Flotsam And Jetsam

Today is Amy Graff's birthday. I have no idea why I remember that. I haven't seen Amy since 9th grade. But my brain remembers that today is her birthday. Happy Birthday, Amy.

The memory is a remarkable thing. Not only in that we can remember things like the birthdays of our childhood friends, but that we remember anything at all. There was a movie that came out some years ago - again, there's my memory at work - called Momento. In this movie, the main character has no long term memory. He remembers only what happens in the short term. I never saw the movie, but it's an interesting concept. It's been done in other movies, as well. Groundhog Day is a sort of variation on the theme - the same day repeats itself again and again - though in this case, Bill Murray's ability to remember what happened in the previous day's incarnation of Groundhog Day allows him to change the events in the next one to better meet his needs. There was a movie with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler a few years back in which they have many first dates (I think that's actually the name of the movie too - I could look it up, but I'm not going to) because she forgets having the first date over and over again. Again, no long term memory.

I have a ridiculously good long term memory for stupid things. Like birthdays of childhood friends. Lyrics of songs. I can sing along to a song on the radio that I haven't heard in 10 years. Remember every lyric and inflection. Why? Why is this a useful skill? No idea.

I also remember trivia amazingly well. When Trivial Pursuit first came out, I played it quite a bit with a woman who was then my best friend. There are two particularly memorable times that we played (see - again - memory). One was the first time she beat me. We'd played for years at this point before she was able to beat me. Not that she didn't have a good collection of trivia in her memory too. Just not as good as mine. The second was the time I beat her without her even getting a turn. I answered every question she put to me. With a few guesses, but mostly I knew the answers. Because she and I had played enough that I knew the answers to questions I hadn't known when we started to play - but I remembered after having played and gotten the question perhaps only once. Because that's how my memory is wired. For stupid stuff.

Sometimes I have a hard time remembering the important things, though. Which I find incredibly annoying given that I remember all kinds of useless information. For example, I am horrible with years of events. I couldn't tell you, for example, what year I bought this house. I know it was after 2001, because I wasn't living here when 9/11 happened. And it was before 2003, because I got laid off in 2003 and I was trying to figure out how to the pay the mortgage on this house. So it was sometime between those two dates. And it was December 31 when I closed, which I remember because I wasn't focused on that at all when we tried to go out to dinner (those of us who had moved me) and couldn't find room in a restaurant. So by process of elimination, I think I bought this house in December of 2002. But I can't be sure. I really don't remember. And don't ask me to tell you how long or when I lived in previous houses. I can reconstruct - as I did here - but I don't remember.

Same thing with jobs. I started in my current job in 2008, which I remember because it's still pretty new. I can even tell you that it was November 2008. Because my first day was delayed by Veterans Day, which my company celebrates (and my old company - a HUGE defense contractor, ironically, did not). Before that, I was at that defense contractor, where I think I started in 2004. But for most of my job history, I use my resume to come up with dates.

I have a couple of friends who are whizzes at remembering dates. Not just years that we did things together, but actual dates. Yeah, not my thing.

But the lyrics to a 70s one-hit wonder. No problem. That's what is caught in the flotsam and jetsam of my memory. Lyrics. Trivia. Really useful stuff.