filigree_shadow

Wow, awesome. Especially with the wishlist and swap matchmaking features! Thank you!

What a cool series of posts. I found them useful, and hope you continue these as time allows.

I'm glad you found them useful! I'm dragging my heels trying to decide what to do next. The ones I've already done were the ones that came to mind first.

Some notes (like red musk, or peach, or pumpkin) would be very hard for me to do because I like them in pretty much all blends they appear in. And others (like rose or sandalwood) would be too hard because they're so frequent. I'm trying to think of other notes that I like occasionally -- ones that I'd like to narrow down. Like, I don't need 5 different dragon's blood scents. One would be fine. But which one?!

I think I feel like that sometimes. It's not at all that I don't love my husband, but, well, we've been together over seven years and things aren't exactly fresh and new between us. I miss that feeling of new love. Or meeting someone and feeling an instant connection. I'm sure I felt like that with my husband at one point, but I kind of don't remember it anymore.

Is that sort of like what you're describing?

I think sense of smell evolves: our taste buds change ever seven years, so our noses must as well!

I didn't think of that. That's true. I used to hate cauliflower and now I love the stuff. Also I used to like pizza a lot but I never want it anymore.

Good point!

I am still looking for a suitable June Gloom replacement. Maybe one of the grapefruits would suffice?

 

When are you going to review banana and coconut?

June Gloom smelled really strongly of lemon verbena to me -- have you tried Polyhymnia? I though it was sort of close.

As far as I know there are only two scents with banana: Manila and Shango. They're both awesome.

But coconut is one of the notes I'm planning to do!

I just saw this entry and read it -- congratulations! I'm sorry things didn't go very smoothly for you and Lily, but it sounds like everything turned out all right and that's what's important. I love the name you chose, too.

Aww, I hope you don't have to stay away for too long.

 

For what it's worth, it's been driving me crazy, too. The weird talk was fine in the macro thread (although I'm not sure I personally get it)...but in the swaps forum and especially in the Update thread, it makes me want to start poking eyes out. I sincerely hope that it's just a phase.

I'm back already! I couldn't even stay away for a week.

I think I've developed a tolerance. I can mostly just scroll by now, and it doesn't annoy me any more. I still hope it's a phase, though.

Is that what that is?

 

I looked through the galleries the other day and could not understand why polar bears had such bad grammar!

Yep. If you want to see lots of examples of this sort of thing, try cuteoverload.com. I can't look at that site without wanting to claw my eyes out, but apparently lots of people think it's great. The macro/lolcats thing has kind of developed a life of its own and it's all over the internet now instead of being confined to certain sites.

I hear you. It's funny in the macro thread, but this board used to be free of the taint of illiterate 14-year-olds Internet-speak, and I admired that. God, I didn't even know what a "lolcat" was until a few days ago!

 

Come back soon!

Yeah. Me too. (About the Internet-speak, I mean.)

I promise, I really do have a sense of humor. I even think some of the cat macros are funny. I laughed at the one that showed a cat hitting a keyboard with the caption "F5! F5! F5!" But the baby talk and purposely stupid-sounding grammar... that's just not my thing.

However, since I'm fully aware that I'm rather a killjoy on this and many people love it, I'll just politely excuse myself until things return to normal.

In my humble opinion, you're not the one who should be looking for somewhere else to stay, he is. That business about not being able to go to her place because her ex is there is garbage! What are you?? Her ex's feelings are more important than yours? Not hardly.

He could not be treating you any shittier. And honestly I can't believe that this new woman is even willing to come into your house and act like that. She sounds like a real piece of work too. Good grief.

I'm ready for summer too! Ugh, one more quarter.

Don't let this professor get you down. If your English professor says you know how to write papers, then you do.

AND, I also can't wait to get my Pink Moon t-shirt!! I think it's my fave one ever. Plus... I look really good in pink, much to my dismay.

You know, I am very glad I read this, for two reasons

 

a.) I am glad I am not the only one who gets so irritate with those "I read one book and now I am an expert" college kids

 

and

 

2.) I always sort of worried that I might be one of those women who indulged in compulsive "retail therapy" behaviours. But you know what? At the end of the month I CAN pay my rent, I CAN pay ALL of my bills, have money for BPAL and STILL HAVE MONEY LEFT OVER.

So...that means I'm ok right? I don't stash...I actually use what I have (and if I don't, I decant a lot and give it away), and trust me, I have never bought 40 scents all at one time!

 

Whew! I'm...ok!

We're OK!

If the warning signs of a bad behavior are that you buy just to buy and you don't really like it, you overspend and can't pay bills, and that you stash bags of stuff you've bought all over your house -- we're in the clear.

