Things you didn't know about...you

[elfkin477]

So, I was in the kitchen this weekend with my parents, and the topic of black vs green olives came up, and they disagreed about which they prefered. I said I didn't have an opinion because I'd never eaten one.

My dad stared at me for a moment before saying, "You're not joking, are you? I thought you were kidding just now when you said you've never had an olive before."

Me:

"You used to love olives!"

I asked if he was thinking of Vynce, who ate olives when he was small, but both he and my mother insisted that I loved olives as a toddler too. "My mom used to buy them for you, and hide them behind her back to get a reaction out of you when she showed you the jar" my mother told me, which would definitely have been me given Grammy died when Vynce was an infant.

So...I have no memory of ever having eaten something my parents claim was once one of my favorite foods. It's such a small thing, but I'm really surprised anyway.

How about you? What mundane thing didn't you know about yourself (in any way, not just the you don't remember sort of thing) until someone told you about it?

[Chase Ransom]

Welcome to my world. I have a severe problem with erased parts of my past. I say erased because as your example states, you have NO recollection of it. About once a month I get fed some info about things I did, places I've been to, trips, people I kew, etc. which I absolutely have no registry of in my head. Some examples:

- Two weeks ago a friend of mine found a picture of when we were teenagers, and I was holding a suitcase in my hand. I asked "wtf is that?" and he calmly explained that EVERY WEEKEND I would pack that suitcase for when we would go to the beach. It was the only one I used. It was me in the picture. I am holding the suitcase. I have no recollection of it.

- I dont remember having met one of my best friends (this was ten years ago, I am 33).

- I have apparently gone to parties, hung out with people, etc. that I simply cannot even imagine being possible (no, I wasn't drunk stoned or anything). Again, not even as a child - I am talking about as a young adult.

- I've read letters that I have written that I don't remember writing 15 years ago.

- Most of my childhood and adolescence is missing.

All in all, I have discovered that about over half of my life is missing in my registry (especially from when I was a kid and a teenager). Oddly, some things I remember vividly. Some other things, I have an idea, but I end up fabricating a memory around the idea. It is all very weird and it used to really freak me out. Now when I am told something about my past which I have no idea of, I am kind of used to it. Some things however, depending on the nature of the memory I am missing, do freak me out a little still.

For a couple years I tried to piece together a whole bunch of holes in my past, to try and nudge my memory, but nothing worked. I read a little and a theory of mine is that I suffered disassociative memory loss or something like that.

I'll grant you, it is a freaky experience for people to tell you things you have done that you have no recollection or even a slight feeling about. Definitely a mind blower.

[HeyHomie]

In the same vein as the OP, MammaHomie swears on a stack of Bibles that I used to love Cool-whip, to the point that I'd eat it straight out of the tub.

I don't dislike the stuff now, but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to score it.

[perfectparanoia]

Originally Posted by Chase Ransom

- I've read letters that I have written that I don't remember writing 15 years ago.

I will be reading an email thread at work and think 'What idiot wrote that?'

Normally, the idiot is me and it is something I wrote in the last 24 hours.

[Miss Violaceous]

When I was a tiny child, I was taken to Rockefeller Center at christmas time to watch the lighting of the giant tree. I watched with huge, solemn eyes. When asked what I thought of it, I replied "I'm gonna remember this for the REST of my life."

Or so I'm told.

[Sage Rat]

I didn't find out until adulthood that I had been circumcised. The dictionary definition for circumcision is something like, "The extraneous flesh at the end of the penis." Well so, given that I wasn't Jewish, I had no reason to believe I was circumcised, so looking at my guy all I could guess for extraneous flesh was the ring of the mushroom head. Boy was I glad I still had that!

But so eventually I figured it all out.

And some time into teenhood I was able to catch a glimpse of my face from the side. "Fuck! I have no chin!" That's still rather annoying since I look pretty decent head on.

[eleanorigby]

I, too, have entire years missing, or so it seems. My husband will share his memories of a trip taken and I'll look vague and say when did you do that? And he'll look at me funny and say we ALL went--it was a family trip. As for memories of our kids when they were little, you'd think they had parallel experiences in 2 different households. I just don't recall the stuff he does.

But I do have some vivid memories of their childhood and fond memories (of course) as well.

