Question:  If you use scented products, how many is too many?  I mean, think about it.  Scented laundry detergent, scented moisturizer, scented face wash, body wash, deodourant, shaving cream, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, not to mention those weird “feminine hygiene”  products.  (Hygiene is in quotation marks because of the obvious debate between having a chemically-scented crotch or just letting it smell like, you know, a vulva.)  After all that, what about perfume?  If you wear perfume do you stop using other scented products or just slather the stink all over the place? Hmmm.  Perfume alone is a little much for me, and since dating  Nelson, I have had to cut out a lot of other scented products I hadn’t even thought about.  If we’re in a department store and have to walk through the makeup department to get through, or the cleaning products aisle in Superstore, his eyes water like crazy and he can’t breathe, turning what never used to be an issue into a huge one.   When I think of perfume, anyway, I think of my grandmother, spraying on Chanel no. 5 every day on the same clothes and hair.  Stale perfume over stale perfume.  She gave me a vacuum cleaner last time I was in Golden, which I have unrelated bad memories about(I had really long hair when I was a kid, and the vacuum cleaner seemed to really want to eat some), and every time I use it, that damn Chanel wafts into the air again. Maybe this perfumed everything business originated when everybody smoked and couldn’t smell anything, anyway.

I have been reading a lot of posts on Kiss My Ass, Cosmo, and have been kind of surprised at how much of a debate the beauty industry creates, especially around shaving.  I am a bit torn between feeling like a gorilla and supporting an industry which supports razor burn and ingrown hairs.  While I agree that it is ridiculous that women are expected to be absolutely hairless, I am confused at how not shaving your legs can really cause much alarm or political action.

Okay, I should really start packing.  I require a large plastic tub for moving, but it happens to be in the back of the under-the-stairs storage mess.  Some of my unwarranted hesitation stems from getting crushed red chili flakes in my eye while transfering spices to jars yesterday, causing me to emit the strangest noise. I don’t think I could duplicate it.