urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire The Journal of Seanan McGuire Seanan McGuire 2009-10-17T18:44:06Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire:163412 2009-10-17T18:44:06Z 2009-10-17T18:44:06Z Counting Crows, "When I Dream of Michelangelo." So I recently agreed to autograph and mail back a book that was mailed to me, because hey, it seemed like a cool thing to do, and nobody had ever asked me to do that before (and since the book was being mailed with the cost of postage enclosed, it's not like I was giving up a day's Diet Dr Pepper for the sake of randomly mailing things). I was rewarded by the book's owner&mdash;also a Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab fan, albeit one who does not share my adoration of their pumpkin perfumes&mdash;enclosing surprise BPAL. Specifically, surprise Pumpkin Patch 2006. SURPRISE!<br /><br />The 2006 Pumpkin Patch was my Very First BPAL. It was a gift from Kate, who thought I would like it. She was right, as my shelf o' bottles of weird perfume can now attest. I bought the 2007 Pumpkin Patch for myself. And the 2008 Pumpkin Patch. And recently, thanks to a "please help me buy more perfume"-based art sale, the 2009 Pumpkin Patch. Oh, and I have a bottle of Jack, and a bottle of Pumpkin Queen. So, counting my new bottles, and the extra bottle of Pumpkin-with-Pomegranate that I got Just In Case (tm), I have...<br /><br />...twenty-nine bottles of pumpkin-based perfume. Not counting my assorted imps and decants and suchlike.<br /><br />I think this is sufficient pumpkin perfume to make my declaration of being Pumpkin Queen of California entirely believable, and actually a bit of an unnecessary statement. Because I am <i>so</i> the Pumpkin Queen. I have the spooky perfume to prove it.