I've Always Wanted My Man to Smell Like........ The Pope?

Once a month or so we get a publication in the mail called The Georgia Bulletin.  It's a little newspaper about the goings on of the Catholic church in Atlanta.  Mixed throughout the articles there are usually advertisements about Catholic schools, religious movies, church bookstores - you know, the usual - very targeted advertisements.

We usually thumb through it, perhaps read an article or two and then toss it. The same thing happened this month; however one of those very targeted advertisements caught my eye.  See below:

An aftershave that smells like the Pope?  I'm not sure about you, but when I think of aftershave, I think of a rustic manly smell.  I think TB's current Old Spice says something like, "smells like wilderness, open air and freedom".  Corny?  Yes.  But I suppose it makes sense.  And it probably works well from an advertising sense.  But the Pope?  Nada.  I just can't make any sense of that.  This puzzled me so much that I thought maybe if I visited the website I could understand it a bit more.  I did find a further description of the product - but did I make more sense of it?  Nope.

Benedictus - The marriage of linden blossom from Benedict's native Germany with frankincense from the Holy Land and bergamot from Italy creates a subtle and dignified fragrance, befitting a man of finely cultivated tastes. Barely perceptible is a nuance of citrus, and as it evolves, a discrete hint of musk. The overall impression is one of understated elegance.  A slightly astringent and balsamic quality makes it a soothing and refreshing aftershave.

$27.00

"Befitting a man of finely cultivated tastes?"  With that description, my mind immediately goes to the Pope.  Right?  Doesn't yours?  But hey - at $27 and free shipping to the US, what a steal!

Upon further investigation of the website, I did discover that if Benedictus isn't exactly your speed, there are other options.   Made from the "private formula of Pope Pius IX" no less.  Christmas is coming up after all. 

Airport Dating. The Non-Creepy Kind.

I've come to the conclusion in the past few weeks that we don't lead a normal life.  We keep an odd schedule.  To say the least.
Between both of us having traveling jobs, weddings, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties and football games - we have hardly had any time at home.  Much less for a date.  So what did we do?  We improvised!

It all started 2 weeks ago.  I was flying home from a work trip on a Thursday evening - TB was connecting through the Atlanta airport - from work, but continuing on to a bachelor party.  He had a bit of time between his flights and it happened to coincide with my flight landing.  Perfect!  So we had a nice date at the Wendy's on the main concourse at ATL.  We caught up, shared some fries and it worked out wonderfully.


The next Thursday, I was flying home from a work trip and TB was once again connecting in ATL but continuing on to another trip.  We did a bit more planning and had a nice sit down dinner in concourse B.  Glass of wine and all.  But we did split the check, since we were both expensing our dinners..... perhaps that wasn't romantic.  But it sure was economical.

The following Monday morning, we both had flights out of ATL at the same time.  TB headed to NY, and I was headed to Orlando - but we had time to share some Starbucks and biscuits.

At this point, I'll take what I can get.  I've even done some research on airport restaurants and I hear there's a good one on concourse E called One Flew South.  Yes, it's true.  An airport restaurant that doesn't have fried food as half of the options.

As I was trying to find some pictures for this post (because it never occurred to me to snap a photo of our airport dates), I found a whole bunch of photos of that movie - Up in the Air.   None of them really struck my fancy, so I kept looking.  Until I hit the jackpot.  It appears that TB and I are not the only ones who like to meet up at the airport.   This find was so interesting that it trumped photos:

www.meetattheairport.com.

For realz.  Check it out.  The website claims that you can meet new and exciting people all over the world.  Read the excerpt: 

"Meeting someone new at the airport is fun and exciting. We've all thought about it while waiting for our flight. It's a bit of adventure that adds spice to your everyday life. MeetAtTheAirport.com can now make a fantasy a reality. Find fellow travelers that are looking for that added sense of excitement that you only get when meeting someone new. Share a drink with an attractive stranger in the totally safe environment of a public airport. Perhaps, share a brunch or romantic dinner while waiting for your flight and explore the enticing possibilities that are presented to you. Romance, friendship, travel companion, networking... The possibilities are endless. If you're tired of reading a magazine while waiting for your flight, don't hesitate, register now."

Add spice to your life?  Make a fantasy a reality?  All I can imagine is some scandalous happenings.  In the airport bathroom perhaps.  Remember that senator a while back that got caught meeting fellows in the airport bathrooms.  I wonder if he ever used this service?  

You have to create a profile to see any other details and although I love a good investigation,  I was too chicken to do that.  I could only imagine the creepy characters.  This will make you wonder the next time you see a couple having a drink at the airport......  It could just be someone like TB and I, or it could be someone that got bored of reading magazines and decided to meet an attractive stranger.

Keep Left

Driving on the left side of the road is reserved for the UK and Australia.  At least I thought.  But it looks like I was wrong.

For some weird reason, the US Virgin Islands require you to drive on the left - which we quickly discovered on our recent trip.   But they have American cars with steering wheels on the left.  And most tourists in the USVI are Americans.  So we have American cars, American drivers - but you have to stay left.  Hmm - looks like a lot of confused people to me.

There are signs everywhere that say, "Keep Left".  And when you rent a car, the rental agency nicely reminds you several times to "Keep Left!".  All of these reminders are nice in theory, except that they can also create additional confusion.  For example:

An American guy is driving his American car, with steering wheel on the left - except he has to drive on the left since he's in the USVI.  His navigator wife is giving directions from the paper rental car map and sees a fork in the road.  Being a nice navigator, she says:

Navigator: "Up here, you'll want to keep right."  To which American guy replies:

American guy:  "But I'm supposed to keep left."

Navigator:  "No.  Drive left, but keep right"

American Guy:  "What???"  "How do you keep right when you're driving left?  Would that be a right turn?  And right turns are different when you're driving left."

Navigator:  "What???"  "OK, keep left"

American Guy:  "But I thought I was supposed to keep right!!"

See where I'm going with this.....

We only had our rental car for one day and opted for a taxi after this.  Luckily there wasn't much driving on this vacation and we spent most of our time out on the water.  Where left and right didn't matter.