Wednesday, January 9, 2008

i donut about that

at various times over the last 6 months or so i have had an interesting thing occur while driving to work. after i pass by 695 while traveling up 95, i encounter a certain smell. it is always just prior to exit 52 to russell street. the first few times i smelt it, i couldn't figure out what my nose was smelling. then one day that familiar, yet puzzling smell returned and i realized what it was. i smelled donuts! you wouldn't think that donuts had such a specific odor, and yet they do. there is no mistaking it. i realized that i have not had a donut in a long time...maybe 5 years? i've always thought of them as ok.

i have 2 main donut memories. the first one takes place during a week at the beach with my family and louis. i'd say i was probably 14 at the time. my mom went out one morning before anyone woke up and bought a dozen donuts for everyone. apparently she walked out of the kitchen for about 2 minutes and a half awake louis walked in. when she returned to the kitchen louis had eaten like 4 of the dozen donuts. i guess technically i wasn't there when this happened...but i have sure heard about it plenty as it has become my mom's go-to story whenever she sees louis or his name is mentioned in her presence. i have heard this recollection dozens of times and while the story itself does not crack me up, my mom finding it hilarious does.

my other donut memory is also not interesting. during our freshman year at maryland, nam and i attended these morning get-togethers that were intended for commuters. there they served coffee, tea and donuts. this took place during my get as much free stuff as often as i can period of life which meant, eat 2 donuts and take 2 for the road...or something like that. the point is, i ate a lot of donuts once a week, not because i particularly liked them, but because they were free.

so now a couple of times a week i get to relive those donut memories during my drive to work...i haven't smelled them in a while as it is the middle of winter, but thanks to global warming we get freakish 70 degree weather in january. my only question now is, where exactly is this smell originating from. the area is strictly industrial, so that kind of befuddles me. is there some giant donut factory in the area? is some company ordering an obscene amount of donuts for their employees every day? who knows? the problem is, my initial reaction to the smell is to look around, hoping to spot the secret krispy kreme factory. this will most likely result in me crashing my car into a cop car and i don't think my reason of "i was looking for the donut smell..." is gonna sit well with them.

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