Do you know how some people’s houses just have their own unique and totally particular smell? I’m not talking about the people with thirteen cats who use the living room carpet as a litterbox. I’m talking about the good kind of unique and totally particular smell–it might be a laundry detergent you don’t use, or a candle you don’t burn or maybe it’s the house itself, I don’t really know. But I would know my friend Barb’s house or anything that came out of it anywhere.

So would my kids.

Barb gives us hand-me-down clothes all the time and my girls can walk in the front door, wiggle their little noses and say “Did Barb bring us clothes today?” I swear it.

Anyway, I pulled out this wonderful little satin top today and it literally has BARB SMELL all over it.

I remember when she borrowed it, too. It was at least ten years ago–and it still has The Smell–back when we both did stuff like go out and be social on a regular basis. At least every other week we’d forage through each other’s closets for something to wear to this party or that fundraiser. This particular top looked so cute on her I told her she should keep it.

Barb was like, “Why? I can just borrow it whenever I want!”

Maybe that’s why I kept it, even though it’s weirdly misshapen and too short (am I getting longer with age, too?) and has little snags all over the satin? You know, in case Barb ever wanted to borrow it again.

I’d like to point out that this is the same Barb who talked me into the temporary tramp-stamp back in the day; the one who hosted my engagement party and helped me decorate my wedding reception even though she was eleven months pregnant at the time; the very one whose hand I held while they opened her belly up and pulled out her youngest daughter. What I’m saying is we’ve been through a lot, Barb and I.

And I don’t need this top to remind me of that.

XO
Jenna