My grandmother loved grapefruits, and my grandfather loved dark chocolate. I remember this because I also love both of those foods, and I am the only other person in my family who does. When they were alive, these common loves made me feel special in the eyes of my grandparents, and I still feel a connection between each of these foods and the people I loved.
Likes and dislikes, fears and pet peeves – these little pieces are part of our stories. They may seem insignificant, but just one shared love can strengthen a bond across generations. These little pieces are the focus for this month’s Who I Am project; if you care to join me, jump in now with this easy one!
I’ve written about the things I love and hate* before, as well as the things that scare or annoy me. To create something new for this post, I’m using all five senses.
*My sister and I were not allowed to use the word “hate,” and that habit is hard to break. I’m going with “strongly dislike” instead.
Sounds
I love the sound of m&m’s being poured into a bowl.
It reminds me of my childhood, when my mother hosted her weekly evening Mah Jongg game. Dessert was not a given after dinner, but I knew I’d get it on those nights.
I strongly dislike the sound of popping knuckles or joints. It makes me nauseated.
What scares me – the telephone ringing in the middle of the night.
What annoys me – the dog barking even though she’s been out, she’s been fed, and she’s been loved. What does she want from me????
Scents
I love the smell of Play Dough, fresh basil, and oranges.
I strongly dislike the smell of ranch dressing and buffalo wings. I will not dine next to anyone eating hot wings.
What scares me – the smell of propane. When I turn on the grill and smell the gas, I’m always scared it’s going to blow up in my face as I ignite the flame.
What annoys me – the smell of garlic I forgot to watch and therefore burnt in the pan.
Sights
I love any large body of water. I don’t need to be in it or on it; I just want to look at it.
I strongly dislike our lawn. It is 90% crabgrass and weeds.
What scares me – clowns and dolls. It started with the movies Poltergeist, It and Child’s Play, but spread to even benign, non-murderous dolls and clowns.
What annoys me – littering. How hard is it to hold onto your trash until you can throw it away? Seeing a driver toss his cigarette butt out the window infuriates me.
Touches
I love holding hands with Matt, getting my hair shampooed at the salon, and hugs from my kids.
I strongly dislike the feel of someone’s chin (usually James’) on my shoulder.
What scares me – the feel of a bug on my skin or in my hair.
What annoys me – touching my lower back. It is so ticklish that it’s irritating.
Tastes
I love expertly cooked scallops, the perfect berry, and a chocolate-covered caramel.
I strongly dislike yogurt and any kind of vinegar.
What scares me – the taste of anything coming back up.
What annoys me – the taste of soap that gets in my mouth when I wash my face too enthusiastically.
Maybe twenty years from now, I will snuggle with my granddaughter, sharing a bar of dark chocolate and laughing about our mutual irrational fear of clowns. My grandson will nestle in too, and I may even like it when he rests his chin on my shoulder.
Lovely prompts this month and I do like your answers a lot. So many I could relate to there!
Dark chocolate is a bit heaven-sent for me, as (where it’s made without milk) it’s a treat I CAN have! There seem to be relatively few of them! But it’s also meant to help your body, when the cocoa content is high enough, so there’s that. If I’m in a restrained mood I’ll nibble a few squares very slowly and savour them 🙂
Grapefruit I’ve only recently come to love, and that’s thanks to a friend who FINALLY taught me how you’re meant to manage the dang things! I never knew you were meant to take the skins off each segment to get rid of the bitterness.
Poltergeist scared me more than It did. Clowns don’t bother me, but ghosts DO!
I do love this series and what it brings up. I hope you get those precious moments in the future with your grandchildren-to-be 🙂
I’m glad to know that someone else has a wee bit of paranoia when it comes to the smell of propane/gas. Every single fall, when our furnace turns on for the first time and I smell that “natural gas being turned into heat” smell, I freak out and am convinced our house is going to blow up. Other than that, I’m fairly rational…
Ha – me too! And I know that the most lethal gas is odorless, but there’s just something about that smell that freaks me out.
Love what you did with this! I didn’t write because I think I have done all those in Tuesday ten posts. I like that you gave it a different spin. Will have to think about tit and see if inspiration hits me.
