I have to explain something. I closed comments on this post and said what I said about comments because that’s the way I was feeling at the time. Now? I don’t know exactly how I’m feeling about it but it’s getting lonely around here and I’m afraid I might have scared people away. So, this morning, I’m going to try something a little more normal and hopefully it will be at least slightly entertaining.
I decided that instead of buying liquid hand soap, which only comes in very small bottles, I would start buying “shower gel” to use for hand soap. That which will clean my butt should work okay for my hands too, right? Trouble is, very few shower gels come in pump bottles. One that does is Neutrogena Rain Bath. And it’s supposed to be good for your skin and I thought that would be a good thing for hands too so I bought it.
Big problem: the stuff smells absolutely fricking horrible! The description on the bottle says it smells like a “fragrant blend of spices, fruits and herbs.” Really? That’s what they think it smells like? I suggest they sniff it again, after they stop sniffing that other stuff that they’ve obviously been sniffing. What it really smells like is a blend of hospital disinfectant and the cheapest, stinkiest men’s cologne you can imagine. And it’s a big bottle that’s going to last a long time. That was the whole idea, remember – get a bigger bottle so it would last longer.
Lately the only thing fit to watch on any of the 200 TV channels we get is The Big Bang Theory. Fortunately, several channels have Big Bang Theory reruns every night and I’ve been catching up on all the seasons I missed. I’ve started wondering about something: How crazy do you have to be before people start putting up with your craziness because you “can’t help it” and how much of Sheldon’s kind of craziness comes from being indulged from childhood on? Sheldon has to have everything just right. He can’t sit anywhere but “his spot”; his tea has to be exactly the right temperature; on Thursday nights he can’t eat anything but pizza because it’s Pizza Night; and when he eats Chinese food it has to come from one particular restaurant.
I’m that way about some things. I can’t stand it when the coffee table gets bumped or pushed aside so that it’s not properly centered and lined up with the sofa. I hate when things are put away in the wrong place. And I especially hate when people misuse apostrophes or misspell or misuse common words like “they’re, there” and “their”, or when people mispronounce words. It makes me crazy but I was taught that it is rude to bother people about such things so I (usually) quietly put up with things being not right. And I have mostly gotten used to almost everything in the world being askew. But I wonder… if I had been indulged as a child would I be like Sheldon? (Only not as smart as he is obviously)
Oh, I always had a messy room when I was a kid and my house is always pretty messy now. I’ve never been a neat-nik, highly organized kind of person. It’s just that I want certain things to be right. But I guess I’ve never been crazy enough to make everyone pay attention to me and my little quirks. And that seems unfair somehow. Why do you have to be crazy and annoying to have things the way you want? If everyone would just ignore the rude and crazy people and reward the polite people by paying attention to them and their needs wouldn’t that encourage people to be polite and wouldn’t the world be a better place?
So far the weather has been very nice this winter. After the year we had last year I was thinking that 2012 has to be better. In fact, I’ve sort of been counting on it. We need and deserve a quiet, peaceful year. But Mother Nature never cares what we need and deserve. Maybe it’s just my change of mood for other reasons, but now I’m wondering if maybe 2011 was just a prelude. But it has been pleasant so far. Dry, temps above normal and it’s been a couple of months since the last earthquake so maybe it does get better from here. I have to keep thinking that.
January 5th, 2012 - 8:57 am
I am madly addicted to Big Bang Theory. I even had a little pantomime thing I do with the theme song, which cracks H up. He caught me singing Soft Kitty to Monkey the other day. One of my daydreams is that I teach Koothrappali to speak to women unboozed.
There have been articles, most of which I dismiss solely because they mess with my imaginary friends on TV, about Sheldon possibly having Asperger Syndrome, then some lesser ones about Howard and narcissistic disorder, etc.
To those people I said: Bugger off. Go “diagnose” someone I don’t care about.
Or I’ll sic Amy Farrah Fowler on you.
January 5th, 2012 - 9:26 am
I’ve been lurking and reading and enjoying, but wanted to comment on this post:
how funny! I *like* the smell of rainbath, but I can totally see why you don’t. different strokes and all.
Have you looked at some of the shampoos? Again, if it cleans your hair, it will clean your hands, and some of the them have pump bottles, are relatively inexpensive and may smell nicer to you than rainbath.
Also, if you have empty hand soap pump bottles, you can just refill them with whatever gel/shampoo you want.
