It's My Gallbladder

I thought I was making some kind of progress with getting better with my stomach problems but apparently not. I ended up in my local ER Wednesday night instead of the one a half an hour away. I wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with this crap again of waiting for hours after a blood draw to be seen. I managed to be taken back, have a blood draw, urine test and was examined all within 15 minutes. The nurse that was doing the examination had said that it was probably my gallbladder and ordered an ultrasound. The biggest thing is that I was given pain and nausea relief and I wasn't waiting for hours and not have anything done except a blood draw. The ultrasound had confirmed that my gallbladder was the issue. I was given scripts for pain, nausea and directions for a surgical consult. I made that consult before I left the ER. So Monday afternoon, I go for that consultation. The total time that I spent in the ER was probably 3 and a half hours. After complaining for around a year, I am happy to have some answers. My endocrinologist and my regular GP had pretty much decided that keeping an eye on it was the only thing to do.

The hard part is just managing the pain and nausea. Before the medication, I couldn't eat period without vicious amounts of pain that would last for hours. Now I can eat a little more but I am kind of limited and will be limited for a while on what I can and cannot have for a few weeks. It will be a very bland, low fat diet and I am not looking forward to that. But I am looking at a month with less than $75  coming into my bank account per week for about a month and I am seriously not looking forward for that part.

Monday is the day I will know if I am having surgery and what type of surgery. I probably will not be wearing any perfume if I have to go the surgical route but I am debating on wearing either no 19 extrait, no 22 extrait or Iris Silver Mist. I want something that is subtle but with a little bit of backbone. Dabbing make most perfumes more subtle. The only one that might be kind of comforting is no 22. I will have plenty of time later to wear what I want.
 

Northern Lights and Adventures in the ER

For the past year, I have been having stomach issues. At first, I thought it was initially because I am 40 and a good chunk of it happened before my time of the month so I wasn't too worried until the 10th.

October 9th is when I started to have some stomach troubles and didn't really think much of it at first. But after dinner, I started to have more issues and went to the ER shortly before 4 in the morning on the 10th. At first, I was taken back pretty quickly and the nurse did a blood draw, urine test, put an IV in and sent me back into the waiting room. Mind you, this is 4 in the morning and there were 2 other people and I thought that the wait wasn't going to be take too long to be seen by a doctor. Well, I was freaking wrong. I waited hours without being seen by a doctor. I went to see what exactly was going on and I was given the response of I was next in the in line but no time estimate on when I was going to be seen. At this point, I was starting to get kind of riled. I had been in the waiting room for a little over 4 hours at this point with no health professional checking to see if my pain levels were worse, same or lessened. This is an uncivilized hour on a Thursday morning with 1 or 2 other people in the waiting room. I think that one of them might have been homeless and just wanted a warm place to sleep for the night. My boss had said that there might have been more important patients to attend to than a stomach ache. But my retort was that it could be something incredibly serious like a ruptured gallbladder. I decided to say screw it and have them take my IV out and leave. I was feeling a bit better but my GI system still feels yucky. My only directions were that I make a follow up with my regular doctor. I am still pretty pissed. It's almost like I was being treated like I was drug seeking or I just wasn't important enough to be seen. I have already made a complaint with the patient advocate because I should not be waiting over 4 hours in a level 2 trauma center that was at a slow point patient wise. What if it is still serious? What if I can't wait until next week when my GP appointment is?

I was finally able to see the aurora borealis later on that day. I wasn't expecting much since I wasn't able to see them the last time they came to my neck of the woods in Ohio. This time, there was a mention of using a cellphone camera to capture it and that is what I did this time around. And this time, I managed to get a few pictures. They might not be as good as a professional photographer but I am going to post a few down below as well. The one up top is probable one of the best pictures that I took of the whole thing.

 

Prada Infusion de Vanille Review

 At this point, fall is here. I am not talking about a false fall. A false fall is were you get a few days were it is cool during the day and pretty chilly at night. But after those few days, summer comes back for one last hurrah. Since summer is gone, I have started craving some of my vanilla offerings.

