The Next Time Between

Oooh... I think I just BARELY beat the fresh start (00:00) for tonight (in the time stamp of this post). Since I did, in fact (and as semi-predicted), miss yesterday (I was reaaaaaally tired when I got to M&D's last night), I really was hoping to get this one in while it is/was still Thursday. Nice thing about Blogger, though... you can start a new post, take FOREVER writing it, and the time stamp is always the time you created the new post! I've fooled you guys several times with that snazzy trick. I LIKE to keep my posts on the days that they're supposed to happen. And I often find myself writing at the very end of a very long day/night that stretches very quickly into tomorrow. And I really dislike two posts to fall under the same day's header. It's just a little confusing and not organizationally sound. And I'm a tad silly (or "weird", if you will) about little things like that.

Anyway, moving right along...

So, now that I've gotten a little older, I'm pretty good at remembering details of things. For example, I can have an e-mail conversation with a colleague, file it away in my e-mail archive (which is HUGE ... and if I ever leave the COR, I'm going to have one HECK of a time saving), and remember YEARS from then that I had that exact conversation. In fact, I can usually remember exact words or phrases from the e-mails to use in a search of the e-mail folder. And I'm great at remembering faces and names. That's my secret weapon for doing well in social settings (deja vu... I think I've told some of you this before). Anyway, so this good memory of mine is a VERY recent development in my life. If anything happened in my life prior to about 2000, I don't remember very much about it AT ALL. Just little snippets here and there is all. Of course, I have the big players' stats pretty well memorized, but I can't visualize those big plays (and especially the small plays... that's a completely hopeless cause). So, I say all that to put a series of questions to you - another little social experiment, if you will. If you were asked to write a transcript of the last conversation you had... wait, even better... of the last meaningful (i.e., touch-your-heart or pull-at-its-strings important) conversation you had with someone, how much of the conversation could you capture on paper? I haven't tried this for a while, but I have done it before... and (of course, since 2000) I have been pretty darn pleased with my success. Of course, "pleased" in this case (where the exercise is extremely difficult and one wouldn't EXPECT to succeed to any great level) sets the bar pretty low. Anyway... give it a try sometime. In my experience, a one-hour conversation can usually constitute one page (single spaced). But, again, I consider that a pretty darn good memory; so don't tell me if you can squeeze more pages out of a one-hour discussion.

OK... there's lots of stuff to do tomorrow. Many, many wheels are in motion; balls are up in the air; to-do lists are jam-packed. And I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. Perhaps some small wooden sticks would help prop them. OWWWW... that was a bad idea! My advice? Keep small wooden pointy objects away from your eyes.

Well, until next time, my pretties... and, of course, there's ALWAYS a next time.