Living on a military base while waiting for surgery certainly has its perks. For instance, shopping. Because I haven’t been feeling well (as I’m sure you’ve noticed from the blog lately…), I haven’t been able to spend much time out and about. I’d love to go to downtown San Antonio, check out the Riverwalk, visit the Alamo and thusly remember it, but that’s just not in the cards at the moment. Instead, I have been spending an hour here and an hour there at the wonderful Lackland Air Force Base Exchange, a kind of department store for the military. Despite its rather simplistic decor and Sears-like atmosphere, the BX does have its advantages over your typical department store. I’m quite familiar with its glorious sales-tax-free shopping free, but little did I realize that not only do they carry certain designer products, they also deeply discount them.

    A while back I talked about how I’d found a new hobby; collecting free perfume samples from Nordstrom. I never really expected to start buying those perfumes, besides asking for one or two favorites for holidays or my birthday (which I did, and my parents were nice enough to buy Vera Wang Sheer Veil for me for Christmas. Mmm, mmm, pretty.) But I’m afraid the BX has taken that light little hobby of collecting free samples into a shopping frenzy. While browsing through their cosmetics department earlier this past weekend, I stumbled across an aisle filled with designer fragrance gift sets, and holy crap were they cheap! My once minute collection of miniscule bottles is now a veritable smorgasboard of beautiful bottles filled with all manner of expensive elixers that smell of roses, white lilies, and exotic spices. And the best part is, the price tags were as teensy as the sample bottles that once made up my original collection.

    Thus far I have collected Ralph Lauren Style, Elizabeth Arden Red Door Revealed, Lancome Miracle So Magic, and the entire Vera Wang fragrance line. Best of all, each of these was part of a gift set, so they included lotions, shower gels, and cute little clutch purses. As horrible and shallow as it is of me to say, there’s something to this theory of Shopping Therapy. I’ve noticed that, thanks to this wonderful disease and how it’s affecting the chemicals throughout my body, I rapidly become depressed at night as my melatonin production and the various receptors in my brain start going on the fritz. Early in the evening I’ll go to the base exchange, check out the sale tables, and maybe buy a perfume bottle or two for the price of a meal out or a movie. Then, later that same evening when I’m stuck in bed and the pain and depression begin to battle with my rational mind, I pull out my extravagant collection of pretty designer perfume bottles, play with them, arranging them on a delightful silver Burberry tray, and then choose what fragrance I want to fall asleep to. They’re a pleasant, feminine distraction from the gloom and loneliness of the nighttime, and I’m slowly becoming convinced that there’s some medicinal value to the whole theory of aromatherapy. I don’t mean to say that Ralph Lauren Style’s going to cure my Dercum’s Disease, but it does relax me a great deal as I lay in bed, which keeps my muscles from tensing up, which helps relieve the terrible headaches that keep me up until 5 or 6 in the morning. And the delightful floral blend of Vera Wang reminds me that even though I feel like crap and I think that I look like crap too, at least I smell beautiful and feminine. At least I still have that even if my body’s leading a revolution against me.

    So maybe this perfume shopping spree isn’t so shallow as I originally thought. It’s helping to cheer me up, and I think that’s vital at this stage in the game. I was getting so tired of the nightly routine of crying myself to sleep, feeling piteous and pointless. As stupid and superfluous and spoiled as it is to spend money on perfume, it’s helping right now, and oh how I love it. So far the longest I’ve been out of bed for an outing was to go to Nordstrom to pick up more free perfume samples. The people here in San Antonio are so nice, that the perfume lady there gave me 20 free samples in one visit! Normally I can only get three at a time! I liked her so much I went back and bought my Vera Wang perfume from her. And today, the nice Lancome lady at the BX told me that tomorrow, all the Elizabeth Arden perfume gift sets are going to be 75% off! My Mom’s going back for me while I rest so I can add some more to my collection for only about $10 a set, for eau de parfume even. For once I’m going to bed excited and happy. That’s got to be worth something, right?

    But moreso than how excited I am about the perfume, I’ve been thrilled with the support everyone’s given me through my blog and all the wonderful emails lately. Thank you, everyone. I’ve been receiving your messages and they mean so much to me. I’m sorry I can’t reply as quickly as I would like. It’s not exactly comfortable being on the computer, so I don’t spend much time on it anymore. So I hope you’ll be patient, I’ll try to respond as soon as I can. But know that I am really grateful for your love, friendship, and support, and that I’m extremely grateful. Between you all and the perfume, I think I’ll be able to make it. 🙂