Flashbacks

I have very strong smell-situation associations. If I smell men's Curve I am instantly transported back to the time that I first started dating my high school boyfriend. A good friend of mine in college wore Curve (still- dude it was 2006 pick a new cologne) and whenever I hugged him I would think of that time in my life. That waxy smell of lipstick brings me to my grandparent's house and playing in the bathroom with all of my grandmother's lipsticks, trying not to get caught. Mint and cigarette smoke remind me of my (other) grandfather and the smell of hot sauce brings me back to the cshop in college. At one point, my undergrad was ranked as having the best food in the nation. Every thing was handmade on campus and the coffee shop had the best buffalo chicken calzones in the world. I used to pick the chicken out and my roommate would eat that while I devoured the cheesy buffalo goodness with copious amounts of ranch dressing (also homemade and delicious).

There are some smells that I associate with negative memories and one of those would be that fertilizer/bird seed/plywood/paint smell when you walk into a Lowe's or a Home Depot. That smell instantly flashes me back to my childhood when my parents would drag myself and my siblings from home improvement store to home improvement store for hours on end every single weekend. They claim I exaggerate but my memory is rock solid and I can still feel the hunger and boredom from being trapped in those giant stores. Forget about goofing off or running around- my mother ran a tight ship and my siblings and I were taught at an early age what appropriate behavior was for public, and what was not. It helped that most of my parent's friends did not have children, so we spent most of our time around adults.

I love smemories (smell memories- I am so clever) and am looking forward to adding more positive smemories in the future.