elementary

I've found that my brain occasionally has moments where it gets confused on very basic stuff.

In addition to regularly losing track of my lefts & rights, I've twice in the past month looked down at my car's odometer and been surprised when it's flipped from 159 to 160 miles, instead of 200. I've had to think for a minute to realize it's recording miles, and not time.

My earliest recollection of such confusion was a day in 3rd grade, when we were taking a math test. We were being asked to subtract one large number from another larger number. Let's say 2637 minus 1854. Although I'd routinely done that kind of arithmetic in class, that day when I looked at the numbers, my brain suddenly decided that the way to determine the value of each number was to add up the individual digits that comprised it. In doing so, I found that both numbers resulted in the same sum, and I remember becoming very confused and finally going up to Mrs. Nielsen to ask how we were supposed to subtract one number from the other, because it was the same number.
Of course, she looked at me very strangely and explained that 2637 was the larger number, at which point the proper perspective flooded back and I felt like a complete idiot.

It's always a weird sensation to re-gain perspective and realize how out in la-la-land I've just been.