Visions of Sugar-Plums
You know how when you’ve been riding in a boat or on roller coasters all day and then you lie down at night and close your eyes, you still feel the motion? Or how when you get just a little too addicted to Tetris your brain just continues the puzzle in your mind when you’re not even playing, kind of automatically? (Not that I’ve ever, um, played Tetris to such an extent that that would happen...) Well, all day on Saturday I had visions of weeds being pulled up -- leaves, roots, worms and all -- because, you guessed it, I had the happy providence to do that very task that morning for four whole hours. I don’t think I’ve ever before made a project out of weeding, but I did find it immensely satisfying, after all! It’s amazing to me how work can be both toilsome and fulfilling.
The visions have since gone away... and now my legs are sore.
posted by Kate @ 12:07 PM
9 Comments:
Yeah
I've played "mental tetris" for days on end. It's hard to get to stop to tell the truth.
Why can't I put that kind of mental effort into something a little more productive. I mean, c'mon. While fun, tetris is basically electronic thumb twidling.
Sam G.
This phenomenon also happens if you are in cornfields eight hours a day, seven days a week, for even as short a period of time as a week. Every time you shut your eyes (which happens a lot, since by the end of a day of detasseling, you're pretty tired) you automatically see cornfields.
I hated that job, but what else is a 12-year-old supposed to do?
My favorite is when you're lying in bed after you've been roller (or ice) skating for a few hours. Man, your legs are still flying around.
Better you than me... that's all I can say. (People have a way of disappearing on Saturday mornings when my mom pulls out her weeding gloves)
Minesweeper is another one you can't stop playing in your head. It's like the patterns get burned into your retinas.
A mental version of this happened to me last weekend, when, after spending about three solid days typing about prairie dogs, the critters refused to vacate my brain. That was considerably more annoying than tetris.
BESS
Bess--
I feel so bad for you about that prairie dog stuff! I sat on the floor and listened to most of it (I'm a page--I've seen your desk up in transcribers' and wondered, How many Ghormleys could there possibly be in Lincoln? Could she be related to Kate and Anne?), and there's only so much you can hear about Ernie's stuffed prairie dog, Belvedere!
You might enjoy knowing, though, that Sen. Fischer had a prairie dog sitting on her desk for a while with a target affixed to its chest.
Did you get to type Sen. Schrock's comment, "You know, I hate to admit it, but you do look cute there with that stuffed animal"?
Jacob, if you're ever up on 10th floor, go ahead and introduce yourself. I'm an occasional visitor to your blog, and I'd like to put a face with your name.
I think I did type the Schrock comment. But sometimes it's hard to remember. The words just go through the ears and out the fingers without passing through the brain.
And by the way, it's B-e-l-E-v-e-d-e-r-e. :-)
BESS
"I hated that job [detasseling], but what else is a 12-year-old supposed to do?"
Be a detasseling "Squad Leader." More pay and less work. Mwah ha ha
Be a squad leader? If only I had been good enough to qualify for the prestige of such a position; I royally sucked at detasseling, as my friend Tony (whom I became friends with through the job) will be more than willing to tell you.
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