Geography. It’s probably my weakest subject. Next to Spelling. And Foreign Languages.

But hey, at least I can make homemade cheese.

Oh, have you never heard me say that before? That’s the fall back phrase I always use when I feel inadequate about something. The scenario goes something like this:

We are in a group of people who are talking about subjects that go way over my head – like baseball statistics, politics, auto parts, building structures, capital gains, and the like. I try to smile and nod occasionally to at least look as though I am following along in the conversation. All the while, I am thinking in my head, “wow I feel like a complete dodo brain”. But I tell myself (while continuing to nod and smile politely) that it’s okay that I don’t know any of this stuff because God, in His great wisdom, made us all different to fulfill His purposes. And then I remind myself that while I have no idea what an acid dissociation constant is, at least I do know how to make cheese. And I bet that those who are talking about the above subjects probably don’t know how to make cheese, so there. And then I feel better about myself.

Welcome to the inside of my brain.

I feel as though I should quickly let you know that while I do know how to make cheese, I haven’t actually taken the time to make it in over three years. But if I needed to I could, especially if someone were to ask me about quadratic equations and I needed to make myself feel smarter.

So what was the point of this post? Oh yes. I was telling you that I’m not good at Geography.

Now, the irony is that I actually got A’s in Geography in high school and college. As a matter of fact, in my college World Geography class, for our final exam, we had to (brace yourself) label every single country in every single continent on the planet earth and name each country’s capital. It was the Geography test of all tests. We were handed a big, blank world map and a pencil and away we went. I had studied my tail off for that test and ended up getting 100%, thank you very much.

You would think that after taking that class I would be good at Geography. But no. I’m just good at studying for tests…and forgetting information promptly after taking a test. It’s rather pitiful.

So to prove my complete Geographical cluelessness, you may find it funny to know that when I was talking to my friend Jodi about how we should get together some day – I almost suggested that on our upcoming trip to California, perhaps we could take a route that would lead us through to her place…in Ohio. Thankfully, before I threw out the idea, I decided that I had better look at a map. Sure enough, Ohio is exactly four states to the east of Nebraska. Which – in case you’re as bad at Geography as I am – is not the direction you take when you go from Nebraska to California. Okeedokee then.

It’s a good thing I didn’t actually make this suggestion to Jodi. She’s super sweet and would have surely come up with something kind to say when she explained to me that we’d be going about two days out of our way to come for a visit “on our way” to California. And then I would have had to say,

“Yes, but did you know that I can make cheese?”