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  • Silvertree

    Mod post: No wishlist posts in blogs

    By Silvertree

    Please be aware that we do not permit swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. ~from Swapping 101  Thanks!
    • 5 comments
    • 5,732 views
 

like i really need another blog!

current pending orders/items: 2006-07-10: (from the lab) • 5ml harvest moon 2006 • 5ml bewitched • imp pack of: akuma, blood, kabuki, madrid, swank + obatala (for the mum)   2006-07-22: (from astrid) • 5ml hungry ghost moon i am a wee bit nervous about the lust i'm feeling for oils right now. i cannot justify getting more when i have two body shop oils i never use in my medicine cabinet. i feel the need to be rid of them since i don't use them but who and how? i'm petrified of swapping and suches b/c, well ... my mind thinks, "who the heck would want those? this is bpal we're talking here!" plus i've got like two bottles of samhain 2005. true - i LOVE the scent. it's something much like i've always dreamed of, but my god! i just NOW got a tiny fraction below the label on the first bottle! the second will probably rot to the smell of death before i finish the first. should i sell the second? why keep it? and all the 8 or so imps i have. there's some i don't like to much. why keep them? b/c they're not nearly full enough to draw interest? i'm so damn ridiculous! why must i be so practical? why can i not just give in and allow myself pleasure in one of the few things in life i draw it from?   i also cannot justify the price of the oils right now as i've got the monster electricity bill coming up (w/ deposit) plus my auto insurance. basically half a month's pay sucked out of the account right there!   oh but i want more. more more more. at least two chaos theory bottles b/c i'm feeling risky (at least today) and all this talk of a big update. then again ... i've sat through big updates before and thought "eh. nothing sounds good." i'm hard to entice. sometimes.   why why why?     on a retarded note ... i'm going to start putting all the oils in splashshopper on the pda so i can track what i like, what i want and what i have on order while i'm away from my computer. lame!     and on a random note ... i need some final fantasy gaming fantasy to escape into for the day. too bad i no longer have such access to things.

space girl lost

space girl lost

 

Insomnia sucks

For some reason, it never occurred to me that there'd be a lack of interest in my contest/sale. I mean, I didn't expect everyone to be scrambling to join in, but I think it's both fun and reasonably priced, particularly considering that there's a one in six chance that the winner'll be an imp of Underpants. With less guesses, I'll need to adjust it somehow, and it'll be more likely.   I'm just rambling to whine, folks. But please don't take this as me sulking (which, to me, implies anger, whereas 'whine' does not.) . I'm tired and PMS'ing. I think I may finally be able to sleep.

smallvoice

smallvoice

 

Legal!

I went and got my driver's license info updated yesterday. I realized that my signature looks awkward, even for being left handed and not so good with the neat handwriting in the first place. I need some serious practice.   It feels like a fake ID. (Especially since it's that paper stand-in you get before they send you the fancy plastic) Somebody called me Grace! I updated my social security card, too. Now I need to do billing records and bank account and library card and credit cards and school records... this is a really huge undertaking.   It will be my two year anniversary for having my driver's license on my birthday.   Tomorrow is my one-month wedding anniversary!   Awesome.

smallvoice

smallvoice

 

All in a muddle

i have too much BPAL. it's all aging and changing and i haven't even got used to how it used to smell when fresh! i'm currently putting it all into categories of things to wear when it's really hot, cold, snowy, overcast, when i'm happy, sad, nostalgic, horny etc etc!   so far as it is REALLY hot today i have a row of bottles by the computer: numb, aizen-myoo, neo-tokyo, spooky, the hamptons, swank, embalming fluid, kumiho, phantasm and the dormouse...... i know there are more in my stash but it's hard going sorting them all!

Nemesister

Nemesister

 

One of those times

the last 6 weeks have been awful. a complete rollercoaster of emotions and most of them not good. i can count the number of days i haven't felt stressed and upset on the fingers of one hand. today is one of them though! i really feel that it is getting sorted out finally. fingers crossed.....

Nemesister

Nemesister

 

Happy Friday?

