What Does The Sweet Smell of Success Smell Like?

@WillaKissing I remember a few years after the divorce being able to go to the mall and buy something new from there. The smell of clothing or any textiles from the mall would linger for days after I bought the item. I thought that was a rich fragrance. But most likely the mall version of Febreeze atomized in a diffuser from the ceiling in each and every store. Unless they had their employees spraying it around in stores. But also some of the perfumes at airports with wealthier women walking past…they smelled “rich” and successful.

@cherokeepatti I feel rich and successful though I do not have a six-figure income. The smell of the store or new clothes, car, or whatever you decide to treat yourself with after completing something successfully is success to me. I know a lot of wealthy successful people that are not happy with themselves and their lives, so I do not measure success off of wealth. Too many poor and average folk suffer to make a person wealthy.

@WillaKissing Yes I have heard about those people. A lady I knew used to clean some of the mansions on the other side of the city. She told me they’d have garage sales to get money for groceries….because they were so heavy into debt that it was taking everything that they had to keep up with the Jones with conspicuous consumption and brand names etc. She said they came from wealthy families and their families expected them to live in the manner in which they were raised. I heard from another woman who had a new neighbor move down the road in a rural area, nice 4-bedroom brick home and she seemed sad. She got to talking with this neighbor and found out she came from a Fortune 500 family, very wealthy. Her parents told her that if she didn’t buy a better home they refused to come and visit her. The lady told me that it was a nice brick home but not a mansion.

@WillaKissing I didn’t go to the mall that often and would buy only on sale or clearance but it was sure nice to be able to buy something beside from Walmart or a yard sale for a change. Haven’t been to that mall in 5 years now.

@cherokeepatti My sweet lady! I know exactly what you mean. Post-divorce and right down to not from Walmart, that type of self-treating celebration is wonderful.

@WillaKissing the first weekend I had to myself after the divorce it came a cold front (in September). My ex came to pick up our daughter for the weekend. I drove over to the library, got an armload of books. I didn’t want to use the heat yet trying to save money…so I cooked something to warm me up and made hot drinks and laid around bundled up in the blankets reading books for most of the weekend. That was my first post-divorce treat and it was wonderful. I rarely got to rest and had the entire weekend to lounge around…no yard to mow and no one to wait on either. I did what I wanted on my own time.

@cherokeepatti That was a Beautiful weekend for you then! I loved how you made it fit your own desires.

I have been divorced since May 4th, 2007, but went empty nest in May 2018, so outside of my pooches there is no one under foot now and I have grown quite loving of this arrangement.