Friday, July 17

Triggers

I was thinking about associations lately. How certain things, and smells and feelings will always bring me back to certain places.

Dial liquid orange soap makes me think of Alison & John's house. Of Friday night suppers there, summers spent with neices & nephews, and feeling safe and comfortable in that environment. Butterscotch candies make me think of visiting Bubba & Daddy Ray. Of playing Chinese checkers on a metal board and sharing holidays and family events together. Christmas makes me think of Grandma & Grandpa's house, I can smell the warmth and taste the egg-in-the-hole she'd make. I see her small porcelain tree with little colored lights adorning it sitting in the dining room. When I smell that musty cigarette smell mixed with age I think of Matt's Grandparents apartment. The carpets worn from years of use, the walls and rooms filled with treasures collected throughout a well lived life. It doesn't smell bad to me, it smells like family, memories and time.

When I was growing up my friends and I would talk about what smells we experienced in each other's homes. Emily's Mom's car always had that new car smell that made me feel kind of sick. Sarah's house smelled of middle class cooking and synthetics. The Purinton's house smelled of nature, wood and kids. I never knew what my house smelled like, I lived in it too much, and still do, to notice anything unusual. Someone told me it smelled like peanuts.

I want that now, a place that I create as ours and we fill with who we are. What will be associated with us, and how will it permeate others lives? And what associations am I still to find? Will I look back 10 years from now and smell the inside of a new BMW and be transported back to those many Sunday evenings getting driven back in to the city, to our first home? The one where it all started.

Sunday, July 12

Sunday Afternoon

Oh Hi there. I've thought about posting many times these past few weeks. But then those times got full with other things. Like dinners with friends, runs with friends, dinner with in-laws and visiting friends, lunch with friends, more exercise with friends and without. You know, life.
My life has been full lately, and it feels great, but sometimes you just need a break. Which I did at the end of this week, and you know what was great? I had a CFW. I spent it sleeping in, running errands, cooking, laying on the couch and walking around in this gorgeous weather with my gorgeous husband. It was great.
Now I'm in that zone of Sunday afternoon. You know the one. When the weather is nice, and you've spend some time outside and now you're relaxing inside and it feels lazy and great and you don't want it to ever end. That's why I love Sundays. But I also hate them, when 7:00 or 8:00 pm rolls around and the reality of the Weekend being over, and your lazy Sunday afternoon being over sinks in. I don't like that feeling.
What I do like, is my job. A lot. So I'm happy to head in to work on Monday morning with a full plate of things to do that enrich me, teach me and motivate me. That's a feeling I can get used to. At the same time, after reading this weeks Modern Love this morning, I kind of want to retire now too. And then at the same time after seeing UP on Friday night, Matt doesn't ever want to get old. I guess we'll just keep plugging along, lapping up our Sunday afternoons together and see what happens, huh?