I like dark chocolate, but can’t stand grapefruit or a chin on my shoulder. I also hate the sound of someone crunching ice. 🙂
Yeah, I don’t like that either. But it’s not as bad as cracking knuckles!
I love how you approached it from a senses perspective – very good exercise for any writer! We share many of the same likes and dislikes, but no ranch dressing and buffalo wings??? What??? Thanks for sharing 🙂
I know, I know. My kids think I’m nuts! I just can’t stomach either one.
—-beautiful, interesting piece.
I VERY much enjoyed this.
We have much in common, dear.
PS. when I hear people cracking their knuckles (kids in school) I say, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, your fingers will get like huge sausages when you do that.”
They always stop. x I wonder if that’s true.
I wonder that too, and I tell my kids that!
Not a fan of grapefruit. I grew to like dark chocolate as the healthier alternative to milk chocolate but as for what I love? Reese’s peanut butter cups! Also fear clowns and sometimes dolls, oh, and, the “characters” who walk around Disney World. I always sense evil intent behind those masks. I do crack my knuckles, btw. Sorry! Besides the car alarms or ringing phones, an irrational sound I hate is wine pouring into a glass. Have no idea why because I do like to drink it!
That’s funny, Liz – have you had a traumatic wine spilling incident that makes you hate that sound? I will happily eat Reese’s peanut butter cups with you, as long as you crack your knuckles before we meet.
Captain Hook is the scariest Disney character. That huge head and long chin is creepy.
This was very cool to read and made me think about whether I relate or not or every single entry.
I’m sure we have at least a few things in common, Nina!
The sound of a phone ringing in the middle of the night = YES.
While I don’t like dark chocolate or grapefruit, I do love this chance for us to write about our likes and dislikes, and it’s good that we’re all different!
I remember the worst smell I ever smelled, or so I thought then, and it was perm fluid that leaked onto my shirt. There was something else I remember hating but I can’t remember what it was!
brb – gotta go pour M&Ms into a bowl!
Ha! Oh, I remember that smell when I got perms. You’re right – that’s a really bad one. And it lasted for days and days.
Clowns scare me, too, but I don’t have a scary clown story except catching a glimpse of a scary clown movie… 🙂
Yep – that’s enough for me!
I don’t like dark chocolate at ALL and would way rather have vanilla or caramel over any kind of chocolate any day. I actually think chocolate ice cream is gross (I know). I love grapefruit though and now I’m wondering whether I’ve ever cracked my elbows in front of you. They crack a lot… sorry if I did. LOVE that you remember your grandparents sharing a love of your favorites. And body of water? Going to Bethany on SUNDAY and can’t WAIT!!! This is a great WIA prompt!
I would have told you to stop if you had cracked your elbows in front of me – I’m not shy!
Happy birthday, you. And I love that you made the Who I Am project into an anagram. I’ve arrived.
I love that first photo, so much family history! Also, you and I have the same tastes, haha! <3 – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
I knew I liked you, Gingi!
We have much in common! I love grapefruit and dark chocolate and the smell of oranges. I love a vanilla-orange scented candle. The sound of knuckles cracking sends me over the edge! Cammy used to be afraid if clowns, but thankfully grew out of it. When you’re a kid, clowns are everywhere. Ditto on the littering. Oh, I love all your favorite tastes…and the scallops also have to have the right texture. Alas, I love vinegar😉.
Vanilla-orange candle – mmmm. You can keep your vinegar – I know most people love it!
Pennywise/IT ruined it for me and clowns. I was good. Now I don’t particulary like walking by drains either.
We were in Jacksonville, FL a couple weeks ago. We went to the beach there. We visited Sweet Pete’s Candy in downtown Jacksonville. They are a successful business that he been on Shark Tank. I didn’t know that for myself but the family we were with knew it and they were very excited. I just wanted to taste stuff. Anyway, I did one of those buy one of this and that. I can tell you if I’d still been in the vicinity when I tasted the sea salt caramel dipped in chocolate, I would have begged to go back. It is on their website so I might have to treat myself to some for my December birthday. I can’t imagine it arriving ok now as hot as it is. Anyway it’s the perfect mix of sweet, salt, chocolate and caramel. Yum! Peruse sweetpetes(dot)com when you want to drool.
