Things I Have Smelled In the Last Hour

[mrissa]

Peaches
Tar
Paint Thinner
My shampoo, conditioner, soap, and lotion*
Chocolate**
Barbecue sauce
Lemongrass
markgritter, timprov, missista*
Blood**
Lilacs
Roses
Mandy's fake rose lotion from high school
Chlorine
Rotten cauliflower
Rotten raspberries
Cardboard*
My Gran's Emeraude perfume
The Gustavus caf's approximation of vegetable soup (no actual vegetables harmed in the making of this soup)
Envelope glue*
Dandelions
Copper
ETA (in the next ten minutes): Wasabi
Rotten shrimp
Oak and birch leaves*
Hot dog juice (you know, in the package, squick)
Blueberry cardamom mango soup

*Actually present in the room
**Actually present in the room, but in a sealed container

My main accomplishments of the afternoon are paying our property taxes, cutting another 150 net words from Sampo, and not throwing up.

I really, really need to bring in the last of the basil. I really need to make banana bread before the bananas start a fight. I am a great big coward, because I haven't done those things because I am terrified of what I will smell in the process.

Comments

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey, I'm so sorry.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You have blood in a sealed container...?

I... wow... I am torn between feeling really bad for you, and thinking, "It is amazing that Mrissa can smell all this stuff, and recognize those smells." Whenever you write about smell, I feel as if you are talking about sight to a blind person.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have not unsealed the container that is me, and therefore the blood is still in it. Ditto the other three mammals in the house.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Are there smells that are antinausea for you? Maybe you could lay some in. Or wouldn't that help for fear they'd morph into something else?

Also, are smells as emotion- and memory-invoking for you as they tend to be for those of us for whom the less is less acute but also way deep in the reptile braihn? If so, I'm even sorrier about all this than I already was, because it's got to be upsetting enough to have a primary sense misfiring, but even worse it's it's calling out random emotional responses besides.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, no smell is reliable at this point. So something like ginger that is generally antinausea may morph into rotting cabbage at any time.

And yes, smells are pretty emotion-/memory-invoking for me. So Gran's Emeraude? Not a neutral smell.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry. When I'm hypersensitive to smells, sometimes a little Vicks VapoRub above my upper lip helps drown out the noise. Unfortunately, it's no help at all against hallucinatory smells.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You are a heartier spirit than I. I would try to claw my own lip off if I put Vicks on it. And yes, it doesn't help with hallucination or scent distortion, unfortunately.

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it you I told about freezing bananas, years ago? Or am I hallucinating? Because frozen bananas, although you do have to unfreeze them at some point, don't smell. Or have a banana bread time limit.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was me, and I'm considering it. But frozen-and-thawed bananas do smell.

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

I know, it's one of those solutions that only lasts as long as you don't need room in the freezer. But sometimes I really like to put off a problem, and people always think banana bread can't be put off, so I figured I'd offer. You might have a less smelly day before you need the freezer space.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Actually we have a chest freezer in the basement as well as the attached unit, so the question is never whether we need the freezer space and always whether something will get freezer burn if it stays in there any longer. Or, of course, whether I need to use it, but that's less a problem, really.