I can listen to orchestral music (or other music without any singing in it) while doing data entry or something else relatively mindless, but if I have to proofread or concentrate on my work, I have to turn off the music.

Of course, my friends and family have long since discovered that if they talk to me while I'm reading a book, I can't listen with any of my ears.

So very much this. Coming out from a book's spell is like coming up from under water for me--I am aware that people are talking, but it's a hollow blur of noise with no meaning until I stop reading.

Shoot, I forgot to say--Happy Birthday, juliana!!!

I can concentrate in what I'm doing and filter out all the conversations and images around me, if I have to. But if somebody says my name, even in a whisper, I'll immediately hear it and respond.

Nilly's brain is so fascinating.

I can concentrate in what I'm doing and filter out all the conversations and images around me, if I have to. But if somebody says my name, even in a whisper, I'll immediately hear it and respond.

I do that. I also usually wake up or snap to alertness immediately upon utterance of the word "Daddy".

Not to mention the supernaturally swift waking up that occurs when I hear a cat start to barf....

Speaking of barfing cats not at all, I signed up for unemployment today. MA has entered the 21st Century and now you just have to answer a questionnaire over the phone, and then call in every Sunday (for my letter of the alphabet, at least).

I can't listen to two things at once. I need to turn off the radio or TV when I pick up the phone. I'm also not all that great at processing stuff that I hear -- I need to see something written out if I'm going to understand it. There's a museum in Ireland (Cork, I think -- it's an old prison that they've made into a museum of how horrible the prisons were) where there are no signs, just an audio tour on headphones. I got nothing out of that. Just spent the entire visit totally frustrated with not being able to learn anything.

Back to the bacon vodka for a minute, my band is playing at a bar in Las Vegas in August that evidently makes a bacontini.

Also, I would love a BLT for lunch (but will have the lunch that I brought in my Totoro bento box featuring quinoa salad and succotash made w/ edamame and cherries from the market).

Happy birthday, juliana!

I think almost everything I do is done faster/better if I have music on. I do like to listen to music that I'm very familiar with. A) It gives me a tempo to work to. B) It blocks out other noises. C) My brain focuses on the music and my inner chatter/distractions are cut way down.

I'm this way, too. I think having some familiar noise on distracts the overy-thinky part of my brain and lets the rest of me get on with what we're doing. This may also be why I like having sex with Bugs Bunny or Star Trek on the tv. (What?)

Listening to two people at once is completely beyond me. Cannot do it. Listening to one person at once is sometimes beyond me. It drives my DH crazy, we'll be in the middle of a conversation and I'll suddenly realize that I'm not understanding the words coming out of his mouth, so I'll ask him what he just said and he'll start explaining the concepts and I have to tell him "No, what words did you just say? Say them again but slower?"

I have this problem all the time! I hear "blablablah Friday" and I say "What?" and they say, loudly "FRIDAY!". Oh, that clears it up. Thanks. I taken to just responding to what I think people said, and I know by their expressions if I got it right. Always amusing. Except for the guy I thought said, "Prozac chainsaw!" Still don't know what he really said.

Fat Chihuahua

Lola is five years old and weighs 16.2 pounds. Most Chihuahuas hover between four and six pounds. “I get yelled at on the street,” says her owner, Pamela Arconti, an executive assistant on Wall Street. “She looked good at thirteen pounds. Her clothes fit. After that, I had to get Velcro extensions for her harness. Then the ridicule started.” Lola started developing a weight problem at six months, about the time Arconti began giving in to her constant begging, to the point where Lola consumes a bowl of dry food, a 3.5-ounce can of dog food, two Newman’s Own organic dog treats, a 4-ounce cup of sliced peaches, and assorted scraps of people food per day. “She likes peaches, and so do I,” says Arconti. “We have the same trigger foods.”

I can't listen to two things at once. I need to turn off the radio or TV when I pick up the phone. I'm also not all that great at processing stuff that I hear -- I need to see something written out if I'm going to understand it.

Me too! This is the reason I always have pen and paper with me. I actually got my hearing tested after my brother and my mother complained so much about me mishearing them (and guessing what they were saying). No problems with the ears, just the brain processing.

eta belated thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! I had a great weekend.