Drugstore Cowgirl: Smells Without Smelling

This is more about dissociating in Target than anything else

Hello, smellwells. How’s everyone doing as this holiday season envelops us in its smothering, frantic coziness and another surreal, incredibly fucked up year draws to a shaky close? I finally got Covid after avoiding it until now — the week I got it, I went back to karaoke for the first time since The Before and some friends who also got it insist we got it there and I’m not convinced, probably because I don’t want to truly give in to the sneaking suspicion that a malevolent force exists and is watching and ready to strike me down any time I start to have a little fun, but honestly, it’s really not safe to do karaoke right now. Or ever again? I don’t know!

Karaoke is such an important part of my sense of self. I’m a terrible singer and it was the source of so much angst and shame for so long because I really LIKE to sing. When I was maybe 25 I decided fuck it, I’m going to be very publicly bad at something and try not to care and it worked! I don’t care! It rules!

Another important part of my sense of self is really liking to Smell Things and Drugstore Cowgirl is a celebration of things that smell good but don’t cost a lot of money. It’s also an ongoing writing prompt for me as well as a way to practice a sort of service journalism and let the people who want to know know about cheap, good scents. The worst part about Covid, aside from anxiety re: giving it other people, which I did, a lot, including my parents [they’re fine] and wondering if my ongoing problems with fatigue and brain fog will get worse, is that I entirely lost my sense of taste and smell! It’s slowly coming back, which means I’ll soon be able to smell all the birthday perfume I got from Sophie, Dave, Holly, and my parents [people who love me know me! what a blessing!] I was zombie marching through Target yesterday picking up stocking stuffers and toilet paper and of course I made my way to the Beauty section and, in a sort of fugue state, picked up two perfumes for $12.99 each. Friends, I have so many perfumes. But now I have two more and I want to talk about them, even though I can barely smell them.