lab rat (this explains a lot)

so i know IQ tests are archaic and hardly an index of actual intelligence, but for one reason or another, i've probably taken more than my fair share of them. so here's a rare glimpse into my bizarre childhood... (keep in mind, i'm telling this as i remember it, so how closely it resembles reality, i really couldn't tell you.)

when i was in second grade, there was this woman at my school, who was trying to start a program for kids with learning disabilities, and i think she was working on her master's at the time and had to do this as a project, i'm not really sure. but anyway, she had to administer all these tests, and i got to be one of her guinea pigs. (i think my mother had something to do with that. hmmmm.) so i had to go--during recess no less, can you imagine?!?!--and sit through all these questions.
ok, so really it wasn't that bad. i don't remember how long it all lasted; it was over the course of a few weeks, i think--but it definitely wasn't just a one-time thing.

there are only two things i really vividly remember: i remember a series of "glove is to hand as hat is to ____" questions, which confused the hell out of me. (hey, i never said i was a smart kid!!) and i remember doing lots of logic sequences--you know, where you get a series of numbers or images, and you have to find the pattern and figure out the missing number or appropriate image: 64, x, 4, 1, 1/4, 1/16, what's the missing number?

all this to say, i was trained from a very young age to find patterns and fill in the blanks. and i'm relatively good at it. damn good, actually. not that i'm bragging... =) and not that it's even all that useful!! actually, it probably does more harm than good, because i no longer know how to think like a "normal" person, and i tend to leave all kinds of gaps when i talk to people, because i've already derived some abstract pattern and filled in all the blanks for myself and don't realize that i'm not making sense to the people who DIDN'T miss out on their playground time in second grade!!