Last summer, I came across some old college papers of mine as we were cleaning out the attic. Not only did I not recall writing this one paper I found, I have no memory of reading the articles for it OR the class it was for. I majored in nursing and didn't write many papers (wrote a ton of care plans and article summaries), so you'd think it would stand out. Nope.

It's a bit scary, really. I sometimes wonder if I'm going to have senile dementia.

[BlinkingDuck]

With all respect Chase...that is freakin weird.

You have been to a doctor about this...right?

[BlinkingDuck]

Originally Posted by eleanorigby

Last summer, I came across some old college papers of mine as we were cleaning out the attic. Not only did I not recall writing this one paper I found, I have no memory of reading the articles for it OR the class it was for. I majored in nursing and didn't write many papers (wrote a ton of care plans and article summaries), so you'd think it would stand out. Nope.

It's a bit scary, really. I sometimes wonder if I'm going to have senile dementia.

This doesn't impact my 'this is weird' radar as much. I've run across old college papers and do not remember doing them...but there were so many. Many assignment you just wanted to get done and they didn't settle into your long term memory methinks.

I've run across ones when I was younger...High school or early college and cringe a bit reading them as they are of learning/low quality.

However, I also run across ones later and go 'DAMN! I think I peaked 20 years ago!" :P

[WordMan]

elfkin, dude - don't leave us hanging! Did you re-try the olives and have they re-claimed their hold on you??

As for me, I can relate - I have swaths of time where the memories are down in there, but I have not accessed them in so long that they've either gone down the rat hole, or I *really* need a solid prompt to dredge the memory back up, like a unique smell, or running into someone associated with the memory that I haven't seen in years...

[jjimm]

I never ever drink soda.

I drink coffee, tea, beer and water, and occasionally wine. That's it.

And yet there are a load of pictures of me from 15 years ago, taken over the course of a couple of years, where I often have a Coke can in my hand. No recollection that I ever drank it.

[Boyo Jim]

A lot of you folks sound like you need CAT scans or something.

I was gonna say that I learned just a few years ago that I am an Irish citizen because my father was born there, but that seems so lame compared to all the neurologic trauma that is in evidence here.

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by WordMan

elfkin, dude...

Or dudette, as the case may be I just realized I don't know!

[Wile E]

I have gaps in my memory like Chase. I have certain vivid memories of different stages of my life but sometimes I get told anecdotes by relatives that I don't remember having happened. My mother who has Alzheimer's remembers certain things better than I. But I attribute my problems to having had Fibromyalgia* for several years which often left me foggy and played heck with my memory. My memories of things that occurred during this period are of course the fuzziest. I also sometimes have vivid dreams that I will later confuse as memories.


* Re: Fibromyalgia. I don't want to get into whether it was a real disease or not, it's been done here before. I had a tentative diagnosis of it from a physician but I did not follow up with him because he seemed less versed in the syndrome than I was and he never prescribed anything that helped so I just dealt with it. After several years of feeling like crap I don't know what I did or what changed, I had been trying supplements and diet changes and now my symptoms are minimal, if I get flares they usually only last a couple days instead of weeks like before, but some memories seem to be gone forever.


One thing I have not forgotten is that I have and always will love olives. My preference of black or green changes back and forth, though.

[gigi]

This is vaguely in the spirit of the thread.

One day when I was around 11 or so, I noticed a scar under my nose that you can't see unless you really look. I had no recollection of having gotten it. So I say "Ma, do I have a scar under my nose?" "Oh, yeah, you got that ice skating when you were really little." Cool.

Flash forward some years when mom is talking about my best friend growing up. "He didn't mean to, but remember that time when he threw that snowball and it had a rock in it?" Me: "Yeah, that's how you got that scar under your nose." HUH?? "You told me it was from ice skating." "Huh? It was from the snowball."

The kicker is, I tried to pin this down again some time later, and she didn't recognize either story and couldn't tell me anything about the scar.

So, it's something I still don't know about myself, but mom clearly needs a CAT scan.

[LouisB]

As I was stepping away from the toilet, I tripped over something (don't remember what) and fell backwards into the bathtub, striking my head against the far edge of it. I supposedly extricated myself, wandered out into the hall and fell again at which point my wife called 911. I was supposedly transported to the hospital by ambulance while wearing only my underwear and I supposedly insisted that I could walk, damn it, and needed no damned wheel chair. I was supposedly assisted in walking to the ER, where I supposedly engaged a doctor in a lengthy conversation during which I supposedly excused myself, went into the men's room where I supposedly blanked out again, falling and striking my head on the side of the toilet. I was supposedly wedged between the toilet and wall but had enough awareness to pull the emergency cord whereupon the staff supposedly entered the restroom, rescued me and admitted me to the hospital.

