Clearance

My letter from the graduate school confirming admission to candidacy for my degree arrived earlier in the week.

An email with a subject of Preview: Your letter is in the mail that I'd normally think of as spam with the exception of who it was from (at 2:46 am Central?!) stated:

Congratulations! Your hard work and dedication have come to fruition. You have passed the Capstone Experience examinations. If you have met all of your other academic requirements, you will graduate in December 2007.

Just in time, as throughout the week I've had the urge to rip people's heads off for no apparent reason increase to a barely controllable level.

WHAT?

How did Anita Roddick's death in September by what should have killed my friend in August slip past my radar until I was confronted with a huge backdrop of this fact when I stopped by The Body Shop tonight?

I didn't have the courage to actually walk across the room and meet her when I was 23, but she was at a Sonoma State banquet for the 25th anniversary of Project Censored. Anita's presence, laughter and hair filled the room, and I was & am in awe of her work even though I generally prefer Lush products. She & The Body Shop were major sponsors back then, although I've not been pleased with the overall direction things have gone at Project Censored since Carl Jensen retired & I'm thankful I was in the last class to work with him.

I do highly recommend the combination of Body Shop's Vanilla Spice & Cranberry simmering on an oil burner over a beeswax tealight though. This is my Capstone clearance present to myself; the burners are $10 (normally $16) with oils 3 for $16 when those are normally $7.50 a pop. My husband just came upstairs and exclaimed 'Ooh!! It smells good up here!' so it definitely isn't one of my girly blends or I'd hear about it.