10/01/2008

Death?'s Convenient Minutia Storage Facility

Posted by Brandon |

The other day I tried to describe to Death? (my wife for your newbies) where a certain restaurant was by telling her that it was next to "that bar, Harvey's" knowing full well that the other day we had driven by Harvey's and talked about how crazy it looked. Her response? "I have no idea where Harvey's is, I've never heard of it." I rolled my eyes and tried to help her remember the place, but I couldn't get anything. It was completely gone from her memory.

This kind of thing happens all the time with us. She never remembers little details like Harvey's Tavern or the Kings School stickers on cars in the area or whatever. And it always frustrates me. I always can't believe that she would forget these things when we just talked about them or I would get offended because I think she wasn't really listening to what I was saying at the time. But just the other day I finally figured out why she never remembers and it has allowed me to finally come to terms with this difference.

My mind is filled to the brim with maps, directions, landmarks, pop culture references, sports trivia, music and other general minutia. I've never really filled it with anything important and there is still plenty of room for more and more garbage that doesn't take up much space.

Death? on the other hand is a doctor. She went to school and trained for over ten years to save people's lives. Her brain is filled with really important shit and big time minutia like Harvey's Tavern typically gets crushed by something slighty more important, like, say...how to deliver a baby.

I've come to realize that a big part of my role in our relationship is to be the maps, trivia, minutia storage space. So even though she still probably has no idea where Harvey's is despite going to Kafe Neo next door just the other day, she doesn't need to remember. She's got me, the guy that can get her to just about anywhere in the entire state allowing her to store even more important doctoring knowledge away for future use. And I've got her to save the lives of my opponents when I give them a savage beat down in a cutthroat game of Trivial Pursuit.

Yeah, I'd say we make a pretty good team.

8 comments:

kapgar said...

What? Like saving a life is all that important in the grand scheme of things. P'shaw! Where are her priorities?!?!

BTW, it's the same thing with Katie and me. I am a storehouse of useless knowledge whereas Katie knows the important stuff.

Avitable said...

As someone who works closely with doctors, it's funny how so many of them are so completely unaware of their surroundings.

Avitable said...

Wow. I am so horrified by my poor grammar. Let me rephrase:

As someone who works closely with doctors, I find it funny how so many of them are so completely unaware of their surroundings.

Phew! Much better.

whall said...

I hate it when your wife forgets she owes me money.

She'll probably deny it vehemently, too.

Anonymous said...

That's an excellent team. you complement each other. Common ground is great, but the differences are often just perfect, too.

Avitable - nice edit!

Jesse said...

I take offense to this post. Some of us just have really terrible memories and it definitely does not mean our brains are full of other more important stuff or that we do not listen as closely as anyone else. Our brains are just wired differently.

With that I say good day to you, sir!

MC said...

I have a degree in history... I can tell you when so many battles were fought, things were written, people were born and died, who was involved in those moments etc. But when it comes to my own personal history, I have a hard time telling you what year something happened to me.

Put it this way... I can remember the 30 courses I took in college, but I can't remember with precision which year/semester of my stint in college I took them all in. Some of them yes. And I have discovered while I remember the things I learned in those classes, I can't remember the names of some of my professors.

I am reading a book on the history of soccer. I had a professor who taught a course on historiography, who it turns out was a sports historian who specialized in the development of soccer as a pastime amongst the tradesmen, miners etc. in Northern England in the late 19th and early 20th century, and he was a die hard Sunderland fan and I was wondering if anything he wrote was used as source material in the book I am reading now. But I cannot for the life of me remember his name. That was only 10 years ago. How could I have forgotten his name? It boggles my mind.

Unknown said...

Ted and I do seme to trade off in the type of random information that we both know -- I know far too much about movies and he'll pull some fact out of his ass about something that he read a few years ago. STrangely, though, in the past few months, I've noticed my memory isn't as sharp as I felt it used to be though it seems to be limited to more of the useless stuff.

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