dawndie

I was out of town for a week so I couldn't hop on much. But it's the Lunacy and time for another order! White Moon doesn't sound like my cuppa joe, so I placed an order for the Trick or Treat Inquisition! I made a plea to be Tricked and I hope I get either one of those oils, they sound great, and the Treat oils sound a bit too sweet and foody. So we'll see! The good news was that we had a really fun road trip -- we went to Ohio to see friends and DH's family and drove back to Dallas over a couple of days. On the way back we stayed one night in Memphis, which was a blast! We've driven through the city but never stopped. Beale Street was like Vegas without the casinos -- a ton of bars and restaurants and stores bursting with Elvis stuff and a great voodoo store called Tater Red's Lucky Mojo. The bad news is I'll probably be out of a job in a month. No big drama, our product line was purchased by a competitor and everyone gets a nice severance payment. I'm a little down, though, because we had a great bunch of people and I really liked this job. But more good news! I'll probably head back to my old job at the law firm. Today I finally told my good friend who's still there, who said "YAAAAYYYYY!" when I said my job would be ending. Thanks for the support, dude! I liked my old job too and hope that I could come back, but it's still a bummer, you know?

I haven't *actually* checked openings at my old job, but I'm hoping if I call a couple of the attorneys I worked for, they'll want me back I have nothing against my old job, they treated the peons (i.e. the non-attorneys) really great and I would be happy to return. I never participated in an Inquisition, so this is exciting! It seems very popular, and can't wait to see what I get.

Yay! Darkity's back! Good pictures too.

In bottle: fruit and nothing else. I like fruity scents well enough, but I don't want to smell like a giant melon or something On skin: lots of green juicy fruit. No nuances for me, but it hasn't gone too soapy or cologney so I'm happy. Half-hour later: it was driving me crazy with what this reminded me of; finally after rereading the description I realized: it's like one of my all-time favorite old skool shower gels from Bath & Body Works, Seaspray! I haven't smelled that in forever and this was a welcome surprise. In conclusion: this isn't the bottle I'm grabbing when I'm in a dark brooding mood, but I like it!

In bottle: pungent, like a Vicks Vaporub variant On skin: black licorice, but not as anisey. I don't like anise or licorice notes, but this is not as harsh. Half-hour later: nice resins and musk. If I had to compare to other BPALs (as I tend to do, heh) this is a masculine version of Mme. Moriarty, swarthier versus sweeter and creamier. In conclusion: another nice unique LE, and I'm glad the masculine tones didn't scare me away. A keeper!

As promised, here's part 2 of DH's experiences, where he lived in what he suspected to be a haunted house. After he and his brother got out of high school, they rented a house with their girlfriends. This was a narrow, tall house near the University of Cincinnati, 3 stories with a basement and a great view of downtown. Weird stuff started to happen, but DH thought it was his imagination at first and didn’t discuss it with anyone until much later. The “second” floor (third floor if you counted the basement) was a large den area with an open staircase going up to the bedrooms. If you were sitting watching TV, the windows facing downtown would be on your left, and the stairs would be on your right. DH would see over and over, out of the corner of his eye, two figures running up the stairs. It looked like a woman with long dark hair being chased by a large man that looked Samoan. It would happen day or night, whether you were by yourself or with a bunch of people there. In fact, DH knew it wasn’t his imagination when others brand-new to the house would “see” it and snap their heads towards the staircase. The den had carpeting on the walls (yes, it needed redecorating, but they were college kids!) and DH had some “flats” which he stapled to the wall way up near the ceiling. Flats are 12x12” prints of record albums that stores would use in their displays. Every so often one of the flats would be lying on the sofa or the floor, but it didn’t fall off – it wouldn’t be torn, the staple holes were intact and the staples would still be attached to the wall. It was like someone took out the staples, took the flat down and put the staples back in the wall. DH said this happened to the Talking Heads the most often. Other physical things would happen too – this was the late-1980s and DH and his brother had a huge collection of cassette tapes on shelves in the living room. DH said on many occasions he would go to the living room to get a specific tape and it would be gone. After a search of the house he’d give up, only to have it appear later (sometimes hours or days later) in really strange places like the empty dryer or his sock drawer. One missing tape later appeared at the top step to the basement, where DH would have certainly stepped on it while searching. DH had a boombox in the bedroom with a big dial tuner to change radio stations. Sometimes if he had it on and would leave the room, when he got back it would be changed to some weird talk or religious station. This only happened when he was alone in the house. I asked him after all these experiences, “Weren’t you freaked out?” He said no, it was more annoying rather than scary, except for the last night (below). The worst night he experienced was after he and his girlfriend broke up, and everyone else had moved out of the house. He was there by himself for one night, and the next morning he was flying to California to visit his parents (he ended up staying, got a job and met me). He was lying upstairs trying to get some sleep, but the moment he lied down and shut his eyes there was a *sigh* next to him. Then all hell broke loose downstairs – stomping in the kitchen, drawers and cupboards opening and being rifled through and slamming shut. He bolted down the stairs, thinking someone was in the house, but the instant he got to the first floor the noise stopped. After making sure no one was in the house he went back upstairs, but the same thing happened again – breathing next to him, then all sorts of commotion downstairs. Finally he gave up and went out to his car to try to sleep.