I am picky about my vanilla perfumes. Many vanilla perfumes smell like a bakery, smell cheap or just generic. I remember the first two vanilla perfumes that I fell head over heels with. The long discontinued Havana Vanille and Spirituese Double Vanille. I love the both of them but Havana Vanille has been discontinued and stupid expensive if you find it online. SDV is still stupid expensive and will have to stick to decants with that one. Andy Tauer's Vanilla Flash and Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille are wonderful as well. I did notice that I liked my vanilla perfumes to smell inedible. It might smell like vanilla but it's an inedible vanilla. But vanilla isn't a huge part of my collection.

Last month was my birthday and just about every place that I shop at was either giving a freebie or some kind of bargain. Ulta was giving me double points all month long along with a birthday gift, so I loaded up on things that I was running low on. Sephora was offering me an extra 250 points if I made an order of $25. I am not the biggest Sephora shopper but I made an exception and spent some cash and got myself a travel spray of Prada's Infusion de Vanille. I figured that since I love Infusion d'Iris, I would probably like the vanilla one. A travel spray was in my budget and I figured that if I didn't like it, I could either return it or find someone who did like it.

I will say that it is a vanilla perfume that falls into the inedible category and not in a good way. Havana Vanille and SDV fell into the same character of vanilla but there was something that made them stand out. Havanna Vanille had a rum soaked cigar vibe and SDV had a burnt vibe to it that I loved. Vanilla is something that Guerlain has always done well. Infusion de Vanille seemed to be a generic vanilla perfume with some floral stuff in the background. I did read some reviews on Sephora (I think but don't hold me to it) and I saw that some people said that this was a sexy perfume. My response was, "sexy, my ass!". If this is sexy than you must of set the bar below ground and you must think that Kiehl's Musk Blend is out of control slutty. Maybe I am too used to MKK and vintage BaV. I can think of other perfumes that can be considered sexy like Shalimar or Mitsouko. Shit, vintage no 5 is pretty damn sexy but I wouldn't call any vanilla dominant perfume sexy. Might be on the comforting side of things but not sexy. Infusion de Vanille is a vapid perfume geared for people who want to wear and buy perfume but don't want to put a lot of thought and effort into finding something better.

I will admit that the staying power of Infusion de Vanille is pretty good and it isn't one of those really loud perfumes. Infusion de Vanille is well blended but the whole thing doesn't really sit nicely on me and I am not a big fan of vanilla perfumes being called sexy where there are better perfumes out there that can claim the whole sexy title.

Guerlain Tobacco Honey EDP Reviw

Since it's pretty much the beginning of fall and the temps are starting to drop, it's time to start rotating some of my perfumes out. From Labor Day to the end of September or the beginning of October, I kind of flirt with the idea of switching out my summer perfumes and start to bring out the fall ones. It's only when the temps don't climb out of the low 70's is when I starting to make that switch. Now I am starting to make that switch. This is the time of year is clambake season in northern Ohio and it's football (not soccer) season too. Where it is nothing new on either Saturday or Sunday to have a clambake get together at your house and when it gets dark out, someone starts a bonfire. So this is the time of year that I want some of my heavier perfumes.

I am going through a little bit of a phase of where I want to try a few new things and this time it's Guerlain Tobacco Honey. When Tobacco Honey came out, I heard a lot of good things about it. I still see it mentioned on Now Smell This. When TPC was having either a Black Friday sale or a Boxing Day sale, I did jump on a few decants. Granted, they were dabbers but it was one of the few times that I actually did spring for a few decants.

Since I have finally gotten around to sampling Tobacco Honey, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. The only experience with honey as a dominant note is the long discontinued Ginestet Botryis and Viktoria Minya's Eau de Hongrie. I don't wear my decant of Eau de Hongrie often and my decant Botryis is long gone and I am still kicking myself for not getting a bottle of Botryis when I had the chance.

