What still confuses you in your adult years, that you're usually embarassed to admit?

The biggest thing, off the top of my head, is American football. I’m usually a very fast learner but no matter how many times I’ve had the rules explained to me, I’m still just completely lost. I still keep trying, though. SOMEDAY I WILL GET IT, DAMMIT.

I can’t understand how gears on a car work. I know the engine works, but how is the power distributed through the gears then the tires?

the meaning of life!

Where socks go. I have a ball of unmatched socks the size of a basketball. I mean I have collected over 50 single dress socks! That’s a lot of missing socks! I mean my house is not that big and believe me I have looked EVERYWHERE 20 times over! Where on earth do they go??

@MacBean Pfft. I’m American and grew up with football and I still didn’t get it until a few years ago!

@Blackberry Yeah… I don’t get that one either. I don’t even know how to drive a standard.

@misstrikcy Wouldn’t we all like to know that? :)

@Cruiser That, my friend, is easily explained. Hasn’t anyone told you about the Invisible Sock Monster that lurks in your dryer?

How to set the table and where all the spoons and forks and knives go?

Why does a week of vacation in your favorite spot go so fast, and a week of work go so slow?

@WillWorkForChocolate Yes and they sold me a years supply of really expensive Sock Monster Repellent Dryer Sheets that I don’t think are working! XD

Taxes.

@Cruiser Yeah, mine haven’t worked either. And that damn monster appears to prefer my socks over the rest of my family’s.

How to multiply or divide fractions, or add and subtract mixed fractions. I always have to convert fractions into decimals in order to do the math. This is after having taken two courses (undergrad and grad) in teaching elementary school math. Good thing I’m not teaching math to kids!!

@prolificus Oh see, I have more trouble with decimals than I do with fractions. I can only do decimal math if I use a calculator!

Maps.

Maps confuse me, I do much better with written directions than trying to make sense of all the lines and squiggles and connections on a map.

My sense of direction is askew and if it weren’t for the sunrise and sunset I’d never know East from West. lol

While not embarassed, it is frusterating at times, I get lost easily. lol

I was blown away last year by an old friend that I was traveling in asia with, I couldn’t believe how well she navigated the complexities of a strange country and metro system that left me stupefied. If not for her I’d never have made it anywhere. lol

@Coloma I have the same problem; I call myself “Directionally Challenged”. My hubby constantly pokes fun at my confusion.

Money

How do they get polyester and cotton to grow together so seamlessly?? ;)

I’m also challenged when it comes to maps. I should work on that sometime

@WillWorkForChocolate
@stardust

Are you guy’s blondes too? lol

I get razzed so much for being a directionless blonde…piss on you! I may not be very geographically savvy but always make for an interesting trip! haha

Nope, brunette here, I just have NO sense of direction!

How those big metal shiny birds fly! I mean that is truly amazing…..to this tiny mind anyhoo :¬)

Politics.

I know my way around a map. For a hefty fee, I’ll gladly tutor those of you who are Directionally Challenged. (A very hefty fee). ~

People

Spelling.

Where all the pens and pencils in the house vanish to!
I must have purchased thousands and thousands of the things over the years. OK some get used up, but what has happened to the other ones?!?!?

um, my vagina, for the most part.

@deni I still have trouble figuring out my dick, so we’re in the same boat.

@Adirondackwannabe cha ching! its good to have company!

editted by me.

women

How anyone could dislike cheese. I am being serious, I really don’t get it.

@jenandcolin

Here, here! CHEESE is food of the Gods!

I have at least 7 or 8 different cheeses in my fridge at all times! lol

Dressing. I still manage to jakk it up for myself wihout my daughter to fix me. It was not two weeks ago that I realized I was wearing a sweater inside out AND backwards. No wonder they were looking at me like that!

Brunette over here. I’m happy to wander so I tend not to worry when I lose my way.

@Trillian

Haha, I do that all the time!
Notice my clothes are on inside out, mid-life dementia sets in maybe? lol

Cooking. No matter what, I always manage to fuck it up somehow.

Civilisation

Willful ignorance and how to write a book.

Puzzles where you think the answer should be 1 out of 2 but it’s actually 1 out of 3 for some furshtunkenah reason that everyone else understands.

Okay, this is really stupid, and hard to explain. But I get confused about addition/subtraction and counting sometimes. So, take, for instance, 7 calendar days, starting with today. December 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Seven days, right?

Then why does 14 – 8 = 6?!

This has been explained to me before, and I guess it makes sense, but I still often find myself secretly counting things just to make sure it’s actually exactly the right number.

I still can’t figure out how all the missionaries and cannibals get to the other side of the river even though it’s been explained to me numerous times.

@JilltheTooth I thought the missionaries and the cannibals were on one side of the river and the fox and the geese were on the other – but I could be wrong.

There was probably a scorpion, too….

I cannot tie my shoes in a “normal” way. Not even with the little poem. I even have to double knot them to stay tied. My husband taught my son and my mother taught my daugher. My family has banned me from teaching children from tying shoes.

Why people do things that are against their own best interest (including myself not getting enough exercise).

Lake effect snow. What does that mean? I know I should have looked it up by now.

@AmWiser

Interesting, yeah..hmmm, I wonder if it means a lake can generate it’s own snow cloud?

Yep, that’s what it means. When a cold air mass moves over a warmer body of water and causes the creation of clouds that produce snow.

@Coloma Thanks. I think that term just came into existance about 5–10 years ago (if that long).

Foreign Languages
Algebra
Economics

@AmWiser & @Coloma thats actually gotta be pretty cool to see. Just snowin over a lake.

@AmWiser We’re on the East side of the Great Lakes. Lake Affect snow has been around forever.

@Adirondackwannabe It just seems like I never heard the term lake effect snow from forecasters until about 5–10 years ago.
And like @uberbatman Sometime I wish it were just snowin over a lake instead of the 6–8 inches we’ll get. Just sometimes:D

@AmWiser We’ve always dealt with it. Before, I think the lakes were cooler, so they would ice over earlier. When the lakes are not iced over, all that warmth goes into the air moving over them, and as soon as the air hits the land, it cools and the stuff comes down as snow. I think it was Randolf (sp?) NY that got 4 feet of it with this last go.

@Adirondackwannabe Before, I think the lakes were cooler, so they would ice over earlier. I get it now. I really do appreciate the lesson on how weather works. Ummm! Is this part of what they call Global Warming?

How people manage to use their fingers to whistle.

@mattbrowne : I’ve been able to do that since I was 7 and I still do know how it works. I did, however, enjoy how nuts it made my mother when I was learning.

@JilltheTooth – I guess I was about the same age ;-)