Uncommon Scents

I just received another bottle of Eau Fresh cologne in the mail, bought on ebay. I'm well stocked for the foreseeable future, though I'll continue to check in every now and then to be sure I don't run out.

I don't know what's come over me, but I find I am beguiled by fragrance these days. I never cared much in the past whether or not a man wore cologne. Now I find the right scent to be appealing, even distracting. When I wear one of the very few scents that isn't too strong for me, I find myself stopping at frequent intervals to check the fragrance as it changes throughout the day.

I have a hair product that has the most wonderful fresh lemon scent to it. If I could find a cologne that smelled like that, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I remember wearing Love's Fresh Lemon when I was young. It's still on the market, so maybe I'll try it again.

I have a small bottle of Tea Rose perfume. I love it, but it can be tough to wear because it tends to be strong, and a lot of people are allergic to it. Still, I will wear it now and then.

Last night I put on a touch of L'Air du Temps. I was surprised to find that there was still cologne in the bottle. I had kept it these many years because it was a refillable spray bottle, and I have always intended to buy a refill. I spritzed some on just for fun. I still like it, though it's on the sweet side.

Last week I had a conversation with a male friend about the advantages of being male versus those of being female. He said he thought it was probably hard to be woman, that he wouldn't want to go through all of the hormonal ups and downs we go through. I told him my mother has always said she wants to come back as a man in the next life because men have it made. He wondered if I thought most women feel that way. I said I could see Mom's point, but I like being a girl.

There are things I don't like about being female, of course. A woman has to be more careful about going places alone than a man does, and women of my generation don't get as much of a pass as younger women when it comes to watching our "reputations." Women my age still watch each other closely for signs of looseness, from the cut of a neckline to the color of nail polish. And, yeah, there's the whole hormone thing, but that has its upside, as well ;).

Younger women were freed from many of my generation's unwritten rules, for good or for ill, by the child-tart fashions and behavior of the Britney Spears era. They wear tight-fitting, low cut clothes for business and for pleasure, regardless of their body type, and they just don't seem to be uncomfortable. I know that the anorexic starlet images persist, but doesn't it seem that most young women today are not as affected by them? Am I mistaken?

In any event, I think the whole preoccupation I have with fragrance these days is just another facet of being a girl and loving it. Are men as bewitched by fragrace as I seem to be lately? Maybe it's a human thing, not just a girl thing. Perhaps it's even more basic than that; perhaps it's an animal thing.