Volume Challenged

[copied from dland]

This is really weird, and maybe I have mentioned it before or maybe not, but I have this ... thing .... that I can only describe as a learning disability of some kind.

I do not understand measures of volume. I know what they're called, and I understand one or two of the simplest ones, like what a cup is, but I have no real concept of how many ounces there are in anything -- a cup is either 8 or 16, or maybe both -- and I know that gallons are big, but I'm not so sure about pints or quarts and where they fit in. I've always just kind of blown this off, and have said many times that I must have been absent the day they taught that in third grade, which is certainly possible because I had the measles in third grade and was absent for two weeks. I've always kind of believed that they taught it then. If I'm cooking, I have to refer to this big magnet I have that lists all the conversions and equivalents. If I have to figure out anything in liters, then I'm pretty much screwed, and I have to look it up on the Internet and get some conversion site to help me out.

Which is to say that I've been drinking lots more water lately, and I know I'm supposed to drink as many 8 ounce cups a day as I can. (And yet I still somehow believe that some cups are 16 ounces. I digress.) I buy a particular brand of water bottles because they are labeled 16 oz. and so I know that if I finish one bottle, I've had two servings of water. But I got a water bottle at lunch today from the cafeteria, and since I got home with it, I've been trying to figure out just how much water there is in the bottle in terms of what I need to drink. I've been trying to work this out for about 15 minutes.

It says on the label:

.5 L
1 PT, 0.9 FL OZ

Can you freaking believe this? It took me 15 minutes to figure out that this is just a shade over 16 ounces, and therefore it is two servings of water for me. And now you probably think that I will always know that there are 16 ounces in a pint, and therefore a pint consists of two cups. You would be wrong. I will not always know this. This is some kind of information that my brain will not retain. It never has and it never will. What I will remember is that the Poland Spring bottle that feels a certain way in my hand and that looks a little bit tall and skinny, but not too tall, is two servings of water. That I'll remember.

What a piece of work is man.

So I spent the in-service day communing with the other district librarians, and it was actually a very pleasant day. The SCM called in sick. I did go back to the high school for lunch, and that was a lot of fun, I think to everyone's surprise. About a hundred of us were in the new cafeteria, and as we arrived, they gave us a sheet of paper, one of those ice-breaker things that lists all kinds of goofy stuff, like Wears colored contacts lenses and Has your same astrological sign, and we had to go around and swap sheets and get people to sign ours while we signed theirs for one thing or another. (Among other things, I can name the major characters for both Saved By the Bell and The Beverly Hillbillies.) Then we all sat together at all the tables, and even my dear Colleague came in and joined us and sat with me. So altogether, not a terrible day of work.

It's just still too cold! And the weekend isn't looking any better. So now I'm going to read People, which is my customary Friday afternoon activity, and then I'm going to finally email the Easter pictures to the FIL -- okay, maybe I'll do that first -- and then put away my laundry from Saturday yesterday.

Oh, get this! I woke up at six this morning, and I was up, although I had all this extra time because, as I said, I didn't have to be at work until 8.30. So I got up and went to the gym! Can anyone, including me, believe this? I would do this every day, if I could; I have to think out the details. Fortunately, I was there the day they taught how to tell time, and I'm much better at figuring out time things than I am at water bottles, so there's a chance on this one.

watching Friends :: entry #1429