I'm in New Orleans today with a very rare Sunday day off. It's also kind of the last weekend of the busy wedding season and the start of summer slow down for me. This was the craziest week. It started at the Grand Canyon and is ending in New Orleans. I met John Williams (yes, THE John Williams), shot 2 weddings in less than 24 hours, stayed awake for over 30 hours before finally getting to pass out in my hotel, and got to eat at three of my favorite restaurants in the entire world. It's been a good week. MY SOTD for the most part was alternating Andrea Maack's Dual and Acqua Di Gio EDT. It's been very hot and extremely humid (at one point yesterday, I had sweat so much that my hair was soaked), so I needed something that would get me through the day. ADG was the better choice of the two - it holds up really well to high heat and sweat and kept me feeling refreshed and like I wasn't stinking up the place. Dual was better for travel and being indoors. It was light and delicate and refreshing on it's own, but fell apart in the high humidity. I see that it's been discontinued, and I only have one 2mL sample left. I see it available in a few places, but it's too expensive to buy a full bottle. I may get a large decant at a more reasonable price to have for those summer days indoors where light and delicate makes more sense. Others I wore on the trip: ATH Daddy - worn for dinner with the family celebrating my parent's 56th Anniversary and our trip to the Grand Canyon. JPG Le Male Elixir - worn for dinner the last night in Grand Canyon. I'm still getting to know this one, and I love the scent profile, but it disappears very fast to my nose, and I'm surprised at how bad it's performance is, especially for an Elixir. Andrea Maack Zing - the next of her summer citrus fragrances. Worn to Dat Dog for dinner with my friends in NOLA last night. Like all of Maack's fragrances, it is absolutely beautiful and a true work of art. But the scent profile is too similar to other citrus musk fragrances, and at the price point, it's hard to justify a bigger purchase. Will enjoy the sample and move on.

As a couple of you may know, I'm in the process of moving from one house to another - from the Chicago area to SoCal full-time. The Chicago house is in the process of closing and things are getting a little sticky with the buyer's lawyer, etc etc. Luckily for me, the buyer has absolutely ZERO leverage on me given my situation (and their lawyer will discover that soon enough...) Nevertheless, I'm stressed because I am taking a hard line and sticking to my guns, but I want to be 100% sure that I handle this situation correctly. After getting all my ducks in arow to the best of my ability, the question is; What do I do to ease my stress? The answer? Amouage. Specifically Reflection Man. This stuff brings down my angst, agression, anxiety and general malaise to a much more managable level. It's actually acting like a psychologist (psychiatrist?) in bottle. Now I can at least get through the rest of the day without going postal (my apologies to all you postal employees. 😘) BoS, this stuff is WELL worth the price.