What do I smell like today?

Fig and brown sugar lotion. Sounds strange but it actually smells quite good and at $3 a 8 oz bottle, quite cheap. And as a bonus, it moisturizes too! This was one of my purchases from yesterday.

Back in high school, I thought Muguet des bois was the best smelling perfume. It maybe cost $15/bottle..alot when you are babysitting at 50 cents/hour. Sadly the scent was quite weak and would wear off in less than an hour. I also liked this stuff from Yardley that Jean Shrimpton was the spokeswoman for. I had to borrow that from my friends. Some time in college, I discovered Shalimar. A friend said that stuff made her feel like a bitch in heat. This stuff was quite pricy, especially as I was living off a minimum wage job. A housemate used to sneak into my room to borrow some while I slept but I could smell it and wake up irritated because I had next to nothing whereas she was supported by over-indulgent parents. For many years, Shalimar would be the only thing I'd wear (aside from clothes). In 2002, some of us moms found ourselves in Paris. Many of the women smelled very good and seemed to be wearing the same perfume. But what? Could I ask them? I formulated the question..Quel odeur avez vous? or maybe Quel parfum portez-vous? Would this be rude? Finally in line for security in Amsterdam, a British woman standing near me had marinated herself in it from the nearby duty free shop and told me it was Jean Paul Gaultier Classique. World-wide, it is quite popular but not so much in the US. Still it was available at Hudson's (now called something else)and I had been wearing it almost every day until I was in Cancerland. Either my tastes have suddenly changed or I am just tired of it.

Chemo killed my apocrine glands. Of all the possible side effects listed, this was not one of them though others have noticed that they no longer needed deodorant. I was always worried whether they indeed had stopped working or maybe my sense of smell had changed and I just stunk without realizing it. I used deodorant anyway just to cover my bases. But after a year, they came back or maybe just my sense of smell returned.

I have seemed to stop losing eyelashes, which I seemed to do every few months AFTER I stopped chemo. My tight chemo curls morphed into soft curls then into waves. Now my hair is almost straight again. I have to use plenty of 'product' to ensure it doesn't hang limply. Who knows what the color is now? It was whitish-blonde before chemofest but grew back black and white. After someone had overestimated my age, I finally had it dyed. My roots look awfully dark.

I didn't wait for the salt to wear a clear path and went to the gym today and battled all those fresh with new resolutions. It will take a month or so for the gym to clear out. Then I treated myself to a New Orleans lunch with a friend..very yummy.

I picked up a new country today..Cyprus. Someone wanting to read about Castelvecchio which for some reason has surpassed 'donkey stew' in hits. Also popular..hummingbirds and their impostors. For cancer related posts, what color is your tumor? Mine, for the record and its insides at least, was white with little streaks of red.  I was expecting it to look more meaty.