Making sense of scents

I'm pretty sure that most people who read this blog know that I take the bus to and from school. And, if you didn't know, now you do. So today I sat down and I caught a huge whiff of some interesting smell, and I honestly couldn't tell what it was. Half of the time, it smelled like a shower-less homeless person (which amazingly really doesn't happen all that often), but the other half it smelled like... corn nuts. Yes, the scent bounced between a horrid want-to-clothespin-my-nose smell and a yummy corn nuts smell. What amazed me even more was that there was very little (but very distinct) difference between the two. This strange scent perplexed me the entire bus ride home, and it really started to nag at me. Finally, however, I got to my stop and as I got up to leave the bus, I looked over behind me and the mystery was solved. There was a really dirty homeless guy snacking on corn nuts right behind me the entire time.

And almost six months later...

To whom it may concern... It is now 4 in the morning and I am anything but tired. As a matter of fact, I have been watching movies and lying in bed for the last four or five hours just trying to sleep, but I just can't. Perhaps the last movie choice didn't help that out too much, though. I just finished watching Napoleon Dynamite. That movie and I have a weird past. When I saw previews for it, I had no intention of ever watching it. I thought it looked really stupid, and I just didn't want to waste my time on it. However, I was finally talked into watching it with a friend. While I was watching it, I couldn't help wanting to hate it badly. It really was as stupid as I thought it was going to be, and I wanted to hate it for the fact. However, I couldn't. In the end, I actually ended up enjoying it, and it has since become one of my favorite movies. I am amazed at that fact every time I watch it, though (yes, even today). I mean, I really do think that the movie is very stupid, and I will never argue against the fact, but there is something deep, something big, that makes me want to watch it over and over again. And I know what it is.

First off, I'm not going to try to play that 'I'm special' card here. I know that I'm definitely not the only one to feel this way, but I can really relate to Napoleon. In a way, I was him when I was younger. Maybe not to the extent that he takes everything, but I was pretty darn close, all the way down to the "I'm pretty good with a bo staff." Ha.

But the part of the movie I like the most is the end. When everything and everyone starts to move on, like Kip boarding the bus, Pedro winning el presidente, and everything else, there is a strong moment of catharsis. You can see that Napoleon's world has just been turned on its head, but everything is alright. There is no struggle, there is no angst, there is only progression. It is something I truly admire.