(Note: Apologies for the very long and rambly post; I’m trying to get this in before bed and am too tired to edit)
Situation
First day back at work after working from home on Monday. Had a Dr.’s appt in the morning. I was at a conference over the weekend and didn’t get much sleep at all, so I felt like a zombie most of the morning. My eyes really didn’t want to stay awake.
Pheromones
1 spray Ammo (Blue summer)
2 drops A314 (my ancient batch)
Observations
Started the day at the Dr.’s office for a consultation. The nurse manager came into my room and the moment she saw me exclaimed, “sorry, your paperwork was on the wrong door!” and quickly left. I’m pretty sure she was expecting a woman (my name is kinda gender ambiguous), because after a few minutes of discussion outside the door, she came back in and apologized about being tired/confused.
I’m not an incredibly masculine looking guy–I’m definitely on the femme side, though I have a little beard. And the funny thing is, women confuse me for a girl about 20–30% of the time, including this past weekend as I went through TSA screening at the airport. I was wearing those paper hospital gowns, so it’s not like my clothes made me look extra masculine either. It might have been the type of consultation that threw her off, and/or the Mones gave me a more masculine vibe.
Rest of the appointment went well. The Dr. eventually came in and went through the rest of the consultation, and I was out and on my way to work.
Today, we had a lunchtime product demo by some vendors wanting us to renew our current deal with them. We’d had a similar vendor last week and other than food, this didn’t seem out of the ordinary. I was super tired and folded my hands in such a way as to hide my eyes and let them rest (I was that tired). Once we started, however, I noticed our department head seemed exceptionally chatty–she’s usually quite outgoing, but today was way more than usual. The word ”feisty” comes to mind; she had a low filter on her comments, but the content was lighthearted (not malevolent). She sat directly across table from me. She definitely didn’t act this way last week at the other product demo. I also wasn’t wearing Mones that time, either. I don’t know if it’s worth mentioning but although she’s bi, I really don’t think there’s any attraction; if anything, she’s more like a big sister/not-quite-old-enough-to-be-a-mother-figure, but since it’s Ammo and ‘mones are usually used for romantic purposes, I thought I’d clarify that.
After the demo I was on a conference call with two co-workers (both women) in a small conference room together. They were leading the call and I was just there taking notes (and messing around on my phone). In closing out, one of the ladies basically ended up giving a sermon as her call to action! She’s a very religious person and this was the first time I’d seen her giving a talk to external people, so I’m not sure if that’s her usual MO or not (the other woman joked later and said she was “preaching” towards the end). Our department head came by afterwards and somehow the conversation ended up talking about wedding dresses and engagement parties (all 3 women are married. I am decidedly not). I don’t have anything nice to say about the institution so I’ll just say, I was getting rather bored by the conversation, so I stood up from my chair and made to leave back to my office. The other three wrapped up their convo and eventually left.
At some point in the afternoon, I applied one more spray of Ammo. Either the caffeine I’d been drinking finally kicked in or Ammo amplified the focusing effects of A314; sometime after application, I got super focused and breezed through an assignment I was dreading to do. As I mentioned, I was really tired and seriously contemplating going home, taking a nap, and then doing the work. My supervisor even came by to let me know she was going home early, and my office mate also left early, so I could have easily followed suit. I’m always looking for an excuse to go home early, but today, in my mind, I felt like I might as well start while I was still at work (if not just finish the whole thing) and not have it hanging over my head when I got back home. I had notable mental clarity as I worked, which was surprising given 1) how tired I was and 2) I hadn’t done an assignment like this in a while, and normally would have floundered for a bit as I tried to figure out the best way to tackle the work. I wasn’t watching the clock, but I think I did it in around 2 or 3 hours. By 6 PM, I was more or less finished (assignment-wise and energy-wise); the perfectionist in me would have liked to spend more time on it, but I was mentally exhausted. Still, I was very proud of myself that I didn’t quit and run home to take a nap.
Conclusion
Ammo gave some obvious hits with my department head (loquacious, cheery, low filter), possibly a masculinizing effect that erased any gender ambiguity when the nurse saw me, and when paired with A314 and reapplied in the afternoon, helped me get over the usual tedious feeling I get when I have assignments to complete. I think I like this mix and will try this A314+Ammo combo again in a work setting.