Living In the World, Not on It

GAME : Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following they have to be real places, names, things; nothing made up! What is your name: A islinge 4 letter word: Re a d Vehicle: A cura CLS Type S (that really is my car!) TV Shows: Uh-oh... Grey's A natomy , White Coll a r, C a stle City: A msterdam Boy Name: A idann Girl Name: A islinn Alcoholic Drink: I absolutely do not drink a lcohol Occupation: Hum a n Resources, Emergency Medic a l Technician, now unemploy a ble Something you wear: P a jamas Celebrities: A lan Alda Food: A pples Something found in a bathroom: A toilet Reason for Being late: A ss____ drivers Cartoon Character: A uguste Gusteau ( Ratatouille ) Something You Shout: A AAAAAAAAAAA! *Number Two: The FAB FOUR . 4 Jobs I’ve Had: Human Resources Manager EMT Artist Receptionist 4 Films I Could Watch Over and Over: The Fifth Element Apollo 13 Monsters, Inc. Shakespeare in Love 4 Favorite TV Shows: Castle CSI: Crime Scene ...

That makes it sound like I sat in a dark room, glued to the computer, eyes wide open and affixed to e-bay. In fact, other than Friday's countdown to sharking that incredible crystal point, I hardly looked at e-bay. Most of what I bought fell into the $10 - $15 range. I needed anklets now that I'm wearing skirts so I found a lot of nice, inexpensive anklets that went from $0.99 to $14.99. One was $44.10 but the whole thing is sterling silver and I have a bracelet that matches; I like sets when it comes to jewelry. (I should search for footprint earrings and necklace, too, come to think of it.) I bought seven candles (including the grapefruit rosemary pillar for the uncontested amount of $17.50) and one, the Beanpod Green Tea candle, arrived yesterday and is filling the sun room with its delicious aroma. I won that lovely quartz point, which will come to a great home, along with another rainbow obsidian sphere stand. I can never have too many stands. In fact I need to get more, ...

You cannot believe this staggeringly beautiful crystal! I haven't been on e-bay in some time. There's a reason for this: it is dangerous. I love what can be found on e-bay - it's all there. Movies, bank notes, candles (I'm bidding on what has to be the last Grapefruit Rosemary pillar candle from Illuminations in the world), pens, CDs jewelry (yes!) and of course, crystal balls. This one is not a ball, but it is still amazing. One of my favourites, Crystal Art World, has an amazing quartz crystal point up for bid. I made the mistake of bidding a couple of days ago when it was a mere $14. It is now a mere $66.99 with 30 minutes to go. There have been 19 bids and it will be a miracle if I can shark this sucker out from under the other bidders. There are 8 bidders at this point, and gods know how many are watching. Most of the time I remain a watcher especially when it is a hot ticket item. Malachite is usually a problem - everyone wants it. There happens to be a lovely ma...

I was on e-bay and found this: In order to ease & support your life journey, we have exclusively designed Over 200 Unique Tumbled Crystal Sets and a complete line of Crystal Intention Jewelry Diabetes Regulator Tumbled Crystal Set with Extras ° Amazonite ° Chrysocolla ° Moss Agate ° Serpentine ° Oh... my... god. This is criminal. Taking some crappily polished stones and turning them into the cure for diabetes is - or should be - illegal. I suspect in other countries this would be illegal... I realise that this nation is founded on so many freedoms, but this is bad. Kind of like hate groups. I don't think the KKK should be allowed to exist, much less publish (although it is shocking that any of them could even read). And I hate that our society is so into mking money that crap like this can be posted and sold. And there are a lot of ignorant people out there who would buy into this because this is so much easier than diet and exercise and monitoring your sugar...

Every Thanksgiving is the same, whether we go somewhere or not. When I was little, Thanksgiving was a Grandparents' holiday. I was exchanged at Checkpoint Charlie (The then-lone Howard Jonsons restaurant on Route 80 right at the Delaware Water Gap on the Pennsylvania side) from my mother to my paternal grandparents, Grandma and Pop-pop (usually both grands have funny nicknames, but I wonder if my grandmother would have considered that beneath her dignity. I don't know, and it is unlikely I will ever know, but that sort of fits her. That lasted into my 11th or 12th year, maybe into my midteens. Once my grandmother allowed herself to show anger that I was getting my menstrual cycle, Thanksgiving became the Platt Family sideshow. Just a freaky little behaviour from my grandmother that no one could have predicted. All families have their idiosyncrasies and homegrown weirdnessess, but this was so pervasive that I elected to stay home for every holiday. They'd send gifts, but the...

