Two years ago we traveled to Alaska to spend Christmas with my family. It was zero degrees the night we arrived in Fairbanks, and nearly forty below the day we flew home. Thankfully, my Christmas present from Justin that year was my beautiful purple down jacket.
Unlike Alaska, we have very mild winters here in in the Lewis Clark Valley; there are few really cold days that require a good down jacket, but I still wear it as much as I can throughout the winter. I truly love this jacket. Its warm, but not too hot - a good layer of down without being too bulky. Pretty but practical.
What does this have to do with fish, you ask?
Where to begin...
The other day on a family outing I had just zipped up my purple jacket when I caught a whiff of a strange odor.
"What is that smell?" I asked Justin. "It kinda smells like fish."
He couldn't smell it. Kendry couldn't smell it either. So naturally, as any mother would, I walked around and sniffed each of my children.
Kendry? Nope.
Cohen? Nope.
Jack?
Nope.
Strange.
And then the smell was gone and I forgot all about it. Until last night when I went to fetch some chapstick from my purple jacket. As soon as I opened the door of the coat closet I smelled it again.
Sniff sniff. What is that awful smell?!
I pulled the chapstick from the inner pocket of my jacket and was shocked to find it covered with a reddish brown substance. So I smelled that. BLECH!
What on earth?!
The clean freak in me immediately tried to rationalize the situation: "Okay. No big deal. So you have a decaying fish in your jacket pocket."
Hey, stranger things have happened. And we have had two fish fatalities in this house in the last two weeks.
Holding my breath, I removed the jacket from the closet and took it to the kitchen for further inspection. Justin spotted me with the jacket and immediately asked "Where did you get that grease stain?"
Sure enough, there was a visibly large stain near the inner pocket. Now I'm really dreading sticking my hand into the pocket. But I am the mom, after all, so I take one for the team and bravely stick my hand into the deep, dark pocket - after all, someone has to do it before the fish stench knocks all five of us unconscious.
What do you think I found?
Three decomposing prenatal vitamins and a set of keys to my office, all covered with the reddish brown coating leaking off the vitamins and all stinking like fish because, as my vitamin jar so clearly points out, these vitamins contain DHA in the form of fish oil.
FISH OIL!
Dagnabbit, Jody!
Of course, its all coming back to me now... wearing my purple jacket when we traveled to Justin's parents' house for Christmas... remembering as I walked out the door that I forgot to pack my vitamins... throwing three loose vitamins into the inner pocket because "surely I will remember to take these vitamins while we're at my in-laws".
If motherhood has taught me anything it is that I don't remember nearly as many details as I used to.
Details like actually remembering to take a daily multi-vitamin every day. Details like not leaving pills loose in a jacket pocket where they not only start to decompose but also appear to chemically react with metal, like that found in keys. I have scrubbed the heck out of my keys and they still reek. I've put them into a ziplock bag to contain the smell. I may have to request replacement keys from my employer.
As for my jacket, I just removed it from the washer and it still smells like fish.
I'm taking it to the cleaners tomorrow, but I am not very hopeful.
Forgetful? You betcha.
Hopeful. Not so much.
