Wednesday. Sunny, slightly breezy, warm, but not too warm. The windows in my office, the bathroom, and bedroom are all open.
My watch has been very upset with me — I’ve been burning the candle at both ends to hear it tell the tale — stressful days followed by nonrestorative sleep. It’s busted me back to 8.30 hours a night, and last night I tried to oblige it, ending up with 8.10 hours of — you guessed this already, right? — nonrestorative sleep. It wants me to rest and recruit myself today, but since it seems to think that sitting and reading is “stressful,” I’m not really sure what will make it happy.
That being the case, I’ve been sitting and reading the WIP. I’m taking a break right now to give the cats their late morning treats and to eat one of the cookies I bought yesterday — apricot/pistachio. Very good.
I’ll be going back to the manuscript in a bit and work until lunch, which will be — soup and a salad.
Yesterday, as I was out and about, I heard a woman ask a clerk in one of the stores if they had any “green amethyst” jewelry. Since I thought I knew that there was no such thing as “green amethyst,” I drifted over and added my plea to hers. We were presented with several sets of earrings set with a extremely pale green stones — so pale that you had to stare at them to convince your eyes that, yes, they are green. Or maybe yellow.
The clerk having been called down-counter to answer someone else (leaving us along with (if the price tags were to be believed) a cool two grand in earrings), the woman who had first called for them confided that she had bought a “green amethyst” bracelet from this very story, but had lost it when it slipped of her wrist. She also allowed as how hers had been “bolder.”
We both declined to buy; I packed up the earrings, put them back into their box, gave them to the clerk (Virgo, here; sorry), and continued my perambulations.
So, here’s the thing: amethyst is quartz. Purple quartz, because of the inclusion of iron in the crystals. The thing that’s being called “green amethyst” is green quartz, made green by the inclusion of chlorite in its crystals. So! Purple quartz = amethyst; green quartz = prasiolite. Not “green amethyst.”
I won’t add “fight me,” because I’m sure someone will.
My cookie is gone. O! Woe! And also? Time to go back to work.
What’s happening with you on Anything Can Happen Day?
Today’s blog post title brought to you by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “First Fig”
Cat census:
You are right. I purchase things from JTV including prasiolite. I was able to get a 3 kt loose gem years ago and bought a 14kt yellow gold setting to wear on a necklace. Needless to say this was long before gold went crazy. My gem is light green and I really like it. I can’t afford emeralds that aren’t heavily included, citrine is not a pretty color (my opinion) and chrome diopside in large carat weight not in my price range. I went through a stage of buying loose gem stones and now don’t know what to do with them. Thought I might like to make jewelry.