Dry spell-itis

I keep plugging away at my writing, but I'm just not getting anywhere in anything I've been working on. Apathy has set it, or maybe its ennui - hard to say, really. A bit of SAD isn't unusual for me, but this is a bit much for my tastes. Speaking of which, I've been feeling incredibly cut off from my senses right now, so I tried a bit of incense making this evening. I made a batch of High Altar today which although subtle is very nice, but lost interest in it soon after. I really need to put an order in for supplies, especially for that big bunch of Kyphi I've been promising everyone. What I got in the last order wasn't enough as they're still back-ordered.

Gods...gotta get out of this funk. I'm way too old to Emo.

Magic ink recipes (for Deb)

Bat's Blood Ink
2 parts dragon's blood resin
1/2 part myrrh resin
2 drops cinnamon oil
2 drops indigo color
12 parts alcohol
1/2 part gum arabic
Steep the ground resins in the alcohol till dissolved, then add the cinnamon oil, indigo, and ground gum arabic. Filter and bottle.

Dove's Blood Ink
1 part dragon's blood resin
2 drops cinnamon oil
2 drops bay oil
10 parts alcohol
1 part gum arabic
2 drops rose oil

Dragon's Blood Ink
1 part dragon's blood resin
15 parts alcohol
1 part gum arabic

Humility comes in all forms

Today a very nice airman came into the bookstore. Thoroughly polite young man, most likely from Texas given his accent. He bought a journal for a homesick Navy friend who was depressed and wrote a beautiful sentiment on the inside cover. While I wrapped it he had a great time rubbing Flash's belly and told me about his dog, Beau. Seems the young man had a basset back in TX, but left the dog with his parents when he joined the Navy since he wasn't sure if he could take care of Beau here in Oak Harbor. I let him know Flash was there almost every Sunday, which he was happy to hear and that he was welcome to walk Flash around the block anytime he wanted to. This cheered him up considerably and when he left he told me he felt better about the whole thing and was going to look into getting his dog sent up here now that he knew it was a dog friendly town. Promised to bring Beau in to meet Flash.

In every way possible he was an incredible example of what a young man could and should be, except he insisted on calling me "Ma'm" the whole while. Yeah, I know its a cultural mannerism of the South and given my status as married woman in her *cough* mid-thirties it was meant in the deepest respect. But I twitched every single time he said it, couldn't help myself. Probably didn't help manners that not only did I bring a thermos of coffee to work, but both my husband and Deb showed up with lattes for me so I've been high on caffeine all day.

Happy New Year's from the Old Lagamorph Lady and her family to you and yours!