anthropogenic

I forgot to share with y'all a new word I learned. It's anthropogenic. m-w.com defines it as "of, relating to, or resulting from the influence of human beings on nature." I say "ohhhh, so that's a fancy word to say we effed up the earth. cool."

I kind of have a love affair with a single word that means an entire phrase. like defenestrate.

so, recently I've been thinking (and had not shared with you) about how I feel like my brain has deteriorated. like I'm less smart or less capable of learning or just not as sharp as I used to be. It's like I feel like my brain needs to wake the rest of the way up to work at full ability. like it's fuzzy.

it has worried/disappointed me. until now.

so, I was like "what happened after high school and college that now my mental abilities seem to have slowed?" I mean, I know the older you get the harder it is, but the acumen just wasn't there. Um yeah, that isn't what's happening. I now understand.

Today in class I realized that I was absorbing more of this stuff, that I was "getting it." And then I realized why. I am, presently, a bit sleep deprived, you see. I slept for 5.5 hours tuesday night and then, gosh, 5 hours last night? I am a tiiiiired girl. So, when I was in that classroom this morning? I had to pay realreal close attention or I was going to fall asleep in class. (which, by the way, is something I've never ever done).

So I'm not sure that I was any smarter before, I just got a lot less sleep and had to concentrate on the material to stay awake. This would also explain why I feel like it's all a fuzzy recollection--I'm not remembering anything from college because I was a half-zombie through it. Oh yeah, and stressed, a bit too thin/scary skinny, possibly anemic and slightly malnourished, maybe? Not on purpose, but being an engineer can do that to you. I'll take my generally-well-rested, well fed, with boobs self, thank you. :)

oh yeah and. while doing homework last night the cats helped. hazel kept sitting right next to me on my notes and binder. gobi knew right where to be, he's been doing it for years. later in the evening he decided he would keep my homework "safe"--see? matt was SO amused. he's never seen this happen before. so he took pictures. (and so did I) and do note how gobi kept licking the bottle of newcastle. actually, that's usually hazel's trick.

(and yes, I'm having a beer while I do my homework. I actually had three. and for the first two problems I did it was a beer per problem--that's a baaaaad ratio. fortunately they began going faster and the ratio wasn't so linear. :) )