Thursday, September 30, 2010

I Just Got Cooler

Have you ever heard of synesthesia? It's kind of a cool thing. And I highly recommend checking out Wikipedia for just a second.

Anyway - crazy story for the day. But first, a little back-tracking. So among all the NPR and Harry Potter podcasts I've also got a substantial list of podcasts from How Stuff Works. And I gotta say - they're pretty cool. Pretty really cool. And about a month ago . . . maybe longer, I can't really remember . . . the Stuff You Should Know podcast did an episode about synesthesia. I'd heard of it before, but the podcast was still interesting and I learned some new stuff and it was cool and I thought of how awesome it would be to be a synesthete and then I more or less forgot all about it.

Okay, change of scene. Did you know Hastings has a happy hour every afternoon in their coffee shop? Because they do. And it rocks. Two drinks for the price of one and free flavor shots. YAY!!!! So that's rapidly becoming a weekly tradition for us on one of Luke's days off. Woot. Anyway, last week the barrista had samples of frozen hot chocolate . . . and oh my holy crap IT IS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely fantabulous!!!!!!!!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, I'm raving - but believe me, you will too if you try it. So this week I decided to try a frozen white chocolate with a shot of caramel. Which it turns out is the same thing as the creme brulee on the menu, except without the coffee. (side note - did you know that frappachinos are kosher . . . and by that I mean "Mormon kosher"? Crazy! And would you believe I learned that from my mother of all people?! CRAZY!!!) So I get the coffee-less creme brulee, and it's pretty fantabulous too. Unspeakably fantabulous, to be precise. Wow. Just . . . YUM!

So I'm extolling the myriad virtues of the frozen white chocolate with caramel to Luke, and eventually I get to the point where I'm talking about how much I love things that taste warm. That would be the point where Luke looks at me like I'm nuts. Which, I have to admit, is a look I'm rather used to since we give each other those looks all the time. But this time I have no idea why I'm getting it. So then he's like "Ummmmm . . . warm is not a taste." And then I'm all "Well, yeah, I know, but there's just no other way to describe some tastes, don't you think?" And then he's all "Ummmmmmmm . . . no." And I'm all "Ummmmmmmmm . . . what?" And by this point we're both giving each other the "you're nuts" look. So I end up having to launch into my explanation.

Which goes thusly: when I eat cold things with a flavor that is normally attached to a warm food, in addition to tasting . . . well, caramel-y or whatever . . . it also tastes warm to me. It doesn't warm me up like drinking hot chocolate or soup or something would. The taste sensation I get just identifies itself as "warm." I get the warmest sensation from cotton candy snow cones - where the warm taste almost overpowers the deliciously pure sugary goodness taste. Cake batter ice cream does the same thing, and a few others here and there.

So I explain, and then Luke looks at me a little incredulously and says "You have synesthesia!" And I guess there must have been some confusion in my surprised look, because he starts explaining what it is. So then I tell him I know exactly what it is, it just never occurred to me that I might be one of those freaks of nature (lol) because doesn't everybody else taste warmth too? Seriously. I never imagined that I was the only one . . . it's normal to me, therefore everybody else must taste it too . . . right? Weird! But no, Luke is like "you have taste/touch synesthesia" and I'm like "wow, I guess maybe I do." And I felt like I gained just a little bit of coolness.

Yeah, I'm kinda weird. And I probably just got weirder, not cooler. But that's kinda okay by me. Because I like things that taste warm. And next week I am sooooo trying the cotton candy frappe off the kids menu. Can't wait!!

P. ost S. cript
Too funny. Beyond too funny!


4 comments:

  1. Um...but frappachinos have coffee in them...

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  2. That's what I thought, but apparently not. At least, mom has her info from some chick she works with who is apparently as straight-laced as it gets . . . so I'm assuming it's legit.

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  3. Um...yeah. No. Look up any frappachino recipe online. Totally coffee. Whatever she was told is so not right...or the "chick" is not as straight laced as your mom would like to think. Or she's telling herself that to ease the guilt. Or maybe she's straight laced Baptist? (Or anyone else that drinks coffee...)

    http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-a-frappuccino

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  4. You were already cool. But you're right, that is cool.

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