Almost the New Year

Christmas feels like it's long gone already and it was only last week. Now we are already looking at New Years. I meant to do a blog post for after Christmas but either forgot or didn't have the time.

Today was the day that I had started to go through the massive perfume hoard in the guest bedroom. It wasn't so much to sort through to see what I wanted to get rid of and what to keep. It was the whole thing of what had evaporated and what I could really throw away. There were quite a few minis that I threw away, not because they were evaporated but they were ancient and really needed to be thrown out. I had to throw out a couple bottles that had gone off. But like I said earlier, I wasn't sorting to see what I wanted to keep and what to sell.

I had also started to go through my massive book collection to see what I can take down to Half Priced Books. I could donate them but most libraries in my area are not looking for what I read. The little library things in my neighborhood are very far and few. So it's either Half Priced Books or going in the trash. But I would rather try and raise some kind of monies and create some space in my house.

I keep saying that I am trying to make space and use things up and I swear that I am trying. Yesterday, I went through my bathroom and managed to combine half used shampoos and body washes. I also combined some face creams too. So I managed to recycle about 6 or 7 bottles along with throwing out some other junk. Every little thing that I can manage at any given time helps.

What is mostly good right this moment is that while I have been seriously working on clearing things out these past couple days, I really haven't been shopping. By not indulging in too much retail therapy, that means I am not undoing what precious little progress that I have made. Candle Day was a little bit of a bust for me this year and the Bath and Body Works Semi Annual Sale is lackluster. With the $40 Amazon gift card that my sister gave me for Christmas, I ordered Quake II for my Xbox, so I can start playing my Xbox a little more and not spend so much time with window shopping.

With it being so close to the new year, I am trying to make more serious changes. I would like to really start to crack down on my candle collection. By cracking down on my candles, that means actually using them. There is no need for me to have well over 100 candles. With the people that I live with, it is going to be somewhat of a tall order. They don't approve of having lit candles, even when there is a power outage. I want to spend less money in general as well. Eating out will have to be limited to once or twice a month and I am looking at quitting smoking as well. I know that not eating out much and quitting smoking will help my bottom line. I just want 2025 to be a good year.
 

Pre Christmas Stuff

It's coming down to the wire in terms of Christmas. I am sure that there is tons of panic going on in terms of shopping for presents right now. At this point, I am just waiting for my last one to show up and let's hope that it comes by Christmas Eve. If it doesn't, it's not going to be the end of the world. Sometimes what does annoy me is when a company says that when a certain day is the last day for getting a package by Christmas. I get that it is Christmas and lots of people ship lots of gifts from the week of Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. I am just hoping that the last gift that I had ordered will arrive tomorrow.

I did do some impulsive things with the back pay and bonus. I still paid that monster cellphone bill but I wanted to make a nice Christmas for my dogs at least in terms of gifts. I did go crazy with the treats and dog toys. I view it as since they didn't get a Barkbox this month, I did want to make up for it. The frivolous thing that I did for myself and I know that I really shouldn't have was ordering a bottle of Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Banane, My perfume logic was that it 30ml for $50 and for perfume, that's pretty much free. It's not costing me a whole lot of money and what is the harm? 

But at the end of the day, money was spent a little too quickly. I made a resolution to buy only 1 candle from the Bath and Body Works semi annual sale and not buy anymore. There will always be other sales that I can go to and I can bank some rewards points from online surveys. But it is going to be a while before I do some fun things. I have more pressing matters at hand, like fixing up my teeth and getting more of my financial mess figured out. Nope, haven't filed for bankruptcy yet. There is something about pulling the trigger on that that's scary. Even though I don't own anything like a car or house, I am not a fan of what would be the invasive nature of the whole thing that freaks me out.

So the deal Christmas Eve is to work until 5, go home and finish wrapping my gifts. The dogs' presents are the only ones that I haven't wrapped yet and I am not quite ready to tackle that small mountain. For Christmas Day, my folks and I are going to my aunt and uncle's house to celebrate Christmas. I don't know if it is going to be a ham or a standing rib roast for Christmas dinner. All I know is that I am responsible for dinner rolls and wine. I already ordered the rolls and I have to pick out which wine that is needed. The wine selection is going to have to wait until I get off work.

I am trying to plan my Christmas Day perfume. Currently my choices are Theorema (tramatically discontinued), Lyric (absolutely adore) or vintage Shalimar (don't wear enough). I already wear a little too much Chanel no 5 and will probably be wearing it to work tomorrow when I brave my 12 to 5 shift at a grocery store. So wearing any version of no 5 on Christmas Day is a no go. I haven't made a decision on which one to wear yet.

 

First Day Back and Candle Day 2024

Today was my first day back at work since my surgery. I wasn't thrilled with going back to work but needed to go back to work. I didn't have a whole lot to do that was going to violate the restrictions that my surgeon handed me. I did what I could. There were things that I wanted to do but it wasn't a wise idea to do anything I really wanted to do. I am happy that I am easing my way back into work though. I figured with being off for so long, having surgery and with my restrictions, I figured it would be better to ease myself back into work. I didn't want to just jump in not exactly how I would be feeling after a short shift. So it's going to be some short shifts until Christmas.

