Wednesday Weirdness

What’s on the Sieve-like Mind of Musette

photo stolen Catherine White.Wordpress

It’s been a very weird few days – I did a Very Brave Thing, a few Smart Things and a couple of Dumb-as-Dirt things, all of which combine to negate the possibility of my doing a  real perfume review.  Instead, I will give you some quickie musings here.  I hope you will give me yours in return.  Carmine has been very busy trying to kill and eat our young renovation helper (one of my Smart Things – the helper, not Carmine trying to eat him) so he didn’t get a chance to hit random.org for the Ambre des Merveilles.  I promise to get on him – we’ll have a winner for that next week.

So!  My Very Brave Thing.  I called the Service (that’s what CPAs call the dreaded Three Letter Tax Hydra).  They called me.  I called them back.  I CALLED THE SERVICE.  Y’all just don’t know.  I would rather fight an entire arena of iron-clad velociraptors than deal with that entity (I refuse to write the actual acronym lest they, like Beetlejuice, materialize in my living room).  For years I have either thrown money at them or thrown money at my CPA to deal with them  – or both.  When I got the letter(s) and the call my first thought was to cut my own throat and set myself on fire.  Then I decided to just Grow the Hell Up, already.  So I called.  Turned out that…guess what?  If you talk to them, they are likely to talk to you!   Imagine that!  Both of their queries were things I can manage, sort of.  I did cry like a 3rd grade girl and I did throw up when it was all over – and then  I had to take a nap because I was too exhausted to blink.  But the moral of the story is this:  try to face your fears.  I made a lot of money for a lot of people by sucking it up and calling Total Strangers who had the capacity to just really darken my day – or throw a bucketload of money at me.  Either way, I wouldn’t know unless I made the call.  And I made those calls and took those meetings every stinkin’ day (and still do)   So I finally decided to employ the same approach to the Service.  Yeah, my guts still hurt.  But my nerves aren’t nearly as shot.

So Face a Fear.  Or, as my NY fortune cookie said “do not fear fear”.  Go do something that terrifies you.  Let me know how it turns out.

Pulling back a bit from the Internet.  Just a tad.  Still here and still loving it.  But I was spending so much time just boobling about on …okay..Facebook… flitting from link to link to link that I found myself unable to focus on things Not On The Computer.  Reading is becoming more difficult.  Writing notes (not typing emails.  WRITING.).  Painting went by the wayside.  So I’m taking a hiatus.  Not from the Posse.  Can’t do that.  Won’t.  Don’t need to.  But a lot of other social media has to ramp down (Facebook, I’m talking to YOU!).  I was looking for a visual for this post and came upon this interesting article.  How does Social Media work for you guys?  Do you spend inordinate amounts of time on Facebook (my #1 timewaster)?  Do you click sites ‘just because’?  Are you able to manage it easily or do you find yourself increasingly in thrall to a virtual world.  No right or wrong answer here – just my own nosiness.  Myself, I have now set up an alarm system, it allows me to spend specific amounts of time yakking – and then, when that buzzer goes off, I have 30 seconds to quit what I’m doing.  So far, it’s working.  Doing more meditation is helping, too.  I can feel my brain coming back to center instead of skittering all over the place, like a cockroach.  Btw – don’t any of you even THINK about leaving the Posse.  I would miss you terribly which means I would have to hunt you down like dogs and drag you, kicking and screaming, back into the fold.

Another scattershot query:

Who builds a brand-spankin’ new library  out at the back of beyond…..and closes it on TUESDAYS?    TUESDAYS?  What an odd day.  You have to drive through a maze of an industrial park to access this library…..and there’s a sign that says Closed TUESDAYS.  Not ‘closed THIS Tuesday’.  Every Tuesday.  Huh. 

Librarians, weigh in here:  whazzup with the Tuesday?

