Again with the smells...

I was struck by how much my brain engages with fragrances, like my new favorite 'eau de husband'.   It's like the imaginative side of my brain goes into overdrive building a story around what i smell.  At work, smells are often pervasive: toxic sock, code brown, strep mouth, the smell of chronic drunk (included in that is the smell of old urine, usually with toxic sock, and bad dental hygiene).  Sorry to gross you out.  At work, though, I try to avoid smells of all kinds.  Just a better safe-than-sorry policy.  

I've got many favorite smells- coriander lotion, warm laundry, banana bread, my cats's fur (i know i'm weird).  But my all time favorite smell is Boxwood.   I would smell it here and there, but could never really pinpoint WHAT i was smelling.  

My grandparents' house is a colonial farm house in Bloomington, IN.  Very old, and as a child, I spent a lot of time there.  We would often be on the back porch playing games, eating breakfast, or whatever.  And when you walk outside from the back porch, the smell is THERE.  I used to think it was moss mixed with mud and grass.  That's how I would describe it: moss and damp and green.  But there is a huge boxwood bush right by the door.  I didn't connect the smell until a few years ago, when I walked past a boxwood bush, smelled the smell, and immediately thought of my grandpa.  I miss him terribly.  

I went to Ravenna Gardens not so long ago, to buy a small boxwood plant for my patio.  I asked the salesperson about it and told her how much I loved the smell of them.  She said "You like the smell of cat pee?"  I do not, as it turns out, and i didn't buy boxwood that day.  But i associate the smell with all things good about my Grandpa, and will forever love boxwood.     As it turns out, there are tiny boxwood bushes surrounding the perimeter of my building.  While i love to be able to smell them everyday, I am becoming desensitized to it, and it doesn't trigger that same tug in my heart for my grandpa.  But for now, my brain has forever linked the two.