Deborah Lipp

Last night I dreamt that I was at Starwood and forgot to pack my tent. Variations on this theme are recurrent for me.

In the dream, I was talking to my friend Charlie when I realized I didn’t have my tent. Then I said, “Wait a minute, wait…” and he asked what was up and I explained that this was a recurrent dream for me, and I couldn’t figure out if this was real or not. He said he understood. I said it sure felt real, and I knew Starwood was close and I was thinking about it a lot, so that could mean it was a dream, or that could mean it was real. (In my dream logic, the fact that I knew in waking life that the event was about to happen somehow proved that it had happened.)

Since I was unable to figure out if it was a dream or not, I decided the safest course of action was to proceed as if it was real.

My brain scares me.

I cut someone off before.

Totally my fault. I was in the strip mall entrance lane going straight across into the lot for Kohl’s. And this woman in a Volvo was coming towards me at right angles. She was just about to reach the exit lane. And even though she didn’t have her signal on, I totally anticipated that she was making a right, so I continued across, cutting her off, and she honked with a complete “I’m honking at you, bitch” honk.

So in addition to blaming myself, I blame all of you who don’t use your signals, thereby confusing me about whether a person driving straight and not signalling a turn actually intends to drive straight and not turn.

Deal with it.

Here I am with my wonderful translator Lulu (right) and Raoul (left). I love these people, but Raoul wouldn’t fit in my luggage!

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My most popular lecture was on Gardnerian Wicca. Because there had been some controversy in Brazil’s Wiccan community on that very subject, people were eager to hear what I had to say. The organizers put me in the big main room for that one, and I’m sure I had over a hundred attendees.

In that big room, we used a microphone, and since we had only one, we handed it back and forth. Which was a pain in the ass. (Next year, Claudiney, two mikes!)

Not surprisingly, we spent some time discussing the issue of fraudulent claims. I talked about how Gardnerians network and know one another and how rare it is for someone no one knows to be a true Gardnerian. Nonetheless, people try to establish claims based on unknown or unavailable connections. ‘For example,’ I said, ‘Within a month of Doreen Valiente’s death, there were at least 4 or 5 people who emerged from nowhere to claim initiation by her.’

I handed the mike to Lulu, who translated and handed it back.

At this point, I was about to say “What a surprise” when I realized I knew that phrase in Portuguese.

“Que supresa” I said dryly.

I got the biggest laugh of the day and a huge round of applause.