The Scent Quest

My love for perfume sample bottles is as old as my Sephora membership card. Imagine, being able to try on somebody else's personality for a day, for free? I have accumulated many vials I will not open again (such as any of the Gwen Stefani products as they all smell like baby powder), but there are a few I splash on every once in a while: DKNY's Be Delicious, & Clinique's Happy.

I also discovered some of my favorite scents which I went on to purchase this way, which I suppose is the point. I fell in love with Burberry's the Beat the moment I put it on, & am almost out of it now. I really liked Aqualina's Pink Sugar from the sample bottle- I felt like a magical pink bubble princess every time I splashed it on. Unfortunately it never smells as good from the larger bottle as it did from the sample, but if I splash a little on after a bubble bath it smells terrific.

Sadly, the time has come when I am beginning to both a) run out of the Beat, & b) not be able to smell it when I put it on. The quest began in earnest for a new scent, & while I flirted with the idea of buying Be Delicious, I gave it to my sister as a birthday present last year, & don't want to smell the same as her [because everybody would totally notice. Totally.].

Fortunately! I finally managed to get around to ordering a different something that I had been meaning to get from Sephora, & with it came my FREE SAMPLES. I got Tocca's Brigitte, & Versace, which doesn't seem to have a name other than that & was thrown in the trash in a fit of why-won't-you-fucking-open fury.

HOWEVER, I think Tocca may be my new favorite brand. I love their concept: Old-world Paris? Film stars? Fellini's lover? Yes please! Brigitte is totally sexy to me (important! I'm the one wearing it), & not overpowering to others (perhaps even more important). It reminds me of the dust burning on the dressing room lights the first time they are turned on for the season & fresh greasepaint. It's a little bit of sawdust, and a whole lot of the glamour of theatre, darling.

I'm going to keep wearing the sample for a little while before I throw down for a whole bottle, but I think I've already convinced myself I love it.

Perhaps you are confused: We make the rules here.

365-4
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach.

Yesterday I was in the library, scanning things onto my flash drive to present in our first costume meeting that afternoon (I plugged my scanner in last night & it didn't work. Um). I finished up, checked out the poster sale, called my dad, & went to Kevin's class [a manic, aggressively scandalous man if there ever was one]. In the meeting with Anne, I tried to dig out my flash drive [which I keep on my key chain] to present the work, & found that I had lost my keys at some point.

I've been bugging out ever since: the campus lost & found people know me by sight, and this morning I definitely looked like a girl who had stayed up all night crying. I'm not generally the kind of person who loses things, & I hate that I am more or less powerless as to when they'll show up again.

If they don't show up by tomorrow, then I'll put in a work order for new ones, but since academic institutions enjoy imposing draconian laws upon those in their domain, I'm going to have to pay $120 for a new lock to be put in my room door AND the front door of the apartment. Because it is obviously
a) impossible for them to make a copy of one of my house mate's keys and
b) highly likely that somebody will find my keys and try every single door on campus until they open mine and steal not only my posessions, but everything in the apartment kitchen.

Really? There's a lot that's putting me off school this year, but slap this one right up on top for today.

When it's hot outside....

[Image via Daddy Likey]Yanno, Pam, I know that I'm probably supposed to hate on you here for being a "dumb whore", or being a detriment to the image of women everywhere, or some other New-York-liberal-educated-woman idea. But I just can't, because I am right there with you.

Who among us has not thrown on some underwear, gotten the favorite t-shirt out, + then suddenly run out of inspiration? There we are, in our underwear and dripping shower-hair, and we are not you, Pam. We cannot call it a day and go on to work, because we do not have bodyguards to protect us from that creepy man who lives in the lobby of our building.

Here's to you, Pam. With your bold work, hopefully one day I, and all women, will be able to show our cute underwear to more than just the next person who uses the dryer after us, will be able to survive the hottest of August days, and will no longer be puzzled by our unsatisfactory wardrobe options.

I, and my shorts, salute you.

It's hotter than hell.

Direct sunlight, stagnant air, mind-bending humidity. And all I can say?

OH HELL YES.

Closet Cleanout

I just attempted a closet cleanout, a la the one staged about a year ago by my most-mentioned blogger, Gala Darling [I could write a whole post about how much I love her... maybe I will!].

It didn't go too well. I'm very attached to a lot of the clothing that quite frankly doesn't fit me anymore. I had my sister around to help me out, + I was able to foist some stuff off on her, but... I get really sentimental about clothing! Fortunately I was finally in a mood to throw away the things that are just nasty + decaying (other than my favorite jeans... you will have to pry those from my cold, dead hands)... but my closet is still packed.

I think the issue is that I am moving into a somewhat more formal, 'grown-up' style, which leaves a lot of the hippie-vomit stuff I wore at the end of high school [still perfectly good, still fits me] out of the loop, and I haven't the heart to get rid of it... lots of it is handmade, and some of them were super-thrilling Goodwill finds.

The other issue is that my closet is too tiny. I know everybody says that, but my room is smaller than any of the college dormitories I have lived in, + my closet was literally designed for a twelve-year-old. So once you get the two old prom dresses and my shoe collection and the knitting projects in there, it runs out of space.

And, of course, there is the obvious fact that I pack all of my possessions into suitcases and move to school every four months, + I should probably just cheer up and get used to a life in transit, because I looked great the whole time I was in London, + I only had one suitcase worth of clothing.

No but really you guys

the galabot
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach.

I love my desk now. LOVE. Widescreen entertainment in front of me, photos hung all around, art supplies/stationery within easy reach. I think I could probably conquer the world from this corner.

I love stickers, I love finishing my Paris scrapbook in one night (!) I love talking about making plans, I love Danielle, I love boyfriends who go on vacation + bring me postcards, I love baking for people. I love the internet, I love big hats, I love white wine + being helpful around the house.

But right now I'm about to go love a long shower.

Happy August!

August is here, and so it is time for my coworkers and customers to start complaining about the summer being gone. I guess my job is more dependent upon the weather than some.

Although I've been out of school since April 25. And really, I wasn't actually in school last semester, but we won't get into that. So my summer has been nice and long. I haven't been rushing around doing nearly as many things as last summer (I think I was in NY seeing a show at least one a week last year. Fun, but tiring + expensive)- just a lot of relaxing. I'm almost done with my scrapbook, but other than that I've just been saving my money.

And I still have all of August. ALL of it. My birthday is this week, + then I got on vacation, + then I go on some more vacation. In between those I'll make some more money. Pretty sweet.