Le Pew

Last weekend, Kent and I took a quick trip to NYC both to get away and also to do some fabric shopping. We knew several of the stores would be closed because they aren’t open on Saturdays, but enough were open to make the trip worth our while.

As we drove to the airport, I had that niggling feeling that I’d forgotten something but couldn’t figure out what it was until we were sitting on the plane: my deodorant! Well Kent travels with his own toiletries so I knew I could just use his, although he uses Tom’s and I didn’t care for Tom’s all that much.

Well my opinion has now been amended to intense dislike, so intense that I would be better off not using anything than resorting to Tom’s. Yuuuuuuuuuuuck. Not only does it feel slimy going on, it irritated the heck out of my skin and made me smell bad/weird. Look, after all these years on the planet and after all the sweaty runs I’ve done, I know what my sweat smells/stinks like and this wasn’t it. I would catch a sniff and think a stranger was getting way into my personal space only to realize, no – that’s me.

It took a couple of days to get the lingering aftereffects of that nastiness removed from my pits, but all is right again in my personal grooming world.

First world problems, I know.

Running on empty

There can be only one

When we moved to Boston, I could not find my favorite brand of deodorant anywhere. It's not like I use something unusual, it's just Arrid solid unscented. Apparently the only unscented solid deodorant available in the Boston area also had to be the kind that isn’t supposed to leave those white deodorant streaks. That sounds like a great idea, only whatever is used to make the deodorant streak-free seriously bothers my skin.

That year, we’d gone to visit Ben and Jen for Easter. Kent picked up probably half a dozen sticks of my deodorant at the local store, which left me in good, non-smelly shape for a while.

About six months later, we flooded and poof – no deodorant. At the time, I wasn’t sure if the remaining sticks had been ruined or tossed but either way, I only had a single sad little stick. So the next trip we made, which happened to be to see Jordan and Sophie in Nashville, I bought another six or so sticks.

That last deodorant purchase was in December, 2009. As it turns out, the deodorant involved in the flood had not been ruined, only packed away by the restoration company. So by April, 2010, we had about 10 sticks of deodorant.

Today we’re down to one in use and one left in stock. I haven’t bought deodorant in close to three years. I was a little afraid my brand wasn't around any more, but I did a little scouting and I think I'm in luck.