Sunday, August 3, 2008

Imagination working overtime

I had another weird dream last night -- not 'scary' weird, but very strange all the same.


It seems that a blogger 'friend' of mine had decided to incorporate some of my "Memories of my mother" posts into a series he was doing on "Goldenrod's thoughts". (All y'all understand that this is only a dream, right?) OK.

Well! In my dream, I'm 'looking at' parts three and four, which have been set to music (!?!) and feature gawdawful-looking musicians. Just terrible!

A proliferation of e-mails ensues. I want to know where parts one and two are. I want parts three and four deleted completely. And, did he even bother to read part five?


I woke up REALLY angry!



Yesterday, I posted "Lethologica" -- a word describing the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

I shared a few stories, ALL of which were funny, but I can only vouch for the verity of the first one.

One of the later comments reminded me of when I was driving a taxicab, and here's the story. Actually, it's a capsulation of many stories, and it will give you a much better picture of how my mind 'works'. (Or 'doesn't' ... I'll let you be the judge of that!)


Truly, truly, I have a most peculiar memory. I remember almost NO one's name, and sometimes even have trouble placing where I might have even seen the person before! (Make a mental note here, if you would, to NEVER call me to the witness stand!)


As a taxicab driver, I sometimes found myself, initially, in a somewhat uncomfortable position after a passenger said, "Oh, hey! How are you?" (or) "It's really good to see you again!"

And, as I'm sure you've discerned by now, I had not the vaguest memory of this person, not the VAguest!


I finally decided that the only way out of this dilemma was to tell the truth.

SO, I would say, "I'm really sorry. I drive so many people, I just don't remember. How long has it been?" (Now, if it was just two weeks ago, that's really embarrassing, right?)

Usually, tho, it was a much longer time period than that.


What always 'saved me' was my next question (or two). First one would have been, "Where did we go?", followed closely by the second, "Do you remember, by any chance, what we talked about?" Also, somewhere in there would have been, "What brings you to Houston so often/seldom/almost never/whatever, anyway?"


My memory remembers conversations (almost word for word), destinations, details about family, problems with work ... you name the topic of conversation, I remember it! Is that weird, or what?

3 comments:

Anonymous Me said...

I can sympathize! I have an unusually bad memory for faces, though I'm fairly good with names, once I know who a person IS. There was this one time we went to a mass for a Mexican friend's three-year-old daughter. Afterwards, I was standing near a tall, very good-looking man who introduced himself as my former student. I couldn't remember him AT ALL. He remembered going to my house for a party, named other students in his class, but my mind stayed blank. Hours later, we went to a party hosted by 3 year old's parents, in a dark, loud room, and we were seated next to another family. I turned and introduced myself to the man sitting next to me. Seconds later, I realized it was the SAME GUY, my former student. The embarrassment !!! I cringe when I remember it. And little things like that happen all the time.

Craig Peihopa said...

This post tells me just how similar we as people are. I can also remember those sorts of details from past discussions, remember what was said by me and also by them in many instances.

But I don't see it as weird more so than it is to with how our brains compartmentalise different bits of information. Different is what I feel to suggest. You are not weird. Interesting dream too.

Goldenrod said...

Ouch! That WOULD have been embarrassing, Nancy.