My new LOVE!  Frederic Malle Carnal Flower Hair Mist.  On a guy.  Yeah.  I said it.  ON A GUY. 
Here’s the thing:  that stuff is gorgeous!  Patty wore it in NY and we were on the subway and I was nuzzling her hair like a puppy.  But on me…well, the problem is my hair.  I wear it up and back-ish, so the whole idea of my wearing it for my own pleasure is moot.  And El O …well, I don’t think he’s smelled my hair in…well, he’s old and cranky and I think the whole ‘hair nuzzling’ thing is past (though I urge the rest of you to try it.  It is one of the loveliest ancillary products to come along in awhile).    Anyway, I put it on HIM! reasoning that since I love Carnal Flower like I love Rottweiler puppies, I would love it on him.  Patty was skeptical, thinking he would freak but he’s a game guy and said ‘okay’.  Holy Cats and Crackers!!!!  I was smitten.  And so was every other woman who came within 5 ft of him.  Carnal Flower perfume on a man is freaking GORGEOUS.  The Hair Mist is even more so because something in the ‘guy’ follicle changes it just  a tad.  It’s sexy as hell without screaming “I’m sexy and I know it”.  I spritzed it in his gorgeous silver hair two days running.  I watched both the paint lady and the cashier at Home Depot do an olfactory doubletake and then try to angle in for a closer whiff.  LOL!    Our postmistress said ‘what are you wearing?’….of course he had no clue  – “I dunno.  She sprayed something in my hair.  Why?  Does it smell weird?”  “Nooo.  It smells…wow…great!”.  Remember where I live, people??  Folks just DON’T SAY THAT!  So if you are wanting to attract or just want to salivate all over your sig other, get thee some Carnal Flower Hair Mist!  It really is amazing (and it’s different than just spritzing CF in your hair – don’t ask me why.  It just is).

Manly, yes! Oh, yes!

Culling Your Stuff. 

So.  They say the Universal Laws of Attraction require that one not hoard.  It’s totally okay to have tons of stuff – if you love and use it.  But if you just hang onto it for hanging-on’s sake, you are in VIOLATION!  And the U will not give you the stuff you really need.  I believe this, that hanging onto things ‘just because’ closes you off to the U’s gifts.  So when I had to move my art monograph library – again – (we were doing the floors – will tell you about the Very Dumb Thing later.  It involves my wonky respiratory system and sawdust.  Actually, that’s prolly all you need to know.  The rest is icky – but I digress)…..when I moved the library I realized that I’ve been hauling these extremely valuable, fragile books from place to place and at least a quarter of them are never opened – and I have a couple that are so valuable that they terrify me to even pick them up!  And that’s a bad thing.  So when it came time to reshelve I took a good looooong look at what I love, what I need and what I just had because I used to be married to a rare-book dealer.  I’m now happily selling that quarter of the library.  What I have remaining is works that really do mean something to me.  And hey!  guess what else I had to move?  Yeppers!  My perfume armoire.  And I am aghast.  Do you know how blase’ I’d become?  There were packages in there I’d yet to open!  And Full Bottles that haven’t seen the light of day in a year.  That. Is. Not. Good.  (not in my book, anyway).  So I did the same thing with my perfume collection.  The decants and samples stay – they are the backbone of research and review.  The rest of it got a good, hard look-see.  Why do I have 6 iterations of Diorella?  Well, okay – I’m probably never going to get rid of any of my Diorella, I love it so – and I wear all of it, often.  But…okay.  I have two shopping bags of bottles that are either going to be sold…or ……..wait for it…….SWAPPED!  Yes,  it’s time to get these lovely perfumes to homes that will appreciate them.    Which brings me to…wait for it….

.SWAPMANIA!!!  IT IS NIGH!!!!

Don’t hoard your perfumes.  Love them!  Wear them!  And if you don’t love them or wear them it’s time!!!   Dust off your unloveds and get ready to SWAP!  I always have such fun doing Swapmania.  I swap for the most wonderful things!   I got not one but TWO vintage Mitsoukos (which y’all will pry from my cordite-covered hands, so don’t EVEN! :-D)  Last year I swapped for postage.  Yes.  Postage.  I love Miette chocolate sables.  They don’t cost that much to actually buy but the shipping will kill a gal stone dead.  I paid for them and swapped a wonderful Posseite for her muling the damn things to the PO.  I don’t remember what I swapped her for but I hope she was happy.  Lord knows I was!  It was one of the most wonderful swaps on record!  So don’t be afraid to think outside the box!  Patty’s swapping for elf slippers!  It doesn’t have to be perfume/perfume.  Swap starts on Friday!!!  Getchergroove on!!!

I’m feeling a Giveaway comin’ on!  Y’all let me know what’s on YOUR mind.  And I will have Carmine poke random.org for that, too!  We’ll announce both next Wednesday.  See you guys on Friday!!!!!  xxoxoxo