| "> | | | | play a game after the meal. To my horror, we chose |
| Since last month, it has seemed like aliens may have | | | | to play "Cranium" and break up into three groups of |
| kidnapped me during the night and performed | | | | four. Cranium calls for the teams to act out a name |
| experimental brain surgery on me--removing key | | | | or activity, sculpt or draw a concept or word, give |
| abilities such as memory, conceptualization and | | | | correct multiple choice answers to questions and to |
| comprehension. From what I can piece together, I | | | | hum or whistle a song. |
| awakened to a typical morning of feeding the pets, | | | | I was chosen to act out a phrase which was "Saved |
| making coffee and eating breakfast. The first sign | | | | by the bell". At that moment I knew that I had |
| that things were a miss was when basic one syllable | | | | forgotten how to play charades, I frantically tried to |
| words escaped my ability to speak. I tried not to talk | | | | act out "Saved" by looking up at the sky with the |
| too much for fear I would be found out! | | | | open arms and as angelic a look as I could muster on |
| I made a stab at covering up my loss of language by | | | | my anxious face (instead of acting out "sounds-like |
| talking around the lost word, like shadowing in a | | | | shaved") which completely went over everyone's |
| painting. "Honey, could you please hand me the | | | | head. During this same charade the sand got stuck in |
| wonderful piece of art that my brother gave us filled | | | | the timer glass expanding the length of my charade |
| with coffee?" My husband did look at me skeptically | | | | from one minute to three painful minutes of spastic |
| and replied "you mean the coffee mug?" but I smugly | | | | acting. I had at one point tried to make the motion |
| wrote these slight accusations off as typical | | | | of a dainty tinkling dinner bell with my hand only to |
| responses from my curmudgeon husband. | | | | be told by my husband later in the car ride home |
| As the week bore on I encountered more evidence | | | | that I looked like a spastic person trying to get |
| that sections of my brain were definitely not being | | | | something off of my hand. So for three minutes I |
| used. During a Coaching session I tried to ask very | | | | kept going back and forth between open arms with |
| simple questions volleying back the conversation | | | | a beaming face towards God and moving my body |
| instead of giving lasered insight such as, "how do you | | | | as if I was the clapper inside of a gigantic bell. Suffice |
| see the situation?" which can sound like brilliant | | | | it to say, no one guessed the phrase. |
| Coaching instead of someone pawing around | | | | Later during our game, one of the teams pulled a |
| desperately in the caverns of their mind for lost | | | | card with the name Jacqueline Kennedy Onnasis. The |
| words. | | | | player acting out her name mimed a hat case, pulling |
| During this period I had several situations that called | | | | out one of the little pillbox hats that Jackie was so |
| for thinking quickly on my feet. I called my best | | | | famous for wearing. Someone guessed the answer |
| friend, Nancy, for insight on my dilemma however; | | | | within 45 seconds. I commenced to panic as I |
| coming up with the words to explain my demise | | | | realized that I wouldn't have come close to figuring |
| proved to be just as painful as the situations that | | | | out how to calmly mime a box much less the pill box |
| prevented access to my words. I'm afraid Nancy | | | | hat inside. All I could think of was miming Jackie's |
| began checking her caller ID since she soon became | | | | horror as Jack's brains flew on to her lap in the |
| mysteriously unavailable. I suspect my being a | | | | Cadillac. |
| wordless wonder had become as frustrating to her | | | | By the end of the evening people seemed to avoid |
| as listening to someone with a severe speech | | | | engaging in conversation with me dropping their eyes |
| impediment go into a lengthy discourse about the | | | | as they scooted past me to fill up their little ceramic |
| history of time. | | | | container for a hot beverage. I tried to contact |
| The culmination of the misery caused by my brain's | | | | friends on the receptacle that allows us to speak |
| inability to retrieve words became obvious during a | | | | with one another while we are in separate places, but |
| friend's historically fun birthday party. Traditionally, | | | | it seems that now nobody will talk to me! |
| twelve friends gather for the celebration to dine and | | | | |