Smokin'!

Today was my first day of school. I find I'm most stirred or awe-struck when I'm doing something, as opposed to just sitting. This morning I walked from my 8 o'clock to my 9:30 class across campus. Due to the construction at school, I couldn't walk through buildings or take my typical shortcuts. Instead I had to travel around the whirl of giant machines and mountains of rubble. On my chilly morning hike, I could suddenly smell it. Smell what, you may ask.

Not many people know this about me, but I have an obsession with a certain kind of of cigarette smoke. Because I don't smoke or ever have, I have no knowledge of types of cigarettes - but there is this certain one that was commonly smoked in Germany, and everywhere I went, I could smell it. After spending a summer in Germany, I came to America and would intentionally sit in restaurant and coffee shop patios near the smokers only to smell the smoke. However, most of the time, it only made me gag. But I discovered that I could smell it more in Dallas close to the sophisticated European old men at Starbucks. I was delighted.

Back on my walk to class, chilled by the cold morning and listening to the rumble of the construction, the distinct scent gently reached my nose which triggered flashbacks to the very walks from the train station where I got off every morning to walk through the endless construction and the smoking men in the stretch between the station and the hostel.

And it was beautiful.