So today was a nice friday because:   1. A coworker and I went to Target during our lunch break. Yaaay Target!   2. I kept getting compliments on my new t-shirt. It pays homage to my looove of horror movies.   3. The boy came over. He's been doing rounds/working at the hospital for all of the week. I haven't seen him in a week ::gasp::... I missed him!   4. Finding out that Nightmare Before Christmas will be re-released in theaters in 3D!   Not so great moments:   1. Watching Sleepaway Camp for the first time. It was cheesy-bad 80's stuff until the disturbing ending. Ew.   2. Me telling my mom that I'll be going to dinner and a movie with the boy tomorrow and her angrily saying "why do always go to dinner with just the two of you? We [my parents] should be going with you! " Dude, it's a date. With two people. You are not included because 90% of the time we hang around at home watching movies in your house with you around 'cause you're crazy-strict even though I'm 23 and you won't let me go anywhere. Argh argh argh. Sometimes, you just wanna be alone with your significant other sans parents. Is that too much to ask? I love them, but the craziness must stop   Only 39 days till grad school/moving the #### out! Wheee!   My weekend so far looks like it will involve a journey to IKEA to buy/scope out furniture, dinner and Clerks II date, posting a roomate wanted ad, sleeping. Have a nice weekend, BPALers!

circe_blue

circe_blue

 

Mantra for the drama queens

One of the reasons that I love this forum is because (other than the amusing, funny, intelligent, kind and lovely smell-obsessed members,) it is very well moderated. I used to go onto another forum and spent most of my time there as a lurker, in large part because it wasn't really moderated and the "host" was a bright, well-versed, but utterly mercurical and sometimes Just Plain Nuts person. She'd caused a drama in another forum that resulted in an exodus to her current forum, which was set up specifically so she could host it and provide her expertise, which she does indeed have, in between psychotic episodes.   But predictably, she's had another melt-down in the last week and is turning against forum members and the business who's hosting the forum. A good friend who also used to participate told me about the drama, and it was indeed a fiasco, complete with conspiracy theories and accusations of slander. I looked at it for a while and jokingly suggested to my friend that one of us make a post to the forum that has now become a war zone with a suggestion for a mantra. My thanks go to darkitysnark for the inspiration behind the mantra:   "Ohm yamma ramma drama llama drama!"

valentina

valentina

 

Whoa, Nelly!

Finally getting around to trying Umbra.   Holy crap, it's ruthless and savage like Geek, only moreso. Despite the fact that it doesn't contain leather, which is usually what I require to give a scent a fully sexy rating, this is a scent that just lunges straight for the naughty bits and keeps on teasing.   Actually, no. It doesn't tease. It doesn't care whether I like it or not. It's just having its way with me.   Luckily, I appear to be enjoying it.   None of this is helped by the fact that I've been perving over dangerous older men for three days now. If getting an open-handed spanking from Jason Isaacs had a soundtrack, this smell would somehow be on it.

Naamah_Darling

Naamah_Darling

 

the salon

Oh holy hell. I think the salon may be the actual death of me. So far i have tried three scents from it, and they may be the most gorgeous, unique, complex, and intriguing scents i've tried so far. They're definitely way, way up there, if not the top.   I ordered a bottle of two monsters unsniffed (a first for me!), and i love it. I have one small hangup about it - the champaca flower. This is silly i know, but i have this fear that i will smell like That One Incense to people, which bothers me. See, i used to wear lush's karma fragrance for years and years, and often times when someone would comment on the scent it would be "ARE YOU WEARING PATCHOULI?! we didn't know you were a hippie maureen," and i'd be like uhhh, pipe down there, i'm wearing a gorgeous scent that contains some patchouli, but no, i'm not just wearing patchouli. I'm always amazed at how some people only smell that one thing, which i know isn't there fault i guess, we all smell things differently. Anyway, ramble ramble...my original point is that i don't want to just smell like i bathed myself in a room of incense, or have it be interpreted as such. Incense is great and all, but i associate smelling like nag champa with the dirty and filthy rich but pretending to be poor college stoner hippies. All this to say, i love two monsters and i will probably keep wearing it and just wonder quietly if anyone thinks i smell like i scent myself by laying in my room burning nag champa all day.   I'm not up to actual reviews of them, but resurrection of the flesh...hoo boy, depending on the total drydown, i may love this. Satan and death blows me away and makes my head spin when wet and in the initial drydown, but i need a few wears of it to see how i feel about its eventual complete drydown.   I am so frigging excited about the rest of The Salon scents.

this machine

this machine

 

Quick hits!

