Smell Bank

Uh...hi. I've missed you all. Sorry about my absence. I've been rather...um....I've been reading the Twilight saga. I know, I know, I KNOW. Please don't say anything. I know how awful that is to most of you. those of you it's not awful to are probably going, "YAYYY HE CAVED". I know at least two of you are. You know who you are...

Anyway, today's post is about smells. And how smells affect me. Are you intrigued yet? Keep reading, it gets weirder. 

I know everyone has a Smell Bank that they hold near and dear to his or her heart. You may call it by a different name, but it's all the same thing. It's that collection of various smells that instantly triggers a memory, a thought, or a particular feeling. Or all of the above. You know what I'm talking about, right? Well today, because it's Monday, and because it's hot outside, and because I'm eating cashews and drinking a beer on the Old Lady Couch, I'm going to share some of my Smell Bank with you.

The smell of diesel exhaust in the summertime. Not just a diesel pickup, either. I'm talking heavy machinery. Back hoe, loader, tractor, FARM EQUIPMENT, MAN! It reminds me of my summers at the farm, which I miss. Horribly. I seriously considered foregoing college and just going back to the farm to work. It's a secure job, it's something I LOVE doing, and my uncles need help. Like, seriously. My cousins are all grown and have their own lives, and as anyone who grew up on a farm knows, when the kids don't work there anymore, the work force is severely impacted. It's just my uncles and my Uncle R's two sons. And Grandpa, but he's 86, and he sorta does what he wants. And we don't argue with that. It USED to be my two uncles, Grandpa, my Uncle R's 3 kids, my Uncle D's 4 kids, me, my cousin Big Fella, Big Fella's little brother, Little Big Fella, and my sister. During the summers, anyway. But yeah. I miss the farm.

The smell of asphalt in the sun. This is another summertime smell. Dad used to work road construction, and he would come home smelling like asphalt in the sun. During the most impressionable time of my childhood, that was just how Dad smelled. To this day, I can't drive down the Kansas highway during the summer without thinking of my Dad. Every time. :)

The smell of IBP in the winter. I know that this one is weird, but just go with me on this. Mom worked at IBP/Tyson for 20-something years. When I was really little, she worked in an office on the slaughter side of the plant. Slaughter side has a very distinct smell. It doesn't smell like death or anything like that, but the rendering and the slaughter processes just have a very distinct smell. Anyway, a very very vivid memory of mine is Mom coming to pick me up from the sitter's, and I would run and give her a hug, of course. She had a green IBP jacket that she wore in the winter time, and my little self just loved that jacket. I have no clue why, other than it smelled like Mom. I just remember burying my face in her jacket, and smelling her perfume, the distinct smell of IBP, and the cold air outside, and it was the best smell in the world. My sister has this particular smell in her Smell Bank, too. Mom hates that we identify the smell of IBP with her, but we can't help it. Any mother's child will tell you that their Momma never smells bad. She just smells like Momma.

Spearmint in the rain. Grandma Smith always had fresh spearmint in her garden. I would always go walk through her garden when it was misty and foggy outside, down at the farm. During the spring, usually. April-ish. You all know those misty/foggy April-ish days, right? I know you do. Anyway, this smell sticks with me because of one particular day. I was walking through Grandma's garden in the mistyfog, thinking, because I did that a LOT when I was younger, and I looked over and saw a rabbit in the spearmint patch. Weird, right? I know. But anyway, I went over to get a closer look, and realized that walking on the spearmint bruised it just enough to cause the air to EXPLODE with the smell of spearmint. It was such a good smell to me, then. I could smell the rain and I could smell the dirt of the garden and I relished in the smell of the spearmint. To this day, I still catch whiffs of spearmint in the rain, and it always makes me smile. :)

I think I will leave my little dive into the Smell Bank here, for tonight. Who knows, I may share more some other time. I've definitely got loads of smells to share. Do any of you have any smells that just make your life complete? Go ahead and share, if you want. :)

Hasta luego!

Jimmy Dean Buffett McHoulihan

My Body and I

...have a very interesting relationship.

Namely, 99 days out of 100, my body says "rest" and I say "when I'm dead."

Today is apparently day 100, and I have not only flaked out on a run, which I feel insanely bad for, but I am stretched out on the living room floor doing yoga....reading Twilight.

...My body wants Twilight, okay?

This round is yours, body, but come Wednesday? You're mine.

P.S. It is really hot outside. Waking up at 4:00 was a success. I got to work at 5:09, and was SUPPOSED to work an 8-hour day. Instead, I worked a 10.6 hour day, and I think I will continue to work 10-hour days the rest of the week. WHAT'S THE POINT OF GOING IN EARLY IF I DON'T GET OFF EARLY, HUH??  -sigh- If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have a beer, followed by lots of water, followed by a beer, followed by a protein shake, followed by something massive and greasy to eat. Followed by water. Followed by sleep.

Unearthly.

That's the adjective for the time that my alarm is set for in the morning. 4:15 a.m.

It's going to be so hot this week that Uncle Bossman made the executive decision that work will start at 5:15 this week, instead of 6:30, like normal. I mean, 6:30 is plenty early, but 5:15? Almost obscene. Buh. 

So anyway, I spent today being totally unproductive. I watched Lonesome Dove. That's pretty much it. It's a 6-hour miniseries. There's not much else you can do, when you spend a day watching that movie. I love that movie. The all-star cast, the acting, the plot...it's all fantastic. It's my favorite movie of all time. Seriously.

