colors and scents

It's amazing how different the world can look from one day to the next without visibly changing at all. During my drive to work today, I noted how much colder and darker everything looked... despite the fact that the clouds that had engulfed the skies the day before had all but disappeared by this morning. I found myself reveling at the sudden sense of overwhelming unfamiliarity that seemed to have settled onto the world. All the colors seemed to have shifted into an unrecognizable pattern, and the drive up 101 this morning felt like it was the first I'd ever made.

I have this strange habit of seeing and remembering things by their colors and their smells. I'd step outside onto a street that I've walked through a million times before, and every now and then, I would find myself thinking, "It smells like Japan," or "It looks like Boston."

I'm probably making no sense at all, as I remember trying to describe this once to a friend without much success. But it's interesting to me how strongly my memory is tied to the smell of the air or the color of the atmosphere, especially in combination with the fact that my own vision at the present is very much affected by my current state of mind. What's even more interesting are the colors of the memories that most frequently choose to surface in my mind.