--I know I’m evil, but I laughed out loud at the title of a thread in Get Personal, “Anyone ADD?” by “capricious.” I don’t know this forum member (who hasn’t logged on since March) and it’s nothing personal, but how funny is that? A word that means “impulsive or unpredictable” is starting a thread about Attention Deficit. Hee! I haven’t read it, but I want to hop into the thread and say, “oh yes, me too, I will be doing something and – ooh! Shiny! That reminds me, I need tinfoil from the store. What were we talking about again?” I’m going to hell.   --I’m not an Oprah fan, but now that my work schedule includes working from home, and afternoons are quieter than the mornings, I’ll have it on in the background sometimes. She had a great series last week called the Debt Diet which revealed what I have long suspected: many people are living way beyond their means and using credit to inflate their earnings. They followed 3 families, one of which seemed nice enough (2 schoolteachers), but the other 2 families were flat-out clueless. Seriously, one family ate out for every meal, they never cooked, they didn’t own a toaster or coffeemaker or dishes and ate everything off plastic plates and cups. They had 5 cars for 2 people!   So a big part of the series was not just saying “stop spending money” but asking why. At one point one of the women was saying how she didn’t even think about spending money, she just shopped. She didn’t know how much they owed for the second mortgage or credit cards, she just kept it out of her mind. When she was asked, “Why are you absent from your own life?” it was a lightbulb moment. “Oh, so this is my life? It’s not at the mall? It’s not in InStyle or Lucky? It’s not getting the jeans that Jessica’s wearing, or getting my glowing orange MysticTan?”   Celebrity culture is nothing new – I have a Photoplay from 1926, and in between movie reviews are “the latest fashions from Paris” so you could presumably throw out all your old clothes and run out to buy the new ones. But it’s so pervasive now. How do we know where Britney is shopping for baby clothes? Because the store manager is calling every news outlet to report it. Why should we buy the new $500 Louis Vuitton bag? Because they sent a free one to Lindsay Lohan to be photographed as she’s buying coffee.   So be like Chuck D and don’t believe the hype! Yeah boyeeee!

dawndie

dawndie

 

Can you see the real me?

Sometimes - ok a lot of the time - I wonder exactly what people think of me. If I don't know someone I tend to be very quiet and reserved. I don't speak up, don't really offer my opinions, don't expand on my thoughts or comments. Flying under the radar, being invisible, that's my usual MO. I think this is what an old friend meant when they told me I was very un-Leo-like. Inside, however, I am quite the Leo. I want attention. I want people to laugh at my jokes. I want to be engaging. I take pride in my appearance. The inner Leo always fights with my low self confidence but usually loses. Most of the time just can't shake that ugly, unpopular, wallflower kid feeling from middle school. I feel that anyone I meet immediately sees that I don't measure up and that I am not worth consderation. It's not as though people come up to me on the sidewalk and ask just what business I have going out in public but sometimes it feels that way. My husband tells me that he wishes I could see myself through his eyes. I wish I could too.   There are days when I do open up. Then I talk and laugh and joke. In the moment everything feels fine but afterwards doubt creeps in. Did I talk too much? Was the person just humoring me? Do they think I'm just nuts? I have a caustic sense of humor and a keen sense of observation - does that make me appear harsh or critical? I think I notice these things more the older I get. Possibly because it's so hard to meet people when you don't have a ready made community like high school or college.   I'm not even sure where this post is going...just some random thoughts going through my head at the moment. I'm resisting the urge to delete it though.

miss apple

miss apple

 

Bad Days and Disney World

When Todd gave me the choice of Vegas or Disney World, the choice was easy. Disney!   I really wanted to go back to Disney World as an adult. I'd been there twice before - once when I was 7, and once when I was 16.   But Todd's been there 4 times (the last time he was about 17), so he always said he didn't want to go back there.   Todd pretty much made my birthday this past year into Todd's Day (he bought a truck for himself, and got a dog I didn't even want on the day we were suppose to celebrate my birthday - he was suppose to plan something special for us to do, and obviously didn't), so I think he wants to make it up to me... so that means I get my trip to Disney World!   We are also going to do something he likes - his favorite wrestling company, TNA, tapes their weekly show at Universal Studios in Florida, so we will be getting tickets to go see that. Plus we plan on spending a day at Universal anyway, since I've never been.   All in all, I'm really excited. It's going to be a wonderful mini-honeymoon.   Unfortunely, my mind always goes to my headaches when I think about doing fun stuff. I will have to make sure I have plenty of time to rest, so I don't get worn out and hurting.   I have good days and bad days when it comes to my headaches. Today is a bad day, because the pain is hard to ignore. It's a cold pack day, and I worry that I don't have enough to get me through the whole day.   Plus, Todd's still sick, so I'll have to go home and do housework, instead of resting myself

