February 8, 2005 Making Scents of It All Doggie Shampoo Trooper stinks. Literally, he stinks. For some reason, whether it be the cancer or his age or some combination of the two, he has his days when the smell that eminates off of him is wretched. Don't even talk about getting him into the car. The last time he went for a ride in my car, I had to buy a Glade car plug-in to cover the stench. And then the plug-in got overwhelming, so I kept the windows down for quite a while. After his neck surgery (which we thought would cure his stinky problem), the smell continued, so I vowed that once his stitches were out, I would take him to the groomer's. Today was the day for that to happen, so we hopped in the car at 7:45am and made the trip around the lake to Best Friends Pet Grooming. I dropped him off, told the groomer about his health status (so she wouldn't be freaked out by the tumor on his butt), and headed back to the house for the day. On the way home, it smelled worse than when Trooper was in the car. I got back and spritzed the back seat with Febreeze very lightly, but something about having the windows closed and the sun on the windshield created a greenhouse effect, and when I next got in the car, I was nearly bowled over by the "fresh" scent wafting in through the back. Fresh air is the best cure for something that stinks, I'm finding. When I brought Trooper home later that day, he smelled clean. Mom complains about other groomers because they make the dogs smell like "French whores." I don't know what's so special about French prostitutes that makes them smell so strongly. Is it a regional thing? Do German whores smell like flower petals? Are Japanese hookers known for their heavy essence of ylang-ylang? Do male sex workers in Amsterdam give off a hint of vanilla? At any rate, Trooper had no gigolo scent to him, just a nice shampoo scent. And his fur was very soft, because of the "extra brushing" they charged me for. A Little Hippyish, but Nice I won my eBay auction! I don't know why it's so thrilling to spend more money on something than somebody else does, but there's always that moment of "yes!!!" when you get the notification that your bid was the highest at closing. I had originally gone on eBay to find a particular discontinued scent of Yankee Candle for someone who was looking for it on ThreeWayAction, and I decided to see if someone was selling Crabtree & Evelyn's Patchouli Shower Gel, which was discontinued several years ago. I was first turned on to the scent by my friend (and rare foray into bisexuality) Clarinda, who used it all the time. Whenever I'd shower at her house, I'd use the gel. That scent, and the smell of Nexxus Humectress shampoo and Therappe conditioner makes me think of that simpler time between college and getting a "real" job. I bought the shower gel ever since that time, even though it was expensive and I was poor. For Christmas and birthday gifts, I would always ask for it. One year, Sean came back from the mall and told me the woman at C&E told him that it was discontinued. She told him to try Marshall's, because they often sold discontinued scents, but Sean went there with no luck. I tried other patchouli-scented products after that, but they were far too musky for my taste. That hippy-style, oily patchouli scent isn't what I like to smell like. I don't follow the Grateful Dead, and I'm not a lesbian vegan tantric yoga instructor, so there's really no need for all that. The Crabtree & Evelyn scent is very light and clean. It can either be masculine or feminine, depending on who's wearing it (like that Calvin Klein scent tried to be, only that smelled like grapefruit on me, which I don't much care to smell like), and unlike "real" patchouli, it smells clean, rather than musty. Several days ago, I placed a bid on some of the gel from a seller on eBay. This guy was a dickwad, though, because I'd just re-signed up with eBay with my "professional" e-mail address, rather than the yahoo account that I've had for awhile, he declined my bid (which was much higher than what was bid at the time). He said he had the right to refuse anyone with less than five positive feedback posts. I wrote to him, telling him that I wasn't trolling around looking to screw up peoples' auctions, but that I was simply interested in the bath gel, and if he'd reconsider, I'd put in a high bid. He never replied to me, so I went looking and found another person who was selling the same product. I got into a bit of a bidding war with someone else who seemed to desperately want the product, but in the end, I spent just slightly over the price it went for in the stores when I was buying it on a regular basis. It arrived in the mail today, which was a surprise until I looked back at the auction and noticed that the woman selling the product lived in Massachusetts, too. I immediately opened the bottle and took a whiff, and was instantly transported back to my just-post-college days, in that farmhouse up the hill. It didn't spark any bisexual feelings, however. Too bad for Bernice. The Scent of Patrick Mom occasionally leaves out lists of things I could do on my days off for her, and I'm more than happy to comply (hell, the rent is cheap and I get meals cooked for me most nights, I can run to the store for her once in awhile). Today's list read: Trooper to groomer's Rimadyl for Skottie Key for Heather Apparently, Heather lost the key to Mom's house, and I was to have a key made for her. I decided to get one made for Stephanie, as well. And I decided, since we were on the subject of keys, that Mom should have a copy of my car key, and vice versa. Same thing for Laurie. If I'm ever in a situation where I need someone to open up my car late at night, I'd rather call Laurie than Mom. So I decided to head to the Cambridgeside Galleria to have the keys made, and stop off on the way there at my storage unit, to see how big my space actually was (Laurie is going to need to store her stuff away when she moves in with her mom) and to grab my passport for my upcoming trip to Cancun. I thought it might be in one of the boxes marked "miscellaneous," and if I went looking for it in June, I'd probably have to tear the whole unit apart to find it. As it turned out, I opened up a box marked "desk drawer," and the passport was sitting right on the top of the pile of stuff contained inside. What I should have done was leave well enough alone, close the door and walk out with my passport. Instead, I opened up some more boxes, finding pictures I forgot I had (thus sparking the supplemental entry for today. (Warning: graphics-heavy, it may take awhile to load.) I also found a good portion of my collection of tumbled stones, a couple of CDs I'd like to have in the car, and two watches that I love, but needed new bands and batteries. Then I opened up a box to a very familiar scent. A couple of years ago, Saundra sent me a scented candle. She said that when she wrote, she would light candles that reflected what she thought her characters smelled like. I didn't quite understand the concept until she sent me a candle with a note that said, "This is what I imagine your smell is like." She got it down perfectly. It's an odd scent to describe. It's a bit patchouli-like, but not overwhelming. It has a hint of some spice that I can't identify, somewhere between anise and cinnamon. It's very earthy and smells like I'm "home." I've lit the candle very rarely, its scent being strong enough to fill up my bedroom or office in my old apartment. Smelling it reminds me of Saundra, and of how she thinks about me. Like I said, it was the perfect scent, and she hadn't even met me in-person or talked to me on the phone at that time. They say that scent is the strongest trigger of memory. If I could find a way of capturing all these scents into this entry, I'd make something like a "Scent Stories" disk and play it every once in awhile, because it was a pretty good day, overall.