I have absolutely no memory of that entire chain of events.

It happened only a year ago.

[jharvey963]

About a year ago I found a pair of dress shoes in my closet. Apparently my spouse and I had gone shopping for them several months before that. I have no memory of shopping for them or buying them.

J.

[corkboard]

I discovered in my 20's that I have a big round flat spot on the back of my head. Never knew it was there.

Certain sections of my life, and certain events, have been blocked out of my memory. It sounds like it's not all that uncommon, based on this thread. It's like I can scroll through the memories in my life like the file structure in my computer, but certain event folders are locked, for some reason. Such as, I'm pretty sure I was invited to so-and-so's wedding, and I think I agreed to go... and my buddy picked me up and we drove out there together, I think... but the wedding itself? Ceremony? Reception? Hotel? Seeing friends, hanging out, eating, drinking, driving back home? Nope. Gone.

Oh- and according to my allergist, my nose was broken at some point. You'd think I would remember that.

[SaharaTea]

I don't have any strange memory gaps, but up until a few years ago I had no idea I was an Oops! baby. It makes sense since my closest sibling is almost 7 years older...but I had just assumed that my parents were dying to have another baby and it just took a long time. It was humbling when my mom let it slip otherwise...

[Sampiro]

I apparently could speak some words and phrases in an Indian dialect for a while. The summer when I was 2 1/2 my mother went to grad school in Auburn about 60 miles from our house and used to drop me at the home of a lady called "Mama Suda", the mother of an Indian born professor who ran a sort of "unofficial" daycare at her house and came highly recommended. Mama Suda also took care of her grandkids who were about my age and according to my parents by the end of the summer she'd pick me up and I'd be playing with the Indian grandkids and conversing with them in their language, and she also had to "retrain" me to refer to a couple of things by their English rather than than their (whatever Indian dialect) names. I have no memory of the time, but have always thought it was cool that for a short amount of time I was a multicultural two year old.

[elfkin477]

Originally Posted by WordMan

elfkin, dude - don't leave us hanging! Did you re-try the olives and have they re-claimed their hold on you??

I'm a chick

No, I haven't tried them again. Something negative olive-wise must have happened between the time when I was a toddler and Vynce was, because I distinctly remember being about eight years old, watching him eat them and thinking that they looked gross.

[Rysto]

Apparently, when I was 10 years old or so, I came home from school one day all upset because we'd been talking about families in class, and the teacher went over all the different types of families people can have(parents married, parents divorced, parents divorced and remarried, single parents, etc) and they didn't talk about the type of family we had(parents living together but not married). Supposedly the resulting conversation with my parents started them on the road to finally getting married.

I figure that I couldn't possibly have been that traumatized by the experience, given that I have no memory of it whatsoever.


Also, my family swears that I nearly stumbled upon a bunch of crocodiles in Costa Rica before a local warned me off. If this actually happened, I figure that I didn't notice the local(or the crocodiles) at all and walked past them obliviously.

[Ruby]

I always knew I was adopted at 4 days old. My parents never offered much information about my birth parents and I was never overly interested.

When my parents died, I found papers that indicated I was actually a foster child. While my parents brought me home at 4 days, there was a legal document changing my name from my birth parents last name to my parents name when I was 5 MONTHS old.

Kinda freaked me out a little to find out that I had a previous name.

[Kyla]

Originally Posted by gigi

...
The kicker is, I tried to pin this down again some time later, and she didn't recognize either story and couldn't tell me anything about the scar.

So, it's something I still don't know about myself, but mom clearly needs a CAT scan.

My mom does the exact same thing. It drives me crazy. Come up with a story and stick with it, don't make up new things when you can't remember what you told me last time!

She also has a tendency to "not hear" anything she doesn't like. I can tell her the same thing ten times and the eleventh time, she'll be shocked that I haven't told her this vital information before.

AFAIK, there's nothing I don't know about me that's very important. I have quite a good memory. I think.

