For the Record...

So, if you'll recall in my post about jelly shoes and air fresheners, I told you I ended up buying a scent that stinks and I said I would plug it in anyway, see if it was overpowering, and if it was, then I'd have to replace the scent... probably with vanilla. Okay, so prepare yourselves for a classic Nilla story.

So, obviously you hadn't heard back from me on this topic. Well, the reason is because the scent was NOT overpowering in my room. In fact, I barely smelled anything unless I walked past the outlet into which the air freshener was plugged. And even then, the scent was competing with the wonderful aroma of a strawberry candle, so I barely ever smelled that lavender mess. Well, in preparation for Julie's arrival today, I was trying to finish the small odds and ends in my room that I have allowed to go undone for a month (yes, I am a slacker). So I moved my stereo between my bed and my bookcase. Then, after all that was done, I got a yearning for looking through another box that I didn't know what all was in it. Turns out, lots of interesting things that I forgot I had.

So really quickly, let me flashback for a moment (which you should expect from me by now...). I had a friend named Jessica for years. We became really good friends right before her family left Panama in 1993. So we kept in touch for something like 8 years. During that period of 8 years, our correspondence went from letters to cassette tape recordings of us talking to video recordings of us talking (ahhh, technology). By the time we started doing the video tapes, I was also making copies for myself. I have since gone back and watched myself at age 17, and I pretty much cringe - at my attitude, my facial expressions, and pretty much everything. However, I figure I might one day show my children (if I can get over my embarassment at how often I rolled my eyes and got seriously sarcastic and talked about boys). But, once again, I digress... So back in about 2001 or so, Jessica decided she wanted to exchange all the cassette tapes we'd recorded for each other. So she sent mine back to me. Over the years, I had sent her something like 25 cassette tapes (she labelled them) of me talking. Interpsersed with cool songs (I wouldn't be a Nilla if I didn't somehow fit in cool tunes of the time).

Well, I found most of those cassettes in that box last night. Well, another brief flashback (I know, I know, I'm sorry)... Back in 1997, we did a Ward Choir thing for church and we did a Christmas Program. There was this one song that I loved (don't remember the name of it, maybe something like "That Christmas Night" or "Star of Bethlehem"). Well, I had made a copy of us singing it for myself, but somewhere along the way I accidentally taped over it, which really bummed me out years later when I wanted to hear that song again, because I have since forgotten most of it. Well, turns out I made a copy for Jessica, and it was among the tapes she sent me. So, now I have a copy again! Yay!

So, I was going to listen to it last night. So I plug in my stereo below the scented oil (so I'm getting a good whiff of stinky lavender) and I pop the cassette into my stereo and press rewind to make sure it's at the beginning. Well, the stereo does nothing. So then it occurs to me that I have this wall switch by the bedroom door. I'm not totally stupid to think that the wall-switch does nothing. I know that it probably turns an outlet on/off by flipping the switch. But I had originally assumed it was the outlet closest to the switch, into which is plugged my TV. So, since my stereo wouldn't work, I thought, "Hmmm. let me try the switch." And sure enough, I flip on the switch and the stereo works. So then I think it would be a great thing to plug a lamp in there so I can just flip the switch when I come in at night (like after class) and have light, instead of stumbling around my bed in the dark to reach my bedside lamp. Ironically, there is also a lamp right by the computer, which would probably be a less treacherous goal for me to reach, and yet that has never occurred to me before this exact moment... brilliant. So, I already have a lamp sitting up on the bookcase, so I'm thinking I can plug that lamp in there. But wait! Only 2 receptacles and 3 things to plug in: the stereo, the scented oil thing, and the lamp. So then I think, "Oh, I'll just move the scent thing over to the other side of my bed." So I do that and plug in my lamp in the lightswitch-controlled outlet. And I'm set... So I am saying my prayers (like literally 2 minutes later) and I start smelling the strong smell of stinky lavender. And I start thinking, "Okay, what's the deal? This whole 3 weeks it's been plugged in and barely noticeable and now I plug it in by my bed and it's stinking up the room in less than 5 minutes???" Well, then it occurs to me... That whole three weeks, it wasn't putting off scent because the stupid outlet wasn't turned on because the lightswitch wasn't turned on. And seriously, the smell is strong. I finally decided I couldn't handle it that close to me, so I thought, "Well, any smell is good in the bathroom (okay, any smell that doesn't smell like a bathroom)." So I moved the airwick thing in there. And after about 10 minutes, I could smell it plenty while lying in bed. Joy. I'm going back and getting vanilla. And I don't care if that is PLAIN.

So I dropped right off to sleep last night, but then I woke up at 2:40 this morning. I think my body was struggling to digest some cookies I made last night, of which I ate 3 rather late in the nighttime. This has happened to me a couple of times before. I have eaten something LOADED with sugar, and gone to bed, and my body freaks out. And it usually wakes me up, because my stomach hurts. And these are those no-bake cookies that are packed with sugar, so I'm pretty sure that's what the problem was. At any rate, I tossed and turned trying to go back to sleep for about an hour, then finally gave up and started reading. I turned my lights out again at 4:15 and was able to go back to sleep, but for the following 2 hours, I had some of the absolute strangest dreams. And in some ways, they were disturbing. For example, in one series of dreams, I kept dreaming that I had already woken up. Like 10 dreams-within-a-dream-within-a-dream type thing. And finally, in the last one, I was sure I was awake, but I still wasn't. And I kept thinking I should pinch myself to check, but I never do that in my dreams... Stuff like that messes with my head, and I don't particularly like it... Oh, and while up for two hours in the middle of the night, I thought, "Well, maybe it's that horrible scent that is disturbing me," so I unplugged it from the bathroom receptacle too. Seriously... getting vanilla. And don't you just love how I can make a novel out of absolutely nothing!! So sorry :(.