It's interesting because in the last chapter we were talking about cognition and intelligence, and one of the things the professor mentioned is that people with high intelligence often collect things (stamps, coins, etc.), which seems to conflict a bit with what she was telling us about what depressed people do. I think a whole lot of education goes into being able to figure out what characteristics/behaviors indicate certain conditions. Like, what's the difference between a hobby collector and a compulsive hoarder? Or an interest and an obsession? I can't tell where the line is, I just know I haven't crossed it. I'm glad there are people out there who have had 8 years of education and can tell.

And about the college class = expert syndrome, I always have this urge to say, "You're quoting that out of context" when someone offers her "expert" opinion that's based on something she read in a textbook. The context she's missing is any sort of real-world experience. I remember when I was doing a public relations internship my last semester of college, and it was humiliating to realize that all that spouting off I'd done to family/friends about what PR is like was completely false. I mistakenly thought that the textbook was like the real world. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I was so completely disillusioned that I never worked in PR again after doing that internship.

I've been kind of grappling with that same thing in the past couple of years. I don't live in the city any more either, haven't been shopping in the Clark/Belmont area in ages, don't get up and roll out of bed and roll down the street to the coffeeshop and just hang out like I used to...

It's weird sometimes when I see 20-something people walking down the street because inevitably there's a young woman who's walking with them who reminds me of the way I used to look, and I think, "That used to be me." I miss that. I liked being that person.

I'm not even sure what happened. I'm 35 but I don't have kids and I'm in school. It would be very easy for me to have the same lifestyle I had when I was 25 -- but I don't. It's different now, somehow. Kinda feels like that boat has sailed.

A couple of months ago my husband asked me if we were free the next night for dinner with some people, and I said, "Tomorrow? Tomorrow night?" I sat there feeling dumbfounded that someone was asking for dinner tomorrow because I'm used to these conversations going like this: "Are you free on the 24th? Oh, wait, I can't get a sitter that night. Well it looks like we're going to have to do it in March, what do your March weekends look like?" It suddenly hit me that 10 years ago people would call and say things like, "Hey, I'm thinking about going to such-and-such for dinner, if you can be ready in 10 minutes I'll pick you up." And I'd go. When did this change? And why didn't I notice it?

Wow, I'm really rambling. Sorry about that. It's not that I don't like my life now, but it used to seem like it was a lot more fun. Maybe I need to do some redefining too.

I'm very glad to hear that she got back in touch with you about this and that it will soon be resolved!

I'm not sure who or what I was in past lives, but I definitely feel like I've met some people I've known before. I also think I haven't met some of them again yet... there are times when I feel like I'm missing someone important who should be with me.

Heh heh. I was going to say something very similar to what you said in a blog post a couple of days ago, but I chickened out and deleted the post.

I totally agree. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

At one point on the forums there were a few people saying really rude things in the update thread on the night of the huge Carnaval Diabolique introduction. It was the night when the price increase was taking effect, too. Beth put the update up a few hours before usual -- and with it the price increases -- and three or four people complained that they didn't have a chance to order their bottles at the cheaper price before the update went live (even though Beth had said the prices were going up several days in advance, so they had had time), and therefore Beth had bad business practices and wasn't honoring her "commitment" to her customers not to raise her prices until midnight or some arbitrary time that the complainers thought it was supposed to be. One of the complainers said that she shouldn't be yelled at by mods just because she had "the guts" to complain about it.

I responded to her that I didn't think it took guts to say what she did, I thought it was very bad form, and I told her why. She never responded to me, so thankfully it never escalated into an argument. But in that post I pointed out that often I sort of bite my lip and wait for a mod to come along and say something because I feel like it's not my place. Or mostly because I'm too chicken to possibly get involved in conflict. But there have been MANY times I've wanted to tell someone off for posting rude or inconsiderate or mean things... but I hardly ever do it. It makes me kind of feel bad for the mods that I wait for them to do the dirty work, so to speak.

I'm like that in real life too. I sit and wait for someone in authority to come around and tell the person to knock it off. I'm afraid that one of these days all this pent up frustration is going to overcome me and I'll just blow up.

We didn't wind up going after all. Doors opened at 9 but he wasn't speaking until 10, and we didn't want to stand outside in this cold for two hours. It's 6 degrees right now, not including wind chill, and at 9:00 this morning it was probably 1 F. We're wusses.

I'm going to see if I can get a ticket to go to the rally tomorrow afternoon though.

Do you know how old your imp is? I had an older imp of Blood Pearl that didn't smell very strongly of coconut, but when I bought a bottle of fresh Blood Pearl the coconut was a lot stronger.

