Today I am only thinking about science. All day long. Like right now, I'm reading a book about Aeolian processes. It's talking about saltation. Saltation is when particles are only somewhat picked up by the fluid medium (usually air or water), so they tend to bounce along the ground as they go.

Saltation.

There used to be these little nuts that would fall on the roof of our dorm from the nearby trees. They would always fall all over the place in one of the little random vestibules between the higher roofs. We always talked about having a rooftop salsa party in one of those vestibules. There were even speakers in the walls, as if this place was made for that purpose. Wasps lived in the speakers now, we had discovered. Auggie and other members of zeta chi sigma used to go up there now and then and throw the nuts at the walls of the room. Their strange, knobby, hollow, wooden sound would echo off the walls as they saltated briefly --cloc-cloc-cloc-- before falling silent again. Or was it more of a cascading "pong-pong-pong"? Anyway, that is the sound I always think of when I think of the word "saltated".

This time it was night. I don't remember much about what kind of night it was. It was a little chilly, perhaps- but in Southern California in early May the weather can never be a cause for concern.
I think talk of these nuts had been a part of the conversation that had gotten us up there that night. I know for sure that my insistence that a nearby tree provided as good a route to the roof as any staircase had something to do with it. Some measure of sparkling mischief in his eyes played an important part, perhaps.

We had been wandering around for some time up there and now we were both still- looking out over the campus, which was glowing with festivities in the darkness.

He came up from behind and wrapped his arms around me. His arms... around me!

Me!

I slowly turned around to look up at him then.

Whenever I remember this part of the story, I feel an odd vibrato that speeds through my heart in trembling crescendo. Strange, I think, that something intangible like a memory could provoke such a strong physical reaction years later. I wonder if they hooked up a bunch of sensors to my body and brain... perhaps inserted electrodes, put me in an MRI, placed chemical tracers in my blood... if they could tell me exactly what pathway that memory takes from my mind to my heart. Why not my stomach, like the feeling I get falling from the Tower of Doom? Why my heart?

"How is that an evolutionary advantage?" I wonder.

After all, I'm thinking about science today. Only science, all day today.

OOO OOO! I remember saltation! I only remember because "saltar" is Spanish for "to jump." Hahaha.

anti-chamber? what is that? is it anything like an antechamber? or cooler?
» Someones_Muse on 2007-07-16 10:24:16

haha. I don't think "anti-chamber" is a word. I have replaced it with one that more accurately describes what I mean.
» Zanzibar on 2007-07-16 10:36:31

♥
TAHAHAHHAHAHA, SALTAR TO HUMP, HAHAHAHA.
» ShaShaBoo on 2007-07-16 11:12:01

♥
Oh damn, typos suck pigs.

*saltar to jump, HAHAHA.
» ShaShaBoo on 2007-07-16 11:12:21

Quit trying to make me jealous.
» Dilated on 2007-07-17 12:04:53

Life was so much simpler before we had to LEARN anything.
» randomjunk on 2007-07-17 12:45:01

C'mon, Zanzi. You nkow those other women, and that one guy, don't mean nothing to me.

» Dilated on 2007-07-17 10:39:05

It goes to your heart because the chemicals produced and released by your endocrine system that recreate the feeling behind the memory need to circulate throughout the body so that they can bind other appropriate receptors at other sites of the body.

Kinda like when you're frightened and you need to get the epinephrine moving about to your muscles and whatever organs need it to activate the fight-or-flight response.
» ranor on 2007-07-17 11:15:21

I think science all the time, now, too. Don't engage me in conversation over dinner unless you want to hear about the nature of Splenda or some other esoteric crap like that.
» ranor on 2007-07-17 11:16:20

Indeed it would, which is why our ability to remember things is quite the evolutionary advantage.

Actually, this seems to be heading more in the direction of Linh's field of expertise.
» ranor on 2007-07-17 01:44:15

Aww!!!!1!! Love is in de air, lifting your spir-its, to a place dey 'ave wonce flown, to sup' wit de Gods and Goddess of Love, if only for a fleeting moment. So, beautiful. Hrm... Maybe evolution just likes to be happy! I guess that isn't particulary scientific either...
» jinyu on 2007-07-17 09:08:35

Name.

URL.

[to enter your email, use "mailto:[email protected]"]
Subject.

Comment.

Word verification.

Copy the first 4 characters only.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.