[Max the Immortal]

I'm told that I really liked the show Happy Days as a small child, but I have no recollection of having watched it before my teens. Even then it didn't seem at all familiar.

[Chase Ransom]

Originally Posted by BlinkingDuck

With all respect Chase...that is freakin weird.

You have been to a doctor about this...right?

Uhm......no I haven't. Or...uh...what was the question? Heh. No, I haven't seen a doctor about this and I have never had a CAT scan or anything. So far as I know, everything in me is A-OK, just have a very slippery mind in regards to my past. But my short term memory is fantastic.

What was I just writing about?

[Chase Ransom]

Afterthought in relation to some of the reasoning behind my lack of memory:

1. I had a pretty weird childhood and all in all, I was never a very normal kid. Something in my brain is just wired differently and everyone around me could tell. (There are many stories and examples, but I won't torture you with those). That having been said, growing up as I did, I think to cope with life I just kind of blocked stuff out, and became consistently more capable of doing it as I grew up through my teenage years.

2. I have moved over 20 times in my life, and I travel light. Meaning, I don't have picture albums, don't have keepsakes from my childhood, etc. And of course I have never lived in one place for too long. My theory is, memory is an exercise our brain is constantly but unconsciously doing. But you have to have the equipment around you to do it. If you aren't ever in the same house, can't visit the same house, don't have things to remind you of anything, your mind just kind of lets go, and becomes (again) increasingly capable at doing it.

3. Will all that moving around and awkward growing up, I PURPOSELY tried to always leave my past behind and start fresh wherever I went.

In other words, it kind of happened on its own (all the moving and never keeping anything around to remind me), it kind of happened voluntarily (me trying to leave the past behind), and it basically was all for the purpose of sheltering me from quite a bit of the cruelties of life (at a young age).

Its that, or that time I fell from the washing machine head first onto a concrete floor when I was a baby, really messed me up. (Of course, I don't remember the incident).

Just for the record: my memory loss isn't getting worse with time. I actually do remember most of my life from 1999 to present (I was born in 75). Before that, it is a hit and miss for years and situations. I can remember some things from kindergarten, but I can barely remember my time in college.

These days, I write a lot and keep almost anything I can get my hands on, just to make sure I will always have the tools to remember these years.

What? Why am I not wearing any pants!?

[Uncle Brother Walker]

My mother tells me that when I was little, we visited a relative on a farm. I was the only child there, so to avoid the boring grown up stuff in the house I went in the backyard to play. (I hear I was about 5 or 6 years old.)

I didn't know there was a bull in the backyard. Granted, it was a bazillion years old and skittish, but it was still a bull.

Back in the adult house, somewhere in the conversation they had made the connection that there was a bull in the backyard and I had gone out back to play. Adults came running out of the back door.

I was just being a spacey kid, running zig zags in between the sheets and shirts and what not that were hung on the clothesline. I heard somebody yell my name, and I thought it would be neat to hide from the adults behind the bedsheet in front of me. I threw the sheet aside and was face to face with this 1000 pound bull that was grazing there. I screamed like a schoolgirl and the bull let loose this unholy bellow and the parents say that both the bull and I ran out from behind the clothesline at almost exact speeds - in opposite directions. I ran straight to the adults and the bull ran forever. They tell me that we had both managed to calm down at about the same time after the traumatic face to face experience.

I have absolutely no memory of this occurrence, but mom swears that it happened.

[EvilTOJ]

Originally Posted by LouisB

As I was stepping away from the toilet, I tripped over something (don't remember what) and fell backwards into the bathtub, striking my head against the far edge of it. I supposedly extricated myself, wandered out into the hall and fell again at which point my wife called 911. I was supposedly transported to the hospital by ambulance while wearing only my underwear and I supposedly insisted that I could walk, damn it, and needed no damned wheel chair. I was supposedly assisted in walking to the ER, where I supposedly engaged a doctor in a lengthy conversation during which I supposedly excused myself, went into the men's room where I supposedly blanked out again, falling and striking my head on the side of the toilet. I was supposedly wedged between the toilet and wall but had enough awareness to pull the emergency cord whereupon the staff supposedly entered the restroom, rescued me and admitted me to the hospital.

I have absolutely no memory of that entire chain of events.

It happened only a year ago.

And then later that night while you were testing some equipment, some kid wearing a life preserver came to the door and said you invented some 'time machine'.