Today was the first day of the Bath and Body Works Candle Day. If you already have an account set up with Bath and Body Works, you would be the first in line to shop Candle Day. Normally, Candle Day is the first Saturday of December. I think with the pandemic and how poorly the 2020 or 2021 was handled, I think they make it an all weekend type of deal. Since I was a member, I was able to shop the early access and get candles. After talking to my finances, I was only able to nab 2 candles. In some ways, I was a little sad that I couldn't get what I would have liked to get but my gift card only allowed me to 2. I got the Winter candle and Freshly Brewed Coffee. Maybe next paycheck I might get more or just give the candle buying a rest until next Candle Day. I am leaning towards just giving it a rest. I think that will be my New Year's resolution/challenge is to see how many candles that I can use up before next Candle Day.

I was a little surprised with our snow storm. Late Wednesday night to early Thursday morning I did hear some thundersnow and that is something that I haven't heard in years. When I heard the thundersnow, I thought that it would be much worse than it really was. Nothing good can come out of hearing thundersnow. The last time I heard it, our well pump decided to break and we lost electricity for a week and this was a week after Thanksgiving in 2020. I was hoping that I wasn't going to lose electricity and I didn't.
 

Snow Storms and Other Things

Ever since Thanksgiving in my neck of the woods, I have been living under the threat of a snowstorm.  For some reason, the first one had missed my area. Along the east coast of Lake Erie has been slammed with over 3 feet of snow with more on the way. But this time, it looks like I am going to get a little something more than an inch or two. At this point, I am seriously hoping that we do not lose our electricity due to the fact that the guy that we took our generator to for fixing can't figure out what is wrong with our generator. We got the generator to him in July and it's 5 months later.

So that means that I did spend some time cleaning up the house. I can't do tons of cleaning due to some of my restrictions but I made the effort to do some of them. Then it was the mini Costco run. There were things that we were completely out of and needed to get. So I think that I am going to be alright and I will just hope that I don't lose electricity. I don't want to be looking at a sink and dishwasher full of dirty dishes. All I really need to do is make sure I keep my cellphone, Kindle and iPod charged. I will have to take a look at my Kindle to see what books and movies that I have downloaded and see if there is anything that is under $2 that might be interesting.

The only thing that is in my favor is that I have more candles than I know what to do with in case we lose electricity. If we lose electricity, I am hoping that there will be 2 single wick candles that can be finished up on the first floor and I will finish one in my bedroom. So far, I have placed 12 candles in my room, in case I need them if and when we lose electricity. I am still waiting for my early access to the Bath and Body Works Candle Day sale that will be happening this weekend. I still am setting my limit of 3 candles and not one more. My record for Candle Day is an order of 9 candles in a single order. Since I have been on medical leave, I haven't been as stoked about Candle Day since I have started participating in Candle Day back in either 2018 or 2019. But I could never fathom or justify getting 20 plus candles in a single shopping run and then going back in the store or online and getting another 20 plus candles. Bath and Body Works always has candle sales through out the year and some of those sales are really good sales.

My medical leave is slowly coming to an end since I go back to work on Friday. In some ways, I want to go back to work and I know that I really need the cash but in other ways, I don't want to go back to work. I have gotten a little to used to doing what I want when I want and not have to keep an eye on the clock. I want to have a little more cash to get my 2 eldest nephews their Christmas gift and call it a day.
 

Little Bit of a Relief

I got a little bit of financial relief today. The short term disability that I wasn't so sure that I would get has come through. I got two weeks worth of that money. It still might be less than what I am used to but I have some kind of breathing room. Not a whole lot of breathing room but I feel a little bit better than I have been in the past few days. So that means that I can plan things a little bit better.

Thanksgiving was pretty quiet at my house. I somehow found a fresh turkey that was under 10 pounds. Turns out that the smaller the turkey, the bonier it is. For once, I got to watch the dog show on Thanksgiving day and a decent chunk of the parade before I got bored with that. I really enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to go anywhere and making Thanksgiving dinner wasn't the big pain in the ass that it usually is.

It's going to be a long 5 more days before I return to work. After being off a little over 3 weeks, I get to go back on Friday. I honestly can't afford to sit at home anymore and I am getting a little on the bored side of things. I didn't get to finish any candles nor did I get to polish my nails like I thought that I would be able to. The only thing that I did binge watch was the Hobbit trilogy, I couldn't even focus on reading a book.

Since we are in the holiday shopping season, I honestly will not be partaking in the whole Black Friday to Cyber Monday nonsense. One, I am not flush with money and two, most of my Christmas shopping is done already. All I have to do is shop for my 2 eldest nephews but I am probably going to get them an Xbox gift card and call it a day or maybe an inexpensive video game. Video games are expensive and I don't ever recall video games being this expensive. But the sale that I am most waiting for is the Bath and Body Works Candle Day sale that's happening the weekend of December 6th. I will have a little more money for that but I still want to take it easy with that sale. I still have tons of candles already. I know that I shouldn't get more and probably should give this Candle Day a pass. If the price is more than $10.50, I will. The gift card that I have is $30 but I might embellish that with an extra $10 but everything boils down to price and how bad do I really want this.

I will admit to the fact that I used some of my Ulta rewards points to make a fairly large purchase. I did create a stockpile of stocking stuffers and one or two emergency gifts if I need them. But the big ticket item was the Estee Lauder Pleasures gift set that Ulta had on sale. How was I going to refuse a 1.7 ounce and a 3.4 ounce giftset for $80? I couldn't refuse that type of deal and it came with all of these gift with purchase type of thing. I am thinking of using another chunk of my rewards to load up on MAC lipsticks since they are on sale. But I really should hold off on that for at least a couple weeks.
 

