Mnemorize

DH found a new plant in our garden this week, and although he figured it seemed weedy, he left it in to see if I knew what it was. As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly... that I had walked through a huge, prickly field of it with my field partner and friend - let's call her Long Tall Sally - on an overcast day in July 2015.

Could I remember something useful about the plant, like, say, its name? Nope, I spent five minutes dredging the depths to retrieve that, and even then I could only remember the scientific name and had to Google the English term to tell DH. But the colourful autobiographical memory - no trouble retrieving that! I have this problem all the time: 'Oooh, I remember keying this plant in a wetland in 2007! I was with so-and-so, and we found a duck nest with seven eggs!' But can I just pretty please remember the damn word for the plant? Buy a vowel, hum a bar, anything?

No.

It's as if my brain makes mnemonics even when I am not trying to make mnemonics, but regularly forgets what it was I was trying to remember in the first place. I'm going to name this mnemorizing, and it makes me mnental. It probably takes up ten times the brain space that a direct line to the information would, and lawd knows I could use that extra room on the ol' meat drive. If you've ever felt that I talk too damn much to say anything, then please understand it's honestly just how I'm wired: the train has to pop by all the stations, there is no least-cost routing, and we may make some unplanned side trips along the way. Whee!

Now that I've had this experience with the plant in the garden with DH in 2020 as well as in a field with LTSally in 2015, the next time I need to recall this species I guarantee it will have double the useless memories associated with it - maybe triple, since I'm writing about it here as well. Heaven forbid some poor soul accidentally asks me what it is in future, 'cause they are going to get an absolute earful of unrelated nonsense.

I've heard that brain fluidity decreases with age so maybe I'll get my routes all straightened out eventually. But in the meantime, just for the record:

Hello, future me. It's Galeopsis tetrahit, you high-functioning Hufflepuff. I cannot (but also 100% can) believe it was easier for you to look this up on your blog than it was to just fricking remember those words. So disappointed in you me us.