"You smell SO good!"

Thursday, April 9, 2009

4:13 pm :-)

There is only one word that can describe yesterday: luxurious. Yesterday, my aunt Robbi took me out for my surprise graduation present. The actual graduation is over a month away, so I could still really screw everything up and end up not graduating, but I didn't remind her of that. I took the early gift as a sign of her faith in me.

So, Grandma drove up for the day, and her and Robbi picked me up from Student Services. They came in and met everyone at the office, which was super cute. I had been told to dress in "dressy casual" attire, so I wore my new silky, green blouse from Express (about which Stephanie subtly commented later, during the show, "By the way, yous a ho."), and I spent some time with the curling iron, so my hair was pretty bangin'. I also wore the black, skinny jeans Robbi had bought me last time I visited her. I was good to go.

Robbi refused to tell me what my gift was, only revealing we were going to see "Neil" once we were in the car. Now, I need to back up a little and tell you that the night before, Robbi had written me a very strange email in which she requested that I not wear any kind of perfume because lately her tongue had been swelling up around people who wore perfume. Never one to question the mental stability of my family members, I obliged.

So, we arrive at a verrrry nice apartment building near the Christian Science Church. When the doorman said "Ooooh, you're going to see Neil," with a wink, I didn't know whether to be excited or a little scared. But when I stepped into Neil's apartment full of glass bottles and jars and finally figured out what was going on, it was like all my dreams came true. Neil creates custom fragrances -- he was going to make me my own perfume called... can you guess? Tara.

After asking me lots of questions and having me smell several different scents, he put together a custom blend that includes everything from vanilla to ocean musk to hyancinth to sandalwood. One of the questions he asked me was a kind of fill-in-the-blank: "If someone were to smell you wearing this perfume, you would want them to say, 'You smell..."

"SO GOOD!" I blurted out.

And believe me, I do. Neil made me two bottles of my signature scent, and he's sending me the body wash. One bottle is to keep on my dresser, and the other is for my purse, or so Neil thought. When Neil suggested it, Grandma jumped in and said, "No! Not your purse! She loses her purse..." Thank you, Grandma.

After my perfume was created, we all headed over to the Prudential for some shopping. I got a funky blue eyeliner from Sephora, and a tin of lip gloss that was the same kind that had been in my purse when everything was stolen in Madrid. Then we went to Godiva and got chocolate and perused the little flower stand in the food court, trying to find all the flowers whose fragrances we had just been sniffing at Neil's.

We briefly went to Chicco's for Grandma and Robbi, and when we left, we came upon a sunglasses kiosk. I started trying on pairs and found one Michael Kors pair particularly striking. I put them on, and the sunglasses guy told me I looked like a young Natalie Wood. SOLD.

I'm wearing the sunglasses now, as I write this. I'm not even kidding. You should see me.

After the shopping, we took a cab to Radius for dinner. We chose a restaurant in the financial district with the hope that Stephanie could join us. She did! We had a few drinks (I didn't even get carded!!!), and ate amazing food, and talked about the good old days. Robbi and Grandma filled us in on some of the craziness that went down before Stephanie and I were born, and then Robbi quizzed me on my last four years of college, asking things like "Best Date?" and "Best Girls' Night?"

After dinner, we took a cab to the Opera House and saw Dirty Dancing. It was amazing. The seats were great, and I was so impressed with the dancing. Everyone was just so...bendy. Remind me to do some stretches later...

After the show, tired and content, Stephanie took a cab back to her dorm, and Robbi and Grandma dropped me off at mine. It was a really great day, and I remember wishing every day could be that good.

Now, I'm off to eat some Easter candy Grandma gave me and pack for a long weekend at home.

And you can bet I'll be wearing my perfume and my sunglasses while I'm doing it...

Love,
Tara