into. A message from Sara, who I'm very glad to hear isn't mad at me. Several messages from Jude, who I'd thought never called me back. Even more worrisome about the messages from Jude, is that I was home at the times he called.

I must be more switchy than I thought. I'm very worried that this whole phone/message thing is a sign that the floaters are coming out more often. I'm not surprised, as the Central Group has been very unstable recently, and when the Central Group is unstable the floaters have a much easier time taking front.

Starflower took front for quite a while this morning. Madeleine, who doesn't generally like to be picked up, let Starflower carry her to the window, then rubbed her head gently against Starflower. Madeleine really really liked the energy coming from Starflower.

After playing with Madeleine, Starflower did art. She didn't seem to like the paints, and instead preferred the metallic colour pencils cobweb got us. I really like her picture. It's so happy. Starflower seems so happy and innocent. I really love her. She's so incredibly special and precious.

I want to get Starflower to start using the computer. 36 just made a new list just for alters like her. I think she'd have fun meeting others her own age. But, she's never used the computer before. I'm thinking of trying to get her into neopets in order to coax her into trying out the computer.

grrldan came over today. He lives down the street, so it was a very short trip. I made him my curried tomatoe mozzarella alphabet soup

After soup, went to the Prickly Pond. Today was just to unbelievably beautiful to stay inside.

When we got to the Prickly Pond, I noticed there were no marigold blooming over Nu-Nu's grave. It made me sad. I will have to go plant some later this week.

There, however, were thousands of water caltrops washed onto the shore. I saw none in the water, which is unfortunate, as they are only truly wish pods when found in floating in the water. Apparently they were stranded on shore as the water level slowly dropped. The water was lower than I've ever seen it. grrldan had never seen water caltrops in there natural, unpainted state, so he took one home.

We swang on the swings nearby the Prickly Pond. That was fun. The Prickly Pond was very beautiful today.

Some day in the near future, I would very much like to show him the Great Meadow. I think he would very much like it there.

A couple hours ago we weren't doing very well. Very switchy. Cyndi almost cut, but instead we ended up laying on the floor for a bit. It probably made for quite a scene, as we were laying in the middle of the words "IN YOUR HEAD" that we had spray painted onto the floor in February.

Doing much better now. Spent some time with Lake. Now drinking really green lemon lime soda. Going to take my meds and go to bed.

I'm moving along today. I washed the basket of wish pods Lake and a former roommate harvested for me quite some time ago, set them up to dry, and just finished painting a bunch of wish pods I'd already cleaned. Soon I'll have to go back out to pick up material for the dragonfly wings. I meant to get it when I went to Walgreens for my Spironolactone, but I forgot. All this walking around is good for me, anyway.

The smell in the room from painting is a bit overwhelming, so I'm going to go spend some time in the livingroom.