Things I Can’t Remember to Forget to Remember

Things I can remember, but don’t know why:

• The lyrics to every song on Robert Plant’s “The Principle of Moments”, which I owned on cassette. Haven’t heard it in at least fifteen years.
• Every Elvis Costello album, in chronological order, including the band, label and major single releases.
• The names of every dog I’ve ever owned, or wished I owned.
• The films that David Lynch didn’t make, but has always had a passion for (i.e. Ronnie Rocket and One Saliva Bubble).
• The entire Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English).
• That I cried when I heard Jim Henson died, probably because the radio station announcing it immediately played “It’s Not Easy Being Green”.
• The names of the girls who rejected me in high school (possibly for revenge purposes).
• My phone number when I was eight.
• The crews of each Apollo mission.
• Every item I loaned to an ex-friend which she took with her when she moved to Arizona (possibly for revenge purposes).
• The script for Army of Darkness, in its entirety.
• Name a movie, I can tell you who was with me when I saw it.
• The story behind every CD I know.
• Each CD that is currently in my car, what is upstairs and what is properly filed away.

Things I can’t remember, but probably should:

• All of my nieces and nephews’ birthdays.
• And sometimes their names.
• My siblings’ phone numbers.
• My password.
• Exactly how old my wife is. 25? 26? 29? It depends on the day.
• What clothes I wore yesterday.
• What I ate for lunch.
• My entire freshman year of college. (Possibly for revenge purposes.)
• Whether or not I turned off the stove.
• How to tie my shoes without using the “bunny ears” technique.
• Why I ever thought parachute pants or Van Halen were cool.
• Whether or not Matilda has her enrichment program on Tuesdays or Thursdays, regardless of the fact that I’ve been picking her up there for eight weeks.
• How many cups of coffee I’ve had today.
• Whether or not I’ve read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, or just claimed I have.
• Whatever I’m supposed to remember when my wife says, “Do you know what today is?”

I’m still trying to figure out if each group is related.

Discuss