Songs, Scents and Sickness

I am a person ruled by my memories. I remember way more than I would like to and those memories are often guided by songs and, occassionally, scents. I feel sick right now.

Sick because a co-worker was drinking a Strawberry/Kiwi Snapple. Sick because an ex-boyfriend used to drink them right before coming to my house. Before walking in my front door and kissing me. The sweetness of the drink flavored every kiss and every word spoken. That scent of sweetness makes me want to vomit. Literally. It reminds me of a time when there were so many promises made, none of which were kept. When I was naiive and in love enough to believe anything. A time when I made some of the biggest mistakes of my life. When I allowed a person into my life who had no business being there in the first place, much less staying there for 5 fucking years. Sick because I still can't stop hating him. Sick because I don't know if I want to. It's been 8 fucking years since we parted and he still makes me sick.

I know this can't be the first time I smelled this smell in the last 8 years but it's the first time it hit me like this. It's the first time I remember smelling it in 8 years.

I'm not used to this from a scent. I'm used this from songs. Songs evoke such strong memories for me. Here's a brief list of songs that make me remember very specific moments in time:
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
Is This Love? - Whitesnake
Angel Eyes - Jeff Healey Band
End of the Innocence - Don Henley
Whoomp There It Is - Tag Team (yes, seriously)
Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton
Run-Around - Blues Traveler
Little Black Backpack - Stroke 9
I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues - Elton John
Closer to Fine - Indigo Girls
All I Want is You - U2
Send me on my Way - Rusted Root
Sunrise, Sunset

All of these songs put back to a very specific place. I can picture everything about the moment they are related to. I know where I was, I know who I was with.

Closer to Fine? Dancing in the rain with Becky while Jim and Dave looked on at the Indigo Girls concert at Ravinia in Chicago in 2000.
All I Want is You - dancing for the first time as husband and wife at our wedding.
Send me on my Way - picking songs for a video after D's first bday.
Sunrise, Sunset - dancing with my dad at my wedding and letting him I believe I was "daddy's little girl" for a moment while my mom stood off to the side sobbing.

All of the songs above take me back. Some to good time, some to bad. But they all take me back. Sometimes I feel like without music, I wouldn't have any memories at all.