Eoywin

Eoywin

 

I'm a scaredy-cat

There are worse things to be. But I am. (Think the Cowardly Lion from Oz... only more dignified. Sometimes)   Y'know, for all that I've expressed a desire to pursue my interest in art, I'm really dragging my feet with the follow-through. I realized that I don't want to take Japanese this year, which leaves me another class, which I usually love. This time, not so much. Here's the thing. There's a design class open in my time slot. It's perfect. It's the one to take before you take, like, drawing and painting and whatnot.   I had such a horrible time with art the first time around that I sort of feel defensive about taking a class. That's an understatement. I'm afraid that someone else will tell me I'm no good. I've never been good with art.   I learned a lot from Bloody Mary. She was engaging with the topics, and I adored the people in the class. (I think it reminded me a little of high school, only now I'm not afraid. Well, I'm still afraid, but in comparison... yeah. You don't even know. But anyway, the class was fun.) When it came to her projects, though... She was a right bitch. Her syllabus stated that if we thought a grade was unfair, to go talk to her about it and see what could be done, but that was apparently code for "I don't have time for you, you talentless, tasteless, obnoxious creature."   She'd publically ridicule ideas from people. People like me, obviously. She has no way of knowing that speaking out in class at all; going up to her about things... they're huge deals for me. My social anxiety kept me housebound for months at a time. Starting college was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done. I don't expect her to be a mind-reader, but to say, "I suppose we can bump it up a little if you're going to slit your wrists over it..." complete with the eye-roll, I found inappropriate. "I can't grade on effort," she told me. "I have to grade based on end product. Do you think yours looks anything like the ones on display?" And, honey, if you don't grade on effort, I'm not going to give you any, because I'm not an artist. No, mine didn't look like the ones the art majors did. This is not a high level art class. It's intro to art. If she'd said flat out at the very start that she was looking for quality art, I would've dropped the class, because I've never had art instruction. But she said the opposite; "You don't need to be an artist to ace this class; we don't judge based on talent..." Royal we. Blech.   She also expected us to complete the projects without guidance regarding technique, might I add- We watched a video on Maria the amazing pot-maker (There is no sarcasm in this- this woman really is amazing, and world famous.), and that was ALL we got about pottery before we had to make our own. That was our last project, and anytime she'd walk by, I'd crumple my attempt up and start over, because she was laughing at people. Not in a kind way, either. She guised her jabs in humor a lot of the time, but we were all bloody by the end of that class. Hence "Bloody Mary."   So what did I learn from Bloody Mary? I learned to get angry. I learned to stand up for myself. I learned to hold my own and not back down. These may seem like silly little things, but they're important.   I wish she hadn't been so mean. I learned a lot about artists from her. If it hadn't been for the projects, I think I really would've liked her class a lot more. How's that for irony? Decent teacher (assuming she's not making fun of students), rotten art teacher. I'm still glad I took the class, despite how much I complain about it to this day.   But this makes me afraid to take more. I'm not good. Sometimes I see things and I copy them. But I don't know the first thing about actual technique.   I should take the design class. I probably won't. I'm a scaredy cat.

smallvoice

smallvoice

 

Name That Blend!

