questions from the peanut gallery:
1. what does "marissa" taste like? - this one doesn't really exist. kind of like a cross between melted swiss cheese with curly gift wrap ribbons mixed in.
2. can i listen to songs if the lyrics don't taste good? - yes. interesting question. had never thought about it till now. but, yes. i can. that has never been a problem. (but just wait. first song i listen to today......)
3. does synesthesia distract me from what i'm supposed to be doing? - yes. and no. when i was younger, definitely. in college and grad school, i always tried my best not to schedule classes close to meal time. being legitimately hungry (no relation to legitimate rape) AND tasting sounds on top of it nearly drove me to drinkin.' now, however, i have learned - somehow; don't ask me how - to tune it out. sometimes it's harder to do than others. like when i'm stressed.
4. what does "honey boo boo" taste like? - first of all, NOT GRITS! :)
5. ok, so what does "honey boo boo" taste like? - "honey" doesn't taste like anything. however, although i don't actually taste honey when i hear the word "honey," i do think of it. but that's not synesthesia - that's just normal word association. which raises another frequently asked question - am i really tasting sounds or just associating them with food? - yes. i really taste sounds.
6. what "boo boo" tastes like is kinda hard to describe. very hard to describe, actually. so hard to describe that i can't. sorry.
7. does everyone who has the form of synesthesia that i have taste the same thing with the same sounds? - no. sometimes there are overlaps, but more often than not, no. i am fascinated to understand why the same sound produces different flavors, not to mention how the flavors get produced in the first place. weird science!
8. do the tastes ever change? - for the most part, no. they are constant. however, there can be slight variations. for example, most of the time, my son-in-law's name (eli) tastes like lemon jello when it's still in a liquid form. but sometimes, "eli" tastes a little more like the lemon part of lemon meringue pie.and if a sound has a combination of flavors, sometimes one flavor is stronger than the other flavors and sometimes the other flavor is stronger. don't ask me why. weird science!
9. does having synesthesia affect my cooking in any way? - it can affect what i choose to cook, but not the actual cooking itself. if i have heard a particular ("particular" tastes like cucumbers with peanut butter on them) word throughout the day, i will very likely go home and make whatever that word tastes like for dinner. because having tasted that food all day long will have driven me so nuts that i just have to finally eat whatever that food is in order to shut my brain up!
10. what's the weirdest thing i have ever tasted?
11. stay tuned.......part four.
:)
