August 21, 2006
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How Soon I Forget
June is gone to Jamaica these few days, which gives me a chance to live
bachelor-style again. You know what that means: yep, I got my third
WoW character to level 60. But that’s not the point of this post. I
cleaned out my glove compartment yesterday and found a set of three
keys on an unmarked keychain. Two of the keys were regular-sized, and
one was small, maybe a mailbox key. I recognized the keychain and knew
that I had put these keys in my car for a reason… but what? They
didn’t look like my loft keys, and I was pretty sure they weren’t the
keys to my old place (now lcshih’s old place). I brought them home to
ponder for a while, and an hour later it hit me.They were the keys to Highrock’s old building in Davis Square. One was
the main door, one was our storage area downstairs, and the little one
was for the commercial fridge. I’m surprised that it took me so long
to remember. You see, those keys were for Soul Food, and from April
’03 to May ’05, that was my Thing. Lots of fond memories. But with
Highrock’s move to Arlington, and my getting married and moving to
CCFC, now Soul Food seems like a lifetime ago. I think it’s mostly
marriage that did it. Entire memory banks of my old life have been
wiped, or at least put in long-term storage. Do other married people
experience this? It’s kind of embarrassing, how many names and faces
I’ve forgotten too. Somewhere my subconscious is doing a lot of memory
management, getting rid of old info and replacing it with new. I
imagine it goes like this:
Ok, gotta remember that June’s mom doesn’t like the smell of lilies.
Where can we store that? Oh, let’s get rid of this block: the name of
the guy who ran the place that you visited with the girl you liked in
Winter ’02. It’s probably better forgotten anyway. Ready? ZZZAP!
Comments (12)
ditto.
Hi, I’m Alan. We used to go to Puerto Rico a lot together.
Alan, sorry, I don’t remember any of that. Thanks for your profile pic though. Did you always wear that funny hat?
Congrats on getting the 3rd character to level 60!
Yeah, I totally miss the times like trying to maneuver Costco’s industrial size cart by myself while 4 brothers walked around in oblivion. ha ha ha. =P
I’m also supremely forgetful, but I didn’t notice that things got any worse after marriage than they seemed to be before… What exactly have you noticed that is leading you to pin the memory loss on marriage?
i just threw out half a box of letters from ex’s. i don’t think i could have done that unless i got married. being married has made it easier to wipe out huge chunks of memory from my single life…
oops, Chanukah’s comment was actually mine. he’s my roommate and his account was logged into my laptop. i don’t think you know him, changed.
Marmite: I still have pictures of those trips…
S.W. Ang: I have a comparison point. In 2001 I left CBCGB to go to Highrock. When I did so, I didn’t suddenly lose memory of people and things related to that church. But in this Highrock to CCFC transition, I’ve noticed a huge loss of memory. It could be that I’m 5 years older. But my working theory is that I have only so much memory capacity for people and social situations, and the memory must be refreshed on a regular basis (like DRAM) to hold content.
Bandaid: How is it that married people have additional roommates?
hey, as long as your memory bank is getting filled with new, useful (e.g., pertaining to your wife) information =P
well, we have a second bdroom and when i left my h. to go back to school, we thought that the apt would be so big and empty for just one person. also, the roomie was a very good friend of the h. and now has become a very good friend of mine. this experience has really opened up my eyes to communal living. we have to compromise, share, and be aware of others all the more. and my h. and i have to be more civil during our fights and that has helped us rather than taken anything away from us.
That’s a neat story, thanks.