Part One
The first CD I ever bought was Madonna's "Like A Prayer" back when I was in 8th grade and my father had obtained a CD player by questionable means. He'd purchased hundreds of dollars of hair and skin care products, secretly, in order to qualify to win a car (the odds were supposed to increase in your favor when you purchased more product). Knowing my mother would freak if she found out what he had done, he hid all of the product under the bed. (You should note that my father is completely bald and thus has no need for hair care products.) And instead of the car he won a CD player! At the time it was still a big deal because they were new and expensive - but it wasn't a car. (And it would have been cheaper to buy the player outright.) (In the end it was OK because when my mother did find out she called up the credit card company and told them that it was an unauthorized purchase and they erased the charges... so in effect, it was free.)
We made a big deal of going to the Warehouse music store to purchase our family's first compact disc. Back then they still came in the long cardboard boxes (you youngn's might not remember them). My father peered at me a little wryly when I chose Madonna but I won out (after all he had hundreds of dollars of shampoo hidden under a bed) and we brought my purchase home. So there I was, 13 years old with a fascinating new piece of technology. I opened the box, removed the jewel case and opened it. What struck me first was the smell. The smell?? Yes - it had a smell. It wasn't an unpleasant smell but it was something unfamiliar to me so naturally I assumed it was the smell of all CD's. I listened to the item, enjoyed it and so the first CD was a success.
But since my first CD had a smell, whenever I opened a new CD I sniffed it. Imagine my surprise when none of the following purchases smelled the same as that initial Madonna CD. For YEARS I told people of this phenomenon and for YEARS people thought I was insane... sniffing my CDs and telling weird tales of Madonna. Finally I brought my CD into school and passed it around. Yes! Validation! A friend defined the smell as "dirt." OK... so my Madonna CD smelled like dirt. Odd... but at least other people could smell it. In college I was telling a new acquaintance this tale when she finally filled me in. "It's patchouli," she said. "The 'Like a Prayer' CDs were scented with patchouli oil." (As if it was common knowledge.)
Part Two
My family travels frequently and as frequent travelers with "collecting" habits we amass large stockpiles of mini-shampoos, mini-conditioners, mini-soaps, mini-shower gels, shower caps, shoe-shine kits, 2 cup pouches of coffee grounds and whatever else some hotel might give us. Mom always taught me to empty the little basket in the room, hide the supply of shampoo et. al. so that each day they would refill the in-room basket. Having ALL of this travel-sized product it finally ocurred to me that I could use it when I housesit (or, God forbid, when I travel!). So last night I'm housesitting and I decided to take an evening shower. I brought three items, courtesy of the Seven Feather Indian Casino, in with me - a shampoo, a conditioner and a shower gel. I followed normal shower procedures and then broke out the little bottle of shower gel. I opened it and began to lather when it ocurred to me that this shower gel was patchouli scented.
So there I was - in the shower - smelling like a prayer.
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