Exercising the noodle

Tonight I went to a game night that was like a spelling bee, but a vocabulary bee.

You know, I used to believe that, even though English wasn't my first language, I was pretty gifted at spelling and in vocabulary. But what I thought was talent, judging by the A grades I got in English class, was proven to be of mere average intelligence when faced with the vocabulary section of my GRE prep (back when I thought I wanted to pursue a Masters degree). Tonight, I seemed to have forgotten about this less than Mensa level of intelligence when I thought, mistakenly, that I would ace most of the vocabulary words. I think I knew about 5 of the 50 or so words that were thrown out there. I tend to suffer from forgetfulness. What do I mean by that? I mean that I could read a fascinating article that I try to relay to someone 5 minutes later, only I stumble over my words, pause frequently and end up just throwing the article at them so that they can read it directly. Otherwise my egregious attempt at narration comes out something like this: "I just read this incredible article about, uh, about... oh yeah, so so there was this guy. Ummm... I can't remember what his trade was, but it was something really important. And he lived back in the 1800s or something, during the fall of the Roman Empire, I think. Or was that earlier? Anyway, so he made this really important discovery and, well, I don't know exactly what the object did or how it did it but, you know, you should probably just read it yourself because I'm not doing it justice." So in the case of tonight, I'd hear a word and go "Oh I know that word. I've seen it or heard it a dozen times. What's it mean? Shoot!"

Like I said, average intelligence. But I put on a good act because one of the adjectives that most people use to describe me is "intelligent".

I recently started working on crossword puzzles. I can't even begin to explain to you how much these things horrified me in the past. I'm just not good at games. Scrabble, checkers, monopoly. I'm not a strategizer. Hell, I can't tell you how many people have tried to teach me backgammon, but it's pointless. I just don't get it. Anyway, the crossword puzzles would scare me because I would SUCK at them. I still do, but now I'm allowing myself to cheat a little bit. You know, fill in a few of the words from the 'Answers' page just so I can build the words around them. I don't judge myself any more for it. I need to do everything I can to ward off Alzheimers, so if I need to grade on the curve a little bit with crossword puzzles, then so be it.

I've also decide to start relearning Italiano. I took one year of it 12 years ago, ma no posso parlare molto bene. Capisco un po ma ho bisogno di esercitarmi.

All in all, a very fun evening. Unique, and a refreshing change from the same ole bar scene. On the subway I even got to help someone out (I love giving directions).

"Excuse me, does this go to Union Square?" asked the tan 50'sish old man wearing a blonde wig, red beret, heels and pencil skirt.

Without even blinking I responded, "Yes, yes it does."