Scent of the Season

We were out of dog food and had to stop at the store on the way home from dinner with friends. Our normal store was in the opposite direction from our house so we just stopped at a store that was locationally convenient. In the end I sort of wish we had gone the extra distance to a store I knew.

We had no more than passed through the automatic doors than we were assaulted with the overwhelming scent of cinnamon.  The odor filled the air to the point you could taste it on your tongue every time you inhaled. The cloying bitter sweet scent was undeniable and inescapable; it was like olfactory hell.

I have an incredibly sense time sense of amell. If every person has one slightly extra ordinary super hero like ability mine would be my sense of smell. While awesome for making my pallet more defined it is pretty much the worst super power ever. I find this especially true during the holidays.

Once Halloween passes I almost dread walking into an unfamiliar store because I know what most likely lays in wait for me. It is almost a guarantee that a festive cinnamon laced pine cone wreath has been placed in the store waiting to attack. It is just one of those cliches people can not resist.

I understand their reasoning. People associate smells with certain thinga. Holidays, the winter ones in particular seem to be most associated with pine and cinnamon. I suppose pine is too remeniscent of mop water so cinnamon wins out. Really it makes sense.

Sadly I hate cinnamon. I don't even like eating it let alone smelling it. It is so easy to completely overwhelm your food or your air space with this pungent ingredient. Most people seem to think more is better, but in reality you are taking something that should add us the elegance and instead turn it into a troll with a telephone pole mauling a China shop.

Moderation is a lost art form.

So it is with trepidation that I enter the holiday season. I await with displeasure the next onslaught of cinnamon and dread the migraine headches which will assuredly accompany such a foul odor.

So remember myinions, as the holidays get into full swing, think twice before you bathe your home in cinnamon. I may not be coming to visit you, but chances are there is someone trying to not hurl into the egg no because of the overuse of this classic holiday scent.