Do you smell that? That smelly smell. That smelly smell that smells....smelly.

And if you can name the show that quote is from, and/or what it's referring to, I'll give you a big hug and kiss. Never mind...Daniel, you can't play. (I'll still give you a big hug and kiss, but it's not contingent on answering that!) If you can name it and you don't live in my house, I will give you a dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies. Promise!

So last night Daniel and I were talking. Ok. I was talking. He was trying to watch M*A*S*H. And for some weird reason I started talking about how smell takes me places. You know. They link me to a place, a time, a person. Here are a few examples...

1. Homemade bread...being inside a nice warm house when it's raining outside on a school day.
2. Moth balls...My mother in law.
3. Skunk...My bedroom in my parents basement at 4:30 am after Willie the dog came in from outside and ran around my room...couch, chair, bed, carpet...and got skunk smell all over. It was a really bad day. It was also my first "let's use the internet"day to find a cure for skunk smell.
4. Vanilla candles...Being pregnant and sick with Isaac.
5. Gasoline and rain...Being in the back of the Toyota station wagon with my sisters. Asleep. Going to the gas station to fill up, listening to rain drops hit the top of the car, then continue the trip.
6. Lysol...My mission...they always cleaned with Lysol. I don't clean with Lysol!
7. Mexican food...The real stuff...my mission and eating with the people.
8. Febreeze...Back to the skunk. I sprayed it on everything! I can only think skunk when I smell Febreeze.
9. Realm cologne...Daniel when we were dating and engaged. Sometimes I smell it on my brother. That's just weird!
10. Freesia body spray...The little shower in the little bathroom on the Carribean cruise I went on.

There are so many more, too. If I smell any of those things or a myriad of other things, I am sent back to the time and place and people and the most vivid memory associated with the smell. It gets really scary sometimes. Like when I would wait outside on the driveway for Isaac's bus to come and a neighbor boy would be walking home from school. He would stop to chat with me and when the breeze was just right, I could smell School. I would seriously want to puke. Like run in the house clutching my innards close to my spine as all the memories of school and teachers and desks and and and...I can't handle it. I'm glad my boys don't smell so strongly of that with a relatively new school.

That was painful to think about!

So I tell Daniel (back to last night) that I smell him and know his smell and it's a good and comforting smell. "So, hun, what do I smell like?" "Nothing" "Nothing?" "I don't associate smell with memories or feelings or anything." "How can that be? That's all smell is to me" "I'm weird." "Well that goes without saying." And we went on like that for a while.

It was when we were in bed and I had this epitome that I crossed the line. I say, "So that's why you don't have a problem cleaning up the throw up!!" He laughed briefly then said "I can still smell, Jennie. I just don't associate it with anything. Throw up smells gross and I don't like the smell of it. It just doesn't evoke a memory." Oh. Ok. He can still smell. I knew that. Puke doesn't evoke any memories for me either.

Does anyone else out there associate smell with memories or people or anything? does anyone just smell and not associate it to anything? Is there anyone who just can't smell? Let me know. Because I want to know if I'm weird or if Daniel is weird. Well. I know he's weird. But, you know, weird in the sense that he doesn't think anything special when he smells the lotion I wear on someone else. Maybe I'm weird.

And I'm serious about the smelly smell quote. Anyone know it? Tell me. Tell me...
And because I make more than 1 dozen cookies when I make cookies...email me, call me or stop me at the school to tell me, don't put the answer in the comments! I'll give cookies to one and all.