Is it Overwhelming or Exciting?

I don't know about the rest of you, but this past week has been for me a three-ring-circus, a county fair, a backyard burning man party, and train-wreck all rolled into one, and I'm the conductor who fell asleep in the tunnel, and the entertainment director who has misplaced her organizer . . . and her flip-flops . . . and a green lighter she was asked to hold onto that the owner now wants returned to them.

A Midsummer Night's Dream and Summer of Patchouli Love are in full swing and I'm in the throes of writer's block and editor's frustration. Ever have that hurry up and wait feeling? That's where I'm at. Hurry up and get this done, but wait, don't do that yet, it's not time! It's not just with the writing and the blogging and the sniffing and reviewing -- it seems to be everything right now.

I seem to be going through another transitional phase which normally would scare the living daylights out of me, but not so much this time around. The changes are welcome. But what does that say about my life, eh? Even with so much going on and so much to do, I still feel like I'm wading chest-deep through cold molasses. I feel as if everything is going past me at breakneck speed, and there I am, the little slug that almost could, squiging along the dirt, dodging the sunlight and salt patches, trying to catch up to-- what? I may never find out if I keep up this pace.

Waiting to get reviews is like waiting in the doctor's office for a tetanus shot in the eyeball; preparing to write reviews is like trying to find the only cherry at the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket of rock-hard ice cream with your bare hands. Neither is fun nor easy. And it feels like I have two heads -- one focused on selling me, and one focused on -- well, selling still, but selling someone else.

I had prepared two perfumes for the AMND perfume event hosted by Amanda Feeley, but in the end, and at the very last minute, I opted to send only one. Peaseblossom. Puck's Love Juice is still stewing and a few samples have been decanted for future sale. My gut told me that PLJ wasn't the 'one'. It's good, don't get me wrong -- it's a lovely strong fougere, but it just didn't strike me as very magical in that midsummer night's way. Peaseblossom, however, has a few tricks up his sleeves.

In a sense, I feel like I'm cheating on the AMND event -- I've had the happy fortune of being able to smell ALL of the submissions via LPR reviewer Scott Ellis' stash. I am humbled and impressed by this group of perfumes and perfumers -- two or three in particular really tickled my fancy, and I came to a dawning realization that some of these 'old-timers' whose 'fumes I'd tried years ago have really honed their craft to perfection. I mean, some of their compositions are so far and above what they were producing, say, six or seven years ago -- y'know, in the dark ages of modern NBP -- that their signatures have changed.

Well, I'm off to crack the whip, as it were, on my LPR reviewer who is currently une personne disparue. Perhaps I just need to relax. Having two heads seems like it will never be a smooth, workable situation.