I have this tendency to layer my BPAL scents, and then name the blend, as in Smut-O-Rama. I also mixed Lovitar and Smut one night. I'm still surprised that I didn't explode -- that's mixing two incendiary substances! And it's a bit of a BDSM mix that wouldn't be for public consumption, and would naturally need to worn with leather underwear. It was dubbed Joe Perry Bait. (And of course, thanks again to the Diva of Icons, minilux, for providing me with the customized beauties!)   I really do try out these blends because I get curious, or more often than not, I want to juice things up a bit. Every time I get something a bit low-key, I decide to toss in some heat. (I'm a Leo.) So tonight, I decided to see what would happen if I put down a nice layer of Coyote and then dabbed a bit o' Smut on top. It's nice. I went out to get some iced tea and read at a coffee house, and the girls working there were leaning over the counter inhaling me, because they liked it that much. Of course, they now have the Lab's web site address and are officially enabled.   But that blend... do I call it Coyote Smut or Smut E. Coyote?

valentina

valentina

 

Back to your regularly scheduled shallowness

I think I got swap-lifted. I reported it, but I feel utterly deflated. That was my carefully negotiated (with the FormerFiance-PresentlyHusband) order of decants (Beltane (!), Enraged Bunny Musk (luckily I ordered one from crescentwench), and Monster Bait: Underpants (Not to sound greedy, but this one makes me particularly sad. I've got two decants, but I had a use in mind for all three of them, and I'm going to have to eliminate one, for the time being. Maybe two.)) and a bottle of Dragon Moon.   I don't want to think that someone took off with them. I'd prefer to think of them as outstanding swaps (as in, 'outstanding warrants'), until I know for sure. It's easy to get overwhelmed, which leads to embarrassed, which leads to running away. That doesn't make a person bad. Life can get hectic, and I'm the first one to admit that I've fallen behind in swaps before.   There's my pep-talk for the day.

smallvoice

smallvoice

 

I'm going to be an aunt! And it's so. bloody. hot.

I stink of: Tulzscha, and sweat...ick.   Well, maybe step-aunt is more accurate. I just got some wonderful news from my older half sister-she's pregnant! I'm so pleased for her, I always though she and her husband would make wonderful parents. The baby's due January. This is so exciting!   Anyway, it's the hottest day of the year-so hot that even my BPAL ultimate heat-beater, Tulzscha, isn't working. Maybe I should apply some Lick It, since that worked wonders in Crete. I love sunny hot weather, and it's the same temperature here as it was in Crete and I coped with it ok there, but for some reason, it's much more unbearable in London. Maybe because it's not coastal or dry heat, or simply because there are no decent pools in the vicinity to dip in-I'm craving a dip in an outdoor swimming pool right now, or a dip in the sea...   And I think I might be getting a job come August-I've had a lot more offers for some simple courier jobs, market research/telesales and even a job at Lush. I hope that I can get at least one of those jobs. Although maybe not when it's too hot, since the Tube is treacherous at this time of year...

PurringPulsar

PurringPulsar

 

