This day shines with a wide range of purple - from tender opal to deep ink. And all because of my wish-list. 
I have never been a great fan of amethysts. It’s a pretty simple gem and I considered it the most unattractive of all the birth stones. Today I was literally hit by the revenge of amethyst.
The story began in a jewelry story when I spotted a bright amethyst pendant. Its deep violet color was almost unreal. The stone made me think about purple robes of high-ranking Catholic priests. It had nothing to do with the regular pale lilac stones in dark silver... To cut it short - I should have hot that damn amethyst.
The revenge started this morning when I just finish my manicure. White French tips and pale opal top cover. As soon as the very top coat was applied I noticed The Mouse running triumphantly with a half-open bottle of ink.
Slippery inky fingers. Beige comforter. Ink soaked deep into camel blanket.
Bathroom tile in amethyst splashes of inky water.
An hour later the comforter was almost saved, the camel blanket acquired a permanent ink tattoo, and the Mouse got a new portion of experience about this world. Hope it will just stay in his memory, not stain it.
When my dad got home for lunch-break he was wearing a nice violet shirt, and we decided to open a jar of bluberry-rasbery jam - great taste and deeeeeep inky color. 
I am just a step away from Don - the character of Bill Murray from Broken Flowers. The only difference - the guy was fixed on pink stuff. And as soon as I thought the inky-kinky matter is over for today - the very first head line on Yahoo page was Invasion of the Giant Squids!

Should I get the stone and get over it?

I hate United.

I hate everything about it - from the limited space of

seat to a ridiculous choice of food (spicy chicken? for a trans-Atlantic flight?)

I hate the smokey tower of Domodedovo - from the hideous uniforms to the elevators hidden behind corners so that no one can even suspect their presence.

I hate tacky billboards suggesting "lavish business flights" - from only 60K... |To me it sund more like "go to hell and thank you for choosing our air line!"

Still Russia looks unusually beautiful, almost exotically beautiful. White undisturbed icing on birch trees along the road, postcard-like frosty fir-trees and crispy clean air.

And it's only mid-winter, it means we have a while until under-snow dog-shit starts floating free...

Almost every woman looks nice wrapped in her mandatory fir thing, and almost every man has some sort of stature in his leather coat, his cheeks flushed red, his unhealthy Russian paleness masked in frost. Girls roam without hats wasting the last remains of their hair, the air stinks like cigaretts and care emissions.

 I am still pretty much jet-lagged, when nights are for reading and days are for hibernating, with occasional walks.

Mouse runs like crazy, adjusting to the new place, wasting no time on eating or sleeping.

The most important thing is not to think - how many days left, how soon will it get unbearable to be so far away. Never before I felt so alien here. Looks like the

process of final moving to other lands is at full speed.

I really have very little to do here.

PS: both cameras left in DC... 

 

I believe in Happy Birthdays and New Years.
All the rest can be fabricated, imitated, simulated, mail-ordered and adapted. But those two will say permanently on my calendar. I do remember my friends' special days and always find a way to reach for them. What can be better than making a decision about a B-day present for a friend? Getting flowers? And it's never a burden to go through a chain of several people to verify the most recent mobile number. Just because it's the best day ever for someone. If I can't meet a person on this day, be sure the present will wait for him for as long as it takes to meet again. No refusals whatsoever.
Happy Birthday, Julia! I had a wrong number for you. Your home line was turned off. There was no way to catch you at work on Sunday evening. Two people refused to check it up for me. But the third did! Thank you, Ann! Because of you I wasn't late.
You may consider me one crazy Birthday fairy, but we exist! Sometimes I can be late, but I will show up for sure!
PS - even if it is a mobile snap shot for now, how many of you can expect to see a blooming cherry tree in November?

Hope you all had a formidable Halloween party and your costumes will be in your friends' memories forever (at least till the next theme-party!) And here's a Post-Halloween scare:

The final settlement took way more time than you can possibly imagine. Arrangements, appliances, tons of stuff crammed into the space of its final destination. I am really done for now and there are even two glasses from the thrift shop to celebrate the official settlement. But god saves me from any housewarming party and all those "concerned" who never cared about a simple e-mail or a phone call.
Anyway, it's a pretty interesting location; a mixture of Mexicans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians, and Koreans. Their cuisine and manners can be nice and interesting one day and shocking on the other.  Plus there is a unique DC breed of selfishness and self-importance (oh, FL, I miss you). I am sure they are nice and cordial individuals when taken separately, but all together... they are something you have to face every day with no way to avoid. Except that there is always a choice to move to a different area, but... I am already kind of settled here. And I will have to decode this new place.