Seeing "Red"

People often ask me what strange foods I've been craving; at a restaurant the other night I was offered deep-fried pickles with ice cream... strangely unappealing!

I can't say I've had any bona fide cravings as such, but I have had unexpected keen interest in foods that don't normally tickle my palate. To whit:

1) bananas (the best midnight snack ever)
2) orange juice
3) anything red

Ok, that's the weird one. Whereas the fact that I will now stand in the kitchen and eat half a jar of green olives at once is more about my new license to indulge, my response to foods that are red in color is really strange. It has nothing to do with flavor or texture: strawberries, cherries, grape tomatoes, red jello, red velvet cake, red M&Ms, salsa - if I see red I want to eat it. This is only problematic if your husband brings home a bottle of cherry-red dishwashing detergent. I went to wash the dishes and had to consciously resist the urge to drink the detergent...or at least taste it...it just looked...so...delicious...

Now that I've smelled it, though, the urge has definitely passed.

Smell, now smell continues to be a problem. The last two hockey games I went to were an olfactory assault by the third period, with all those warm bodies (mostly still clad in our winter wear since they keep the rink pretty chilled) packed closely together. Bleah. I've ridden a lot of tightly packed buses in tropical countries throughout my life and I think generally I have a pretty high tolerance for strong smells, but this is different. It's kind of fun, though, too :-) Sort of like having a secret super-power. Though if I had my choice, I think I'd prefer the ability to turn invisible at will, or to fly like Superman... telekinesis would be pretty cool too. Too bad those aren't side effects of pregnancy! Nope, just the ability to pick out bad smells at 100 ft and grow my fingernails really fast.