Pickyness: Its more than just an eating disorder

On a completely un-fast-food-related note...I thought today that I'd share a little bit about myself, something I don't do here often and certainly don't take this as a shift in the type of fare that you can expect to see here.

I've been thinking lately about some tendencies that I have. Sensitivities if you will. As a child, I was a very picky eater. There were certain foods I would refuse to eat, despite having never tried them. I'm sure that most parents can probably relate to the situation. As a result, there were quite a number of foods that I didn't first try until I was an adult.

When I was called to serve as a missionary to Argentina I promised myself that I would eat anything that was put in front of me. A bold statement, certainly, but I was lucky enough to travel to a place where I saw a minimum of foods that would be considered a novelty here (cow tongue, blood sausage). However, unlike most people, eating things like grapes and oranges was a fairly new experience for me. My trainer almost died laughing at the mess I made eating an orange at one of my first lunch appointments. Long story short, I made a lot of progress in what I am now willing to eat compared to before my two years in Argentina. Pretty much seafood is about the only thing I really am opposed to eating, and even then I can put away a few coconut shrimp from time to time.

But the crux of this post, is that I have come to realize that in addition to tastes I am also picky about several others of my 5 senses. For example:

Picky smeller: For the life of me, I can't understand how some people can handle the cacophony (smellophony?) of aromas that they surround themselves with. I think this might be biased towards the female gender, but lets just look at how many different smells you might be faced with when associating with some people. Start with shampoo and soap, followed by deodorant, hairspray, and the minor odor that comes with makeup. At this level, you probably aren't smelling anything unless you get pretty close. Now, add perfume.

I think that is pretty near the maximum aroma that anyone should be personally putting out. Sadly, we are not through. The next layer of aroma comes in the form of lotion that a large portion of the population cannot seem to stop applying to their skin. I mean, before Bath and Body Works came into existence were people just covered in open wounds as a result of how dry their skin was? I doubt it, but that's what they would have you think. And heaven forbid that a person stop smelling like apple blossom, or peach bouquet, or sweet pea (this name conjures up images I don't want to think of), or smelly-Mcsmell of the month. I mean the smell of these lotions is strong enough to stun a large buffalo if you ask me. Who hasn't had a co-worker would couldn't make it through a 30 minute staff meeting without needing to re-apply? Its getting to be as bad as smoking. Can we get a ban on public lotioning? Can someone please show that secondhand lotioning has harmful effects? I'm dying here.

In addition to the lotion-madness that has gripped the world around me, its hard to get in a car that doesn't have some super-pungent car "fresh"ner overpowering me. And I don't know if its swept the nation yet, but Utah is completely under the power of the scented candle czars, who have convinced a large portion of my state that normal house smell is just not up to snuff for visitors. One must always have a candle of some special aroma greeting, nay bombarding, each guest as they enter. Between candle hotplates and candlelighters I keep expecting the candle market to pass iPods for number of most available accessories.

Now, please realize there are some smells that I like (fresh brownies, certain perfumes, gasoline), just like they are foods that I really enjoy. Being a picky eater, doesn't make me dislike all food. Being a picky smeller doesn't make me hate all smells, but if you are personally carrying a cocktail of upwards of 10 different aroma in your aura, chances are one of them is going to be too much for me.

In the interest of keeping this post brief, I'll save some of my other pickyness stories for later this week.