numb and number

a little-known fact about me is that i am really good at remembering numbers. well, reasonably good. better at remembering numbers than facts or dates. a lot of people hate the idea of being assigned a number, at, like, university or for a social insurance number or something. they think it contributes to making the whole system impersonal. not me. i like my numbers. i like going through them in my head. my social insurance number, my driver's licence number, my passport number, my old king's university student number, my new u of a number, my debit cards' numbers... i like them all. i have old phone numbers of former friends kicking around in my head, and i like to pull them out and roll them around for a bit. i have our old innisfree phone number still milling around up there. i even have numbers that i can't remember what they refer to (to what they refer?).

once, a few summers ago, i lost my debit card, and i was really upset because it meant i had to be assigned (and therefore learn) a new number. i don't think people understood how losing a number could bother someone like it did me.

i think i can remember numbers because it is easy to assign your own rhythm to them. like, i can remember poetry (because of its rhythm), but am terrible at remembering speech quotes or prose lines.

perhaps surprisingly, i've never taken up trying to learn the digits of pi. maybe i should look into that....