I'm Sitting Here

I'm sitting at a computer and rolling my eyes. When a dog starts nosing around and decides to pounce on something they shouldn't, it usually ends badly. One of my dogs managed to eat a whole bag of jelly beans and knocks over half of my collection of perfume. By the saving grace of the perfume gods, I was lucky and none of the bottles broke. Let's just leave it at the fact that she is not feeling so hot afterward. So far, I think that I got off light because the last time that happened was about 3 months ago and she ate a 3 pound bag of M&M's.

Every day, what can be the best part of my day can be the most the most difficult. Picking out which perfume can be tough. A part of me wonders why I cannot be faithful to 3 or 4 perfumes at the most. Perfume can be fun though because there is quite a bit out there. Every perfumer has a different interpretation of certain notes. But some days, it can be the fist bottle or decant that I grab or it take me a couple hours to even attempt to decide. What can make things difficult is picking something that is office friendly. I just can't waltz in to work wearing MKK because it is over the top skank or Sarrasins because it has the whole hooker vibe to it. So much of what I wear to work is main stream and classic scents.

Insanity

Ever since I became an aunt three years ago, I started to dread this time of year. Reason being is that both of my nephews were born in November and before I know it, it's Christmas and I must get even more gifts. I used to be able to get away with getting only one gift for each nephew and now it has to be two. This year, I have been somewhat forced to drag out my Christmas shopping. Instead of just going to the mall two or three days ahead of Christmas, I did part of it after Thanksgiving, and I will be able to finish it up in a couple of weeks.

Instead of getting a butt load of decants this month, it turned to be getting massive amounts of Christmas presents and chocolate. I never really know if I have forgotten anyone or I have that one impossible person to shop for. What can be great about the mass amounts of Harry and David chocolate covered Bing cherries that I ordered, is that half the time, I don't even gift those.

Now, that my sinus infection is mostly gone and now I can finally breathe. With now having the ability to breathe, I can begin to wear my beloved Amouages and many other of my perfumes. It really does suck when one has some kind of head cold or sinus infection.

Gone on Long Enough

I've been sick for 7 days now without being able to smell much at all. That means no enjoyment of the perfumes that I love and the potential to find a new love out of my huge pile of untested perfumes. For the past couple of days, I have been draining and do have some ability to smell, but not enough to try anything new. Being sick, I have to avoid anything that is "perfumey". Mitsouko isn't happening, any Amouage perfumes, and many others like it bring on a long coughing fit. Le Labo Labdanum 18 and Chanel no. 22 are the only ones working right now. Even though I really can't smell them that well.

Since it is the holiday season, my email in box is overflowing with deals. Some of them are not even deals at all. Free shipping? Most have just lowered the threshold that is required to get free shipping. Ten or twenty percent off my order? That doesn't exactly thrill me. Buy one, get one is where my interest is increased. About half the time, the percentage off just means that I pay next to nothing for shipping. Thus far, in my Christmas shopping, I've bought all I've needed for my two nephews, got two small gifts for my parents. All I have left to get is the rest of my parents' gifts, get something for my grandmothers and I'm done.

But I am kind of cursed with the family that is hard to shop for. It's either I can't afford it, almost impossible to find or they have everything. I'm one of those people who are not willing to spend money on cousins and many aunts and uncles. No matter what I say to them, I'm not about to spend $150 a piece.

Sick and Bookish

Being a perfume fanatic and having a head cold do not mix well. Not being able to smell or taste much of anything since Wednesday is a real drag, so my Guerlain Jicky EDT was done with lots of nose blowing and memory. I was hoping to test one perfume and review that along with Jicky.

Every time that I do get sick, I get pretty bookish. Before I fell down the rabbit hole of perfume, I was an avid book collector. I wasn't collecting these really rare or very old books, but every time I was at Borders, I was easily spending $125 on new books. Now since Borders has closed, I don't have bookstore near me. And I find that sad that there are not that many bookstores around to just hang around in. I've managed to order 4 new books for a really decent price.

What is pretty sad is that there are very few brick and mortor bookstores. Barnes and Noble is probably the only national chain left. I've never been much of a Barnes and Noble fan. Prices at Barnes and Noble have always seemed to be on the steep side. It's paper and glue and they mark the price up $3 or $4 more than the listing price. With Borders, you didn't have the sky high pricing of Barnes and Noble. With Barnes and Noble, I've never had seen the selection like I would at Borders. Yes, 9 times out of 10, Borders not only had better pricing but a better selection of books.

Guerlain Jicky EDT Review

I believe that I am starting to really 'get' a few of the Guerlain classics. It's finally love with Mitsouko, Shalimar is one of my comfort scents and now Jicky is my most recent. When I had first tried Jicky (EDP form), I got the impression of floor wax but the more I wore Jicky, my opinion did change. I think after trying different perfumes and understanding perfume notes changed my opinion.

Since I am somewhat of a glutton for punishment, I ordered a large decant of Jicky in EDT form (it was cheap!) and wanted to see what the difference was between the EDP version and the EDT version. The EDT version's citrus is much brighter and kind of sharp. The citrus does hang on to the front and center for quite a while. Then the lavender comes into play but it seems to be a little fainter than in the EDP. What I do love about Jicky is the dry down. The civet comes out and plays with the lavender. The civet renders the lavender as not your regular aromatherapy type of lavender. After getting no staying power the the EDT version of Mitsouko, Jicky lasted 3 hours on my skin. I wouldn't get a bottle of Jicky in EDT form due to the lasting power but I might have to because it is almost impossible to find Jicky in EDP form without paying an arm and a leg.

This is Hilarious!

I've been a little panicky with Chanel no. 5. Ever since I read on 1000 Fragrances and Perfume Shrine (both perfume blogs) that there is might be an end to Chanel no. 5 as we know it or Chanel no. 5 might be discontinued. Even though I have a 1.7 oz EDP, the Sensual Elixer, and Eau Premier, I ordered a back up bottle just in case. I hope that this whole allergen and needing to protect a small percentage of the population blows over. I think it's the whole minority is overruling the majority. What is hilarious is that I spent $75 on a 1.2 ounce bottle on Chanel no.5 and I was not amused. It was the whole, "Seventy-four dollars on a small bottle of perfume? That's crazy!" mentality that I had adopted since I have started ordering decants. I've gotten used to spending $50 for around 5 or 6 decants. It's been that long since I had bought a full bottle of perfume.

There Are Days

I've never quite understood the appeal of Apple computers nor the iPhone but I will admit to loving iPods. Thus far, I've had 2 iPod Classics, what is probably the first generation Shuffle, the current version of the Shuffle and now an iPod Nano. As of now, I am arguing with my computer, iTunes, and trying to get this Nano to work. This is the first time that I have ever had an issue with setting up an iPod. My computer was finding the new iPod but iTunes was not. Then it hit me, instead of installing and then reinstalling iTunes, why not see if there are up dates. Sure enough there were and I downloaded the upgrades and I was able to sync everything up. After figuring all that stuff out, I was too tired to take a real good look at how the Nano itself worked. Hey, after working 8 hours and then spending 2 hours trying to figure out how to deal with iTunes, I just wasn't exactly willing to stay up until 3 in the morning to test drive this thing.

Now I have had this iPod up and running for a few days now and have been listening to it. I am having a difficult time trying to get this thing synced to my computer. I am not understanding why after all of the aggravation of setting this thing up, my computer will not recognize the Nano. My computer is telling me that the USB is malfunctioning. After spending $150 and after working on iTunes for two hours, I'm more than a little irate that this is going on.