not a time to mourn

I've always been a creature of habit.

I wear the same pants,
the same bracelet and necklace,
a rotating cast of three or four shirts,
every day.

I use the same guitar strings every show,
the same cable, the same picks.

I put my chapstick and my mini altoids
in my left pocket, every day.

I keep my wallet, my cell phone,
and my keys in the right pocket.

I've never considered myself obsessive,
I barely washed my hands when I worked at Taco Bell.

Once I find a good routine,
it makes me happy every day.

When I was in high school,
I used the same deoderant for three years.

Every day.

I think, in fact... I know,
that some girls knew me by the
smell of my deoderant.

Maybe I got carried away,
I don't think you're supposed
to rub it on your neck.

The point is,
it was Arrid XX Dry
Clean Fresh Scent.

Not Morning Clean.
and definitely not
Mountain Fresh.

Fuck Mountain Fresh,
I wouldn't rub that on
my neck for a thousand dollars.

In my senior year,
perhaps the one time in my life
when I needed a good deoderant the most,
they stopped making it.

All of the sudden,
stores stopped carrying my scent.

How would the girls know who I was in the dark?

I was able to find an occasional stick,
hidden in the back on a shelf.

But slowly, over the course of the year,
I came to the sad realization that I would never smell the same.

I've never stuck with another deoderant for more than one stick since.

I'm not miserable, but I sure do miss that Clean Fresh Scent.

Fast forward ten years.

I just got an email,
personalized from Amanda
at Cosmeticmall.com,
she wanted to let me know
that the Salon Selectives
hair goop, that I have been
special ordering by the case
since they stopped selling it in stores,
is no longer being made, and has officially sold out.

I have been with this hair goop since my sophomore year in college.

Nothing else works right with my hair,
I love this goop, always have.

I fought the truth, when it started
dissappearing from stores,
and I refused to give up.

I found it online.

I ordered it by the case.

Who the hell orders hair goop by the case?

Me and hair salons.

Now it is gone.

I still have 6 tubs left.
Perhaps the last six in the world.

All things must pass,
and I will not mourn.

Instead, I have chosen to celebrate
this twilight of perfect hold.

Not too sticky, not too shiny,
just right.

I love you, hair goop.

And Clean Fresh Scent...
I will never forget you.

-p