A few days ago, I sat on my bed and cried as I repeatedly inhaled deeply a perfume I had tested out on my forearm, a fragrance with jasmine notes. Never in my life to this point have I been able to tolerate the smell of jasmine in the community or even as a background note in scents designed to be worn. I wish I could tell you I didn’t sit there smelling my arm like a loon for approximately 10 minutes, but nope. Can’t say that. I am just deeply impacted and grateful that at least once in my life I get to know what this feels like.
I have long been a fan of travel sizes in perfumes as pre-CBD me even before I developed Mast Cell Activation Syndrome couldn’t really get away with wearing even perfumes I tolerated more (mostly fruit based gourmands) on a daily basis. I had to give myself and my system a breather. So, it’s always been just plain cheaper and less wasteful. Now I’m in perfume every day with stuff I couldn’t even do occasionally without wreaking havoc on my allergies and respiratory system. And travel sizes are still cheaper if I want to try something on the nicer side of things.
So that’s what we got me for Mother’s Day, some travel sizes of some perfumes I really wanted to try or that I liked the smell of while we were doing public therapy. My favorites so far are Kayali Eden Sparkling Lychee and Replica Jazz Club. We’ve been through this before when discussing my musical tastes, but just as a refresher: don’t ask me to make sense. That will just probably never work out, I like what I like. I know those smell about as far from each other as could be, but I love them both and they have infused my days this week with joy.
In the spirit of busy mothers everywhere (myself included) I am going with travel size posts for a bit. Today’s is a travel size note on my therapy work.
As I mentioned last week, Tony was approved for extended school year (ESY), so he will attend a half day of schooling for three weeks during the middle of the summer break. This is to help him retain his tolerance for the environment, which he is still in the process of building.
The ESY school is not the one he currently attends. Now, he is nervous about this, but I am actually pretty darn stoked about it because I think it is valuable for him to expect as soon as possible that school locations can change since he’ll only be in middle school for two more years and I want him to have the opportunity to get used to the idea before high school.
My first step was to reach out for contact information to arrange a tour for him before the school year ends. My next step was to take him by the school on the weekend when nobody was there and walk around the outside, talking about what would happen and when. I used a calendar at some points to help him get a reference for the flow of time involved. Because he’s now been in school for several months, I added functional expectations for the outing such as describing landscaping so that he could already acclimate to doing something other than walking around on the campus. I then took him to the same ice cream shop we sometimes stop in after a successful school day right now so he could associate and transfer over positive and happy experiences with the new location as well. My next step will be to schedule the tour, during which I will take pictures to make visual aides and schedules to support him once the summer session starts.
Success for traveling through this type of transition requires many small steps, and these are just the first of ours as we prepare for summer school. Wishing each of you a wonderful day and a Happy Mother’s Day. <3 Ari
