A challenge for my weary brain

I was at the gas station the other day and the strangest thing happened. I forgot my PIN #. At first, I was furious at myself for not playing more chess or learning to read and write Chinese because I read somewhere that that’s supposed to help fight Alzheimer’s. I hightailed it out of the gas station Thelma without Louise (or gas) style, thinking that the flashing “see attendant now” notice meant I was in for some trouble – like the “you are so busted because they think you are trying to use a card that does not belong to you” kind of trouble.

I cruised into in a Target parking lot and gave myself a little pep talk, trying to convince myself that the PIN # would magically come to me if I just bought something from a place where I practically lived.  So - I slowly walked up to the register armed only with the cold sweat running down my back, God’s love, and some scotch tape (why…why tape when I needed paper towels?).  After exchanging a few pleasantries with the nice Target girl, I slid my card through, and let my fingers do the walking. What can I say? It worked. I didn’t even look at the keypad. That’s some 10-key skills right there. My brain knows Target. My heart loves Target.

Weird, right? No - not so weird! Do you know how many passwords I have stored in my brain? Multiple passwords for work, email, your mama’s email (ok, no), several different bank accounts (don’t ask). Seriously. There is a lot of mental diarrhea going on up there and it’s no wonder I was left temporarily stupid at the gas station.

Now that it’s been ascertained I am not suffering from Alzheimer’s, I have decided to put my brain through some rigorous exercise. However, rather than play chess (makes me sleepy) or learn Chinese (too hard), I’m just going to focus on developing my baking skills some more. Tomorrow I will attempt to bake blindly - NO, not with a blindfold -  I’m talking without a recipe, relying solely on my somewhat faulty memory, crazy intuition, and insight from Nate’s old “Where There’s a Will There’s an A” study videos.

If all goes well, I have a story to tie in about the summer my grandma and I baked a number of cheesecakes that never seemed to turn out right – the summer before she got sick and we never had a chance to bake together again. If things don’t work out…I guess that story still fits. 

And if it doesn’t go well, I’ll just try again until I get it right......or until I surrender due to the high price of ingredients being no joke.