Double Jointed? Or Just Crazy?

Okay, so you know how some (weird) people have body parts that are double-jointed? Like their fingers can bend in unnatural ways or they can flip their wrist around backwards? It's marginally gross, but also kind of mesmerizing, right? Right. Kind of like the freaks that used to populate carnival midways until it became politically incorrect to gawk at other people's abnormalities. So, I'm thinking that I have a double-jointed body part, too. MY BRAIN! Because I can be moving through my day like an ordinary person, and then WHAM! My mind is taking strange unexpected turns.

I have a habit of staring into space letting my mind go wherever it pleases. People are always asking me "Whatcha thinking about?" My typical answer is "Nothing". But that's a lie. I'm thinking SO MUCH that it is almost too much work to put it into words. But if I'm being honest, when somebody looks at me curiously and asks "Whatcha thinking about?" the answer would go something like this: "I would really like to get a new red shirt to wear out this weekend. Red is pretty. Meg Ryan is pretty. Lady Gaga is weird. Why does she wear so much makeup? I need some mascara. I should put some mascara on my cat. Why do cats have such weird pupils? Why do 'pupil' and 'student' mean the same thing? English is hard. Other languages are better. Like Spanish. I wonder if it's warm in Mexico right now. A taco sounds good. Oooo! Fish tacos! Delish! I wounder if Val is hungry for tacos? Val is funny. I wish I could remember that one joke. George Carlin told it. I should get a dog. I could name him George. Dogs are so faithful." Here I pause and hum a few bars of the classic Journey song "Faithfully". Then resume my derailed thought train..."I miss Steve Perry. I wonder how his throat is? I need cough drops. Maybe I'm getting sick. I could use a day off. But if I call in sick, I can't go out this weekend and I won't need a red shirt after all. Better go to work..." My brain has just popped back into its normal position. I think it's important to point out that the above internal monologue takes place in appx. 12.4 seconds. Amazing.

I used to worry about my rambling thought process. And then one day, Val and I were riding in my car enjoying a comfortable campaniable silence. It was probably a Sunday because we were relaxed but not giddy (giddy is our typical Saturday mood). Anyways, so we're riding along in silence, each lost in our own brains. After several minutes, Val turned towards me in her seat. I looked over at her, sensing she was about to tell me something. She looked at me very seriously and here is what came out of her mouth: "Big purple suitcase". Then she turned away and went back to daydreaming out the window. I'm sorry, what??? I thought maybe I had missed something important. "Ummm...pardon?" She looked at me again, clearly confused that I hadn't understood what she meant. "I need to get the big purple suitcase out of the shed." Ahhhhh...a full sentence. NOW I got it. It made me feel good that I wasn't the only one having disjointed thoughts. She just lost control and said one of hers out loud. It would have been like me being lost in my own thought process (see above) and blurting out "Fish tacos!" or "Cat mascara!" Anyway, we cracked up and now, whenever one of us says something completely random, the other one says "Big purple suitcase". It's one of our inside jokes. We have a lot of them, and they make us happy.

So that's it. I thought it was time to add to my blog. Apparently I'm on the tri-annual plan. Wait...does that mean every three years, or does it mean three times a year? I wish Christmas happened three times a year. I love cookies.....