I'm not weird...well, maybe I am a little....

         Hello, gentle readers!

I love my DH. I do. We’ve been together for a long time, but I must tell you, he thinks I’m weird. Not only does he think it, he tells me…and he’s been telling me that for years―almost since we met. If you want to know the truth―I am not weird. I prefer to use the term eccentric. Or unique. Perhaps, a bit dotty. Maybe even odd, but, most definitely, not weird. But I digress…

What brought on this proclamation (again)? Well, I bought a new liner for my shower curtain and he, very kindly, hung it up for me. And well…it smelled like…new Barbie stuff (you remember Barbie, don’t you? And Ken and Skipper?).

That distinct vinyl smell brought back a rush of memories…of waking up Christmas morning and rushing downstairs (with those spiky, bristly curlers in my hair―yes, I may have been seven or eight, but my mother loved big hair, hence the curlers and the inevitable hour of teasing the heck out of my hair (not to mention the abundance of hairspray) so she could get it as big as she wanted) and unwrapping the Barbie convertible or her camper or her townhouse (I had quite the collection). Loved those memories…and that smell!

But that isn’t why he called me weird. It was the exclamation “It smells like Barbie stuff in here!” which prompted a whole conversation…well, it wasn’t a conversation…it was more him standing there with that deer in the headlights stare, looking at me like I grown another nose in the middle of my face, while I gushed forth information about smells and the memories they trigger…like how the aroma of fresh ground coffee reminds me of my grandfather while mothballs reminds me of my grandmother (that’s another story for another time) and how Old Spice reminds me of him.

If that wasn’t bad enough, I proceeded to explain how I try to incorporate smells and aromas into everything I write. It’s important, along with all the other senses.

After twenty minutes or so (it may have seemed much longer to him and it may well have been) of me giving him an information dump on that subject, he finally shook his head, blinked twice and said, “You’re so weird!” He walked away (well, escaped really), muttering to himself under his breath words I couldn’t hear except for one…weird.

I didn’t think the encounter was weird at all. I thought it was completely normal and I'm sure it happens all the time. After all, smells do trigger memories. What aromas trigger it for you? 

Until next time, remember to spread kindness wherever you go.

Marie