What's your weirdest memory ?

I have always assumed I am slightly weirder than normal people because I remember, well... weird stuff. Like the texture of a dress I owned at the age of 2, and the exact smell of the aftershave my dad used when I was about 2 or 3. And my mother's gold hoop earrings she inherited from HER mother. I remember the shelves of a cabinet and what was on them in a house I visited more than 10 years ago. But go ahead, ask me for my car keys, or if I know where I put them, or even what I ate for dinner last night.

I can clearly picture a pair of sneakers my mother bought me when I was 10, and can also recall the fact that no matter how I laced them up, the right shoe always had the laces uneven. Dad had to do it for me. I know in exactly what order my dolls had to be put in. The smell of the box when I was bought my first pair of heels. Unfortunately I can also clearly recall the taste of Epsom Salts (bleargh) and Castor Oil. I remember Mum's instructions on how to make chocolate cake and have never needed a reminder, but when I need to stick something in the pressure cooker, I am constantly checking with her how long it needs to sit.

I remember stories and songs my Nana put me to sleep with, and yet I fumble with a document I put together myself a few hours ago.

So maybe this is curiosity, but what is YOUR weirdest memory?

Age is just a number... right?

I have aged. Gone old. Ancient even.
The proof lies in the events of this rainy morning. I got to work, late as usual. I park, get my stuff together and get out, as usual. I lock my car and double check the fact, as usual. And here is where some celestial monkey threw a spanner in the works. As. Usual.

I leave the car and start to walk to my building and the extraordinary happens. I hear a whistle. The wolfy kind. Now, 'back in the day' this would have resulted in one of two reactions from me. Completely ignoring the perpetrator, or a dirty look at a repeat offender. Today was a completely different kettle of fish... (I use it, but never realllllly understood the reason for this saying. Why the hell would anyone put fish in a kettle?)... As I was saying, fishy kettle - because my immediate and first reaction was -"Kids these days!"

Kids ?!?!?!?
What the HELL ???

And this is where epiphany struck. Age has caught up with me. Sigh.
At the ripe old age of 24. Double sigh.

Depression and general gloominess descended and I don't even remember the face of the little perpetrator (I think I like that word - it rolls off the tongue). A conversation with Pumpkin's mummy however, has made me feel better. After talking at great length, we have decided that age is just a number, and your true 'age' as it were, is how old you behave. With that conclusion, I have realized that I am probably 3, 4 at the most, and life is all pretty again.

Ahh, how easy it is to make me happy. :)

Technophile-o-phobe

New technology. Phones in specific. My first reaction to a new phone is usually "OOoooh shiny new toy" which is promptly followed by... "No wait... I can't get rid of my old phone... not when I love it so much" and then there is the guilt, yes actual guilt, of trading in my old phone or switching to a new one.

I am convinced that there is a name for what this is, and also possibly a method of treating it. But I don't really want to find out.

I am happy with my shiny new phone and guiltily steal a glance at my old one tucked into my dresser, and tell myself that it is not a living object and therefore unable to make me feel guilty. But I still can't help that little feeling of niggling doubt when I exchange the comfortable for the new and untried. Switching forms of technology or even switching brands makes me unsure and very cranky until I have it all figured out. So if anyone out there has a good online guide to curing ridiculous misconceptions towards certain phones, please send it over and hope for a miracle :)

Missing Persons...

I miss people. Terribly at times. People I love, People I lived with, People I went on a trip with, People who made me laugh, and sometimes, I even miss the people who made me cry. (Although, more often than not, I miss the latter because I have figured out something to say to them that would make them cower in fear :P)

First, I miss the easy going camaraderie I had with my friends in school. Although we are still friends, I have lost the ability to be as close to them as I was back then. Living away for so long, and then the changes that inevitably happen, have all contributed to making the memory of that closeness, all the more precious.

I miss my roomies. I definitely, definitely miss them more than most others I have known. From doorway conversations, to Pizza Corner and our preferred orders. From coffee at bed time to long, seemingly pointless conversations. From Road No. 10 to MT. I think about late night walks in the rain and wonder 'what the HELL were we thinking' and then I realize the beauty of it was - we weren't... not really. Little things like that. I <3 you K & N.

I miss my temporary roomies too.. the ones I spent 3 months with, apart from the ones I spent 3 years with. and what an unforgettable 3 months it was. People at the Big G, compatriots at -1, secret balcony events, dinner buddies - how do I think of them all?

TenD: after 3 and a 1/2 years, how could I not miss TenD. A love affair that started with 'I never' and a road trip, was nurtured by the real 10D and Firangi, and lived at one extremely large table in the cafeteria. We lived through make-ups and break-ups, being set up and then setting up, surprise parties and nasty shocks too. Its amazing the bonds you forge in one night of complete madness.

I miss my fiance` too sometimes. Not the person he is now, because obviously, I have him and I also get to keep him :P ; but I miss how he could be when we first started dating. The days when everything was shiny and new, and the future was still a big uncertain cloud.

And while I miss allll these people and wish for snatches of what used to be, I sit back, smile smugly to myself at my good fortune to have had them in my life, and then grin at the fact that I still have them. :D