A Reprise

I went on two excursions to Parks Mall last week: a solo walk, and a venture with my husband. On my solo walk, I noticed that Regis Salon had closed down. I had not had any plans to return; however, seeing the shuttered building felt like another sign of the end of an era. I spent many hours in Regis, got some of my best looks from their stylists, and found some of my signature nail polish colors (in particular, O.P.I.'s "Suzi Sells Sushi by the Seashore"). Sears was going out of business and as such, they were selling all mannequins and fixtures. On my second excursion with my husband, I bought some deeply discounted clothing at Sears. Afterward, we had dinner at Piranha Ramen on the patio. It was beautiful, but windy. Apparently, we are having a massive haze from an unusually large Saharan dust cloud this summer. I can't believe I've lived here so long and never knew that Saharan dust covered the east coast. However, after eating outside, I found particles in my...

This cemetery was near Waterside. We wandered there after dinner. The first, and oldest, grave, mentioned in the historical marker.

I got the buttermilk one, white chocolate dip and espresso dusting.

It has been a good week.  I did a Vampyre Tarot reading last night that helped me re-focus on my own life and activities at a time when I was becoming obsessive-compulsive. The third card, in the Future position, was Eight of Skulls. This card spoke to the work I am doing for comps and gave me focus today as I worked through both the annotated bibliography and more readings.  The description of the card in Phantasmagoria  really spoke to me in how it mentioned not over-focusing on the bigger picture, but instead taking time with the details. I feel that's where I need to focus my energy with the readings for comps. Understanding the individual works.  My mind still skips ahead to the future quite a bit, while I'm doing the readings. I wonder if I should include this short story or that when I teach the literature course in the Spring. I start to imagine how I would teach it. Then, I wonder if I'll have more opportunities to teach literature courses, or any courses at...

Today I made Jamaican Curry Spice Blend from my Afro Vegan cookbook with my new spice grinder. I'm using it in my new pink beans from Central Market.

Last night, I started my Penguin cloth-bound edition of Jane Austen's Emma . I found it and many other books yesterday when I was cleaning and re-arranging my books in various places around the house. I felt sad I hadn't read it when I first got it. I'm unsure how long I've had it, but I think it could be ten or even 11 years, judging by when the edition was published. I am pretty sure I got it close to when it was published because I remembered seeing the cloth-bound editions advertised in a magazine, then putting some on my wish list.  I found a number of cookbooks I thought I had given to Half Price Books. I wanted to change out the books I have on my nightstand, both the ones between the book-ends and the ones on the shelf below the surface. There are a number of books that I will give to Half Price Books, because I don't think I will be able to make time for them.  I also updated my Goodreads account to reflect the changes in my "am reading" and ...