I have to premise this post with this: I have no time for this right now. I have had a busy mom kind of day, the last few hours of which were spent holding my son while he puked all over me. I couldn't rip the clothes off my body any faster. And I'm the one who can stand the puke smell. I have to work tomorrow and teach a class that I've only taught once before...I could use some practice, but alas...I find it much more important to write to my adoring fans. All 10 of them. And three or four of those don't count because they are my family. They have to read my blog, or they have to deal with The Wrath of Melanie as it has been pleasantly dubbed. And that ain't pretty. I know, you are all very scared right now.

So here's what's prompting these thoughts. This post makes me thing of two things:

1. I love the smell of new books and new shoes. I don't know why, but I go around inhaling the sweet, sweet aroma of new books. And every time I buy new shoes, I find myself grabbing a shoe just as quickly as possible and shoving it into my face. (picture Molly Shannon doing the Superstar SNL skit) There's something so comforting, yet exciting to me about those smells. Maybe they remind me of starting a new school year, which was always something I looked forward to. I swear I'm not a total nerd. I think I would be appalled at a stinky book. However, I also enjoy the crinkly pages of a book that gets wet. Again, I can't explain my odd affinity, but I'm just putting it out there in case anyone else can relate to weird things like this....anyone....Bueller...
2. Smells...my mom wrote a post about this...isn't it funny how certain smells can take you back to a place or moment in time? I can't at this moment say anything nice like the smell of dill, but I know that when I smell stale, cheap beer I have fond memories of small, local bars in college...ok, no really..when we bought this house I was so excited to have fires in our multiple wood burning stoves. I have been wanting a fireplace for a while, but it wasn't until we started using the wood stoves that I realized why I like them so much. The smell of burning wood (and smoke) reminds me of some very fond times in my childhood. When I was young, we had a wood burning stove and that smell reminds me of all the great times we had at that house. It reminds me of a time when my brother and I were friends and used to play and pretend to sing on our "stage" or play Judge Wapner (?). I'm too tired to check that name...It reminds me of when we had a blizzard and my family was stuck inside and with nothing else to do, my parents were forced to play Monopoly with us for hours. I loved having their full attention. It reminds me of all the times we went camping and had family campfires, or when I was a camp counselor for a summer and cooked over a fire quite often. It reminds me of when Kyle and I took Cameron (at 7 months old) on a camping trip across NC for two weeks. Lots of great memories associated with fires, so it makes sense that I would want that smell and that warmth represented in my house.