I had a high fever when it happened, and I think some sensory wires got crossed in a way my brain doesn't accept. So yellow tastes like the sound and feel of chewing a wad of rubber like balloons are made of. And that was me flinching a bit.

The other fried brain one involved a window that was "too big" and it was making me very upset, in the sensory overload manner. I needed to fix it with a safety pin.

I get the same flinch when font gets "too big" (define that? Can't) on a screen. It's like I can't look at it without starting to panic or something. Lightheaded. It's just WRONG.

It sounds like your brain associates those inputs with the disorientation of the fever, the way hunger and stress feel the same to me, so I get panicky when it's time for lunch.

I read a fascinating study tying various phobias to inner ear problems. If you have an episode of feeling off-balance or seriously disoriented, the sub-brain can tie that in to being in a crowd or being in a high place or something. Hubby used to ride in the doors of helicopters with impunity when he was young, but after various head injuries, he can't even walk across the bridges in shopping malls without psyching himself up to it.

I'm sure that's a large part of it. I find the fact that it took basic senses and crossed wires rather fascinating. It's old hat, I'm sure, to synesthetes (? the color of numbers and whatnot people) but yeah...I'm not one. So the fact I now have an association like that is ..weird.

Brains are so cool. Except when they're fucking with you. But still pretty cool.

Brains are so cool.

Or when they are trying to take over the world, just like they do every night.

I've also heard you can't die in dreams. But I have.

I always wake up before I hit the ground. And all my near-death dream experiences have been the kind where you would hit the ground--no dying peacefully of old age or of a lingering illness. Dream me gets shot or tumbles off precipices.

I don't think I've ever dreamed about reading, which is odd, given how much I read in waking life, but I know I'm literate in my dreams--I read signs and such.

Last night my BF turned to me in his sleep and patted my shoulder and said "My girlfriend is beautiful." I was very touched, although I did ask this morning if he was dreaming about Heidi Klum or something, just to double check.

Okay, Plei, or Ginger, do either of you have anything approaching a photographic memory?

I remember large chunks of what I've read and if I've seen something, I have a pretty good mental picture of it. That's why my bookshelves drive other people crazy. I don't have a system; I have memory. I don't think it's really at the level of eidetic, though. On the other hand, I don't remember things I hear very well, which is why I take notes even if I have no intention of referring to them later.

no dying peacefully of old age or of a lingering illness.

Me, neither. The most vivid death dream I've had I was walking to a friend's house and got jumped. I was mugged and my throat was slit with a knife. I remember watching the mugger rifle through my clothes looking for cash--I only had a couple of bucks on me. I felt really sad for him that he felt like he needed money so badly that he'd kill an innocent person for it.

I think my memory is, or can be, but I still forget stuff sometimes, so motivation must be part of it.