My weirdness

I have so many things to blog about, but not much time!

I was just reading up on synesthesia. I left a weird comment on Melissa's blog---enjoying life, and she told me I am a synesthete. It's really interesting-----I have been totally sidetracked ever since I went over there! Melissa talks about her associating colors with numbers. Sometimes it's helpful to her!

I apparently have two types---number form synesthesia and personification. I see numbers in a spatial way---it's complicated to explain, but I have seen them in this way from very young. I think it's why doing math in my head is sometimes hard. I have to really think hard and NOT think about where they are "in my mind's eye" so to speak, just to add some numbers together. I have tried to draw a number line map for Larry, but he just shakes his head and laughs at me. 1-12 go in a circle like a clock. From 12-20 the numbers go in a straight line from the top of the clock. At 20, the line makes a right turn, 90 degrees. This line goes straight all the way to 100. But there are lights, like overhead lights along the way! The 20s are dark, the teens still in the light of the smaller numbers. There is a light at 40, so the thirties are fairly bright. It's bright from 40 to 60, but it gets dark in the 70s and 80s. There's a light at 100.

It's almost like I can stand in this number space and look around, because when I am thinking about grades based on a 100% scale, I am standing at 100 and looking down the line at the grades getting further away from me. The further I got from 100, the darker it got! :-)

When I am thinking about ages of people, it's in the same configuration I described above. But the darkness starts at about 50. It's getting dimmer for me as I am getting closer to 40! I think about my parents, going into these dark years! Yikes! They are sitting there in their 50s in the dark! But here's a funny thing---it gets lighter at 80. And I always think about 85 being a good age to pass away. I'm sure my perceptions about getting older have tainted my placing of the lights. But again, I have looked at this the same way from very young.

Okay, I have divulged some craziness in my brain. But there's more! Yes! more!

In the personification synesthesia, I see letters and numbers as having personalities---or at least gender. Days of the week, too. Wednesday---a woman (I'm sure it's a W relation). Thursday and Tuesday? Both male, but Thursday is a grown up and Tuesday is a young boy. I'll just list my letter associations for fun.

A a mother
a a little girl
B a teen boy
b a little boy
C a woman
c a little boy
D a Daddy
d a little boy
E a man
e a little boy--playful!
F a man
f a teen boy
G a man
g a young boy
H a man, steady, strong
h a boy about 10
I a man
i a boy
J a grown woman (like me right?)
j a boy (should be a girl, but it isn't!)
K a Mommy
k a teen girl
L a man (my dad's name starts with L)
l a skinny teen boy
M a Mommy (obvious relation)
m an old woman (this does not fit my pattern, does it?)
N an old woman
n a little old woman
O A man
o a little boy
P a man
p a little toddler boy
Q a woman (like a queen)
q a little boy
R A woman (my sister's initial)
r a little girl
S a woman, motherly
s a little girl
T a tall man
t a teen boy
U an old man
u a little boy
V a fancy lady
v a little fancy girl!
W a woman
w a little boy
X a man
x a little boy
Y a mother
y a little girl
Z a mother
z a little girl

Whew! That's all strange, I know! Some of that makes sense, some seems so random. Some are stronger in their genders, like they are ingrained in me more or something.

I'd love to hear about your experiences if you do anything that is synesthetic. There are so many forms, and some of them are more interesting than what I have just described---people who associate sounds with colors, words with tastes, shapes with sounds.

Good things are developing in our Book Club. I am reading the book we are going to discuss in April---And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers. It really struck my friend P, and she recommended it to me, and she had gotten the book from someone else and I am handing it off to someone on Tuesday, after I am sure to be finished. :-) Lots of sharing to save money. This is a Christian author who I have never read. I do like it, and I do identify with the characters and the stuff happening in their church.

At the prodding of many commenters, I checked out To Kill a Mockingbird to read right after I finish this one. I anticipate having a lot of time to read this weekend---we will be off to LTC and waiting around for events to happen. More on that later. :-)

Have a happy Easter weekend!