Did you know there’s a remake of It coming out next year? No thank you. I never even saw the original – just the VCR tape box was enough for me.
Oh, I just looked at the website – yum!! Nordstrom Cafe has delicious looking caramels in lovely boxes – I’ve resisted buying them, but I’m always tempted.
I love your take on this prompt! Exploring the five senses was a great way to share preferences that are unique to you. I especially like your remembrance of your grandparents. I only had one grandparent alive when I was a child, and she taught me how to make roll out sugar cookies, and I’ve enjoyed teaching that skill to my own kids.
I’m almost done with my prompt- will get it posted and link up later this week. 🙂
Looking forward to it! I feel like I’ve written quite a bit about my likes and dislikes, so this was a good way to make it fresher.
As usual, I love your approach to this prompt! My kids use the word hate too often…I might just have to adopt your parents’ attitude toward it. You’ve also got me longing for M&Ms, mah jong, and a healthy basil plant. My MIL always referred to basil as her own catnip. And the taste of anything coming back up is definitely nasty.
I’m not sure why, but I did not adopt the not-saying-hate policy with my own kids, but I always comment on my dislike for it when they use it.
It was hard to come up with a taste that scares me, but the threat of vomit will do it!
Love this one, as usual. I think we had something in common in every sense. I might try this prompt but probably won’t so…cracking knuckles, ugh. Z does that constantly and had an uncle that told her how good it is for your joints. I have since disowned said uncle. Love the sound of the ocean, not much else calms me like that.
Love the smell of fresh basil, am about to make gallons of pesto and my kitchen is heavenly. Lavender anything..my yoga teacher puts drops on a kleenex and then lays it on our eyes with an eye pillow during chavasayana (botching that spelling i know). Pure heaven. I detest the smell of anything but mostly popcorn burnt in the microwave. Bottle that and they could use as a weapon, at least against me.
Hate being touched anywhere in my mid section, but love being squeezed to death by Q. She is the only that doesn’t let go in .4 seconds. I love any type of massage…again, my yoga teacher comes around at the end and adjusts or sometimes in the middle. My friend and I call it “getting treats”. Did I mention that I love my yoga teacher?
Tastes…my dad and I shared a love of fresh peanuts at baseball games. To this day, at the Orioles games I’m more interested in getting the perfect peanut (white and full of flavor) than what is happening in left field. That isn’t my favorite but it’s a wonderful memory of my dad. I love the perfect berry too, nothing worse than ending a bowl on a bad one. Ugh!
Okay should have just done the prompt but this was far more fun and way less pressure. Love you!
Love you too! You did do the prompt, just as a comment! Thank you for playing along.
By the way, I have a ton of basil if you need any. Or if you have a good pesto recipe I’ll make some and freeze it. #theDanawhodoesntcook
Oh, I really liked this, and how sweet is it to have something you really savor that you inherited from each of your grandparents. I too get annoyed about people littering and have the same reaction — even Eve knows we don’t throw garbage on the ground!
You have to teach them young, right? I get even more annoyed when I see an adult litter with the kid next to them. Why would you do that?
It’s so true how a single “like” can bond members of a family. I love smelts – fried and salted – at Christmas. My grandmother used to make them just for me (she would hide a plate so my crazy uncle Jackie wouldn’t eat them all!) and serve it up special to me on Christmas Day. She has been gone for a long time and now my step-mom makes them for me because her mother loves them too. It’s just one of those silly things but it’s bonding for sure!
Love the picture of your son hugging you 🙂 there is truly nothing better!
No, there isn’t! I never refuse a hug – no matter how sweaty or smelly the hugger is. Well, only if the hugger is one of my kids. Otherwise, take a shower first.
You had me smiling with the irrational fear of clowns, as Kevin’s brother is so not a fan and one Halloween when we were first dating, Kevin had joked he was going to dress up as one and sit waiting for him in the back seat of his car. He never actually did, but still just couldn’t resist bursitis his brother’s chops over the years about this 😉
That would have scared the crap out of me! Gwen was actually a clown for Halloween when she was one, but that was the first and last time.