Little-known facts
Posted: January 31, 2011 Filed under: All's Well That Ends Well 9 CommentsSome of these are so little-known that even the Romgi might be surprised.
- I rub my eyes when I go to bed. Not in a light “Oh, I’m sleepy” way, but more like smashing my hands into my eyeballs. I have trouble feeling sleepy or drowsy, so the vigorous eye-rubbing actually helps me get ready to go to sleep. Unfortunately, I took it a little too far. When I was pregnant with jr I rubbed my eyes so hard, so much, that I had to stop wearing contacts because my eyes were sore all the time. I gave the eye-rubbing up for a while after that. Now I try to be a little more restrained.
- I like to doodle in class if the conversation or lecture isn’t fast-paced, but I refuse to draw on my actual class notes. I have a separate section of my notebook set apart for doodling.
- Before having kids I worried a lot about pretty much everything. One of my real fears was that a car would crash through our bedroom window (remember we live in the basement, and our window is right at ground level). Now my biggest fear is that I will never, ever get enough sleep for the rest of my life.
- Actually, I do have another fear: moldy bread. I carefully examine each piece of bread before I eat it (or make it into a sandwich for the Bwun), even if the loaf is brand-new.
- Lately it’s really difficult for me to fall asleep. There’s just too much going on in my head. I have trouble not running through lists of all the class readings, papers, law school events, playgroups, and loads of laundry that fill up my week. To force my brain to slow down, I compose blog posts in my head at night. Most of the blog posts you read were “written” around 2am.
- This one is kind of weird. (The other things were all normal, right?) I was trying to explain to the Romgi recently how I visualize my mental space. Even as I started the conversation the Romgi was giving me odd looks. Here’s what it comes down to: I see my mental space as a 3D area mostly above my head, and different types of thought take place at different locations within this space. For example, when I talk to people, I visualize my speech just above my forehead but projected outward, because those thoughts are moving toward a concrete reality (in being spoken to someone else). Difficult abstract concepts, such as from my sociological theory class, are placed behind the top of my head, out-of-reach. They’re hard for me to grasp and I feel like I need to reach into this abstract field and move the thoughts forward in order to understand them.
- I also visualize a calendar when I think of time. First, I have a monthly calendar, which looks like your standard wall calendar, but the weeks are staggered diagonally so that each week is slightly more forward in space than the previous. Second, the months fit together in a similar pattern; progressing through December at the bottom of the year-long calendar, each month is inset slightly to give a sense of forward movement. Third, the days themselves start at the bottom with 6am and move through the day upward until midnight. After this peak, the late-night/early-morning hours move downward until the start of a new day at 6am again. Confusing? Look at a typical daily planner with hourly intervals marked off. The way I see it, those are all wrong. My day starts with 6am and builds UP. Daily planners build DOWN.
- I’m not sentimental. I don’t keep mementos or buy souvenirs.
- Today I learned that I absolutely hate playing chess. Sorry, the Romgi.
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 
Yes, I was surprised,
by the fear of moldy bread,
and sad about chess.
hey mika, thougt i’d leave you a little known fact about me.. well two because i thought of them as i read yours.
1- a few months ago i bought sandwich rolls from costco, you know the kind they use for their hot dogs. when we came home, my mom made some chicken for my dad to eat with eat, after my dad took a bite he noticed some green dots on it. we looked at the bag and the bottoms of all of them were moldy! (hence why we hadn’t noticed it in store) and no, the bread wasn’t expired either!
2- a car DID crash through my bedroom window.
probably doesn’t help with your fears huh? sorry!
Wow. That’s actually really cool. (the mental imaging parts… I forgot the rest after that… except that you’re not sentimental, which is probably why I like you so much)
Gee, we have a lot in common! I had to consciously make myself stop rubbing my eyes at bedtime because they started hurting too much–like I was giving my eyes or eyelids abrasions. I always doodled in classes. I also have trouble going to sleep and staying asleep, because my brain seems to strain for any bit of noise that’s out there. I don’t worry quite so much about the bread, but there are real-life food horror stories that I have to consciously NOT ever think about. The synesthesia is not as unusual as you might think. I’ve even found successful people I know and respect (and who also seem normal) who experience their world like that. I hate chess too.
But now I am curious about Irma’s crash story!!
I have no intelligent or interesting comment to make, however, I enjoyed this post.
So
*thumbs up*
I also have trouble falling asleep at night. To combat this problem, I listen to Harry Potter audiobooks every night (really, every night). Fortunately, Chase has no problems falling asleep, and is therefore not bothered by the fact that I listen to the same seven stories over and over and over.
Irma – wow. Thanks. Or not! You really do need to elaborate on the car crash story.
Sarah – I have been known to be sentimental every once in a while. But I have trouble with the idea of collections, because they’re just THINGS taking up space…clothes, though, I do like collecting clothes. That’s different, right? I actually wear clothes. What are you supposed to do with a thimble collection?
Mom – thank you for saying that I seem normal. That is what you were saying, isn’t it? About the synesthesia? I never realized it was not the norm to think of things like that, until I mentioned it to the Romgi and he went, Whaaaa?
Deborah – it’s ok, I imagined that your “thumbs up” was in fact a profound and rather interesting comment.
Jennifer – that’s a lot of Harry Potter.
I knew that I couldn’t just say a car crashed into my bedroom but I also didn’t want to leave a novel of a comment so instead I typed it up and put it on my blog. Check it out there: http://chrisandirma.blogspot.com/. Was it your mom that wanted to read it too? Be sure to let her know.
Thanks, Irma, for the story! That’s pretty wild … and the song part besides! So I’m sure that since all this happened to you, it’s just a bazillion times less likely to happen to Roni!
By the way, the Sister says that it’s not actually synesthesia, but the whole thing she said kinda bounced off my brain. But regardless of the correct term, I know other normal people who do that kind of thing.