I'm on the fence about a seller. I had posted on 28 August that there is a Labradorite sphere that I just have to have! I really do - it is huge and gorgeous in only that way that this stone is. I think most people would find it boring but I find it fascinating. I usually gravitate to fluorite and quartz - I like the way you can see into or through it - but there are some stones I love that are much more opaque. Garnet, obsidian, hematite and of course, Labradorite. These all have their own interesting and unique looks. Well, the spheres are wonderful, but I am torn. The seller had sold me three items and one still hasn't arrived. As far as I can tell, it did not even ship. The other two arrived on Monday, when I'd ordered them on Friday. Very fast - faster than I'd expected. And the other thing that has me a little unhappy is the seller's communication. No communication. Most sellers have automatic e-mails that generate when you pay for something, thanking the buye...

..but I'm a little rusty on my Asian-based languages, ha, ha. I went onto ebay, where I'm awaiting the end of a bid, and decided to take a look at my listed feedback. I had been listed as 181 and now today I'm up to 184. So why not see what glowing feedback I was listed. Ah, ha... one of the vendors, in Hong Kong, left this message on the feedback line: 谢谢你！欢迎你下次光临。好运气! I have no idea what that means. There's a little green plus sign next to it, indicating a positive response to me as a buyer, but they might have said I'm a one-eyed buying wonder who overpaid for the product, which I couldn't hold that against them. What do I know? I didn't pay that much, certain not anything unreasonable, but they are the ones laughing to the bank, not me. Still, I imagine I'll be happy with the product, when it finally arrives. But I am still mildly curious as to what the above hieroglypics mean. It certainly looks pretty!

Saturday 9: Letting the Sparks Fly 1. Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity? I can do that anywhere. There is always something to write about, you know. 2. What would be one thing that would embarrass you a great deal? Um... showing up naked in a classroom? Haven't you ever had that nightmare? So weird and completely disconcerting. 3. What values did your parents instill in you? Many of them, but honesty and being true to yourself is high on the list. 4. What’s a fad of your teen years that you remember well? From the 1980s? Good gods... too many! Big hair is the worst. I did not go for that. 5. What is your favorite breakfast? Salt bagel, lightly buttered with hot Lady Grey or Ceylon tea. 6. What is the best birthday gift that you have received? Ooooohhh, I don't know... that is a tough one. Oh, wait! This laptop! This by and far gets the most use. 7. What gadget could you not live without? Well, that is too easy - my iPod! 8. Do you collect anything? Oh, w...

I went onto e-bay yesterday at my parents' house to check on a couple of items and then, out of sheer boredom, began looking for other good buys. I'm always on the lookout for older, outdated flavours that I would still buy from the stores if they carried them. Then I found these! Saying I'm delighted would be an understatement. And I knew - knew - what an amazing deal 3 of these candles at 40 pus shipping was. With just 19.5 hours to go, I figured I'd put a bid in, expecially as no one had put anything in to date. In five minutes, four more bids showed up - from the same person. One person jumped on this - either s/he had been watching it all along or s/he'd been on and found it just as I had. So that bidder missed the first two on this one - I had opened the bid at $45 - and on the third, the price showed as $46. I was looking at this when Ray asked me questions about bidding and how it works. So I showed him by putting in a bid for $47, which still showed as out...

I love the Bath& Body Works Sheep! Luis refers to them as "cheep", as though pronouncing it with a Spanish accent. I have lots of 'em already but now I am getting the mondo-sized sheep. Yahoo! I found it on e-bay and struck a deal. And she's really nice: "Hi Ash! Wonderful; $170.00 for the mondo cream sheep and a small 6" x 9" pink body sheep it is! The shipping calculator should show the correct shipping price as $24.70 if it does not just let me know. I first saw the huge sheep in ONE store in my area... it is the only one that every has the unique items. I loved them and really wanted one of each for myself... black and cream!!... HI, MY NAME IS PAM AND I'M A LAMBIE ADDICT... Well, I waited about three weeks and went back to the store to do some shopping and they were gone!!! I thought I would cry... until one of the managers said they expected some in later that day so I left her my number for her to call me. I live about 45 minutes away fro...