My condolences on the loss of your mother. I can tell from your post how hard that was for you.
Phyllis
January 5th, 2012 - 10:06 am
I can’t stand the smell of Neutrogena products either. And once I had to throw out some facial product (I can’t remember which one) because I had an allergic reaction to it.
Re how only loud, annoying people get their needs met: “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” is how I learned it. But then I was taught not to be a squeaky wheel. So much for the wisdom of the ages.
January 5th, 2012 - 12:05 pm
Favorite line from BBT: “I am not crazy. My mother had me tested.”
Phyllis – Different strokes indeed.
Thanks so much for commenting.
January 5th, 2012 - 7:06 pm
Neutrogena products are great for the skin. They smell like the souls of evil skunks, though.
January 5th, 2012 - 8:40 pm
A quick run to my bathroom reminds me that I did what Phyllis said – kept the pump bottle and put something else in it. I think the stuff was blue, it’s now red. At wal-mart you can get big half gallon bottles of body soap, I save the pump bottle for it. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can attach a straw to the pump (I’ve found the straws from QT are perfect) so that the pump can reach to the bottom of the bigger soap bottles.
I don’t worry too much about my skin. My hands are like leather gloves anymore. With the sun, and the wind, and the cold, and the amount of time I spend outside, I don’t think there’s much to be done. But maybe I’m wrong.
The squeaky wheel doesn’t always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced. Too many people use Asperger’s syndrome as an excuse to be, well… people like Sheldon. They don’t really have it. It’s just easier to have it.
January 5th, 2012 - 9:25 pm
Weather has been spookily gorgeous lately. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Or maybe the universe has decided something mild is in order to make up for all the other junk from last year that everyone had to deal with.
I’ve been going through cabinets of old lotions and soaps that were gifted to me over the years that I never used much of. Throwing away and testing and seeing what I think might be good to keep buying and using. Trying to use more of the stuff lately since it does feel nice. I always forget I have lotions and bath stuff.
January 6th, 2012 - 8:16 am
I have saved and refilled pump bottles in the past. Just got out of the habit and didn’t think about it this time. I’ll try to remember when the Neutrogena finally runs out.
January 6th, 2012 - 4:29 pm
I like BBT, though it’s gotten in a bit of rut the last season.
Other favorite shows: White Collar, Fringe, Haven and Warehouse 13.
Chuck has kinda fallen off my radar, Warehouse could try a bit harder, but I never know what the heck is going to happen next on Fringe and Haven – it makes it interesting.
I’m a bit conflicted on WC this last season, it is now on Netflix and it’s a little sad to see how much BETTER the episodes on Season 1 were. I suppose writers have more time and energy for the first few episodes of a new series.
January 6th, 2012 - 4:59 pm
I have to confess: I can’t watch BBT, partly because of Sheldon. He drives me nuts. If I had to share space with a person like that in real life, I’d either wind up smacking him upside the head daily, or else putting in for a transfer from work (or wherever I encountered that person).
I mean, there are a LOT of things that bug me, a lot of things that make me feel uncomfortable because they’re “not right” in some obscure way….but I’ve spent so much of my life swallowing the complaints I might make about them (after having been not-indulged as a child) that I can’t really gripe about them except to myself or on my blog or something. (Like, I REALLY don’t like food on the plate touching. But if I go to a restaurant or something and it’s served that way, I’ll shut up and eat it because I know the waiter has more stuff to deal with than some unhinged woman complaining that the juice from the green beans is contaminating the mashed potatoes). Perhaps I dislike Sheldon because I feel like “I’ve spent so much of my life coping with this, why can’t he?”
Yeah, not very sympathetic, I know.
January 9th, 2012 - 3:53 am
Lynn, are you on Twitter? A lot of the random “I like this and I want to share” is ideal to post to Twitter.
January 9th, 2012 - 8:14 am
If I knew someone like Sheldon in real life I wouldn’t put up with him either but on TV he’s very funny. Sort of strange how that is I guess – liking something on TV that you would find extremely annoying in real life.
I do have a Twitter account but I haven’t been on it in months. This works better for me somehow, plus a couple of my family members who read this are not on Twitter and are not interested in it.
January 9th, 2012 - 1:58 pm
I’m with Phyllis: refill the old hand-soap bottles with bottom-shelf shampoo. Been doing it for years.