In these strange pandemic days, there is much I am missing. Gatherings with friends and family where we aren’t wearing masks and can actually hug each other. Spontaneous trips down the California coast where my partner and I might drop into a cozy pub for lunch and a pint. And live performances of all kinds;…

Every day, for the last few weeks, I have been reaping cherry tomatoes from my backyard garden. It has me feeling the autumn season coming on like nobody’s business. In San Francisco, we have a cold, damp summer, but fall has arrived in the Parkside neighborhood, with its warm dry days and ever receding light.…

I’m a late bloomer; I learned the term synaesthesia 10 years ago, even though I’ve had blended senses from my earliest recollections. Identifying as a synesthete has been rewarding in so many ways, and has diminished the dissonance that defined my life prior to learning that my neurocognition is atypical. I love having synaesthesia, and…

I had a conversation on social media a few weeks ago with someone who wondered if her aversion to eating coconut was a form of synesthesia. She noted that she hates the taste of coconut because to her, the flavor is too similar to the scent of sunscreen. Several people responded to the post that…

My anxiety has been on an uptick since early February, when I read the first articles about COVID19 and a possible global pandemic. I was in London at that time, collaborating on a project with StoryVault films related to synaesthetic perspectives. Due to initial news reports of the virus, I was a bit stressed traveling…

June is tough on me. It’s my heaviest month, burdened by important dates that all relate to my dad. The 6th was my parent’s wedding anniversary (1959), the 9th was my father’s birthday (1932), my dad passed away on the 15th (1988), and Father’s Day is always the third Sunday in June, which every few…

A few years ago, When Dr. Richard Cytowic was working on his book Synesthesia (MIT Press, 2017) he reached out to individuals with grapheme->color via the Synesthesia List to inquire about synesthetic perceptions of typeface fonts. I have long followed the Synesthesia List, as the community connected via Dr. Sean A. Day’s listserve is both…

I was making dinner on a recent Friday evening when my phone lit up with a notification. I’d received a Venmo payment from my client Sarah in the amount to cover a 60-minute massage, plus gratuity. The last time Sarah had been to my office was a few weeks prior, and I was certain she’d…