Torn

You know how scents can transport you back to a certain place/time/feeling? We've already talked about how cigarette smoke does that for me. Another big one for me is books. I don't know what gives them their smells (the paper? the ink?) but there are very distinctive "brands" of book scent. One reminds me of this book I got for Christmas when I was seven--it was full of fairy tales and myths. And even though I lost it in a move when I was eight (when you're in a military family you can count on losing 84% of your possessions during one move or another) every time I catch that smell I remember it. If you ever stop by the library when I'm cataloging books you just might catch me burying my face in the pages and smelling them while I relive other, happier book-based times in places like England and Germany. Just pretend you don't notice, 'kay?

Yesterday I had another scent flashback. A guy sat down near me during church and the combination of his cologne and the minty gum he was chewing smelled exactly like the boy I had an all-consuming crush on through high school and part of college. One whiff and I suddenly felt like I should be dancing to "Kiss From a Rose" in my high-school gym at the homecoming dance. It was all I could do to not bury my face in that guy's shirt to get a better whiff. I'm sure that wouldn't have alarmed him or his girlfriend at all.

Only then I remembered how my tragic crush turned out. Church Guy has no idea how close he came to getting his teeth kicked out.

Posted in: book lust,dating or not so much