I am the queen of geography!

In the spirit of use it or lose it, I like to do different things to keep my mind challenged. Challenged, that is, in a way that's different from trying to remember why I came into this room, or just where it was I decided would be the perfect place to store the vacuum cleaner bags. That kind of challenge is exactly the reason why I keep at the other kind of challenge: I need to try and slow down the aging of my brain. That relentless decay. The inescapable slide into mental chaos and oblivion. And, as a result of those, having to go buy more vacuum cleaner bags every single time I need one. That would be good to avoid.

I've read many, many places that to keep the mind "young," you need to keep it creating new neural paths. That means learning new things. A new language is good, and that's on my To Do list. Doing familiar things in a new way is good. Math is very good. But the thing that really gets me going is geography. And by that I really just mean knowing where places are.

I know where places are. Almost all of them.*

I can name, off the top of my head, 185 countries. (It does take a few minutes, but still.) I can do all the Sporcle and Jetpunk geography quizzes that have to do with which countries are where, or what the name of those outlines on the map are. I can fill in the map tests at worldatlas.com. I've taken the time to learn it because it fascinates me.

I am fully aware that this particular body of knowledge doesn't really do much for me in real life, though I sure did know what directions the refugees were streaming when they were leaving Libya for Tunisia. And I knew the general area where the Kenyans were setting up camps to house Somalian refugees without checking a globe. And if my fantasies start coming true and someone suddenly asks me to identify all the countries in eastern Europe, I'm so ready.

In addition to the (I hope) brain benefits, I also have to think of this as kind of a hobby. I say have to because it takes up more time than you would think. The fact is, my brain and I aren't as young as we used to be, and if I don't keep reinforcing this information, it seems to somehow leak out or something. So I periodically go over all the maps, making sure I remember what's where and how to spell Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and whether Oman and Yemen are in alphabetical order or reverse alphabetical order (just so you know, it's reverse).

I spent today "going over" it. Today. As in all day. As in I got up at a reasonable hour, made coffee, then sat my fat ass down at the computer and played geography trivia quizzes and filled in maps all. day. long.

So…I think I'll go take a shower now. Brush my teeth. I'm a little ambivalent about the whole makeup thing, seeing as it's five o'clock. PM. [sigh] Tomorrow will be more productive, I'm sure, now that my brain is all tuned up. Right.


*I kind of stink at Oceania and the Caribbean. I know everywhere else, though.**

**Yes, everywhere.