COVID and Returning to Work

Since my drain is out, sometime next week I am returning to work. I am not sure exactly which day would be the first official day but I have to return to work. Technically, I probably could have stayed out longer but my bills and bank account won't let me. The next time that I might see some kind of money go into my bank account would be the 5th but a small amount though. I do have some in my bank account but I do need to make that money last until I know for sure. I might not be thrilled about going back to work but I need to. Living is expensive and I would like to finish up Christmas shopping. I have only a couple people left to shop  for and a paycheck or two will help out.

Ever since my mother passed COVID to my dad and I, my sense of smell have been curtailed. I can't smell much of anything. Once in a while it will be like I never lost my sense of smell but other times I won't be able to smell a thing. I have a hard time with smelling my strongest perfumes. I was wearing Lyric and could only smell a little bit of it but couldn't smell much. Truth be told, I am pissed that my mother didn't get her boosters like she was supposed to and had to get COVID when I had my surgery and my dad and I let her know that we were pissed because we were put in a dangerous spot. I am hoping that I will get my sense of smell back sometime soon because I want to start wearing the things that I love and to actually be able to smell them. So as it stands, I will be sticking with Chanel no 5 and hope that my sense of smell comes back. I do have things that I want to try out and review.
 

Guerlain Habit Rouge Vintage EDC Review

There was a bit of good news today. I had my post op appointment today and managed to get the drain removed. The doctor did note that my skin was becoming irritated with the surgical tape and there was some irritation around the drain site. But she said all that would heal up because she is removing the drain. Now I can get in and out of chairs and my bed without discomfort. I still need to take it easy. I asked if I can go back to work with restrictions and it looks like I can start doing that. I just can't afford to stay out of work too long. Some paperwork was goofed up with corporate and I won't get the sick leave pay for a while due to the holiday and all. Now I can start getting more thorough showers now that my incisions are mostly healed up.

Since my surgery, I haven't exactly wanted to wear some of my old favorites like Lyric. I don't want any kind of associations of pain when wearing Lyric. So I have been wearing tons of Chanel no 5 and Infusion d'Iris. Both of those are a little more soothing and have bottles upon bottles of both of those.

Since I was starting to get a little bored with Infusion d'Iris and Chanel no 5, I wanted to test out something new. Tom Ford's Black Orchid was a bust and this time, I went with Guerlain Habit Rouge in vintage EDC form. I was poking around STC and somehow ended up browsing vintage stuff and stumbled upon the vintage version of Habit Rouge. So naturally, it went into my shopping cart and went back to browsing STC. I mainly was on STC to get a small decant of Rose de Nuit. Did you know that Habit Rouge comes in parfum form? I didn't and had to throw a decant of that in my shopping cart as well. With those 3 decants, I hurriedly checked out before I started to add more to my shopping cart. I was finally able to finish off the last tiny bit of the STC gift card that Portia from the Perfume Posse sent me when I won some sort of give away.

So I was needing a break from my normal stuff and took a little bit of a chance and sprayed on the vintage Habit Rouge. I had remembered the lemon, dusting powder and a halfway decent staying power. I had a hard time with the lemon then but I have always had a hard time with citrus. The biggest thing that I noticed was there was oakmoss. Actual honest to goodness oakmoss. Nothing made today with actual oakmoss, just some kind of moss variant. While I was loving the oakmoss, I was quite loving the lemon and the dusting powder note. Like I have already said, I always had a hard time with citrus, especially if it is sharp or has a powdery element to it. Habit Rouge combined both of it. Besides the oakmoss, what kept me fulling hating this was the leather. I do love leather in perfume, while most of the time I prefer a plush leather, this is more of a butch leather. I didn't fully realize how well oakmoss proper plays well with leather.
 

Tom Ford Black Orchid Review

Okay, I am a little less than a week out from my surgery and still pissed that I have a drain. My post surgical appointment is on Monday and I am hoping that my drain can be removed on Monday.I want to start being able to sleep on my right side, be able to take a shower normally and not have to deal with all of these extra steps. I'm tired of how the area around my drain in sore and I am tired of how the bandages and tape pull on my stomach. I just want to resume more of my normal activities.

I don't have a whole lot going on in my extensive free time. Since both of my parents are home, I haven't been able to burn any candles. Last Monday was the last day that I was able to have a lit candle and with the potential of having some minor winter storm, that means that we might lose electricity and that means I will have a candle going. It would probably be when the sun starts to set then will I have a candle going. I keep hoping that for once, I will be able to polish my nails while on a vacation. Every vacation I do keep meaning to do that but something either comes up or I just forget about it. So maybe this time around, I will actually do it.

Since I have all of this free time, I decided to give Tom Ford's Black Orchid. Sephora was having one of  their sales and I decided on getting a travel spray of this one. Sometimes I do feel like I do give Tom Ford's line up the short end of the stick. Tobacco Vanille is a little to powerful, Bitter Cherry would have been great if it hadn't been for the prominent tonka note. So I figure that I would give one last shot.

What got me to get a travel spray of Black Orchid was the fact that I was pulled in by the product description by rum soaked. Let's just say that there is nothing rum soaked in Black Orchid. It's a whole lot of nothing to my nose. I get an aquatic jasmine/tuberose thing with hints of vanilla and maybe some patchouli. I thing Tom Ford said that this is elegant or classy. Considering what Tom Ford's ad campaigns are, I would not consider this classy nor elegant. I think Black Orchid just sucks.

For the price of Tom Ford offerings, I do expect better. If you are going to charge Amouage range prices, I do expect a hell of a lot. I expected something boozy, more full figured, a little more fleshed out. Not something thin and watery smelling. While Black Orchid did have lasting power, there would be no way that I can spring for a full bottle. At this point, I don't think that I will be buying anything more from the Tom Ford line, I don't think that I would even get decants of this line up.
 