I have nothing else to contribute, except pop culture references

[WhyNot]

Like Chase, I have very few memories of childhood or even young adulthood. I've been checked out, I'm bright, I'm a good student and can remember stuff about my classes and about topics I'm interested in, but most personal memories don't last more than about four years for me. It's on the spectrum of normal, just at the "lousy memory" end of things.

I didn't have a particularly traumatic childhood or anything, nor was I ever dropped on my head that I know of. I just don't remember little things like who my teachers were in junior high or who I dated for 6 months in college. (That last one makes Facebook a little awkward sometimes...)

Chase, how is your memory for names and faces? Mine is horrible. So horrible that I think that might actually be a dysfunction. There are people I've seen monthly for years I still don't remember the names of or recognize them each month.

[Chase Ransom]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

Chase, how is your memory for names and faces? Mine is horrible. So horrible that I think that might actually be a dysfunction. There are people I've seen monthly for years I still don't remember the names of or recognize them each month.

My recollection of peoples names and faces is terrible. It's a problem when you live in a very closely knit social circle of about 500+ where everyone else knows everyones name, last names, who is married to whom, lineage, etc. When those conversations happen in my presence I just drift my attention to other things because I can't recognize any of the names that people blurt out. My SO has to constantly explain to me who is related to whom in her family.

I've read that facial recognition and the link to names is handled by a specific part of our brains, so I am just assuming that part of me is a little lazy.

On the other hand, my directional/geographical memory is unreal. I can drive point by point to almost anywhere I have been in the past, regardless of how out of the way, "it was like 10 years ago and I only went once", etc. If I've been there, I can find it.

I suppose we can't all be talented at everything, and I just happen to lack some of this memory stuff. It's freaky - no doubt - but I've become used to it.

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by Chase Ransom

I've read that facial recognition and the link to names is handled by a specific part of our brains, so I am just assuming that part of me is a little lazy.

On the other hand, my directional/geographical memory is unreal. I can drive point by point to almost anywhere I have been in the past, regardless of how out of the way, "it was like 10 years ago and I only went once", etc. If I've been there, I can find it.

[Elaine] Get....OUT! Me, too![/Elaine]

I wonder if there are enough people like us that we can get our own Syndrome.

[jsgoddess]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

Like Chase, I have very few memories of childhood or even young adulthood. I've been checked out, I'm bright, I'm a good student and can remember stuff about my classes and about topics I'm interested in, but most personal memories don't last more than about four years for me. It's on the spectrum of normal, just at the "lousy memory" end of things.

I didn't have a particularly traumatic childhood or anything, nor was I ever dropped on my head that I know of. I just don't remember little things like who my teachers were in junior high or who I dated for 6 months in college. (That last one makes Facebook a little awkward sometimes...)

Chase, how is your memory for names and faces? Mine is horrible. So horrible that I think that might actually be a dysfunction. There are people I've seen monthly for years I still don't remember the names of or recognize them each month.

Same here. I have no memory for directions, though, but I can usually remember exactly where on the page specific information I read is--that sort of thing. Fantastic memory for data, dates, trivia, song lyrics, but I forget people and events.

[eleanorigby]

I'm shit on names and faces, but I also can locate a destination or item (say in a book, a page or in a room) after seeing it once. The exception to this is if I in a basement or a place with no windows.



I have pics of myself as a kid and teen etc, and I do remember the times the pics were taken, but don't remember much else... I tend to remember moments, not entire events.

[DogMom]

Originally Posted by Chase Ransom

Welcome to my world. I have a severe problem with erased parts of my past. I say erased because as your example states, you have NO recollection of it. About once a month I get fed some info about things I did, places I've been to, trips, people I kew, etc. which I absolutely have no registry of in my head.
<ssssssssnip>

I'll grant you, it is a freaky experience for people to tell you things you have done that you have no recollection or even a slight feeling about. Definitely a mind blower.

OMG....thank God. I thought I was the only one who had this problem.

I have this problem all the time. My Mother-in-law likes to tell me about nice stuff I evidently said about my husband (then-boyfriend) when I was in college.

No idea. She's told me and told me about this stuff and I still don't recall it.