Tobacco Honey is loaded with honey.The really thick, syrupy type of honey, not that thin type of honey. I was thinking it would be more of like Eau de Hongrie that more of hints at honey. Botryis is the honey perfume that is more of a thin type of honey. The honey stayed dominant through the whole duration of the wearing. The tobacco part did come through but never quite take the edge of the honey. After a while, I could smell some vanilla. Towards the end, I could help but think that Tobacco Honey was a much less trashy version of Tobacco Vanille. Yes, I find Tobacco Vanille to be a little on the crass side but Tobacco Vanille is by Tom Ford and I judge Tom Ford by his ad campaigns and perfume.

I did enjoy Tobacco Honey in many ways but I wasn't fully sold on this one. I wasn't the biggest fan of how thick it smelled and I have a dabber sample. How pungent would it be on my skin if I sprayed it? Probably very pungent on me. I had Tobacco Honey last about 8 hours dabbed on my skin.

When I went to look at the price tag for this one, I was a little less amused. The price tag was almost $400! I can get 2 Amouage offerings at FragranceNet for the same price or spend about $30 more and get a larger sized bottle of Tobacco Vanille. I think that it's highway robbery with how these mainstream perfume houses on how much they will charge for their more "exclusive" line. Well, I am not in that demographic for those types of perfume lines.
 

Shalimar Millesime Vanilla Planifolia Review

I have been on vacation all week and swore to myself that I would wear something that I have never worn before and review it. I probably could have reviewed this Monday or Tuesday but it wasn't quite in the cards for this week. It's been a week of dealing with garbage relating to my grandmother who resides in memory care and I wasn't so up to reviewing anything.

It seems like at least in the past couple years, Guerlain has been cranking out flankers of Shalimar. I think Guerlain picked up on people missing the Ode a la Vanille flankers and probably thought it was a great idea to creating more Shalimar flankers. The biggest problem that I have with the slew of Shalimar flankers is that most of them are limited editions. Shalimar and it's flankers have always been on the more "affordable" side but it's still a little too much for me price wise.

After dithering on getting a sample, I got a dabber sample from STC and it's been sitting on my dresser, begging to be tried. Parts of me wanted to give it a go but I was hesitant to. What if I fell in love with it? I love the original Shalimar and love both the Ode a la Vanille flankers but the Odes are long discontinued. So on Tuesday, I gave it a go.

The first time I tried it, I thought that I had put on some Spiriteuese Double Vanille. I figured with all of the perfumes that the ladies at STC had, they could have mistakenly grabbed the wrong bottle and given me SDV instead. After a few minutes, I started to smell what I knew to be Shalimar. The issue is that the SDV parts seem to overpower Shalimar. Guerlain has always been very good at a classy vanilla perfume. But this is a little different It's like SDV and Shalimar had a love child and it's name is Millesime Vanilla but this version of Shalimar is closer SDV than Shalimar. While I do thing that this version of Shalimar is fairly awesome, I think that you would be better off layering SDV with Shalimar or just wear SDV on it's own.

General Stuff and Coromandel

My folks left for Cincinnati about an hour and a half ago for a Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan concert. Since I am not in the demographic that can listen to either one and enjoy it, I am at home hanging out with the puppies. My candle is lit, lunch has been ordered. Today is the only day that I can have a candle going since they come back some time tomorrow. Since my mom has a difficult time with so many of my candles, I have the Bath and Body Works Pink Lavender and Espresso single wick candle going. Maybe, just maybe I can have this candle finished by tonight and have the house aired out before they come home tomorrow. I would like to have at least one candle finished up.

Had to have a wart removed from my index finger pretty much burned off on Monday. The stupid thing was catching on everything and one of the edges was cracking and bleeding. Another freezing treatment and the wart bandage thing wasn't going to work on this thing so it was going to have to have part of it cut off and then burned off the rest of the way. My directions are to keep the bandage on until it pretty much comes off. I am seriously starting to wonder about that part of the directions. Even though I work in food service and I am always either washing my hands or wearing gloves, the bandage looks a little cruddy is one spot and it seems to be pulling in another. The stupid thing is sore, especially around the site where the doctor worked on it. Part of me wants to follow the directions to leave the bandage on but the other part wants me to rip off the bandage, wash my hands and then put some antibiotic cream on with another bandage. I am wondering if the doctor wants some kind of scab or to be partially healed before the bandage comes off.

