D i e n u

I’ve always wondered what it would be like if I could understand calculus.

The type of person for whom all those numbers and letters and weird squiggly symbols actually make sense is, in my mind, a superior version of human than I am.

Same goes for people who seem to intuitively always know which way is north, without even looking at a map. Sometimes to get a cheap laugh, Randy will ask me to point in the direction I think something is in, like Durham from Chapel Hill or the taco shop from our house.

I’ll do my best to point in what I guess is the right way. Then Randy laughs at me.

It’s good times.

Anyways, the whole point of this entry was to say that I’m intrigued by how many ways of being smart there are in this world.

I’m pretty good at stringing words together into a sensible form. And I’m not too bad at crossword puzzles.

But I suck at math. And I hate that Tanagrams game with a furious passion.

I have no problem following line-by-line directions, but the weird Ikea instructions with just the pictures and arrows and shit make me want to jab my eyeballs out with the disposable allen wrench they always include.

I’m a crappy artist. I’m a terrible cook. And I’m not intelligent about those day-to-day things that usually fall under “common sense.”

But I can read a 200-page novel in a couple hours. And for some reason, I have an uncanny talent at completing multiple-choice tests. I’m a “No Child Left Behind” dream student. But that sure doesn’t help me when it’s 3 o’clock in the morning and I can’t for the life of me figure out where the fuck slot A meets tab B.

Earlier this afternoon, people were talking about IQ tests. It got me thinking about how there’s not really any one test that can really capture everyone’s unique intelligences.

Like I don’t know if my dad knows calculus or physics. But I do know he can fix his own car and can build stuff and is an amazing artist and naturally good at geeky stuff.

Why the hell I didn’t get any of that, I’ll never know. I guess I just take more after my mom.

Happy birthday, Momma. I miss you.

There’s nothing better on a cold, snowy day when you don’t want to go to work than being able to snuggle your cranium in a hat crocheted by one of your dearest friends.

Thank you Lili!

A couple weeks ago, I found myself at WUNC in front of a phone, volunteering during their Valentine’s Pledge Drive (which actually ended a day or so before Valentine’s Day).

It was definitely an interesting experience. I’d expected some high-tech setup, but it was actually just a U-shaped group of long tables lined with older push-button phones.

Calls would ring from left to right, around the table, so callers would be sure to get the first available volunteer. I was on the middle-right side of the U, so I got to sit and watch for a minute before I got my first call.

You know how NPR will usually have drawings to add a little donation motivation? I had no idea what a huge role those incentives play in getting callers. My shift was from 8am to 10am and they were running a trip drawing that ended at 9am. Between 8 and 8:30, we got a nice, steady amount of calls that increased to a crescendo of off-the-hook ringing in the last few minutes before 9.

And between 9 and 10am, I sat and played Word Warp on my iphone until they told me I was done. I think the phones rang a total of four times in that hour and my aforementioned middle-right position meant nobody ever reached me.

So yeah, NPR, you’d better keep those drawing coming. They seem to make a difference.

I had a really good time answering phones and I’ll probably do it again when the next pledge drive rolls around. Of course, the fact that the volunteer told me that I have “a perfect voice for radio” sure didn’t hurt!

It was pretty exciting, I have to say. Of course, I sold Guitar Hero hoping I could talk Randy into letting me buy Rock Band, but he used the sale as proof that I shouldn’t buy Rock Band because I clearly wasn’t going to play it and would just end up selling it eventually. Logic is lame!