Instant reminders of the past...

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Isn't it funny how seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, or hearing something can instantly transport you back years and years?  I have a book with a bunch of random little memories written down because I don't ever want to forget them, just in case they aren't triggered by something.  I can't even believe I am going to admit this, but I even have a book filled with little blurbs during the first few months of dating my husband.  It is funny to look back and remember our first date (I may need to dedicate an entire post to our first date...ha!) or how I told him he better get my number because I definitely would not be calling him.  I am so glad I was such a dork and did that.

(source) [Not only do I love this image, but the link will take you to an awesome tutorial for making recycled paper.]

I was flipping through my memory book the other day and instantly was brought back to each moment in time as I was reading.  These are things I don't think I will ever forget but I have them down, just in case.  :)  Honestly, they are so silly, but it is funny how our minds work in crazy ways.

Here are a few, in no particular order:

1.  Tracy Chapman's The Promise--Several of my hall mates and I used to listen to this song over and over again during our freshman year of college.  It is so weird because I was mainly into Rap, but this song instantly takes me back to my dorm days.

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2.  corn--I know...random, right?  Every single time I look at, smell, taste, think about corn, I am instantly brought back to my first day of primary school.  The cafeteria smelled of corn (and pizza, I think) and it is something I will never forget.  It's funny how something so silly as the smell of corn can trigger such vivid memories of starting school.

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3.  gumballs--Seeing these takes me right back to the days of being at my babysitter's (the same one who used to pay me to help her..ha!) house and playing outside.  We would flip the lids of the trashcans over, pretending they were big pans and used pine straw and gumballs to make "spaghetti".  We used sticks with attached pieces of pine straw as fishing rods and would catch fish (leaves).  Such fun and so much imagination.  I cannot wait to play like this with my son.

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4.  ice cream sandwiches--Now my memories are of the old school ones, not these yummy-looking homemade treats, but still...Every now and then my husband or I will come home from the store with a box of ice cream sandwiches and childhood memories come flooding back.  Either I hear the icecream truck music in my head and remember hopping the fence from my neighbor's house to run home for change or a memory of High's Ice Cream comes to me.  Then when I think of trips to High's as a kid, I start thinking about rainbow sherbet (which I always called "sherbert").  Weird how my mind works.

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5.  Juniper Breeze and 
Dream--These two scents instantly take me back to my high school and early college days.  I was recently out shopping and walked through a cloud of  Dream from The Gap (they don't still have these items, do they?).  It was the weirdest feeling.  Suddenly visions of being in Trig. class (which I failed the first time and had to re-take) came to me.  Then, I walked into Bath and Body Works for the first time in years and with one sniff of Juniper Breeze, I was back in my dorm room during my freshman year of college.   Crazy!

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6.  cheese!--Oh my goodness...last, but certainly not least, is cheese!!  Have I mentioned I LOVE cheese?  I would marry cheese if I could.  I have always loved cheese...in every form.  My crazy Greek grandmother (my yia yia) once told me, "God doesn't like children who eat too much cheese."  I think I ate nearly a brick of cheese at her house and that's what she told me!  Ha!  No kidding, every single time I eat cheese, which is several times a day, I think of her!  :)  I only wish she was still alive so I could tease her about it!

I have tons more, but will stop boring you with my memories.  :)  I had one of those weird moments a few days ago where I sat, stared at my son and thought..."Wow.  We are creating (and will continue creating) memories right now for him that will be triggered by something and remembered when he is older just as I am now."  I started a journal for him, so he can treasure his silly memories later.