What does it mean?

[curt shocker]

lately I have been catching whiffs of the playa. No, not camp stuff that hasn't been cleaned.

I mean in places and situations completely unrelated to the playa I will suddenly and quite distinctly smell that unmistakable acrid aroma. It will last for about 5~10 seconds. It's gone pretty much as soon as I notice and start looking for possible sources. It's hard to convey how real the smell is when present. And how disconcerting it is when it's gone.

Does this happen to anyone else? Am I going crazy or should see a doctor about a possible brain tumor? No seizures yet...

This year will be my first *return* to the playa, and I can't wait to go home again.

[Savannah]

If you're going crazy, you at least have company.

I know exactly what you're talking about. It's a hot, dry, strange smell. I think it's a pH phenomenon traceable to environment and my body chemistry.

I suppose it's also possible that I see or hear something that triggers an olfactory memory, but I don't think that it is, because the trigger is never found, and because I am much more likely to smell something and have a subsequent memory than to see or hear something and then recall a smell.

[trilobyte]

I think it means you're antsy.

[curt shocker]

Wow. I love the word for this: phantosmia.

As with all internet-based self diagnoses - I've only got months to live, doomed by some horrific inevitably terminal brain condition.

I prefer to see as I've really only got months to wait until coming alive once again.

Dr. Trilobyte I like your diagnosis.

[Savannah]

Junglesmacks once started a thread called I'VE GOT ANTS IN MY PANTS AND I'M GOING TO BURNING MAN(TS)!

Which might also be a hallucination, because I can't find it.