Entire GC Swap Reviews - cordia Package #1

Cross-posted to the reviews forum.   cordia #1 package: Aizen-Myoo, Asphodel, Blood Countess, Follow Me Boy, Hunger, Seraphim, and Yggdrasil. I have all these imps, so I didn't have to use any of the oil from the swap package.   Aizen-Myoo - Yuzu, kaki, and mikan with cherry blossom and black tea. Aizen-Myoo smells like stank on me. It is one of my least favorite BPAL oils. And it's weird, because the Lab has frimped me with Aizen-Myoo at least four times. I feel like Aizen-Myoo keeps saying "Try me again. This time you'll like me. Go on, try." And I try it, and it's horrible. It smells like the very worst bitter citric acid smell you've ever smelled combined with weeds that sort of smell like tomato leaf but four times sharper. And the scent lingers around for hours making me regret ever putting the damn oil on my skin. I know there are people who really love Aizen-Myoo, and I'm honestly glad that someone likes it. But I don't. Yick.   Asphodel - The grey and ghostly flower that fills the fields of Hades. Light and floaty, but extraordinarily floral. Like I just stuck my nose in a flower. It's one of those heady floral scents that would be cloying if it were stronger. (Luckily it's not very strong.) I'm not a floral gal, so I can't say which flower this smells like because I'm not very familiar with floral notes. I can say that it smells kind of pale pink, rather than yellow or purple. I like this better than some of the other floral blends but not well enough to want to wear it.   Blood Countess - Corrupted black plum, smoky opium and crumbling dead roses covered by a deceptive veil of Hungarian lilac, white gardenia and wild berry. Blood Countess is one of the blends I knew for sure that I would like -- the plum, opium, lilac, and berry sounded wonderful! The only listed note I don't get along with is gardenia. (I wore a gardenia-scented oil in the 90s and got burned out on the scent.) And guess what Blood Countess smelled like on me? Yep, you guessed it. Gardenia. A fruity gardenia, but still gardenia. I tried it at least three times because I kept hoping that this time it'll be just plum and opium. You'd think I would have given up after three tries, but I refused to give up my imp hoping that one day my skin would play nice. And I am happy to announce that TODAY is that day! Today this is definitely a plum and lilac scent on my skin, and it's lovely! I'm thrilled that this finally worked on me. And now I know for sure that this particular oil is affected by my hormones. Now that I know when to wear it and when not to, it's officially a keeper!   Follow Me Boy - No notes listed. Hmmm. An odd scent. I'm not sure how to describe it. It starts out smelling kind of floral and herbal. Green, but not sharp. It's not unpleasant, but it doesn't seem particularly enticing to me. After a while it starts to smell a little milky and floral -- kind of like sour milk. Still an odd scent. I wouldn't wear this as perfume.   Hunger - Evokes sheer, unadulterated carnal lust. An undeniably warm and sensual scent. Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla. When it's wet, this oil smells dark and powerfully sexy. It's almost all black narcissus with something deep and smoky underneath that reminds me a little bit of vetiver. As it dries I can begin to smell the orange blossom. The vanilla makes it slightly creamy. The first time I tried this oil a few months ago I thought it smelled like a creamsicle. This time when I tried it, it was much darker. I like it this way better. Very nice blend. I think this imp might get upgraded to a bottle.   Seraphim - A perfume sacred to the highest of the angelic hosts: calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense. Woah. This scent goes straight through my head. It's white and sweet and so piercing it makes my teeth ache when I sniff my wrist. I'm not sure why this combination is so disagreeable to me -- the notes don't offend me individually. Frankincense often goes too sweet on me, but I can't really smell any frankincense in here. And oh great, I get the extra special bonus pounding headache from this one. Perhaps this blend is too angelic for me. 'Fraid this one's getting washed off.   Yggdrasil - The World Ash. Nine woods, nine leaves, and three herbs each for Ratatosk and Vidofnir, with three final herbs to placate Nidhogg. A very woodsy scent. Is there mint in this? Or menthol? It's odd, the first time I tried Yggdrasil a few months ago I thought it was a very dry, light, wood scent, and I kept the imp around because I thought I might want to try it again later. I had in mind that it was the sort of light comforting scent I'd want to wear at bedtime. I definitely don't remember anything like menthol in it -- that is not comforting to me at all. After the wet stage dies down, that minty scent fades away. What's left is wood and herbs. This is much more herby than I remember. Also it gets a little powdery when it's dry. It's not the comfort scent I thought it was. Hunh. Off to swaps, I guess.

filigree_shadow

filigree_shadow

 

Death and Suicide

I think I need to crawl into the land of the sims now.   I hate when people die. And I feel guilty if I haven't spoken to them in a while.   I've been thinking about my friend, Charlie. He died about two years ago. He's been on my mind all week. I cried so hard when I found out.   "I could never commit suicide," he once told me, when I was feeling particularly suicidal. "It goes against my religion. I don't want to go to hell."   I don't believe he's in hell.   I miss him a lot.     Love you, Charlie.   Love to you, Cove and Judy.

smallvoice

smallvoice

 

Presents

I feel slightly bad, and greedy... but I love presents!   I, of course, got a lot of neat things for my bridal shower this past weekend, but it sucks because I couldn't taken hardly anything back with me because I was flying and only had a large-ish duffel bag (I didn't want to mess with checking luggage in).   Luckily, my sister had the foresight to just mail my presents, and put pictures in the card she gave me. So I have a brand new spice rack (with spices in it!) and a 4 canister set (which I plan on putting flour and sugar in two of them).   Todd is home sick (he's got a nasty stomach bug), and emailed me that we had a package. I called him, and had him open it while I was on the phone (work is dull, I wanted a little excitement )   We are now the proud owners of a 6 mixing bowl set! It was sent by someone who couldn't make my shower.   I really hope people send us wedding presents in the mail, so we don't have to haul all the presents back from Michigan... and because I love packages with presents in them!  

