Distractions

One of the things I have noticed about living in this house vs. living at home is the difference in smell.  I am not talking cats, dogs, or cigarettes.  I keep the door closed and the room has been cleaned so those don’t play too large a role in my room.  I think what I notice is adhesives and lacquers.  

The furniture and floor in this room is probably from the late 50s to the mid 70s.  There was a great deal of activity in adhesives over there period.  Most of the furniture in our place in Boulder is pre 1950.  The smells from the materials used are different.  We have a different mix with only a few modern items.  If you go into a recently remodeled and furnished place, the aroma mix is different still.  My frame of reference is a rather dated mix and a late twentieth century collection of smells is modern by comparison. 

And if this all seems improbably to you, consider that the new car smell, which you can buy in cans now if you want, is largely the smell of the carpet adhesive.

I have also noticed the variance of the cigarette smell.  When I was playing bars, before the ban in Colorado, there was a variety of Marlboros, Camels, Lucky Strikes and Pall Malls.  However, out here the spectrum of tobacco smoke seems much wider.  And I am not talking about ganja fumes either.  It has led me to wonder literally a few times “What is that person smoking?”.

I have also noticed that merchandizing is much more segmented here.  I had to go to a men’s suite store for handkerchiefs.  I couldn’t get them where I bought the hand towel, and none of those items are available at the supermercado which has no panaderia, or pharmacia as a wal mart or even a safeway would.  One odd mix at the kiosks is that you can, in the same very small commercial space, purchase children’s books and pornography.  I suppose they both fall into the niche of popular paper-printed items, but, it is odd to find them that close together.

Tonight my otherwise sublime evening from the gym to the café where I am studying was interrupted by, of all things, Americans.  A grumpy old dude and his over-patient wife sat a few tables away and griped and over emoted about everything and anything.  It made me wish I couldn’t understand English.  I have to say, I much prefer the distraction to study provided by my teacher Brenda’s wardrobe and lack thereof.  I got a pic of her today in her least distracting attire to date.  I really wanted to snap one of her practiced, sexy, over the shoulder eye’s wide open look where she tries to be sexy and monitoring who is listening all at once.  But, I didn’t want to disrupt the class waiting for that shot.  You will have to use your imagination, as I do throughout the lecture. 

I will end this evening’s post here.  It is time to donde the banjo at this café.