My parents told me once about a gal I'd been very good friends with one summer, to the point of being inconsolable and sulking when we had to leave. She evidently remembers it too - but I still haven't the faintest recollection of ever meeting her then. As far as my brain is concerned, I've only met her once, and it was a casual, "oh, hi, so your name is?"

My best friend recently mentioned the fish we kept as a pet in college. I still don't remember it, even though she describes it very well.

Major portions of my life have disappeared into the ether. NO clue where it all went. And yet, I still have memories from age 3, when we took a trip to Niagara Falls and went behind the falls, and later on traveling to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and learning how to read maps.

[Shodan]

I imagine you go to a lot of surprise parties.

Regards,
Shodan

[WhyNot]

Someone just posted a picture of me on Facebook from a party in 1995. Don't remember a thing about it - in fact, I would have sworn to you that I hadn't seen the girl in the picture with me since our high school graduation in 1992.

[Anaamika]

I have mentioned this before, but I have no memory of anything before I started kindergarten. No memory of the four+ years I spent in India, or anything about the first year here. So everything they tell me from those years is a surprise.

In more recent news, I have, or had, a scar on my left wrist - now that I look at it it's almost faded - that I remember getting around the age of ten but have no memory of HOW I got it. The thing is, I remember having the memory of it but now all I remember is the memory of the memory. Since the scar is almost faded I wonder how long before I forget. I have two like this; there is a four inch long scar on my right knee that has the same story - I know I got it when I was around ten, I used to know how, I've since forgotten. That one is not fading.

[WOOKINPANUB]

This is a slight variation on what the OP is looking for, but I was in my mid twenties before I realized I had one of those "i" names. Needless to say, I've always known how to spell my own name, but it never occured to me that my name was in the same category as "Bambi or "Candi with an i" that is the butt of so many jokes.

I also did not know that the lower back tattoo I got 15 years ago was now so ubiquitous (and apparently cheesy) as to be labelled a "tramp stamp" until I saw "The Wedding Crashers".

[palindromemordnilap]

I went to the ear doctor worried about hearing loss, and was told that I had a perforated eardrum, and from the evidence it had been that way for 20 years or more. I had an operation to fix it, but I never felt like I could hear that much better. I know for sure I hear some sounds out of one ear better than the other (like my alarm clock--if the wrong ear is against the pillow it's a distant beep) but I've been tested again and have been told everything is normal and my hearing is nearly perfect. Somehow, I think I cheated on my ear test.

A minor matter but a favorite story: My grandfather was a clergyman, semi-retired in Florida when I grew up in Illinois. All through my youth my parents took us kids to various Baptist churches, and though religion did not 'stick' with any of us I always assumed we were raised Baptist because Grandpa was Baptist. A few years ago I said something to this effect to my brother, who insisted Gramps was Lutheran. He called my dad to settle the matter. Methodist.

[eleanorigby]

I got a bill from a dermatologist a few years ago for a mole removed on my hip. I contested the bill vehemently, as I had no memory of having this done. They looked in the record and said that they may have gotten my records mixed with #1 son's. I don't recall his getting a mole removed, either, but it rang a more familiar bell than my supposed mole. I paid the bill (#1 son didn't recall getting a mole removed, but he has a terrible memory. You'd think we'd both remember something like this, no?)

Fast forward to last fall and I'm trying on new jeans in the store. I look down and see a small scar and think to myself, oh, that's where I got that mole removed.
It all came back to me then. But we still are not sure if #1 son has had a mole removed....


I know I'll be in the "special neighborhood" for senile pts.

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by eleanorigby

I got a bill from a dermatologist a few years ago for a mole removed on my hip. I contested the bill vehemently, as I had no memory of having this done. They looked in the record and said that they may have gotten my records mixed with #1 son's. I don't recall his getting a mole removed, either, but it rang a more familiar bell than my supposed mole. I paid the bill (#1 son didn't recall getting a mole removed, but he has a terrible memory. You'd think we'd both remember something like this, no?)

Fast forward to last fall and I'm trying on new jeans in the store. I look down and see a small scar and think to myself, oh, that's where I got that mole removed.
It all came back to me then. But we still are not sure if #1 son has had a mole removed....


I know I'll be in the "special neighborhood" for senile pts.

[shocked voice] Eleanor!

Two demerits to you, and you lose 1 round of "rolleyes" privileges next time a patient can't tell you whether or not she still possesses a uterus!

