I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before--but I'm going to again. I once had a friend visit and I took him to a place near my home that is known for its rocky cliffs and formations. I think it's fun to visit because you can climb around on the rocks and jump from place to place and it's novel. However, on that particular day it was windy and stormy, but we decided to go drive there, at least. In the end, we all got out in the nasty wind, to climb the rocks. As we approached one formation, my friend said, "These are amazing! I wonder how they were made." I began to tell him the geological history of the place, but he stopped me, saying, "I don't really want to know. I just want to think about it."

I realized when he said those words that I also have a number of things I like to think about, but I really don't want to know the answers. I'm guessing most people have those if they're completely honest. I'm writing some of my please-don't-tell-me-the-answer ponderings today.

1. Spacing out--I wonder why it happens, sometimes even when we're interested in what's we're doing or the current conversation. I wonder about the nerve synapses that take place when we suddenly fixate visually on something or nothing and have difficulty tearing ourselves away. I wonder if everyone feels the same things when it happens or if people experience it differently.

2. Deja vu--it happens to me often. I remember it happening when I was a child. For a long time it made me very uncomfortable. Now I just try not to think about it. If I get the sensation that I've done something or been somewhere or met someone before, I've decided to just believe that I have--even if I know I haven't. It makes life easier, and speculation about why it happens just frustrates me.

3. Why people like to touch things like soft hair or animal fur--I can't figure this one out, and it's not because I don't like to touch those things. I do. But sometimes I think about how cat hair is covered with saliva, and no one knows where that dog has been, and human hair has sebum and hair product and various other things--yet I still want to touch them. It makes no sense.

4. Why I feel compelled to fold laundry a certain way--and it's not because my mother taught me and I just do what I was taught. There is a specific shape or flatness that happens before I can consider any piece of laundry folded. It drives my children and Darrin crazy because I've been known to re-fold things that don't seem quite right.

5. Watermelon--I like the taste but hate the texture. The color bothers me, as well. In the summertime I cut the fruit into cubes and freeze it, then add it to smoothies. Darrin says it still has the same texture because it doesn't completely blend. I only know it's more palatable after it's been frozen.

I suppose I also have to admit that I'm as guilty as my friend when it comes to thinking about those rocks and their origins, and imagining many different scenarios. I've been know to drive there in the summer so I can sit on a sun-warmed rock and read a book, but mostly I'm not reading. I'm daydreaming. So even when I know the answers, I think I still like to wonder a little bit.