Things that "hit" you at odd moments.

[jpcher]

B/G: I was helping a CW troubleshoot a problem that she was having with one of her projects using a program that neither one of us use very often. The project has a map of the US and the states spelled out in a list along side the map. When you mouse over the a state name on the list, the state on the map changes color. It wasn't working, well the state would change color, but Louisiana popped up over Indiana. We were baffled. Other priorities came up so we put the project away for a bit. endBG.

That was three days ago and to be honest I hadn't thought of that project since. It was completely out of my head, other things to worry about.


This morning, I'm relaxing in bed, reading my book. There was mention of something happening in Colorado. As soon as I read the word Colorado, a light bulb went on. I got all giddy thinking "I know what the problem is!"

Then I thought that it was really odd that the solution just hit me at the mere mention of Colorado . . . when I was relaxing . . . when work was the farthest thing from my mind!



What about you? Have you ever had anything "hit" you at odd moments?

Please share your stories.

[mmswm]

The one story of mine that immediately came to mind isn't PG rated. The short version is that the solution to a proof I was working on in one of my grad classes came to me during a game of scrabble.

[DollyPond]

Many times my "moment of inspiration" has occurred when I was in the shower.

I guess just having a little time when your brain is not occupied with something else is what you need.

[Outdoor Girl]

I wake up a fair amount in the middle of the night.  I usually just roll over and go back to sleep.  But sometimes, some issue I've been struggling with suddenly becomes clear and I know what I have to do.

[Amara]

It happens in the shower for me too. I keep a tablet and pencil by the bed for nighttime "solutions" but I am thinking that a waterproof one in the shower would be a good thing too.

[m2kbug]

I have had moments where I recognize a person but can't place how I know them or where I saw them (whether it's an actor on TV or a live person).  Maybe I wake up in the middle of the or maybe I'm cooking dinner or something when it pops into my head who that person is or where I had seen them before.

[CrochetFanatic]

Once I went to the store without a shopping list, and this one item was eluding me.  All I knew was that it began with the letter "P".  I finally gave up, and paid for my stuff.  About two days later, I was looking for a snack and settled on microwave popcorn.  The "pop" part of the word brought an "Aha-moment" along with a forehead slap.  The item I couldn't remember was Poptarts.

[QueenofAllThings]

You forgot pop tarts?! Who forgets pop tarts? 

[CrochetFanatic]

Someone who forgot her morning coffee. 

[Cami]

It's a fact that sometimes our own focus prevents us from finding a solution and that when we occupy our minds with other unrelated topics or relax, that we will find that solution without apparent mental work.

One "trick" I taught my math students was to work on math before they went to bed. They all scoffed, but the vast majority of them found that when they woke up in the morning, their brains had solved the problem in their sleep.

[afbluebelle]

I tend to hang out with a slightly older crowd than most of the people in my shop of the same age/rank. I always forget how much younger I am until someone asks me to help tutor their kid in their high school/college courses.  Holy Carp, these kids look my age... oh wait, they are closer to my age than their parents. Duh 

[Luci45]

My mother talked about how solutions to problems would come to her in the middle of the night, then it started with me when I got into trigonometry.

Often now when we are trying to remember a name or place, we'll suddenly come up with it days later. All of a sudden one of us will blurt it out and we laugh like crazy because it had kind of been simmering in the backs of our minds for hours or days.

One time a friend and I were trying to remember something; I got it two days later and called. All I said was the word, he said, "That's it!" Then we both hung up.

The internet has kind of spoiled the fun because often I have enough general information to do a quick search to find the answer.

[Bijou]

Maybe a little different but also kind of the same:
Someone and I will be having a conversation, trying to think of something that neither of us can remember, like what month and year we went skiing in the alps.  We never resolve it and the conversation ends.  Then a couple of hours or days later I think of what we were trying to remember and just say it out of the blue, ("November 1977."), totally out of context to the present moment, and the other person just says "Oh, that's right" as thought the prior conversation had never ended. 
BTW, I've never been out of the country let alone skiing in the alps.  I've never even been skiing.  And have only seen snow about 3 times.   

[guihong]

Not me, but with a coworker.

I used to work in a very small office (about five of us + supervisors).  One day, we were trying to remember the name of an entertainer/singer and it just wouldn't come.  It was "on the tip of our tongue", so to speak.  That was, say, a Monday.

The topic was dropped, and we get to Thursday.  CW was coming into the workroom when she suddenly threw up her arms and shouted, "Wayne Newton!"  We'd all forgotten trying to remember the name, but laughed like loons. 

This was way before Internet, else we would have Googled it right away.

[Luci45]

We sent an invitation to a young lady who grew up with our kids during the time when citizens band radios were the big thing in cars, and our families used a few more of the 10 codes than most people did. The most common one was of course 10-4 for "message received".

She responded to our invitation to our 2013 New Year's Eve party, and I wrote "10-4" in response to her. After 42 years, I realized that is her birthday, Oct. 4.