Today I learned what’s in étouffée.  I recall eating and liking étouffée at one point.  It would make sense that I like étouffée, mainly because it has a French-sounding name and I love everything French.  Yes, yes, I know it’s Cajun or Creole, but why let that stop my culinary misrememberances.  Or would that be mismemories?  Is either a word?  Apparently not, SpellCheck tells me.  But even though I thought I enjoyed it, I learned that what is in étouffée is shellfish, and I don’t like shellfish in the least.  Hence, no, I would never have chosen to eat, let alone enjoy, it.

My point is that this happens to me quite often.  I remember things that didn’t actually happen or aren’t quite true.  With a certitude akin to the usual sun-rising-in-the-east sort of thing.

Upon returning home from a few days away, I was convinced that the local gas station erected a brand new overhang above the gas pumps.  The likelihood that a project of that scope and complexity could be completed during a weekend jaunt is pretty low, I admit.  A veritable wonder of engineering efficiency.  But, I honestly remember being so relieved that I would now no longer be rained on when I filled my tank, as I was “last time”.  Only there was no last time.  That never happened.  Because the roof had always been there.  And my track record for remembering actual facts and events isn’t much better.

Now you may say that I have a terrible memory, and many I know would probably agree.  Can’t remember names, mind you, but more than a few acquaintances would admit the same affliction.  It’s probably my feeble mind, rendered less effective by all the important stuff I have to keep track of these days.  (Game of Thrones has about four thousand important characters and three hundred thirty seven story lines.)  But every once in a while there’s a small part of me that thinks, maybe I’m right, but just moving between parallel universes.  Some sort of glitch in the Matrix where étouffée is made of chocolate, porticos are built in a day and I’m happy and observant, wiling away the hours keeping up with Game of Thrones!