 

Well, It's Gone

Welp, my gallbladder is now a memory as of Wednesday morning and right now life sucks. Besides my gallbladder being full of stones and sludge, the stupid thing was inflamed along with my liver. so now I have a drain coming out of me. It's not a small drain at this stage. It's a long ass tube with a bulb at the end. Funny thing is that any kind of bile or fluid is supposed to be going to the bulb. But right now, any kind of fluid that wants to come out, seems to come out around the base of the tube near an incision. I am debating on if I should be concerned or not. I am not smelling anything foul, seeing pus, not having uncontrollable pain or fever. Maybe the tubing is either blocked or maybe got dislodged. I will call the doctor and see what is the best way to handle this. It hurts to cough and it hurts to laugh and I don't even want to contemplate the pain if I have to sneeze.

What I want most is a shower though. Any kind of bathing that I have been doing is some spot washing. Washing my forearms, face and neck aren't exactly cutting it at this point.Bending over is pretty scary and a little on the painful side and the medical people don't want me to have a lot of water on my abdomen quite yet. Tomorrow will be the day where I actually put cling wrap over my stomach and see if I can clean myself off a little better. I want to really wash my hair and face. I honestly think that the tubing could have been a little on the shorter side of things. I think a plastic cup and a bucket would be the best thing for me. Let's just hope when I change the bandage to my tubing I can actually fit some kind of more thorough cleaning without someone having a fit.

I haven't been so interested in perfume the past couple days even though I did wear the smallest dab of Chanel no 22 parfum on the day of my surgery. I just applied it on the inside of my ankle. Some women don't leave the house without lipstick, some have to have earrings and I am one of those who has to have some perfume before I leave the house (most of the time). As soon as I get a better self care regimen down, I can really start to feel better.

Today, I had to order myself some pajama pants that don't exactly look like pajama pants and some slide on shoes because I know that eventually I will have to leave the house and all the shoes that I have have laces and if I can't tie my shoes because I can't really bend over to do it, what good are they? The pajama pants look like something that I would be able to wear out of the house to do errands and not look like a slob. If I can avoid looking like a slob in public, I will surgery or not. I honestly didn't really think the whole wardrobe thing out before my surgery. What was the point of getting clothes and shoes that I might not have really needed? So let's hope that what I ordered arrives soon.
 

Cellphone Upgrade and Other Stuff

 Yesterday was the day that I got around to upgrading my cellphone. My Galaxy s10 was starting to get a little funky on me and off to the Verizon store to get a new phone. I forgot how much of a pain in the ass getting new phone can be.The Verizon store that I normally go to is usually pretty empty but my dad and I didn't exactly want to wait around until noon for the Verizon store closest to me to open at noon. So it was the next town over that was open a little earlier. That Verizon store was a little on the busy side. Maybe because people were taking advantage of the trade in deal. I know that my dad and I were taking advantage of the trade in deal to. The only caveat was that I had to upgrade my cellphone plan to a 5G plan. I am not a fan of paying at least $50 more per month and the whole cellphone business has gotten really stupid. No matter what carrier you go to, the plan alone isn't as cheap as they used to be. Cellphones aren't as cheap as they used to be. There was a time that you didn't have to buy your phone, let alone pay for an upgrade when it came time to renew your contract. Now you have to pay for your phone outright or a payment plan tacked on to your cellphone bill. Verizon is really starting to push these little add-ons. For an extra $10 per month, you can get a streaming subscription or whatever else is available. I do not watch videos on my cellphone. But my dad and I spent an hour and a half getting new phones and setting them up. My dad got a little confused when the bill came due. Yes, you have to pay a little something upfront when you get new phones. I am dreading the next cellphone bill due to activation fees.

The phones that my dad and I went with were the Samsung s24 phones. We are already familiar with the Samsung line. I could have gone with the Galaxy flip smart phone but I know that I would bust that in a half an hour since I am a retail employee and like most retail employees, I carry my cellphone in my back pocket. I am not thrilled with resetting passwords on my phone (I do tons of online shopping among other things) but I am enjoying a brighter screen and a bigger screen.

Since I am going in for surgery on Wednesday, I am trying to get as much done as I can before I go. Tomorrow is the day that I find out what time my surgery is and when I have to be there. In some ways, I hope that my surgery is really early. Early as in I have to be at the hospital at 5am. The reason is that most surgeries have the direction that you can't have anything after midnight. So I wouldn't be able to have a cup of tea before my surgery. I would only be able to have a sip of water when I take my medication. Only a sip because they want an empty stomach for surgery. The whole reason why I want to get as much as I can done now is that I won't be able to do it after my surgery.

Thus far, I have slowly been working through my way through my candle collection and current candle is the Bath and Body Works Diamond of the Season from their Bridgerton collaboration. Diamond of the Season is a dead ringer for Sunshine and Daffodils from Bath and Body Works. Since I am going to be off for a while, I can work on using up more candles. I have no idea on why I want to use up more candles if the Bath and Body Works Candle Day is coming up. I have enough saved up in gift cards to get 3 candles, maybe 4 if I play my cards right. But we shall see how that goes.

Coming Down to the Wire

In a little less than 7 days, I will be having gallbladder surgery. I keep thinking if I should honestly wear perfume the day of my surgery. The last time I had surgery to have 8 teeth removed, I wore perfume but this time it's a little different. The first time, it was my teeth and this time around it is going to be on my stomach. If what I am reading is true, it's no lotions or perfumes. But I am thinking of the tiniest smidgen on my ankles.