(OK, I know you'd never roll your eyes at a patient. I'm sure you wait until you're in the hallway like a good nurse.)

[Lust4Life]

I taught my older brother to swim when he was an adult and I was a teenager also when I was heavily into karate I passed on a feet hardening technique that I'd invented myself to a mate who raved about its efficacy.

I only know about these things because they told me.

[Gyrate]

For years I couldn't remember anything at all of my junior high and high school years.

Therapy has brought back some of that, although frankly I wasn't missing much.

[LouisB]

Originally Posted by EvilTOJ

And then later that night while you were testing some equipment, some kid wearing a life preserver came to the door and said you invented some 'time machine'.

I have nothing else to contribute, except pop culture references

Do you consider this post to be a contribution? I'll admit I shouldn't have posted what I did and I've regretted it ever since I did.

[eleanorigby]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

[shocked voice] Eleanor!

Two demerits to you, and you lose 1 round of "rolleyes" privileges next time a patient can't tell you whether or not she still possesses a uterus!

(OK, I know you'd never roll your eyes at a patient. I'm sure you wait until you're in the hallway like a good nurse.)

Oh, I know. It's amazing, no? I can't believe it myself. But then again, it's a MOLE, not a major organ that requires an overnight stay etc....

And most of the time I don't even roll my eyes in the hallway. It takes true inspired craziness for me to do so now. Like the woman today on the phone (my coworker made the calls for tomorrow's surgeries).

Coworker: "Hello? Is this Ms SoandSo?"
Woman: "Who wants to know?"
C: "This is X hospital, calling for Ms SoandSo. Am I speaking to her?"
W: "This is NOT her."
C:"Oh, well, is she there?"
W:"You can't just up and ask people stuff like that! You came on too quick with your questions!" <click!>

That garnered a HUGE WTF from all of us.....

[mariposalabrown]

Chase Ransom I don't think you are weird at all, I'm the same way. My parents divorced when I was 6, and I don't have much recollection about the next three years, spare for little details here and there. I went to 13 different schools growing up, always the new kid. Apparently I went to a counselor and was really distraught during that time, but all I can remember is watching Quantum Leap, reading tons of books about the paranormal, and making up choreographed dance sequences in front of this huge mirror I had at one townhouse.

I can remember tons of details about high school, but then the end of my junior year in college and for a year and a half after is a blur. Before each of these instances, I had concussions, so I just blame it on that and don't dwell on it. It's pretty creepy hearing things you have done, even having photographic evidence, and not remembering a damn thing. Oh well.

I will say that I am very social, and have a terrible time of remembering names, but I know the clothes that anyone wore anytime I saw them. In college, I drew this little character that was me with whatever I was wearing that day in my notes. Later when I studied, I would remember the stuff because that was the day I was wearing the cardigan with pleated skirt and ankle boots, etc. Who knows what that means! I think I like clothes way too much.

ETA: I was born in 1979. I remember lots about Kindergarten, my teacher was Mrs. Tolles, I would get chocolate milk at this corner store everyday walking home from school. I blame some college missing areas on drinking, but there are tons of sober moments I can't remember no matter how hard I try!

[Who_me?]

I have a different issue. While I remember most of my life and pretty much all the major events, I also remember things that didn't happen. Some of my dreams work like a television series. Same locale, different storyline. I don't remember much of the dreams normally, but sometimes one comes up to bite me in the ass and I wonder, "Did that really happen?". Many times after thinking about it, I realize that they didn't.

[eleanorigby]

Originally Posted by Who_me?

I have a different issue. While I remember most of my life and pretty much all the major events, I also remember things that didn't happen. Some of my dreams work like a television series. Same locale, different storyline. I don't remember much of the dreams normally, but sometimes one comes up to bite me in the ass and I wonder, "Did that really happen?". Many times after thinking about it, I realize that they didn't.

I do that too, so apparently I am completely fucked unto the lord....


I don't know which is more disturbing: waking up mad at someone you know in RL because something happened in a dream that angered you about that person or completely forgetting major arguments with the same person in RL. Toss up...

[Who_me?]

Originally Posted by eleanorigby

I don't know which is more disturbing: waking up mad at someone you know in RL because something happened in a dream that angered you about that person or completely forgetting major arguments with the same person in RL. Toss up...

I don't have that problem. My dream life and my real life occur in different places and the major characters are different.