Our life story, one fragrance at a time.

This weekend, while getting ready to go to a Mary Kay party with my sister in law, I was inspired to pull out an old Mary Kay perfume that I had not worn in years. JOURNEY. I could remember what was going on in my life when I bought it, how much I loved it, and pondered for a moment why I stopped wearing it?

On the drive home from the party, Margie and I discussed, the fragrances of our lives. We had a good laugh, wondered what ever happened to certain perfumes and how could we smell them again? Her long lost love was Debbie Gibson's ELECTRIC YOUTH. That was the one we laughed over. I, being almost 5 years older, missed out on that one. We traced it to circa 1987, when my fragrance was probably LIZ CLAIBORNE. She said she also did the that, but probably a couple years later, when electric youth died out.

My earliest fragrance was probably Avon's SWEET HONESTY, probably purchased for me for Christmas by my Aunt Barb in 3rd or 4th grade. Not counting the countless Avon pins with the fragrance glace tucked inside a trap door that was like your training period with perfume. I still have my yellow kitty pin somewhere with a tiny bit of glace still remaining.

I remember a perfume called BLUE JEANS probably from 4th grade. It came in a box with a denim looking texture. If there is any fragrance I would love to return to for a day it would be BLUE JEANS. I have no idea who even manufctured it. In 5th grade Mom got me the Avon Church Mouse decanter filled with Delicate Daisies perfume. That wasn't as big a hit as I still have it in my drawer and it is 3/4 full.

Love's BABY SOFT was probably the next fragrance which began in 6th grade. I had the powder and the pink spray with the bubbled tops. Weren't they the best? Every now and then I have to take a sniff while at Walmart. Just to go back for a minute.

In junior high I began the stockpiling fragrances. I recall several Christmases and several Avon decanters. There was some bird from my grandmother, with most likely Bird of Paradise inside. I remember Here's my Heart and others.

High school brought new friends and new influences. A friend of mine wore Jean Nate, but I couldn't do it because that is my Grandmother's fragrance. When she branched out to WINDSONG I gave that a try. It was a little on the grown up side, but pretty. I also became very much a fan of ALYSSA ASHLEY'S musk. BONNE BELL's skin musk followed as did Avon's soft musk. Yes, just as high school was a time of trying to find myself, it was a time of no one particular signature fragrance.

College came and the musks did follow. But then I went through a time of testing the newer, not usually ME smells like BIJAN! and Opium (the generic of course). Liz Claiborne was a favorite as were some of the bath and body works scents like GINGHAM.

The one perfume I wanted so badly was ETERNITY. It was just so expensive! I finally splurged on that in grad school and was horrified to find out how completely overpowering it was! You could TASTE it! I recall putting it on BEFORE showering and then being fine.

When I got married in 1992, my fragrance was Victoria's Secret's VICTORIA. I am not even sure if they make it anymore. In my drawer I think I may still have a brand new bottle of it (purse size of course).

Then came the years of MARRIED WITHOUT CHILDREN. A part time teaching job with lots of time to shop and explore fragrance. In 1996 I fell in love with OCEAN DREAMS. Not for myself, but for a very close friend I left behind at Hillside Children's Center. I bought an expensive bottle of it as a goodbye gif for her when I left to work at the Crick. The photo at the top is of that perfume. I never did buy a bottle for myself as promised, as I learned that the salary at the Crick did not allow such extravagant self indulgences!

Then came children. I don't recall wearing much other than Bath and Body works bath splashes as fragrance (cheap!). The Christmas after Ethan was born I told Dave that I wanted Estee Lauder's Pleasures. I got it and used the whole bottle that year. It was nice, but I never really felt it was who I was. But the expense made me pretend!

In 2000, around the time I got pregnant with Jillian, I had bought myself a bottle of Mary Kay's JOURNEY on the black market (ebay). Again, still at the Crick, I couldn't shell out the $36 price tag. So I bought a full sized sample bottle for less than half the price. I lived in that fragrance and loved it all through my pregnancy. I had a happy pregnancy, as stressful as it was. The house building, house selling, moving....perhaps that is why once we moved, I never unpacked it?

After that I did a 2 year stretch of CLINIQUE'S HAPPY and HAPPY HEART. They were what they say...happy. Not sexy or heavy or beachy or musky....just....happy. It was all good. But then....I found ME! Well, the ME of 2005 anyway!

So we wrap the story up with where I am now. Sarah Jessica Parker's LOVELY. I am on my 2nd bottle now, my 2nd year stretch. Will it carry me into my 40s? Not sure. Depends on whatever else is out there for me...

So, I was happily watching an episode of Men in Trees (great show, by the way) which I taped (yeah, didn't TiVo, or download, I'm hip, but not that hip) and I saw that one of the main chicks had that knack, which I just DO NOT, for layering necklaces.