Will I be going for heavy hitters like any of my Amouage offerings or some vintage Mitsouko? It's going to have to be a hard no. The last time I had surgery I wore Chanel no 22. I can't help but think that it might work better this time around. When I wore no 22 for my teeth, there was only the EDT version and the parfum hadn't been released yet. Since I have the parfum version, I can put the smallest dab that I can on my ankles. I could go the Sarrasins or De Profundis route but I honestly don't think that it would fully work. Sarrasins is too much of a slutty, leathery jasmine but actually De Profundis might work but I am not fully sure I would want to wear De Profundis for my surgery. At this point I am limiting myself to perfumes that I can dab on my ankles. I am sure that I have a few others that I can use as well but I have so many strong perfumes.

Another option for me is maybe a dab of no 19 extrait. Less is more at this point when it comes to the day of the surgery. It's a different version to the title of Why I wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy type of deal. Worst case scenario is that I don't wear perfume but instead of my ankles, I might just go with in between my toes. What I am looking forward to is being able to wear what I want when I want. Maybe I won't be wearing so much no 5. There is the other option of that is exactly all I will wear while on medical leave even if I don't wear anything on the day of my surgery.

 

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.
 

My First Bottle of No 5

Even though it's Labor Day in the US, it was a day of labor for me. Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer and beginning of fall. I wasn't at work today but after procrastinating for a few months, I moved all the clothes that I had in the guest bedroom back into my bedroom. I don't know how many dressers that have been moved in and out of my room these past few months. I could have started months ago to start putting those clothes away but never could muster the motivation to do it. So my clothes are now back in drawers. My candles haven't made it over into my room but I don't have the same set up nor space to have them in my room. What I did manage to get was my bottles of De Profundis and Sarrasins out. I am a little excited to start going through my collection to see what I want to keep and what I can sell. I am still looking for a place where I can drop off my unwanted perfume and have someone else sell it for me.

Way back before I started to seriously collect perfume, I did try the Chanel no 5 hand cream. I don't know what the hell happened to that hand cream but I think that the hand cream might have been either left out for years or was in the back of the cabinet and rather than throw the thing out, the sales people put a try me sticker and put it on the counter. So I promptly ignored no 5 for a few years, until the release of Eau Premiere. When I tried Eau Premiere, is when I began to understand no 5. 

When I was at the perfume counter and I thought I was getting a bottle of Eau Premiere but got a bottle of the long discontinued Sensual Elixir. So off to the Chanel website and ordered the Eau Premiere and a bottle of no 5 edp or I might have gotten the extrait first. But when I was working on one of our guest bedrooms, I found my first bottle of no 5 edp. The bottle is about 2/3 empty and when I took a whiff, I noticed on how different the first bottle smells compared to the most current bottle of no 5 edt. I find that the older bottle is much less powdery and less floral smelling. I am thinking that Chanel might have either had to do some serious reformulations to suit modern tastes of the rose and jasmine harvests got pretty funky. But there is a fairly noticeable difference if you do a side by side comparison and I have noticed that in the edt version as well. Let's see what I can do with my perfume collection before I test out more no 5 or add anything new.
 

Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille Body Spray

 I don't know if this was a regional thing, but back in the day, there was a company that sold knock offs of popular perfumes. This isn't a new thing but I mostly saw these knock offs at my local drug store/cheap groceries place. This place was the type of grocery store chain that was the only place in town that accepted food stamps or if you made too much money for food stamps, you went there to shop for groceries. In their health and beauty area, they had this spot where the perfumes were. These bottles were those aerosol bottles that always said on the bottle that they smelled like Clinique Happy or CK Obsession and down the line. I remember that the aerosol sprayed something pretty damn close to Happy that I did buy a bottle. Let's just say that I have always lived at least a half an hour or 45 minutes from an outlet mall or a proper mall. I remember at that time, I was down to my last dregs of Clinique Happy, had $15 in fun money for at least a week and a half. This was back when I was in high school and this was in the '90's. My parents were not going to take me to the mall to buy a bottle of perfume and were not going to buy it for me. Their view was if I wanted that perfume so badly, I had to save up for it and have someone else take me. Clinique Happy was pretty much my go to perfume in high school. I got bored with the Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon pretty quickly but liked to wear it once in a while. That was the last time I bought any kind of perfume that came is aerosol form until maybe sometime last year.

I think that it was sometime last year that I had bought a 6.8 ounce bottle of Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille body spray. My rational at the time is that I probably wasn't going to own a full bottle of the EDP any time soon. I wasn't exactly willing to buy a Tom Ford offering for an Amouage price. So my options were the travel spray or the body spray. For $80 I could get 150ml, I couldn't exactly refuse that price. I had initially placed it on my dresser and it somehow got moved. So it languished for a year before I pulled it out. From all my previous notions about aerosol cans, I figured that it would be fine. Turns out that I was dead wrong.

When I first tested out this version, I got a whopping dose of Play-Doh and nothing else. I figured that it was because it had never been sprayed before and it pretty much sat around for a little over a year before I tried it. The second time I had gotten that big dose of Play-Doh and that smell that one gets when you spay an aerosol can. Both notes never went away and was left wondering on why did I spend that $80. Then some hints of Tobacco Vanille started to come and then disappeared quickly. The whole thing was a waste of time and money. I am probably going to have to either pitch it or sell it. What's the point of this whole thing when I am not getting what I actually wanted. I wanted a little more of the Tobacco Vanille and not the Play-doh aerosol combo thing. I could have don't without the latter two. At this point in the game, I am not afraid of saying that something sucks and as far as I know, no perfume company reads my blog.

