Flex-ing my muscles

I'm going to tell you this upfront: this posting has nothing to do with school. This has to do with....facial cleanser.

I admit it; a few years ago, I began listening to those TV experts when they said that the very soap that was good enough for every generation since the beginning of time is in fact ruining my skin. None of my friends used soap (YUCH), so I joined the bandwagon and succumbed to the lure of advertisement. I can now say that I have become a Dove girl. I use Dove soap because it's 1/4 cleansing cream (or at least, that's what they tell me). I use Dove shampoo and conditioner, and sometimes their moisturizer (is this too much information?). I also use Dove's foaming facial cleanser. Why? No particular reason. I just do....but perhaps not for too much longer. Warning: this is a sad story.

A few days ago, I made a trip to the pharmacy to buy some facial cleanser. It was going to be a quick trip-go in, buy one thing and leave. I innocently, and dare I say cavalierly made my way to the appropriate shelf to grab my prize. I looked quickly.  It wasn't there. I looked again.Yep, I decided, I better make that eye appointment when I get home. I looked again, this time a bit harder. And then again. Nothing. No Dove foaming facial cleanser. I must have made a mistake, I decided. It must be here. I'm just not looking hard enough.

Thirty nervous seconds later,  I began to scour the shelves. No luck. Like a crack addict I began pacing up and down the aisles wondering if I had missed something. Was I all of a sudden in the wrong aisle? Perhaps facial cleansers have now been stocked next to baby wipes. Well, why not? The store could have a very good reason for doing that. It's not my business to ask! I went over and checked. No, not there either. All of a sudden, panic began to set in as visions of Elaine Benes searching for the Today sponge to no avail danced in my head.

Two more stores and still, no sign of the elusive cleanser. To be fair, I had an idea as to where I could get it, but that's not the point. The fact was that what I wanted was not going to be readily available anymore, and that was completely disheartening. A very unsettling feeling set in as I began to get flashbacks from the catastrophic Flex shampoo incident of the 1980's.

Let me explain. Flex was my shampoo of choice in my teens. Little did I know then, but I later found out that a friend of mine actually associated the scent of Flex with me. Flex was my teenage signature scent. I happily used gallons of it until....oh, this is difficult for me....until it disappeared. It was devastating. I was lost without my shampoo. After all, who was I without it?

Now here's a little secret that I haven't told a soul. Years and years later, I accidentally came across a hotel shampoo sample of Flex. I stuck it in my drawer and clung to it for the longest time. One day I decided to take a whiff. Wouldn't you know it, it didn't smell anything like the familiar perfume of Flex. Someone tried to pull a fast one. And don't go telling me this happened because the darned thing was sitting for years!

So off I go to start investigating new, more readily available facial cleansers. I don't have time for this. I have other things to do. Yes, I know...change is the only thing that is constant in the world. BAHHH!!! First Flex, and now Dove foaming facial cleanser. Life isn't fair.