Beverly, Connie, Nicole, thank you all for your help.

Got your back, Windsparrow, but in a supportive way. Not in a shove-you-into-something against your better judgement way. I hope whatever you decide to do goes well. At least better than it has been going.

I start writing in blank books and then stop, so I have several with just the first few pages written on.

Hey, that means I am smonster! That means I get good hair and the ability to belly dance, awesome!

I recently customized a blank journal I bought at T.J. Maxx for about $3, and it is my dedicated notebook for the fiction project I am working on. All of my plot notes, crack-addled ideas, and dialog snippets have been scribbled in it. It actually is kind of motivating me to write, so yay?

I love my office because I can go for days without actually talking to my co-workers. Tales of office politics give me headaches.

(My dream job is one that's crucial but takes place, say, in the bowels of an office building where no one wants to go so all communication is done by email. I seem to have described babysitting a nuclear missile silo.)

I have the Faeries Oracle, and though I don't read with it, I meditate with it often. Also, I just got the 2010 Froud wall calendar. Now all I have to do is fight my way to the wall to hang it up so I can look at it.

Huh. I don't throw it either. Fell in love with the art at a workshop and then spent years looking for it. Specifically, the Gotcha card got its hook into me. (irony?) Eventually, a boyfriend gifted me with it.

Almost all my decks came second-hand, except for a few which were gifts, or which I saved my pennies for.

Me too. My 'collection' is wee, just a couple versions of the Aquarian...my otd...a second hand Rider-Waite, the Froud Oracle, Star+Gate, tea leaves cards and a 'success' deck.

I'd love to design my own someday.

Some came with boxes or bags. The wooden box you mentioned came with a "green" Thoth deck that had belonged to a San Francisco personality in the music and occult-metaphysical community.

I found mine on ebay, which is where my various bags came from. I have to say though, yours are more gorgeous (is that remotely grammatical?) than any I've ever seen. The green leaves and pine bough ones are especially yummy. Nice work!

In a thousand years, when I get squared away, I'll set up the machine and finish them up.

I can relate. I have two Featherweights that need tuning up and one that needs a carrying case. It was originally in a wretched console that just feel apart. (A gift from the aforementioned boyfriend) The machine is the gorgeous, gold filigree type. Can't let it go, but can't get it fixed right now.

just a couple versions of the Aquarian...my otd.

My first deck! I've had it for probably 30 years, but I've neglected it shamefully. I also like my Tarot of the Cat People.

Tarot of the Cat People

I've seen this!

Frankly, I'm sometimes amazed by how...just like trade magazines, there is a deck for EVERYthing.

I had a Major Arcana done with Marvel characters--Wolverine as the Fool--and I got $50 for it on eBay. It was in Italian, too. I kind of regret selling it, but we were in the process of moving after twenty years, and, man, did we have a lot of shit and not a lot of money.

edit: Huh, just found a poker deck from that same Italian company, with Marvel characters for the face cards.

Well, darn.

[first_world_whine] I've decided to book myself a nice massage to celebrate the gawd awful (two. year. long.) website redesign being done. (It looks like it might go live next week. Here's hoping.) However, I just found out that the lovely masseuse who works two blocks from my apartment has closed up shop. I know it's a rough economy, and things like massage can be the first to be cut from people's budgets. But, damn it, I don't want to find a new masseuse. Masseuses see me naked and touch me. I kinda like to find one who works and stick with her. [/first_world_whine]

I had a Major Arcana done with Marvel characters--Wolverine as the Fool

I would LOVE that. What a riot. Not sure if I could use it with clients though. They know my geekery knows few bounds but that might be too much. Then again, when I taught my Super Hero Academy class, it was the middle aged women who were right there with me.