Fall is Slowly Coming

In Ohio, we are getting into the tail end of August. My local school system started school on Thursday. It's funny how early kids go back to school now. When I went to school, our school year started a few days before Labor Day. When most of my classmates were in 4H, it would have been wiser to start school after Labor Day. Most of the 4H kids were at school on Monday and Tuesday but were at the local fair the rest of the week. So the first week of school was pretty much a waste of time when I went to school.

With fall on it's way, that means it's time for everything that is either pumpkin or apple. I honestly prefer apple over pumpkin and this whole pumpkin spice craze has gotten out of hand. There is something about the taste and smell of pumpkin spice that makes me gag.

The Honeycrisp Apple candles from Bath and Body Works hasn't come out yet and in some ways I am happy and in other ways I am sad. I am currently on a strict no buy in terms of candles. I am not buying anymore candles until Candle Day in December. So until next fall, I will not be buying any Honeycrisp Apple candles until then or I get a Bath and Body Works gift card for my birthday. At the end of the day, not getting anymore candles until Candle Day will be good for me. It will allow me to use up some of what I have and I have five or six Honeycrisp Apple candles, so my stock is fine.

Since fall is on the way, it's time for me to pull out LADDM and Vanilla Flash. I haven't worn my stash of Andy Tauer's work too much. One, I couldn't get to it and two, out of sight and out of mind. But I found both Vanilla Flash and LADDM and put them front and center. But since fall is on it's way, I do have to pull out more of my transition scents.

Since I have pulled out Vanilla Flash and have worn it, I got to thinking about Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille. Truth be told, I find Tobacco Vanille to be stupid expensive for what it is. For the price of a full bottle of Tobacco Vanille, I can think of many other nicer perfumes for the same price. A travel spray of Tobacco Vanille is around $75 and that is about 10ml of perfume. Vanilla Flash is the same price for 30ml of perfume and I find that Vanilla Flash is a nicer perfume. One could say that it's Andy Tauer does Tobacco Vanille but I find that Vanilla Flash is better made and has that Tauer base that I love so much.
 

End of Vacation and Neela Vermeire Pichola Review

I am finishing up the last day of my vacation and I don't want to go back to work. Who really wants to go back to work after vacation? Sydney is doing better but we still need to take her to the vet on Friday to see if we keep her on antibiotics, add a new one or keep her on what she is now. When the appointment was made, I had to call my manager to see if I could switch days with someone. I work retail and finding someone to switch shifts is akin to finding a unicorn. The only person that might have been able to do it, wasn't able to. I was asked if there was any way that I could work, even a short shift. Things were worked out and my folks had said that they didn't really want me to miss work and to just go to work. This is just a vacation that really sucks. I wasn't able to burn a candle and the only thing that I did that was fun was the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday before Sydney got sick.

 Earlier this year, I was poking around Luckyscent and was looking at their sale stuff. The only reason why I was doing that was because they had sent me an e-mail about the sale stuff. It's a rarity that I order from Luckyscent anymore. No funds, things are a little too expensive (I'm looking at you, Diaghilev) and my collection is big enough as it is without adding more. I am still on my travel spray kick. Now imagine my luck to find the travel spray of Pichola. Twenty milliliters for $96 is pretty much a steal in niche perfume. For the price, I wasn't going to complain.

The first time I wore Pichola, I could have sworn that this was Serge Lutens' A la Nuit. That kind of clean jasmine with boatloads of greens that kept the jasmine from going full on skank. Then I got something akin to tangerine. I do have a difficult relationship when it comes to citrus in perfume. I either love it or I get queasy and with Pichola, I am not queasy but not full on loving it. I kind of like the citrus in this. Besides the jasmine, I am getting a pretty hefty dose of tuberose and my love for tuberose is pretty new. There was always something about tuberose that seemed to be a little too much for me for the longest time. So I think with trying and loving Nassomatto Nuda and then Narcotic V, I think that I was able to understand tuberose and fall in love with tuberose. I'm not getting a whole lot else in terms of notes that I can discern but Pichola has a sunny, tropical vibe to it and it's in a good way. Pichola isn't for teen girls or young women, she is for a woman who has grown up. The grown up woman that knows what she wants and knows how to get it.

I applied Pichola at noon and it's a little after 11pm and I am in probably the extreme dry down. I am not sure that I will get a full bottle but I love it enough to keep a travel spray on hand. I just might fall in love with Pichola to get a bottle, eventually.

This Vacation Sucks

I don't exactly know what happened to this vacation but it sucks.It's been a combination of things that has made it suck.

Didn't do a whole lot Sunday or Monday. That dresser should have been moved into my room by now but it's been a little too hot to really be moving furniture. Tuesday was the day that I went to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. I haven't been there since I was a sophomore in high school and that was over 20 years ago. Truth be told, I remember that the Rock Hall seemed to have more stuff and more interesting stuff when I went over 20 years ago. I personally think that when they made the gift shop a little bigger and added a little food court, they made the thing much smaller. I know that they are in the process of making it bigger but it is such a tiny museum that costs big bucks for admission. So it's going to be quite a while before I visit again.

