Oh Happy Day!

I FOUND DEODERANT!

Seriously, there were several days and several moments where I felt like posting about my lack of deoderant and subsequent fear of BO, but there's a reason it's called "personal hygiene".

I felt that this was a cause for celebration though, and since a celebration is always merrier with more people, I figured, "meh, presumably my readers are all human, of course they'd understand, so why shouldn't I share this fantabulous news?!"

I FOUND DEODERANT!

I found three sticks in the supermarket, snuggled between the condoms and the hair removal products.

China doesn't really have deoderant, I'm not sure what they use - if anything - to make themselves smell pretty, but honestly, I've never noticed an intense BO smell, so I never really thought anything of it.

Until I ran out of my own personal stash of deoderant.

I had read before I moved out here that deoderant hardly existed, so I stocked up on what I doubted would be enough but figured I could easily have some sent over. The thing about this logic, is that it's best to ask for some more before you run out.

Or it's best not to rely on the Chinese post when you choose to ask for more.

The post is extraordinarily late in sending me my deoderant. I don't even wanna tell you how late, because it's not a pretty number. Of course, now that I've found some here, I can guarantee it'll show up tomorrow or the day after.

You know how you don't realize how much you love something until it's gone? Deoderant is a perfect example.

I got really paranoid about how I smelled: I showered two or three times a day, focusing especially on my armpits, which just gave me a rash; I changed my clothes constantly; I minimized my movements as best as I could, standing at the front of the class, stiff as a board, with my arms at my side. I was like one of those meerkats with their nose always in the air, sniffing away, and the second I smelled something funky I'd freak out that it might be me. In the meantime, in the back of my head, there was always that bit of trivia that you can never really smell yourself, and that made me freak out even more, because if that smell I smell is actually me, good lord, I feel sorry for everyone else.

It was a vicious circle because I'm pretty sure all this paranoia and worry about how I smelled just made matters worse.

But it's all good now, because...

I FOUND DEODERANT!