In Season 7 of Seinfeld, an episode aired and the catch phrase was born , “are you sponge-worthy?’  If you look up that episode on You Tube, it is quite funny and I have used that ‘worthy criteria’ as a screening method for many things, the latest being “New West-Worthy“.

New West for Women is a fragrance that I have worn since 1990.  My husband and I were on our honeymoon in the Caribbean and we stopped into one of those duty-free fragrance shops and that scent just hit me……I loved it……..and I have worn it ever since.  Over time it has been harder to find and now Amazon is selling it for over $250 a bottle!  The going rate was about $50.00. Ouch.

New West has gotten me through tough times and good times and in many stages in my life.  That smell has helped define a part of me:

• I wore New West from my honeymoon trip and pretty much every day since.
• I wore New West for every visit to that fertility doctor in Connecticut…and the day I saw that little heartbeat on the screen for the very first time.
• I wore New West when I miscarried and through the awful procedure that followed.
• I sprayed New West on pulse after I changed my voice mail, showered, shaved my legs and continued my breathing on the way to St. Peter’s to deliver Amelia.
• The day after 9/11 I was hugging the UPS man on my front walk.  I saw him at least 3 times a week as I worked from home and that was way before PDF’s and e-signatures.  We actually stood there and cried and as we stepped apart, he said I smelled good.  I will never forget that day (nothing to do with New West).
• I wore New West into the OR when I had the lump removed from my left breast, the hysterectomy when I woke up with hot flashes and the foot surgery when under anesthesia , I referred to my surgeon as a handsome little devil. OMG!
• I had a sales rep who worked for me years ago.  He loved my perfume and asked me what it was.  I told him.  Weeks later he comes to the office hands me the bottle and says, “my wife doesn’t smell like you”.  Hmm, awkward. We never discussed it again.
• When Jack was three years old, he was asked to bring a “lovey” to school to help him sleep at nap time.  He asked me to spray some of my perfume on a cloth and attach one of my earrings as well.  He slept with it each day at nap-time.  I still have that piece of cloth.
• At a restaurant on Broadway and 81st, I was having lunch with my husband and the waiter told me I smelled nice.  He brought me, and only me, a beautiful large iced Vietnamese coffee….yummy.
• I was upgraded to First Class on US Air one time in Philly.  The desk agent said I smelled too good and upgraded me! Score.
• I have to admit, I do love to hear that I smell good.  It feels good and just clean!

Now I have only a half bottle of New West left.  The manufacturer is Aramis and they no longer make the female version, only New West for Men.  As I dress each morning or for  an appointment or event, I ask myself, “is this New West-worthy”?  I always wear it with my husband, wherever we go.  I don’t casually spray it on for the gym, or the supermarket, or a sporting event.  It is too fragile and sacred to waste.

I plan on writing a strongly worded letter to the people at Aramis asking for them to reconsider their decision and begin producing New West again.  I have too many things to do yet in my life.  I have a bucket list that I could not possibly execute without New West.  I want to drive a Porsche 911 turbo and get it up to 100 mph; I want to see my children grow, continue their education and become successful. I would like to smell New West on my grandchildren when I lay them down to sleep in their beds.  And hopefully decades from now when I am old and ill and I am at the end of this great life, my family will remember how I looked and felt and smelled and they will smile when they pass a random person on the street who smells like I did….for all those years.