Eoywin

Eoywin

 

One of my better ones

I came up with a descriptive line today that I felt was one of my better ones -- I was talking to a friend about how I'd been in an insanely bad mood a couple of weeks ago. In hindsight, I realize that it was because I was coming down with a bad summer cold, but at the time, all I knew was that I was not a happy camper. I characterized my mood in this manner:   "I wanted to shove kerosene-soaked tampons up everyone's butt and walk around with a flame-thrower."     Maybe TMI, or maybe a visual you'll enjoy. It probably depends upon your mood.

valentina

valentina

 

No regrets, Coyote

I am so much older than most people around here, so please excuse the ancient person song subreference, but there's a Joni Mitchell song called "Coyote" that starts out with Joni speaking, more than singing, the words "No regrets, Coyote..." THAT SONG HAS BECOME A BRAIN WORM! I got a bottle of Coyote in the mail yesterday, thanks to the lovely and generous GypsyRoseRed, who went to Will Call to make purchases for the non-L.A. dwellers. This no-coast girl owes her a serious debt of gratitude. Of course, I tried out Coyote right away, and after getting a sinking feeling because the grass-woods element of the scent bloomed so strongly at first, it mellowed into an outdoorsy amber-musk smell. And I can't stop "No regrets, Coyote...we just come from different sets of circumstances..." from playing in my head. That song, BTW, is from the album "Hejira."   And in a confluence of random mutant thoughts, darkitysnark's latest entry about the yin and yang of her personal style -- either femme or what I could call cute earth mother (because who can't look at the tree photo in her hair travelogue and not say "that's just cute!") -- reminds me of a line in "Song for Sharon," which is also on "Hejira." It's a song about about growing up as a romantic at heart, while still being a little wild and rough-and-tumble, and the line is "mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans."   Since I was a kid who used to ride my bicycle up and down gravel roads while wearing my mother's old dresses, with lipstick no doubt applied clownishly on my face, I do understand that song a lot. I never was a normal farmer's daughter -- and that was probably one part disposition and one part environment. My father's mother had to run the farm and raise 4 children because her husband was chronically ill and was unable to work for long periods of time. She looked 60 by the time she was 30, and my father wasn't going to make any daughter of his work that hard. There are snapshots of her where she literally looks like a man -- weather-beaten, stringy-skinny, in work clothing, not a smile to be seen.   My mother has since told me that my grandmother didn't even want to live on a farm that badly, much less run one -- but through a series of circumstances, my grandfather took over the farm instead of his two older brothers. I'm sure when my grandmother and grandfather married, she thought they'd eventually move to a town or a city. But instead, she accepted the hand that she was dealt and became not just a farmer's wife, but a farmer herself.   Damn, and I think I have things to bitch about. I get to bathe with Villainess soaps, anoint myself with BPAL, pay absurd amounts of money to get my hair done, make my skin soft with oils and lotions, run about to the gym and to yoga class, and generally be a bit of a vain diva who likes to throw in touches of androgyny in the midst of her girlyness.   My life is pretty good, and no regrets, Coyote!

valentina

valentina

 

Taliban opens office

This was in the news today. And while all of the ISAF, American and British forces are focused on the Southern Provinces like Helmand, Uruzgan, Zabul and Kandahar, the Taliban has gone and set up it own governmental office in the Southeastern province of Ghazni.   This is a big deal: mostly because Ghazni is not on the front lines. While there have been bombings and assasinations in Ghazni this year, there are no foreign military troops there to keep peace, but this is the new front. Especially when these Southeastern provinces are on no one's radar (no pun intended) and the Taliban can hang out a shingle without anyone stopping them. There are also reports that the Taliban have met with men over 60 in Ghazni center to ask them to become suicide bombers.   What's more, in talking with some of the Afghans I work with, apparently in Peshawar (in Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan), the Taliban is openly recruiting people with storefronts to travel to Afghanistan to carry out bombings, kidnappings, etc.   All of this really saddens me. When I came to Afghanistan in spring 2005, Ghazni was the first place outside of Kabul that I visited. It was gorgeous: the fruit trees were in bloom and the fields were bright green. The mud walls of the buildings and the remnants of the ancient empire that once ruled parts of India made it seem like I was in another time. It bothers me that the little girls I visited in their classroom might not be able to go to school much longer and the peaceful, sleepy town I visited might be irrevocably changed for the worse.

Confection

Confection

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