Right now, I'm blogging. I should be sleeping, but it's still daylight outside. I can't do it. I just...I can't. Buh. This is just not conducive to the way I want my life to be going. I want to be back in school. Now more than ever. Just a few weeks to go....

In other news....I made a bet. With LJ. If she read all 7 HP books, I'd....I'd read all 4 Twilight books....and see the movies. Well, I'm not sure that she's started reading yet, but I have. I bought Twilight last week. I'm on page 22. I'm less hateful towards the story than I used to be. Now I'm officially neutral. That's about all I have to say about that.

It's 9:01 right now, and I know that I should be sleeping. But...I'm not even in bed yet. I'm watching the Cooking Channel. Go figure.

Earlier, I was planning on a relatively lengthy post about lifestuffs, but right now all I can think about is how early my alarm is going off tomorrow morning. It's pretty much consuming my entire life.

Depressed in Kansas,

M-Diddy.

Stuff and Things...

So my Internet browser of choice is Mozilla Firefox. I love this browser. Quite possibly more than I should, but it's great.

One of the awesome things about Firefox is that it has a lot of available add-ons that you can get to more or less enhance your web-browsing experience. One add-on that I love is called StumbleUpon. Basically, when you sign up for this particular add-on, you fill out an interests profile and install  a toolbar. Then, once the toolbar is installed, you click the button labeled, "Stumble", and based on your interests, Firefox finds a random web page that it thinks you will like. 94 times out of 100, SU (StumbleUpon) has served me so well that it's almost baffling. Anyway, today, because I was bored, I decided to pop in a DVD (Lonesome Dove, my favorite movie in the world), fix a milkshake of the chocolate-banana variety, and go on a Stumble Marathon.

Anyway, the first site that popped up was titled, "Sixteen Things That It Took Me 50 Years To Learn", and is actually a mini-column written by Dave Barry. If you don't know who Dave Barry is, I'm sorry. He's a humor columnist and is just one of the funniest people out there. I love his stuff. Anyway, back to the site. These 16 things were presented in list form, first of all. I'm sure you all know how happy that made me. Second of all, these 16 things are actually completely worth reading, and sharing. So...I'm gonna do that.

1. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight saving time.
2. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. -I think that this is a particularly valuable tidbit...-
3. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.  
4. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that deep down inside we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.
5. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 111. -I can only hope I make it to that age. There's gonna be ONE HELL of a party.-  
6. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illenss." -e.g. Running.-
7. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share your religious views with them.
8. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and will not achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings." 
9. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy the people who are not in them. -How right you are, Mr. Berry.-
10. If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and He decides to deliver a message to humanity, He will NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.  
11. You should not confuse your career with your life. -I'm writing this one down on a post-it note right now and sticking it on my mirror.-
12. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. -Always, but ALWAYS tip your server. Seriously.- 
13. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. -And I hate it.-
14. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. -Very often, that individual is me.-  
15. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and do it. -This is something I should take to heart.-   
16. Your friends love you, anyway. -This is something I REALLY need to remember. Seriously.-

Well, I know that this wasn't the funniest blog post I've had, but I hope that that list up there made you think a little bit, and hopefully you take something away from it. Stay tuned for a Lonesome Dove-related post tonight. I've got a fever, and the only cure is more blogging. 

Hasta pronto!

Michael

COOL LIKE FIYAH

...Or however you spell what Sean Kingston sings about.

So today....was hot. As shit. And I worked outside. All day. I think I lost a couple pounds in sweat, and if you know me, you know I cannottttt afford to do that. So the beer du jour is a Budweiser. Yeah, that's right. "Pork Chop in a Can." "Liquid bread." Bud heavy. Nectar of the friggin gods, I tell you. I love me some Colorado craft beer, but some days, especially days when the heat index is 94 when you wake up at 5:15 in the morning, nothing beats a good ol' watered-down American-style lager. Mmmmmmm.

Enough about this blasted heat. We all know how hot it is. I just hope it's not this godawful for my bloggies in other states and/or Districts. Hi Jen! Hope your running is less dreadful than mine! :)

So the Identity Crisis (that still doesn't have a name...slackers) is starting to get a little less...crisic. It's a word, look it up. 

Tonight's supper: nowhere near as glamorous as the other night's delish steak fajitas. Leftover spaghetti sauce loaded up with parm and garlic wrapped in a tortilla and microwaved. With a Budweiser. Bahahahaha I feel so ridiculous right now.

Speaking of Colorado craft beer, it's pretty much my favorite. Ever. Ft Collins, Breckenridge, Odell, Boulder Beer Co., I love them all. I think I'm going to have to give a craft beer tutorial, sometime. I'll make beer drinkers out of you beer haters, yet!

Also, I read Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree the other day. It made my lip wibble. I forgot how much I loved that story.

I also just put on a pair of shorts. I realize that that sentence is totally irrelevant to anything I've said so far, and you probably didn't care to know, anyway, but here's the thing: I put them on left leg first. That's backwards for me. I ALWAYS put on my pants right leg first. Have you ever tried putting on your pants with the opposite leg first? Your legs suddenly acquire lysdexia and don't seem to work, anymore. At least, mine did. I nearly fell over. Actually, I did fall over, I was just trying to save face. Fortunately, there was my bed nearby to catch me. 

Speaking of my bed...I sorta overslept today. First time since I started my job way back in March. Bad deal. So....again, I'm cutting the blog short. Stay tuned for a lengthy post tomorrow. I've got a free Thursday!

Stay pretty, everyone. That's the only thing that matters.

-Michael Dean