How I know I have a visual memory, latest example

[rikibeth]

I'm telling my dad about the excellent app ListKeeper (my friend natbsat wrote it! it just came out with v.2.0! you should all buy it because if it works for the crazy way I make and re-arrange my to-do lists, it will work for yours! and groceries and packing lists and recipes too.) for my iPod Touch, and he says he's just looking for a small pad of PAPER he can tuck into the dashboard cubby of his car (a Ford Fusion hybrid).

I saytype, because we're doing this on IM, let's be real, "Paper is good too! Sticky notes are good for that because you can stick REALLY important stuff to the dashboard."

He says, "I mostly need it to record fill-up information so I can put it into my TCO spreadsheet at home."

I say, "didn't you used to tuck an envelope in the visor for that?"

He says, "not me."

I say, "I remember it and YOUR HANDWRITING. In the Ford wagon."

He says, "No wonder I don't remember. That's too long ago."

Okay, fine, the Ford wagon was a '72 or '74, and I am pretty certain it was gone by 1986, because while I may have driven it a few times on my learner's permit, I mostly learned to drive in the blue GM wagon, which was a 1980 model, I think. We will leave out any discussion of how long ago 1986 was, thanks, since my brain keeps insisting it was maybe ten or twelve years ago at the most, despite the presence of a 15-year-old child who is most definitely mine.

But the fact that I can see not only an envelope, but MY DAD'S HANDWRITING? If I really focused, I could maybe tell you some of the numbers, but I wouldn't find them reliable (does 142.7 sound reasonable? for a full-size wagon of that vintage, being driven mostly in town traffic on very short hops? I may just be fabricating the numbers, here, as I can construct what they'd look like in my dad's handwriting. But that thing got craptastic mileage).

So visual it's not even funny.

Other news? Because I realize I haven't been updating. I had a lovely birthday weekend and enjoyed seeing everyone. I helped gehayi do her taxes, including very bravely dealing with All The Envelopes (that stuff is a lot less scary when it's all put in folders in a tidy little file box!) and listened to the absolutely charming dream she had about me and Sam Winchester (yes, I have gotten her hooked on Supernatural). Then my stomach starting acting weird. It only took a week before I connected the symptoms to realize it might be gallbladder (to be fair, I did figure it out as soon as the pain under my shoulder blades showed up) and betook myself to the doctor. Which was Tuesday. And I'm scheduled for an ultrasound at 8:45AM Thursday. Meanwhile I have been living on graham crackers, no-chicken broth, miso broth, white rice, and tea. Buttered TOAST hurts. Butter, you have always been my friend -- why you gotta do me like this? My symptoms are fairly unromantic and GROSS. My doctor also gave me Nexium, which seems to help. I haven't heard back from The Big Bank yet, despite my second fingerprinting. I have a RAM upgrade and Snow Leopard for Toaster -- the RAM arrived today, but I haven't made a Genius Bar appointment for them to install it, because I would like to find out first if I'll be facing surgery, you know?

So that's me. I've been reading on Livejournal (hi, app!) and Twitter (yay TweetDeck) and also playing a lot of Plants vs. Zombies.

How's by you?

Comments

long comment is long

[ihadtimetokill.livejournal.com]

i have the same kind of memory! i like to pretend mine's borderline photographic, but sometimes i doubt i'm really that good. but very, very visual and very, very strong. it's more a blessing than a curse, honestly; i'm not sure i'd have done so well in high school french without it.

and? my dad does the same thing. keeps a notebook on the dashboard (of his ford wagon, no less - it's only a '94, though, ha) for recording all the data on gas station stops. i'm not sure if it all still goes into an excel spreadsheet...i know it used to. i've seen it.

i was, uh, born in 1986. the tail end of 1986, but still. and i refuse to believe it's as long ago as it is, too - i'm still secretly seven years old, and in my head i'm pretty sure i think i'm like, nineteen. and even that's farther gone than i'm happy about.

i saw on twitter about your adventures in graham cracker consumption...it sounds yucky. i love me some graham crackers, but as a primary food for subsistence? shudder. i hope you get to feeling better, and i hope The Bank gets back to you. is high time for good things to start happening, damnit!

[mswyrr]

Visual, yes! If I use colors/draw pictures of important things on an exam, I can usually close my eyes and remember, like, the outline of an in class essay I planned out or whatever. Useful but sometimes strange!

Hugs and good vibes re: health! OH BODIES. So much fail for all the capacity for joy.

How's by you?

It's Finals, so I have become a tired, scatterbrained idiot! :D

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Urg. The gall bladder. How well I remember that! Hope your problems resolve quickly (and the BigBank calls back with good news realsoonnow!)

yep, visual memory

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I used to tell the story of when I was 5-6 my mother spent 6 months in traction in a hospital bed in our living room. I told this story until my sisters reminded me that I stayed home with mom during that time so it was before I was in pre-school. They (who are 9 and 13 years my senior) also remind me that they were both living at home and at 6 my eldest sister had left for college. The insist there is no way I could remember mom being in the hospital bed. Then I described the living room as it looked before they put the bed in and how it was rearranged to accommodate the bed. Then they believed me, but I was 3-4 when this happened, not 5-6. Not my earliest memory but close.

When I take an exam, I can often tell you where the answer is in the books or my notes, down to the part of the page and sometimes even the line. Though, I can't tell you what it says. Visual memory is odd.

Good luck with all the stuff you have pending.