Like any good zombie, I'm on the hunt for BRAINS...

I used to be smart.

I swear I did. I mean, I used to *know* *stuff*. I could think a coherent thought and communicate effectively. I was on the Brain Brawl team in high school! (Not that that really counts for anything. My friend Sarah's dad was one of the sponsor's. They needed a team, and Sarah's dad said if we joined he'd buy us lunch after every match. So it was me, Sarah and two other friends. We only did okay. But we got to be on the local public television station in the wee hours of Saturday morning! Oh yeah.)

These days, I don't feel very smart anymore. Part of it is the whole "Mommy Brain" thing. I manage the schedules of three other people who live in this house, in addition to my own, and I think keeping up with all that info has pushed out all of those long passages of Shakespeare I used to be able to quote from memory.

Another part of it is that I spend ten months of the year trying to think like a four year old as I plan out lessons and activities for my preschool class. Sure, I can come up with a *minimum* of 15 verses for "The Wheels on the Bus", but for the life of me I can't remember ANYTHING about algebra (which is a problem now that both girls are doing Pre-Algebra/Algebra stuff in school).

My brain feels foggy a lot of the time. Sometimes it's because I'm tired. Sometimes it's because I'm overwhelmed mentally and/or emotionally. I think a lot of it has to do with my anxiety medication because it DIRECTLY effects (affects? No, effects. See I used to know this no problem!) the way my brain is working. It's been especially bad today. Luckily I'm not really responsible for anything more taxing than making some pasta salads.

Crap. The whole effect/affect thing was bugging me so much I had to go look it up. I WAS WRONG. It's affect. The stupid medicine is affecting my brain. GAH.

I suppose it could be worse. Even though I *feel* stupid, I know I am not *actually* stupid. And the four year olds often think I'm a genious, so that's something. And maybe someday my anxiety will be in check again, and I can give up the foggy brain medicine. In the meantime, I'll keep trying to remember all the things I've forgotten.