Sound

For Christmas, an aunt and uncle got us an alarm clock. It is the clock to end all clocks, with a laser display that will shine the time and outside temperature (there's a remote sensor) on the ceiling when the alarm goes off. And it has soothing sounds to help you fall asleep. Things like Rainforest, Waves, Thunder, Rain, Summer Night, and so on. They're all really cool, and for digital sounds--impressively realistic. So much that when we tried out out Thunder, I felt this sword go through me and I couldn't move.

I was instantly transported back to Kansas springtime. Junior prom, to be exact, when it started storming after the dance, on the way to the after-party, and Sarah and I held our dyed shoes in our hands, and skipped through the puddles to the parties. My first party that included beer, boys, and an NC-17 movie, and arriving home at 5:30 a.m., the first light on the horizon, and fog lifting off the sodden ground.

I guess smell is supposedly the best sense memory we have, but for me, it's sound. I have so many sound memories that affect me on a daily basis, but only a few smell memories I remember right now (one of which was a random whiff of junior high locker room while crossing the street in Chicago a few years ago). And I can't even conjure up what that smell could possibly have been now, yet I can still hear refrains from songs in my head, the way my first car sounded when I revved the engine, and what our phone ring sounded like when we shared a party line.