The beginning

So it finally happened: I caught Covid more than three years after the world initially shut down.  I hadn’t seen my evasion as an achievement, but it was nice to only have to deal with the vaccine side effects three times instead of the fullblown symptoms.

I’m not even clear how I got sick in the first place, though with the media coverage on increased infections again I should have known it was a matter of time.  All I know was that I had a busy weekend and there were multiple exposure opportunities.

Friday I caught La Chimera at the film festival.  Watchable, vaguely interesting, and a little predictable, but it wasn’t bad.  It wasn’t until halfway through that I remembered Isabella Rossellini was in it.  And then when the end credits rolled I realized the lead was one of the Prince Charleses on The Crown, though I hadn’t watched the show at all.

Saturday I had a full day starting with lunch with a retired coworker whom I had not seen since the before.  She had been dealing with elder care and family issues for many years and had little time for personal activities so being able to see her was pretty special.  We reminisced about our old trips, she vented about one of her sisters, and we loosely made plans to travel somewhere far next year.

After lunch I stopped at Sephora to try a perfume I had discovered in Portugal (Narciso’s Ambrée) but they didn’t carry it.  As I was leaving I came across Kosas’ sheer lipstick in Tropic Bliss and loved it so much that I had to get it.  (Sheers and nudes are my thing since they don’t accentuate my crooked smile and gnarly teeth.)

Then I hoofed it to the Home Show where my friend was already waiting.  She said she had a tickle in her throat but it wasn’t anything contagious.  The event was just like every other iteration I had seen before – some home things like kitchen cabinets, some home-adjacent things like candles and exercise equipment, and some that were not particularly homey like jewellery and snacks.  Of course we tried all the snack samples, but we also stopped by a bunch of candle vendors because I had rediscovered my appreciation of home fragrances earlier this year.  I smelled a ton including the very one I had picked up the previous weekend at the Interior Design Show (Cypress and Oakmoss) and the only one that didn’t register was a candle called Bourbon and Sandalwood.  My friend liked it but it was a complete blank for me.

That should have been my first hint that something was off.  The connection between anosmia and Covid did cross my mind immediately, but I just chalked it up to the scent being like Tom Ford’s Fucking Fabulous, which is reputed to smell like nothing in the bottle for some people but like its namesake once it hits skin.  That comparison came to mind because I had tried on the very perfume at Sephora prior to the home show because previous sniffs at paper blotters had revealed nothing to me.  Skin verdict?  Not That Fucking Fabulous.

Anyway.  My friend and I people-watched outside the convention centre for a while when we left the show and then we decided to head for an early dinner.  We stopped by Sephora on the way because she needed to pick something up and then we went to Hello Nori.  It was a great find and I can’t wait to return for more handrolls.  The warm rice, crispy seaweed, and perfectly flavoured fillings were to die for on a slightly chilly autumn day.  I specifically recall picking out the lemon scent in one of my rolls and my friend had to sniff hers carefully to identify the same.  After our meal, we wandered through Sage where I nearly got their Goddess oil rollerball (an old favourite scent).  So aside from the weird candle incident, my nose was still working fine on Saturday.

Sunday was a chill half day at home and then dinner at one of my uncles’.  My cousins and I played with their dad’s new-ish cat and managed to trim his claws without any injuries to us.  We also played the new special edition Costco Monopoly game before and after dinner, which was delicious as usual.  The only part that surprised me was that there was a lot of cilantro in the jellyfish appetizer.  It wasn’t possible to get rid of all of it so I ate some.  I expected to be grossed out but I wasn’t.  It was still strong, but didn’t have its usual offensive odor and taste.  So that should have been my second hint.

Then Monday came along and it was clear something wasn’t right.  I pulled out the one and only test kit I had picked up over the last three years and bingo, I had Covid.  I spent that day, and the next couple, resting, sleeping, and bingeing Buffy.  Yay for the $1.99 Disney Plus deal!  I wasn’t able to accomplish much but Tylenol helped with the achiness and Benylin is keeping my cough at bay at the moment.

My sense of smell didn’t disappear right away.  I recall spraying on my beloved Rose Barbare from Guerlain near the beginning because it gave me comfort.  But yesterday I realized I couldn’t smell my candles.  Or my perfume.  Or even the litterbox, which should have been reeking.  I actually don’t terribly mind that last one, but I miss being able to smell Austen, who is has an incredible fragrance that her brother can’t match.  Yes, I like cat huffing.  So what?

I am now convinced I need to track when my Covid-induced anosmia goes away.  Will it be days or weeks?  A quick Google search reveals some people never regain their full abilities.  What if your livelihood depended on your sense of smell?  It would be terrible for a perfumer or a winemaker or a chef.  I’m obviously none of those but enjoy their work so I’m determined to make some sense of this hopefully temporary condition.

On the bright side, as of this afternoon I can detect a hint of the Cypress and Oakmoss candle fragrance and the sweet part of Tom Ford’s Lost Cherry perfume.  But Rose Barbare is still lost to me.