Return of the Great Brain

Does that title totally bring back feelings of nostalgia for you, too?

You know how sometimes, you listen to someone whose IQ dwarfs your own talk about a subject you know very little about, and you think to yourself, "Wow. That person's brain is so much more efficient than mine."

And then, to make yourself feel better, you think, "But my brain is pretty great. At least it thinks about things I like to think about." But still, you're a little jealous, and you think for a moment about how it would be to have a brain like theirs.


I've been sick. For like nine days. And not really a normal kind of sick, either. Even though it's one that has worn me out all over, it has been centered on my ears.

My brain and my ears share the same skull. It's like they're college roommates. Brain lays on the bed on his side of the room, trying very hard to do homework. Ear dances on the bed on his side of the room, with the lights out and the disco ball on, loud music blaring, a fog machine running in the background.

Except that the dancing to the disco ball is actually vertigo, the loud music is actually screaming pain, and the fog machine is actually a brain numbing fog, making it impossible for Brain to think.

Seriously. For nine days, it wasn't working. I'd try to think about something, and the neurons in my brain would try to pass it on, but the synapses weren't having any of that. They'd just turn their back on my neurons, and the poor thought would stop.

When a girl and a boy came to me with a problem at recess, poor brain was unable to pass on the information that they were NOT, in fact, two GIRLS. So, I called them both girls to their faces. And then when I took them to the principal's office to deal with the problem, I called them GIRLS to the principal. I stared at the girl and boy and couldn't comprehend what to actually call them.

And then, I made Alecia's baptism invitations. They're adorable, btw. I can say that because they are printed on an adorable picture taken by a talented photographer of my adorable daughter. Had Brain not been in a fog, I might have actually remembered to INCLUDE THE DATE on the invite before I mailed them.

My foggy brain was a little jealous of my working brain, and I constantly thought about how it would be to have a brain like my old brain. I really, REALLY missed my brain. Turns out, I need its services often.

Saturday, I actually felt the fog lifting from my brain. It was immediately followed by cheering on Brain's side of the room, and exhausted relief on Ear's side.

So, even if I can't seem to remember the ends to books or movies, and even if my brain can't comprehend science-related subject matter, I still think it's pretty great. It thinks about the things I like to think about, after all.