Glad you liked part 2! Who knows what was going on in that house?

Thanks for the story! You do hear about kids and psychic abilities a lot -- "imaginary" friends that disappear when they get older. I wonder what happens? But then there are others who have the ability through their whole life. See, I feel like a poseur because I'm just telling my husband's stories, and you and filigree_shadow had actual things happen to them!

What a great story! Did you ever have anything else weird happen in the house? Maybe the house (or spirits therein) were trying to warn you about the basement.

Instead of posting a particularly cranky entry, I'll post what I was working on over the weekend in honor of Halloween coming DH is a mellow, even-keeled guy. He has had a bunch of weird experiences, though, and he doesn’t like to talk about them much. Most happened before he met me and I must be psychically “blocking” him in some way, because I’ve never had anything otherworldly happen to me (even though I love reading about it) and I would probably panic if something actually happened to me personally. A few things happened after a family member has died. After we started dating, but before we moved into our own place, he and his parents were living at his grandmother’s house (his dad’s mom). Her brother lived in Wyoming and was dying of cancer. One night, not too late, DH was up watching TV after everyone else had gone to bed. There was a loud bang-bang-bang at the front door, and when DH ran to the door there was no one there. DH’s dad, a notoriously heavy sleeper (slept through tornados, earthquakes, etc.), even woke up and asked, “What the hell was that?” They found out the next morning that the uncle had died that night. Soon after we got our own place, his parents moved back to Ohio (DH has a brother and sister who still live there). His mom had gone through treatment for breast cancer while in California, and though it went into remission it came back after they returned to Ohio. She got sick very quickly and passed away within a couple of months of it recurring. Obviously everyone was devastated, and DH flew back to Ohio for the funeral. He was staying at his sister’s condo and since she had the biggest home it seemed to be the central gathering place for the family. At one point several people were standing in the kitchen talking when suddenly everyone smelled the strong scent of roses, like someone walked into the room with a huge bouquet. There were no flowers in the house, and it was February in the midst of a snowstorm! DH’s sister’s ex-husband was a strange guy, very cerebral and a prickly personality, but the type of guy no one could fool – the guy you’d want with you when you’re buying a car. Even he, a total skeptic, smelled the roses, and was convinced there had to be flowers somewhere; he went through the whole house, opening cabinets and getting frustrated that he couldn’t find the source of the scent. Eventually the scent disappeared suddenly, just as it had appeared. The closest thing that happened to DH when I was around was when we were apartment-hunting for our own place. We went to a small apartment building that looked like a 1920s Spanish bungalow. The open apartment was in the back, on the second floor with an outside balcony/walkway. We walked through the place for a few minutes, then as we were getting in the car I asked him what he thought. DH said, very seriously, “I wouldn’t spend one night in that place!” I asked him what was wrong and he said there wasn’t anything specific, other than he felt like we were being watched and it wasn’t a nice presence. I didn’t feel anything strange, but again I don’t think I’m as tuned-in as he is. The next day we talked on the phone and he said he slept awful the night before; he kept having nightmares of that apartment. He dreamt, over and over, that a guy had pushed his girlfriend off the balcony/walkway. I asked how DH knew that was the guy’s girlfriend, and he said he just knew from the dreams. Coming soon: part 2, where DH lives in a haunted house!

FWIW, don't depend on insurance for a repair that isn't drop-dead important that you fix -- in other words, the car won't run without the repair. Next, it depends on your deductible whether you'll pay or insurance will pay. If your deductible is $500, the $70 just goes towards your deductible, so you'll pay the $70 and it will show as a "claim" on your insurance. Does that make sense? In conclusion: if it was my car and I wanted the windshield fixed, I would pay for it myself and keep the lower insurance rate. Just recently we had to pay over $400 to get a DEAD RAT out of DH's car, but since our deductible was $500 we would have to pay the $400 anyway.

I'm glad you guys like the stories so far! He's told me so many over the years (when he remembers them), I wanted to write them down.