But yesterday was a freaking adventure though. My eldest Lab (pictured), Sydney, spent most of the night not feeling good and spitting up. So that meant that my dad and I spent a good chunk of Wednesday afternoon at the vet. With a partially wooded lot, she could have eaten anything in the yard. We have bird feeders, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels and whatever else lives in the back yard. The vet was asking a lot of questions to see what could be ruled out. Diabetes and some kind of obstruction was ruled out. After x-rays and blood work, it turns out Sydney has only 1 kidney and it's a kidney infection. The vet is just waiting for some cultures to see what other antibiotics need to be added but she has been started on one to start to get it under control or just to not make it worse. Sometime Monday we will take her to the vet and I hope that she will be a bit better. I don't want her to be alone in case something happens. We are trying to have her drink as many fluids as we can and have her on a bland diet. With tons of fluid intake means she has to go out ever hour or two so someone has to stay with her to make sure she is drinking and going to the bathroom.

Since it has been so hot and with the house being closed up, I haven't been able to burn any candles so far. With some thunderstorms coming this way, it looks like I will probably be starting a candle and this is the candle I picked out on either last Friday or Saturday. With thunderstorms, who knows if I am going to lose electricity.
 

Gearing Up For Vacation

When I leave work at 8pm on Saturday, I will be on vacation. I spent some time today creating a grocery shopping list, making sure that my medication refills are called in and a couple other annoying things that needed to be handled. I am picking up the medications and groceries tomorrow and when it hits 8pm on Saturday, I can just go home and enjoy my vacation.

I started some preparations last week but some of that stuff fell apart and had to correct that stuff yesterday. I am not a coffee drinker but a tea drinker. My preferred drink is the Tazo chai concentrate. Pour in some milk, some tea and you can drink it hot or cold. I am too lazy to spend an extra two minutes heating it up so I just drink it cold. When Walmart started to offer delivery from store, I was mainly getting it that way instead of getting the 4 packs shipped to me two or three days after I ordered. But when I made a couple orders, I wasn't able to click the link on my phone to not have the substitutions. The Yogi chai tea is horrible, it tastes like sugar water with a little bit of honey mixed in. So yesterday's project was to return all of those things and make a Target order. With the rate that Walmart seems to be goofing up by not saying that they have something out of stock, Target seems to be a lot more consistent with this stuff.

What is getting me excited right now is that some furniture Jenga happened in my room and now I have a spot where I can actually burn some candles. So that is something that is going to happen sometime next week. I would like to get through at least one candle and start on another candle. This can't happen at a better time. Bath and Body Works is rolling out their fall candles. Thus far, Sweet Whiskey and Frozen Lake have been released and I am waiting on Honeycrisp Apple to make a comeback. If Apple Weather comes out, that will be a bonus. I am down to three Honeycrisp Apple candles and this is the candle that I stock up on every year outside of the Winter candle. Honeycrisp Apple is straight up apple with no pumpkin spice or anything pumpkin mixed in.

I do hope that I will be able to try something new in terms of perfume. I do have a couple things laid out and I am hoping that I do wear them and actually review. Once you get out of the habit of reviewing stuff, it's really hard to get back into the habit of doing reviews. While I am at it, why not see if I can start reading some of those books that I have stored on my Kindle. I seriously need to get back into the habit of reading as well.
 

Amazon Prime Day and Chanel no 5

 Well, tomorrow and Wednesday is Amazon Prime day. I am not exactly buying anything for me because there is nothing that I truly need but I am doing some shopping for other people. What was going on with my Kindle was that I had too many background things running and that is what was draining my battery and part of the reason of why the stupid thing wasn't charging. My mother needs a new Kindle because hers is just about dead. As soon as I order her that Kindle, I will be redeeming a $25 gift card and order my dad that one of those Xbox games that he has been thinking about for his birthday. If there is anything left over with that gift card, I will either buy a cheap book or an episode of Daria. Daria is one of those MTV shows that I loved and that was when MTV was still pretty good. But we shall see.

But for the past couple months, I have been wearing a whole lot of Chanel no 5 on days that I have to go to work. The only formulation of no 5 I won't wear is the parfum. The parfum is just too fabulous to wear to work. It's a good thing that I have so much no 5 that I can wear it with abandon. The only other perfume that I have been wearing to work is CdG Kyoto. With all the heat that we have been having, I want something a little more dry and cooling. I could probably go for L'Air du Desert but it doesn't have the cooling effect that Kyoto does.

I still haven't gotten that stupid dresser into my bedroom. It seems like every time I want to do just that, my mother changes her mind. What I had to do is tell her is that I am tired of most of my belongings spread across three rooms. I would love to get that dresser in my room and go through my clothes and figure out what do I want to keep, throw out or donate. What I truly want to do is actually use some of my candles. I have no place high enough to use my candles. My nightstand is too low, the high boy dresser has a TV and I would rather not destroy that. I would love to have a spot to show case some of my perfumes and have a little more selection than what I have now.

Grocery Delivery and Chanel no 19

 I have blogged fairly recently about Door Dash and have made some comments about having food delivered. But somethings have changed in the past couple weeks. I have become one of those psychos that gets most of my groceries delivered now. I have epilepsy and I do not drive. It's a tough thing to go grocery shopping. When I leave work, I try to grab the things I need and head home. I know that for $100 a year, I can join the Target Circle and get free same day delivery. Since I am on Medicaid, I can get Amazon Prime and Walmart Plus for much less. But if I am not shopping on Amazon or Walmart, I would need to spend at least $10 per order and most places have some kind of minimum threshold before I can get same day delivery and this is not including tip.

