brain lazy

Who is this?

what was the last new thing you learned? truly, i want to know.

or,  if you're like me, what was the last old thing you re-learned?

i don't know when it happened -- before or after my move to new york -- but the older i get (which ain't that old by the way), somewhere along the way, i stopped learning.

granted, not completely. i've learned to make bread. a while back i learned to hula hoop. when i moved here i learned what greek yogurt was and i know a great chocolate chip cookie recipe from memory. maybe instead it's that i'm forgetting what i once knew.

on a slow night at work, we make up trivia for one another. it reminds me how much i've forgotten from elementary school.

name the first 7 presidents. (got it? now try the first 10.)

name the original 13 colonies.

what's the first letter on the periodic table of elements?

trivia recently caused a friend of mine to explore the origins of cinco de mayo. i asked to hear the story and, by golly, it was interesting. right there i learned and it felt great. my friend further said that's what he likes to do in his free time, scroll around the internet, learning things. yeah, me too, i said. trying to pretend that i didn't spend all my free time on the internet scrolling around facebook and look at bathing suits i'd never buy on jcrew.com.

another friend is getting president obsessed -- counting them in his sleep instead of sheep etc. at work he randomly asked me, "So are there lots of things named after Millard Fillmore in Buffalo?"

i could answer that question, but had he asked me what number president Millard Fillmore was? not so much.

learning. i've been trying to teach myself spanish for 2 years. my lack of retention is shocking. a year ago i drew little pictures (of like pork chops), put the spanish name on them, and stuck them to my bathroom wall. it's fair to say i look at those little pictures multiple times a day, but i still wouldn't be able to tell you off the top of my head what the word for place mat is.

i've become brain lazy. since i stopped trying to learn new information, i'm no longer good at retaining new information. but no more!

when i was in fourth grade, my teacher made us memorize all the presidents. it's not right that i was smarter then than i am now. so i'll start there. with the presidents. and maybe i'll move on to a little world history. the spanish retention has to get better too.

how is this useful? who the hell knows, but at least i'll be a tougher competitor at trivia. and i'll know that Millard Fillmore was the 13th president, Hydrogen is the first letter on the periodic table of elements, placemat in spanish tapete, and cinco de mayo is a mexican holiday that celebrates the mexican's (mainly the Pueblans) beating back a whole heck of alot of french (after they borrowed money from them to beat back a whole heck of alot of americans) from seizing control of their country.

there.

now it's your turn. tell me something i don't know.