Self-care Saturday
Bought Elizabeth Hand's new novel, Hokuloa Road. Normally I don't buy new fiction right away, and instead wait for a price drop that usually comes after a month or two. But she's been one of my favorite fiction writers for about 25 years, so I treated myself and started reading it right away.
Went to Five Below in Lafayette, which I just found out from taz_39 is not, as I'd assumed, some kind of Patagonia knock-off. I guess the name made me think of weather? Not that it's ever that cold in south Louisiana, but I thought they sold camping gear and fishing/hunting stuff. Instead, it's actually a dollar store aimed at kids and teenagers. And I guess geeks like me. It sounded like it might be somewhat like Daiso, which I dearly miss, although with less houseware-type stuff.
Friends, I was not disappointed:
I spent about $28 and picked up a notebook, 2 sets of nails, sandalwood oil, a coin purse/keyholder, and a pair of earbuds. (The earbuds I have now work fine, but it never hurts to have a spare handy. When they stop working, it tends to be without warning.)
Now, the sandalwood oil was $3, and I am not dumb enough to think it was pure sandalwood oil, even though it said "100% pure essential oil" on the box. A bottle of sandalwood oil that size retails for about $150. Sure enough, once it was out of the box it was forced to tell the truth on the bottle: 5% sandalwood oil in 95% grapeseed oil. Uh huh. That means I can't use it in my diffuser; you can't put carrier oils in them or they gum up the works. I'll use this to dress candles, or maybe combine it with some other oils to make a fragrance. But it was $3, I'm not mad about it.
I also went to the carwash, and I am counting that as self-care because it's been raining all week and I had planned to skip this week. However, when I went out to my car this morning I found this
TRIGGER WARNING FOR A GIANT, TERRIFYING SPIDER
(Not my photo, I did try to take one but the camera kept focusing on my car behind the spider, and fuck if I was getting any closer.)
Now, I am not normally scared of spiders. HOWEVER. This one was larger than the palm of my hand, had built an enormous web between the carport ceiling and the rear of my car, and since I was rooting around in my purse and not really looking where I was going, I damn near walked face-first into it.
It's a Golden Orb-Weaver. I have lived here 12 1/2 years now and never seen one of these before. But that's Louisiana, you might see something freaky once in 20 years and never again. Like the first year I lived here I saw what looked like a fuzzy red ant almost as big as my thumb that turned out to be some kind of flightless wasp known as a "cow killer" for the alleged painfulness of its sting. I've never seen another one.
So why did I wash my car? Well, the web was destroyed when I backed out of the carport, and the spider dropped down onto my rear windshield with a noise like someone drumming long fingernails on the glass. It was almost a half-hour drive to Lafayette, much of it between 55-60 mph. I assumed at some point it would have blown off.
Well, when I came out of Five Below, guess what? That fucker was chilling on the rear driver side door. NOOOOOOOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. I got in on the passenger side of the car and scooted over--not an easy task with my fat ass in a Jetta--and drove straight to the carwash. I've seen no evidence of it since then. If it re-appears, I will have no choice but to assume that I am cursed to find it on my car until I die, which will no doubt be soon, after which it will feast on my blood.
Went to Five Below in Lafayette, which I just found out from taz_39 is not, as I'd assumed, some kind of Patagonia knock-off. I guess the name made me think of weather? Not that it's ever that cold in south Louisiana, but I thought they sold camping gear and fishing/hunting stuff. Instead, it's actually a dollar store aimed at kids and teenagers. And I guess geeks like me. It sounded like it might be somewhat like Daiso, which I dearly miss, although with less houseware-type stuff.
Friends, I was not disappointed:
I spent about $28 and picked up a notebook, 2 sets of nails, sandalwood oil, a coin purse/keyholder, and a pair of earbuds. (The earbuds I have now work fine, but it never hurts to have a spare handy. When they stop working, it tends to be without warning.)
Now, the sandalwood oil was $3, and I am not dumb enough to think it was pure sandalwood oil, even though it said "100% pure essential oil" on the box. A bottle of sandalwood oil that size retails for about $150. Sure enough, once it was out of the box it was forced to tell the truth on the bottle: 5% sandalwood oil in 95% grapeseed oil. Uh huh. That means I can't use it in my diffuser; you can't put carrier oils in them or they gum up the works. I'll use this to dress candles, or maybe combine it with some other oils to make a fragrance. But it was $3, I'm not mad about it.
I also went to the carwash, and I am counting that as self-care because it's been raining all week and I had planned to skip this week. However, when I went out to my car this morning I found this
TRIGGER WARNING FOR A GIANT, TERRIFYING SPIDER
(Not my photo, I did try to take one but the camera kept focusing on my car behind the spider, and fuck if I was getting any closer.)
Now, I am not normally scared of spiders. HOWEVER. This one was larger than the palm of my hand, had built an enormous web between the carport ceiling and the rear of my car, and since I was rooting around in my purse and not really looking where I was going, I damn near walked face-first into it.
It's a Golden Orb-Weaver. I have lived here 12 1/2 years now and never seen one of these before. But that's Louisiana, you might see something freaky once in 20 years and never again. Like the first year I lived here I saw what looked like a fuzzy red ant almost as big as my thumb that turned out to be some kind of flightless wasp known as a "cow killer" for the alleged painfulness of its sting. I've never seen another one.
So why did I wash my car? Well, the web was destroyed when I backed out of the carport, and the spider dropped down onto my rear windshield with a noise like someone drumming long fingernails on the glass. It was almost a half-hour drive to Lafayette, much of it between 55-60 mph. I assumed at some point it would have blown off.
Well, when I came out of Five Below, guess what? That fucker was chilling on the rear driver side door. NOOOOOOOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. I got in on the passenger side of the car and scooted over--not an easy task with my fat ass in a Jetta--and drove straight to the carwash. I've seen no evidence of it since then. If it re-appears, I will have no choice but to assume that I am cursed to find it on my car until I die, which will no doubt be soon, after which it will feast on my blood.