For quite a while, the Walmart closest to me did not do same day delivery to my house. I live in a goofy spot. Most places either don't deliver or charge a little more. I live in a rural area and not being able to drive, I am more dependent on delivery services more than your average person. But in the past two and a half weeks, I have been able to have groceries delivered to my house at no extra charge from Walmart. I guess all that griping on Twitter might have paid off. I can't be the only disabled person that is a little more reliant on delivery services. My blind friend has the same issues with trying to find rides and someone help her with grocery shopping. I gave her the heads up with Walmart Plus. Why not give someone else a helping hand? So my dry goods are delivered to my door and I pick out my fruits, veggies and meat in person. I can't fully trust someone else to pick out those things yet. Some people like the convenience but it's a lifeline for me.

I am still having some issues with the most current version of no 19 EDP. The bottle that I currently have is at least 10 plus years old. Last week, I had a huge hankering for some no 19 and found my 2 vintage versions of the EDP. While I do have a couple vintage travel EDT versions, I couldn't really get to those. The bottle in the picture might be from sometime in the 80's or 90's. I will admit that I enjoy the vintage version of no 19 much better than the current version. I think that it is the musk that is used in the vintage that I like a little better. The whole set up in the vintage version of no 19 seems to be better. I know reformulations are inevitable but I am not the biggest fan of them. Most of the time, reformulations make a perfume worse off. Mitsouko is one of the few perfumes that in spite of not having actual oakmoss in it anymore, the reformulation has Mitsouko still smelling like Mitsouko. If someone tried to bring back Deneuve, it probably wouldn't smell like it should. But is Deneuve was rereleased, I would still give it a go because why shouldn't I give it a shot?

Amouage Epic

If memory serves me right, Amouage Epic for women was my second Amouage purchase. I had bought it from Luckyscent, this was back in the day where I was wary of purchasing decants from the Perfumed Court. I remembered liking it but not really understanding it. Mind you, I was an inexperienced perfumista and never really explored perfume in depth before. Before I was seriously into perfume, I mainly wore Clinique Happy, Estee Lauder Pleasures, CK Obsession and BBW Cucumber Melon. You know, perfumes that were easy to get and with the exception of Obsession, cheap and fairly easy to wear. What mostly attracted me to Epic was the story of Turnadot because I love the aria, Nessun Dorma and the green bottle and green is my favorite perfume.

I still haven't gotten that dresser into my bedroom and don't have a whole lot of access to most of my collection but managed to get my hands on my bottle of Epic. But a funny thing happened. It was either Monday of last week or Wednesday, I had worn Epic. I remember it being in the 80's and pretty humid. I haven't worn the EDP in quite a while so I decided to put some on. I think that because I haven't really worn Epic a whole lot recently, the perfume in the spray mechanism was probably getting on the stale side. This was the first time that I had really noticed the oud in Epic. There were always hints of something sour to my nose but I never could quite put two and two together. I think when I did review an amber dominant perfume and then another oud dominant perfume, I realized that amber and oud  perfumes were not exactly my thing or something that I would be iffy on.

Epic was always this spicy rose with a hint of resin but never smelled a whopping dose of oud in it before. Even my dabber of Epic 56 doesn't give my a huge dose of oud but with the decant being a dabber, I wouldn't be able to get the full effect of Epic 56. But I am thinking that Epic might be more of a winter perfume. Since I am slowly working my way through my Amouages, the only two that I really seem to be enjoying are Jubilation 25 and Lyric. All the other ones that I have, there is something in them that is starting to bother me. Maybe my tastes have changed or there might be notes in the Amouage bottles that I own that I have never liked. It kind of makes me sad though. I have spent a small fortune on Amouage perfumes already.
 

The Perfumes That I Wish Would Come Back

Here in Ohio, we are in the beginnings of a heatwave. My household turned on the air conditioning this morning. Usually it is my mother that doesn't want the air conditioning turned on, this time it was my dad. He said it wasn't quite hot enough. So this week it's probably going to be a week of no 19 edt, Jicky and Worth Courtesan. Even with air conditioning, I don't want anything too heavy. 

So far, I have more access to my perfume collection and was able to pull out Une Rose Chypree and my Taur samples. I am still trying to locate my bottle of Une Rose Vermeille but I have my 2 spray vials of it to tide me over. I just don't want to pull out the unopened bottle of Une Rose Vermeille yet.

It seems like shortly before the pandemic, Andy Tauer had made a slew of discontinuations. Noontide Petals, Une Rose Chypree and Une Rose Vermeille were discontinued pretty quickly. A few others were discontinued along with the three I just mentioned. I had managed to nab backup bottles of Noontide Petals and Vermeille but wasn't quick enough to grab a bottle of Chypree. Even though I have a more difficult relationship with Vermeille, I do enjoy it. Vermeille has a huge raspberry note that can be irritating on the wrong day but Vermeille has the lasting power of nuclear waste. Even after using Tide, Dawn dish soap and a couple showers, Vermeille is still there. Which is pretty strange because I have dry skin and even with lotion, my skin still eats perfume like their is no tomorrow. Maybe Andy Tauer had to make some cuts to his line up and those three ended up on the chopping block.

There are other perfumes like Guerlain's Liu and L'Heure de Nuit that I would love to see a comeback. Liu was Guerlain's take on no 5 and L'Heure de Nuit was L'Heure de Bleue toned down. I did manage to get a bottle of L'Heure de Nuit but not Liu. But a whole lot of these purchases were made in better times. But I think with Liu and L'Heure de Nuit, they were bee bottle exclusives and probably too expensive for a lot of people to really buy.

But I am hoping that some, if not all, of these perfumes will come back. Guerlain has the means to do this, especially will all of the Shalimar flankers that they have cranked out in the past few years.