Yesterday morning, I arrived at the train station in Marseille and headed first to the ATM to get cash as I only had about five euros in coins in my wallet. I put in my card, entered my PIN number, selected the desired amount of cash and requested a receipt. The machine then informed me that my PIN number was incorrect. What?! How is that possible? I've had the same number for 6 years. I went through the process again and was again told that the number was incorrect. I got my card back as after three incorrect entries, the machine swallows your card and I didn't want that to happen. I wandered around stressing and ruminating about how I could have suddenly forgotten my PIN number overnight after six years of using it. I stopped for an espresso, then got on the train. I kept thinking it over on the train and came up with another number I was convinced was correct. My plan was to not try to use the card again, though, until I could get home and verify the number. However, my train was thirty minutes late arriving in Lyon and I wanted to take a taxi to the university so I wouldn't be late for my first class. But to take a cab, I needed cash. I went to one of the SNCF ticket machines to test out my card (these machines can't swallow cards) and was told that the new number I'd come up with was also incorrect. Damn. Now I was even later and I had to take the subway and the tram. I ended up arriving 15 minutes late to class. Luckily, there wasn't anything I needed to use my card for yesterday in Lyon. However, my car was parked in the garage in Marseille so I stressed all day long about how I was going to pay to get it out. Luckily, the garage attendant had a machine in his office to read American-style cards so I was able to pay with my AK Air Visa and be on my way home in time to put Maëva to bed. First thing this morning, I headed to the bank. I thought I was going to have to order another card and wait several weeks to get it . . . But I found out that all I needed was my correct PIN number. With it, I could use the card in one of my bank's ATMs and it would reinitialize the card and set everything straight. I came back home, found the PIN number in my files and headed back to the bank. Now, everything is back in order. However, I'm still greatly distressed about how it is possible to wake up one morning and not be able to remember a number that one has been using regularly for the past six years! It's been pretty much exactly six years as I got the number in February 2007. How is this possible?! Why was my brain playing tricks on me yesterday?! What did I do to deserve this?!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
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Sounds like it was (we hope) an unusual convergence of things out-of-order -- not just your brain! The cash wouldn't have mattered so much If the train hadn't been late etc. I find that when I am headed to class some part of my brain is intent on planning, reviewing, surmising, and so on. If something goes awry with the forms of recall that are usually automated (where did I put my keys? I do have keys, right? And where did I park the car?) it's almost as if there is nobody home to pay attention to the question. I stand there knowing that if I were in a normal state I could remember whatever it was, but the gears won't mesh. Sounds as if you had a bit more presence of mind, but perhaps the inner preparation to teach had been set in motion and your brain had trouble going into reverse. It's a theory, anyway. Just means you're a good teacher, and in the ideal world absolutely everything you needed or might need would have been tucked into your stuff the night before, when you were still in your right mind. :)
By the way, if you figure out how to live in that ideal world, please let me in on the secret...
So had you actually remembered your PIN correctly and it just didn't work for some reason?
I read the last few sentences to mean that the number she was trying was incorrect.
Yeah, that was my interpretation.
This isn't your obscure way of announcing you are pregnant, is it?
Did Meredith just insinuate that she was a good teacher by comparing her state of mind to the one she believes Tanya was in, then saying "Just means you're a good teacher ..."?
Tanya,
Today at work, I was trying to log onto my computer and my password wouldn't take. Eventually, it locked me out. So, I had the IT guy reset my password and it happened again (more on this in an actual post). Just means you're a tall, handsome, athletic, carnivorous engineer. : - )
The first two times I was inputting an incorrect pin number. I had transposed the two middle numbers. The third time, I had managed to convince myself of a new number that had nothing to do with anything. Now that I finally have the right number back in my mind, the gest I do to make it doesn't really seem familiar anymore . . .
Huh? What was that last part?
Oops. Gesture. Hand movement.
That makes more sense.
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