(Now, this chick also happened to be Justine Bateman, so I had to launch into a chorus of the Family Ties Theme Song, much to my husband's irritation, but you know, as much as I'm not hip, my mind is a steel trap of useless Pop Culture Knowledge. Ever going on Millionaire? I might be a good "phone a friend" for such things. Keep it in mind, but know I'll want a cut!)

So, I watch, check out the chick, sing a bit, but then ponder again, why is it some can layer the necklaces and some, like myself, just look like they couldn't make up their mind on what jewelry to wear? Now, in the photo above, you will see Jewel, (I will refrain from singing - but I may strumm a guitar) off another episode of Men in Trees, also working the dual necklace thing. Of course, she does have the boobs, which help her to pull off many the wardrobe trick, but I digress with my jealousy. I finally had the epiphany that the wardrobe woman for this series must be the one with the knack. You know, I'm offering up my pop culture knowledge for all the world to pillage, she ought to give it up with the fashion tips.

Many looks, for whatever reason, just stay illusive for some of us. No one but Diane Keaton, in my opinion, really has any business with the menswear look - except maybe Heidi Klum in some Vicki's Secret ads, but there is another dynamic at work there. Audrey Hepburn had the skinny black pants, as much as Gap tried to use her to bring the look to the masses, it remains hers. Some pull off the layered necklaces, or layered clothes, and some of us just end up looking like refugees. And, final case in point, let's face facts, French women have their scarves. There are some lines in the fashion sand that are really hard, for some of us, to cross.

So, to Justine, or Jewel, or wardrobe woman, as much as you brought aggrivation to my TV viewing experience, more power to you with the layered necklaces. I will continue my lifestyle of envy. I will, most likely, never quite get it, I am sure. I will always look like I am trying too hard to make it look as effortless as you. But you know, in this crazy life, if we don't have a fashion goal, what do we have, really?
-Cheryl

Thank you Santa! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, for my iPod! Even though I was not, at all times, a good girl, goodness knows, I do believe, that maybe in some small way, I was good enough to deserve it.

I am so impressed with it, really. What a cool device. It is so seamless with the iMac, and subsequently, I feel so techno savvy! It is a real youth inducing turn on! I mean, I know, to most "kids these days" it is no biggie, but the fact that now I can carry around 1,000 songs, expertly organized by me, self proclaimed "Music Gal," blows my little "brink of the technological revolution" mind. I have always felt that people of my EXACT age (...35 soon to be 36 - ack!) are just a TOUCH behind the computer curve as it is. In elementary school, I had NO computers, whereas my brother, 4 years my junior, had a burgeoning Commodore 64 lab, tape drives and all, at his disposal. In highschool, my class took keyboarding and subsequent classes took word processing. In college, papers would still be accepted if handwritten, and some of us did haul ass to the on campus computer labs, but I had an electric typewriter. Actually, I recall mine being a hot commodity around the end of the semester term paper crunch. When one of "us" in college got an electric typewriter that actually had word processing capabilities, it was the hot, HOT commodity on the floor. In the next four years, everyone came to school with their own desktops, and now you have wireless capability surging through most dorms. I have always, in this venue, felt just a little bit behind...but not anymore. I was already the Apple cheerleader, but I have gone totally over the top since the iPod...Apple really ought to be paying me for the free advertising I give out everywhere I can. Tim always calls me a Marketer's Wet Dream, and again, he has been proven true. Thank you Apple Gods, I will now buy anything you market to my quickly becoming middle age little mind!
-Cheryl
(...can't believe I mentioned the "S guy" at the beginning of this blog and wet dreams at the end!)

So, I said to myself, Self, it is TIME TO GET BACK TO NORMAL. This Christmas season, while wonderful and fun, has been exhausting! I now have been back to work, teaching, for two days, and it feels like it has been a MONTH. The first day back was the toughest, due to the need to "retrain the students," but also, in particular, because of not being able to graze all day on snack foods. I found myself arriving home with the best intentions of just having tea or something, and instead noshing on chips and dips in an almost visceral way. I HAD to have them. I also am craving sleep like nobody's business. By nature, I am a night owl...not a crazy one, but left to my own devices I like to go to bed around midnight and sleep until 8 or so. Over vacation, a couple of days I slept until NINE - as did my daughter, aka MiniMe. Now, as we arrive home each night, my daughter plays with her new dollies endlessly, and I can't help but be envious. They sit up, their eyes are alert, no struggle with the snooze button, no need for undereye concealer. They lay their heads back, they are asleep, with not a care in the world, no worries that they didn't water the Christmas tree, or forget to pay the cable bill. They are played with, but then left in their beds, sometimes for DAYS on end. "Vacation" should come with a buffer zone time at the end, maybe some half days back to work. Or,even better, practice days...where you are required to "keep" your normal hours, but aren't actually asked to teach any kids. Maybe an item to throw on the old contract negotiations table - yeah - like that'll fly! I'd probably have a better chance of getting to live the life of my daughter's dolls, if only for one, sweet, sleep filled day! Dream On!
-Cheryl