Feb. 13th, 2015

lunabee34: (Ouida by ponders_life)
1. We are 100% student loan free! We finally paid off Josh's final student loan this week! Yay! I am eternally grateful that I did not have any student loans and that Josh's were not extremely large (I don't remember the exact total, but 20,000 or less, probably less, all together). If I'd had loans as well, we'd still be looking at a decade or more of repayment.

2. On Monday, I upped my step goal to 11,000 a day and have met that goal every day since. In two weeks, I'll up it again to 12,000, and that's when things will get interesting. As long as I go to the gym every day, the 10,000-11,000 range is not hard to hit. I was frequently walking around 11,000 when my goal was just 10,000. But 12,000 plus is either going to require me to be at the gym for longer than an hour or for me to sneak in bits of exercise elsewhere. I may have to actually use the stairs instead of the elevator. :/ I almost always take the elevator because of my knees and because I'm really unsteady on stairs and genuinely fear falling (which I last did, *TWICE*, when I was pregnant with Fiona), but ever since someone years ago who went to the gym at the same time I did made a snarky comment about why I would take the elevator if I was trying to get in shape, I fear people are judging me for my elevator use. Anyway, we'll see how challenging 12,000 is when we get there. My ultimate goal is 15,000 a day, but I don't know how sustainable that will be over time.

3. I was wearing Chanel Coromandel earlier this week, and Josh had a perfume swoon. He kept trying to get up in my neck and sniff me like he was auditioning for a part in a werewolf soulbond AU. I suppose this makes up for his inexplicable and utter distaste for BPAL's Bewitched, which Emma and I both loved--glorious blackberries and sage. Really, really pretty.

4. I contacted a scholar in my field whose work I have admired for 15 years now for some help in acquiring a special edition of a journal and have heard nothing back. I'm not surprised, but I am a little disappointed. Dear Scholar, There's like less than 20 of us who have ever written about this author and only about five who are doing so regularly. I had kinda hoped we would have a professional relationship someday, so I really hope you're just on sabbatical. No Love, Lorraine
lunabee34: (perfume: art deco bottle by sallymn)
I had intended to send out perfume parcels today to the four wonderful people who are allowing me to reclaim the surface of my dresser, but I think it will be Monday instead. I've got seven scents for each of them, and picking out what I think they might like (on very limited information!) has been fun. I even decanted a vial of Eau de Rochas for everybody (except Sholio because it has alcohol in it), and boy does my bathroom now smell like Eau de Rochas (which, frankly, is awesome; it smells really good in my bathroom, way better than it did on me LOL). Newfound respect for Synecdochic's decanting skills. :)

I made two observations during this week's perfume testing that I think are worth sharing. First, I got to thinking about the naming conventions that BPAL uses for its scents. Half the time, I think the scent bears little relationship to its name, which seemss chosen for shock value or weirdness sake. A certain subset of their perfumes, like Dirty, bear names that convey the exact opposite of the scent, and some are intended to evoke a particular character or place (and the latter are generally very thoughtfully done). Sometimes, though, I feel like they spent a great deal of time trying to come up with a name that truly captures what the scent does, and that hit me really strongly with Roses, Pearls, and Diamonds.

For some reason, before I opened the vial, I had a stray thought that the perfume should smell of roses, something sharp--maybe citrus--for the diamonds, and something creamy to represent the pearls. I read the description: red roses, crystalline musks, and pearlescent coconut-tinged orris; clearly BPAL and I were on the same track. When I wore it, I didn't smell any crystalline musks, but the rose is such a bright, sharp tea rose and the coconut is creamy, underpinning the rose in a really unusual way. I liked this quite a lot on the first wear but not so much on the second, so it's going in someone's parcel. :)

My second observation has to do with musk. I often can't distinguish musk in perfumes, and I certainly can't tell the difference between the various musks that the BPAL uses (except to say that the white musk always seems to be used in the "clean" and citrusy scents and I usually like those). Tonight we tested Whitechapel (a "gentleman's blend" of white musk, lime, lilac, and citron that is supposed to be masking corruption; all their Victorian scents seem based on Dorian Gray), and it is glorious, my friends. I have already put it on my big bottle list. It's strong lime and citron, a true lime like digging your fingernails into the rind and watching the juice spray. Over time the citrus fades pleasantly, though not completely, into the white musk. So so beautiful. I thought as Whitechapel was drying down that musk is like the salt of perfume. Too much and you definitely smell it. Just the right amount and it's nearly indistinguishable from the awesomeness of the scent.

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