Christmas music is officially legal here at the Palmer house. There's just one problem: certain songs are making me feel physically ill.
Let me explain. For some reason, I've always formed strong associations between sounds and smells and certain potent memories. For example, the smell of strong petrol always reminds me of Russia. Listening to Guster takes me back to living in Utah. I even remember the smell of the cologne of one of the photographers when I modeled for Nike and thinking of it brings back all the nervousness and excitement of that day. And apparently, the sound of any Christmas music we bought last year reminds me of having pregnancy sickness and puking in the sink. Lovely.
At least I'm lucky the gross feeling doesn't extend to all our Christmas music. Unfortunately, though, it applies to some of the best. We bought a Sarah MacLachan Christmas album last year and listened to it extensively. This year, she hardly gets one verse into "The First Noel" and I'm already feeling queasy.
I think it will wear off eventually. At least I hope so. Do any of you have such strong associations between memories and your sense of taste, smell, or hearing? Here are a few more for me:
How about you?
Let me explain. For some reason, I've always formed strong associations between sounds and smells and certain potent memories. For example, the smell of strong petrol always reminds me of Russia. Listening to Guster takes me back to living in Utah. I even remember the smell of the cologne of one of the photographers when I modeled for Nike and thinking of it brings back all the nervousness and excitement of that day. And apparently, the sound of any Christmas music we bought last year reminds me of having pregnancy sickness and puking in the sink. Lovely.
At least I'm lucky the gross feeling doesn't extend to all our Christmas music. Unfortunately, though, it applies to some of the best. We bought a Sarah MacLachan Christmas album last year and listened to it extensively. This year, she hardly gets one verse into "The First Noel" and I'm already feeling queasy.
I think it will wear off eventually. At least I hope so. Do any of you have such strong associations between memories and your sense of taste, smell, or hearing? Here are a few more for me:
- Banana-flavored popsicles remind me of childhood in general.
- Root beer (well, Coke) floats remind me of the summer of 2007 in Jordan.
- The smell of freshly cut grass reminds me of cross-country and track meets.
- Lemon drops - or, more specifically, how sore they made my mouth after I ate a few dozen of them - remind me of checking out books from the library when I was a kid.
- No matter how many times I've used it since, the smell of liquid Softsoap will always remind me of my freshman year of college.
- The smell of jasmine reminds me of a lot of places in the Middle East, but especially Damascus, and especially the neighborhood of East Mezze.
How about you?