She isn't really insane, but sometimes I wonder about how her brain works. She sent e-gift certificates for my birthday (yay Amazon!) but the last time we talked she said she was sending a box too. That came last night, and inside was: --the new Janet Evanovich book (she's bought me the last several Stephanie Plum books, they're pretty funny) --a teeny purse with Marilyn pictures on it -- it would probably hold your ID/credit card and a small lipstick, and that's it. I wish it was bigger! --some L'Oreal tube eyeshadows --some bath samples (a company called Andrea?) of sugar scrubs, mud masks, etc. --a hand-crank flashlight (no batteries needed) --an exfoliating sponge -- am I too flaky? --a couple of Lustreware salt-pepper sets, one are little birds and the other has a Japanese tree/garden scene painted on each one I know where I get my pack-rat collecting obsessions from, but she obviously sees random things and thinks, "I need to buy this for ____" and out it goes for a gift. Everything was wrapped individually and it was like this crazy lottery -- what will be next? She loves doing Christmas stockings too, and it's the same miscellanea; last year one gift was a purse hanger that you take with you to a restaurant, so you can hang your purse off the table instead of setting it on the floor. I didn't even know I needed one of those! Random linkage: here's someone posting about his mom, who really is insane. Pack Rat Ahead! If I ever get to this point, kill me. This was originally on the forums in Something Awful: http://www.auctions-registration.com/ebay/?p=1

Have a great trip! Say hi to Captain Steubing and kick Vicky in the butt for me!

In bottle: patchouli, slightly sweetened On skin: yummy sweet incense. The dark fruit really balances the smutty musk and patchouli. Half-hour later: dead ringer for the Snakes (Charmer and Oil), sophisticated incensey fruity YUM In conclusion: another top-of-the-line BPAL blend. This was the first CD bottle ordered and it's a guaranteed winner. I'm in love!

Darkity, I totally understand the fear -- there may be a fine line between collection and obsession, but there's no escaping the parents My parents left a set of pinochle cards with us, so we'd always have a set to use when they visit. Carwoman, please don't worry about "hoarding" your glassmaking supplies -- those are for your later creations! I wish I was more creative; I gotta hit the sewing machine and get some stuff made. I'm a slacker

In bottle: piercing alcohol, woo! Very traditional "perfumey" like Stardust On skin: wow, a really heady (not headachey) floral. The musk is dusty and smutty and keeps this from being too twee and ethereal. Half-hour later: not much morphing (hee, I typed "morphine" at first ), the musk anchoring the floral. This is such a well-blended scent that nothing specific is jumping out at me, like "wow! jasmine!" or "phoo! vetiver!" If there's ginger, it's existing just to slightly sweeten the musk. In conclusion: another interesting rule-breaking Lunacy, and I'm glad I have a bottle.

Yes, it's like chaos theory! The pattern is: there is no pattern.

Thanks for posting all those great links! I went on Stuff-O-Rama ages ago and liked their selection, then promptly forgot about the site Some of those bracelets are fab! I want one for every day of the week -- Elvis, Bettie, Vegas... Plus I'm always on the troll for great incense. Mmm, pleasant wafting smoke.

Great pics! I love the bucolic views with the rainbow -- it's like a fairy-land, before being stomped by Zuke-zilla! RAAAR!

I held off on ordering from the HUMONGOUS update last week until the Lunacy release. When I heard it was Kindly Moon I figured it may be too twee for me, and sure enough it's sounds like way too much floral so I'll pass. I was only going to order 2 bottles because I ordered the Schwarzer Mond bottle last week -- trying to keep to 3 bottles/month so we don't go broke. BUT! DH asked me last week what I wanted for my birthday and I said the usual "I don't care," and then it hit me: why can't my gift from him be a few bonus bottles from the Lab? Yes, after 15 years you start running out of "perfect gifts" to get each other. So I placed my biggest order ever: 5 different bottles! Well, I ordered the Pumpkin Patch last year, but that's different because that was a full set. I'm getting Creepy, Pumpkin Queen and Punkie Night from the Halloweenie scents, and Brides of Dracula and Dr. Seward from the Dracula scents. Now I'm up to 3 outstanding orders. How'd that happen?

As usual, valentina says it better than I do: you'll always be your mom's daughter, and she may still see you as a six-year-old with gum in her hair (like me!) or a surly 15-year-old (also me!) and not as an independent *grown* woman. Personally, moving out at 20 and moving across the country at 24 was the best thing for the relationship with my parents -- it made seeing them and talking to them more special.

I hope he's doing fine in his new digs. I love tabbies!

I think you Scoreboarded -- you got to talk to fake-Jake Ryan and I didn't

Funny you should mention that -- she played the organ for Samantha's sister's wedding in Sixteen Candles! We came full circle!