Dead People Cereal
I remember as a child finding out that my uncle had passed away while I was eating breakfast. I was eating this puffed rice cereal and my Dad came into the kitchen to tell my sisters and I what had happened. I don't remember much after that, except that I didn't go to school that day and stayed with Christie's mom because my parents had to set up funeral arrangements. From that day on I would never go near that cereal again. The thought of it made me sick, even though I never became physically ill from it. It was soon after referred to as dead people cereal...for obvious reasons.

They say taste is one of the most powerful senses we have connected to our memories. "They" being those people who everyone quotes regardless of substantial evidence. All I do know is that smells and tastes can be far more nostalgic than a visual memory can ever be. For example, the above reference. Eating that cereal doesn't make me cry, but it makes my brain trigger that feeling, almost deja vous, that I've experienced this sensation before. It doesn't always have to be a bad thing either. The smell and taste of a Winger's Buffalo chicken sandwich and Wawa lemonade takes me back to freshman year. Sometimes you won't even go near the food or smell because of the memory it elicits. Like, Kaluha, peppermint schnapps, and cranberry juice; that was Pat's St. Patrick's Day concoction three years ago. I puked the world that night. Plus I think it was one of the first times I had gotten tipsy. Or the time I had a stomach virus and puked Campbell's chunky(er) soup. I still haven't touched that one.

My point is not green. I really just wrote that. I don't know why. ANYWAY, my point is that I could eat dead people cereal again and not feel funny. I don't know how long it's supposed to last, but taste and smell memory has to stay with you longer than any other sense. Eventually, I assume those feelings become new to us and the association disappears. Oh, and horse shit will always remind me of Villanova.

QUICK NOTE: I read this in the Villanovan online in reference to an internet outage. I felt it deserved one of my treatments:

"This wasn't the first time I've had disruptions while trying to do work. (Like fucking.) It seems like (insert expected "like" here) whenever I buckle down to get work done, this happens," senior Julie Psota said. (I procrastinate a lot, wait to the last minute to do everything, and then for the hour the network is down I complain about not being able to do my work.) "I wish that UNIT would at least let us know what happened and why it happened so that I can plan better or at least understand who or what is responsible." (Why does knowing that do anything? It's not like you can plan on it? Oh wait, that's right. It's so you can justify not doing work accurately when you come to class the next day with a hang over. How stupid of me.)