GeeCee's Not-Entirely-Original Miscellany

I had a really lovely evening out tonight with W. The original plan was to go grab sushi, but once I suggested continuing our long-standing tradition of getting a drink at the Ritz Carlton bar, it made sense to stay in the mall and go to Lebanese Taverna. Unfortunately the hotel bar was completely packed at 7 PM, so we skipped it and went straight to dinner where we proceeded to have a bottle of a decent wine and a table full of mezze along with more than two hours of conversation. There, um, might also have been a little more blatant flirtation than normal, which was fun. =) I blame the bottle of wine. Yeah, that's it. Or maybe the BPAL "All Saints" I was wearing. It's a lovely incense-y/smoky/floral scent. ("Based on a venerable French pontifical incense blend: monastic frankincense and myrrh, Damascus rose, Russian gardenia, cassia, and lily of the valley wafting on a chill Autumn wind. A celebration of the glory and suffering of the saints and matryrs [sic] of the Church.") I don't know if my dining partner even noticed it, but in the car on the way to dinner the scent certainly made me want to gnaw on my arm for a while.

Good lord, it's been ten years. Where did all that time go? One of the things I really enjoy about spending time with W. is that it's totally comfortable and always has been, even after we came to a mutual realization that dating was a bad idea. I am really, really glad that we're still friends. This way I get to laugh at him for moving from the Bay Area to Boston in mid-winter. HA-ha! ;) Of course in return he gets to taunt me with the fact that he's got an incredible job, while I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. On the other other hand, he's had *cough*twenty-plus*cough* years longer than I have to figure that sort of thing out. (Oooh, I'm gonna be in such trouble for that remark.)

The other thing the wine was good for was making me sleepy, so I think it's time to crawl into bed and read some more of The Rule of Four until I pass out in the not-too-distant future.

I was inspired to pull out some of the imps I have sitting around and try some of them out. First up:

Harlot
Based on a Romany incense blend reputed to induce sexual dreams: Somalian rose, Moroccan rose and Bulgar rose with a sultry dribble of cinnamon.

In the vial: ROSES. Yowza.
Wet: In the first pass, it seemed to go powdery almost immediately. Not to be discouraged, I tried again. Still lots of roses, but not as strong as in the vial. I'm not smelling the...okay, after about five minutes there's a small hint of cinnamon. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't looking for it.
Dry: The cinnamon is completely gone, and it's tending heavily towards "rose-scented powder". It's not bad, but I was hoping for a little more spice. It also doesn't seem to last very long on my skin. [Edit: Okay, I must've just stopped being able to smell it for a while, as this morning there's still a very faint rose scent on my wrist.] As to the reputed effects, well, I'll tell you tomorrow. Or not, more likely.