Coffee Table Declarations
Friday, May 21, 2004
I find that I have an amazing ability for rote memorization. I have been known to amuse my coworkers when they decide to try to test me and call out a name and I rapid-fire reply the extension number. Of course, they don't know everyone else's extension by heart so they probably wouldn't even know if I got it wrong. Sometimes I put myself to sleep at night by mentally reciting names and extension numbers.
Since I've taken on all of the travel arrangements for my company, I recently discovered that I seem to have memorized every three letter airport code in the continental United States. Kansas City? MCI. Chicago O'Hare? ORD. Greensboro North Carolina? GSO. Reagan National? DCA. I could go on, but I sense you get the idea.
While this is all very impressive, I'm at a loss to explain how my brain works because some things refuse to stick. We have six conference rooms here named after six local beaches. And every single time someone calls to be transferred into one of them, I have to look up the extension. I think it's interesting because somehow my brain must be associating numbers with people and as all the conference rooms are similar to me and have similar sounding names I guess I just don't have any way of remembering them.
I also think it's neat how I can have this ridiculous amount of truly inane information stored in my head but as soon as it's no longer needed, it disappears. For example, when I was 15 I worked at a grocery store and I had all the produce codes memorized so I could type them into the cash register. However I couldn't tell you today the code for peaches, apples, brussel sprouts, or acorn squash. Where did that information go? Is it still someplace hidden away in my brain accessible only through hypnosis? Or is it just simply gone? I know that someday I won't be able to recite extension numbers and airport codes either.
Since I've taken on all of the travel arrangements for my company, I recently discovered that I seem to have memorized every three letter airport code in the continental United States. Kansas City? MCI. Chicago O'Hare? ORD. Greensboro North Carolina? GSO. Reagan National? DCA. I could go on, but I sense you get the idea.
While this is all very impressive, I'm at a loss to explain how my brain works because some things refuse to stick. We have six conference rooms here named after six local beaches. And every single time someone calls to be transferred into one of them, I have to look up the extension. I think it's interesting because somehow my brain must be associating numbers with people and as all the conference rooms are similar to me and have similar sounding names I guess I just don't have any way of remembering them.
I also think it's neat how I can have this ridiculous amount of truly inane information stored in my head but as soon as it's no longer needed, it disappears. For example, when I was 15 I worked at a grocery store and I had all the produce codes memorized so I could type them into the cash register. However I couldn't tell you today the code for peaches, apples, brussel sprouts, or acorn squash. Where did that information go? Is it still someplace hidden away in my brain accessible only through hypnosis? Or is it just simply gone? I know that someday I won't be able to recite extension numbers and airport codes either.
