Apparently good mental workouts include:
–word puzzles – maybe, but not those "how many blocks make up the base of this pyramid" or that upside-down thinking thing with the shapes
–hobbies – no can do for 6 more weeks
–socializing – to my friends: please come visit (no driving for 6 weeks)
–learning to use a computer – with your non-dominant hand. And now I can even PhotoShop my Flickr photos with it too! And type, very slowly and fairly inaccurately.
–learning a new language – it will have to be Dutch for me. I’ve already learned "zeer mooi" "prachtig" "schattig" and "gefeliciteerd" from my Flickr buds.
– going to museums, the theater – see note for ‘socializing’
– watch thought-provoking movies – I’ll look for my Capote DVD tonight
–reading – started ‘The da Vinci Code’ but it was too heavy to hold and just after surgery I’m not in the mood to read about mutilation (if it’s anything like his earlier book, Demons and Angels)
–or reading a page or two upside down
Changing things in your daily life can help, too like doing familiar tasks differently:
–drive home a different way (see‘socializing’ note above)
–brush your teeth using your non-dominant hand – Oh, boy, got that one covered!
–try showering or starting the car with your eyes shut – eyes shut & showering with one hand. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. But you shoulda seen me reaching through the steering wheel to shift with my left hand pre-surgery. Quite an acrobatic feat. Thank goodness it’s an automatic so it was only to reverse or park, not going down the road at 90 k!
–shut your eyes for a few minutes and explore the room with the other senses – touch, smell, listen. – now, this reminds me of an incident with my Dad:
While he wasn’t a practical joker, my father was a big tease. Especially if you were a teenage girl. Having 7 older sisters would explain why.
Dad: What’s that smell?
Me: I dunno. What smell?
Dad: Something smells funny in here. Kind of like …….old socks. You should find out what it is.
Then I could smell it too. Something in my bedroom was definitely "off". Gym sneakers? At school. PE strip? No. Maybe the cat did something nasty….. Nothing visible anywhere around the room. Probably under the bed. Maybe it died! Whatever the smell was, it was under the bed. Eww. Found it! Hopping mad, I took the little bundle to my Dad.
He’d brought a piece of somebody’s Limburger cheese home from work and hid it in my bedroom! What a stinker.
2 comments:
Oh this is so funny. What a wicked wicked man! And as for the brain development, I think the bread slicing (next post) would fall under one of these exercises? Maybe you could balance it with your elbow and then slice--haha...
...you poor thing. Good reading though! And congrats on the blog!
My aunties (his sisters) were wicked, wicked teasers of their little brother. And yes, Lauren, I'm the best elbow-bread-slicing-balancer you've ever seen!
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