I finally managed to pull out my bottle of Coromandel and place it on my dresser a few days ago. I had forgotten on how much I love Coromandel and in some ways I regret getting the 6.8 ounce bottle when I was more financially secure. But on the other hand, I did buy the extrait version around the same time so it kind of evens out in some ways. The only problem is that even with my parents being gone, I don't quite have the ability to wear it. It's perfume that lingers and seems to get onto everything. I might love Coromandel but my mother hates it and my dad says that it's too strong and smells weird. What's funny that it's the only amber perfume that I am head over heels about. I am not really a fan of amber perfumes due to the resinous nature of amber.

So what is going to happen today in terms of perfume is that I am going to wear Sarrasins. I love the slutty, leathery jasmine and loving the bottle design and color of the perfume doesn't help. If I ever get back onto solid financial ground and my bottle runs out, I will get another bottle. I am hoping that things will eventually work themselves out

 

Stuff to Cull

After all that moving stuff around and putting things away on Monday, I still haven't even tried to tackle my closet. There is something about cleaning out a closet that is kind of overwhelming. Sorting through things is tough. What to throw out, what to donate or what can be sold is tough work. I think that tons of people like me probably have more of an unhealthy attachment to stuff.

I am looking to sell quite a bit of my perfume collection. One reason is that my collection has gotten a little too big. When you have over 200 bottles of perfume, how can one go through all of that? Some things I have outgrown, some I hate, and there are some that I have too much of. I have some idea of which bottles that I want to sell off and which ones that I definitely want to keep.

The first perfume house on my list is Serge Lutens. I want to keep Arabie, Cherugi, one bottle of Feminite du Bois. The ones that I really want to hang onto is De Profundis and Sarrasins. De Profundis and Sarrasins were the bell jars that I had wanted for so long. I had gotten both of them off of E-Bay before the bell jars became not so exclusive. I fell in love with Sarrasins because of it's slutty, leather/jasmine combo. But I was attracted to the deep purple color first before I smelled it. De Profundis was based on either the Oscar Wilde reference or Bible. The color of De Profundis didn't help either. I enjoy the chrysanthemum note in De Profundis as well, you don't smell that too often in perfume. Maybe Serge Lutens eventually realized that he was cutting off his nose to spite his face by kind of ignoring North America in terms of the bell jars. I still want Iris Silver Mist and Rose de Nuit but that's not in the cards and I am trying to get rid of some stuff and make some money.

My second house has to be Amouage. I want to get rid of Beloved and Gold woman. I could never truly like, let alone love Beloved enough to wear it too often. And let's just face it with Gold woman, it smells like I stepped in dog poop and it never seems to come off skin so easily. I am on the fence the Ubar and Memoir. But Lyric is my first love from Amouage that I fell in love with. If I had a bottle of the extrait, I would be really happy but I am trying to get the collection down to a manageable level. The other two that I want to keep is Jubilation 25 and Epic. It took me a while to come around to Jubilation 25 and Epic and I are kind of feuding a little bit. It has to be the oud in Epic and I don't like too many oud perfumes. It was that one really hot summer day with stupid amounts of humidity that soured my relationship with Epic right now. But I should still keep one bottle of Epic.

The third perfume house on my list right now is Chanel. I want to unload most of my no 5 bottles and probably Sycomore. I haven't fully thought about all the Chanel offerings that I own but do have an idea of what I want to keep. My bottle of Coromandel stays along with one bottle of no 5 edt, no 19, and no 22. I have so much no 5 it isn't funny so a large chunk of that would go. I would probably want to keep my massive bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense as well.

There are other random perfumes that I know I want to keep. I do want to keep my vintage Mitsouko and Deneuve along with a healthy chunk of my vintage Bal a Versailles bottles. I spent a good chunk of money on those and they smell so good. I can rebuild a my collection but some sacrifices have to be made in terms of my financial health and I need some physical space at the moment.