Hey, the affirmations do work, according to my husband. He wrote a single sentence ten times on a piece of paper every day for a month. He ended up accomplishing his goal. (Of course, he is a SuperGenius, so there's also that to factor into it...)

And I've already signed up for the ATCs. I've never done anything like that before, but I'm itching to make a trip to the hobby shop with a purpose. Usually I have no purpose and I wander a bit and end up buying crap I'll never use because I have some wild-assed idea in the store that only sounds good for about five minutes and by the time I get home I don't want to do it any more.

Angst, ahoy!

Cool! (Says she who works around politics.) Seriously, Obama's speech at the Democratic convention really blew me away -- I was telling everyone I knew to watch online reruns or watch it again on C-SPAN. Getting a chance to see him speak in person, especially when he's in the process of starting to run for President, would be awesome.

Yeah! That speech -- what a delivery. The man has a fire in him.

Random does want to go down to Springfield to see the announcement, which doesn't really surprise me all that much. He's almost as interested in Obama as I am, for different reasons. He says Obama is a statesman, and we haven't had a real statesman in office for a long time. I don't think he has enough experience yet to be a true statesman, but I think it's pretty clear from his words and actions that he's not looking for power for himself (which I personally think is the case with another candidate, sadly) but is looking for the betterment of the entire nation and all its people. I think he clearly has the potential to be a statesman, and I totally agree with Random that we need someone like that in office.

So it looks like we'll be among the thousands standing in the freezing cold on Saturday morning in Springfield. Yippee! I can't wait.

I'm so sorry, Kitrona.

You gave comfort and care to a tiny creature who needed you -- you did right by her while she was with you. I know it still hurts, though.

I do the same thing, not going much of anywhere and not having opportunity to meet people. I'm also like valentina in that I don't get along with my sister, so I've had to find folks online who are my family. (I like to think I've done pretty well there... I've got a "brother" and a "sister" and some "cousins".)

 

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who has this problem, though.

I think you're definitely not the only one who has this problem. I "talk" to people online much more than I talk to people verbally. It still takes me a while to warm up to people online just like in real life, but for some reason it seems easier online. (Probably because no one can see me blushing and kicking the toes of my shoes while I try not to be shy and nervous.)

Nothing against community colleges and the art of flower arranging, but you are taking anatomy and forensic science classes at a major university!

Heh heh. Well, I didn't say my classes were easy, I just meant I don't get out much. And I have to say I agree with you about introverted-analytical people being wired like that. Being around lots of people exhausts me. (Also there's that pesky crowds phobia I have.) Usually I'm pretty happy with just my husband and our dogs.

It seems to me that you and indarkmoon and cordia are all introverts who have very close bonds with your sisters. I think that is so interesting -- I have anything but a close relationship with my sister, so I had to go outside my relatives to find my sisters, so to speak.

I can't imagine not having my sisters around -- I can't imagine what it's like not to get along with family, either. I would hang out with my sisters even if they weren't my sisters. My sisters D. and L. are incredibly funny, and S. is absolutely the nicest and most considerate person I've ever met in my life. My husband tells me that there are NO other women in the entire world like me and my sisters. I tell him, "That's because my mother only raised four girls." My mom is fantastic.

Anyway, I'm glad you've been able to find some sisters outside of your family. Sisters are important.

And I'm glad you're on the blogs and LJ, so I can get to know you in this way!

Yeah!

Sometimes I wish I were more of an extrovert -- it seems like being on the line between extrovert/introvert would be good.

It's good to have someplace that stays the same. Otherwise you just kind of feel like a wanderer. And the fabric and feeling of an old house that has much history is like a well worn pair of shoes--they fit your feet in all the right places. And frankly, older homes are often more well built than their newer counterparts--they have a logic about them that newer places can't even measure up to.

I completely agree with everything you said there, and I think you said it beautifully.

I dream about it consistently, and far more often than I dream of the only other house I had close association with, the house I essentially grew up in.

I dreamed about my grandparents' house a lot when it was unclear what would happen to it right after Grandma died. For a while it seemed like one of my cousins would buy it, and I was totally against that. He is, shall we say, not the tidiest of farmers. There are farms that look nice and clean and lovely, and then there are those ones that have a barn that hasn't been painted in 20 years and has half the roof caved in, and there's all sorts of junk and tractor parts sitting around in the yard. If my grandparents' farm had turned into a mess, I would have been LIVID.

Whenever I think too much about the house I mostly grew up in and how I'll never live there again and the people who live there now have changed everything in the house, I get teary-eyed. Actually I think that's pretty natural, but I think people don't talk about it much. It seems like I more often hear people say something like "I never want to see that house again" after they lived somewhere during a bad time in their lives. It makes me feel really thankful to have had so many powerfully good memories associated with a place I lived.