FINISHED MY RUBIK'S CUBE!!

While cleaning out the garage I came across a Rubik's Cube, all scrambled up and no doubt tossed into the garage because all of us poor saps had given up on it. I had one as a kid and even though I'm 40, solving the Rubik's Cube is still on my before-I-die to-do list.

I cheated and Googled for the instructions, and I came across the hard work someone put into video-taping a demonstration of how to solve it, complete with providing all the formulas that go along with it. For two days I studied the two-part video and played it over and over, taking notes on paper as I did. Then I perfected my own notes, adding in more descriptive detail to suit the way my own brain works. Finally I had my own set of instructions for solving the cube, perfectly tailored for me, and I tested them out several times. My kids were impressed, as was I.

While on the phone with Bruce the other day I told him my small victory. "I finally solved my Rubik's Cube!" Bruce and I are best friends and he always surreptitiously one-ups me, seemingly unintentionally but I'm not so sure. A few months ago when I purchased my new computer, a Gateway with 1 TB hard drive and 6 GB of memory and told Bruce the good news, he bragged that he had purchased one the day before that was 1.5 TB. Now he was playfully bragging that he had solved the Rubik's Cube a couple of years ago.

"Well did you solve it on your own or did you have to cheat like I did?" I asked.

"Oh I had to look up the instructions. There's no way I would have lived long enough to solve that god damn thing. I even printed up the instructions to keep on hand!" he said.

"I see you're just as big of a geek as I am. I guess I'm not the only one who does that sort of thing," I said.

"Are you kidding? he said. "I have a Rubik's Cube at each toilet so I can practice it daily. The trick is memorizing the formulas so you don't need the instructions. And I've gotten pretty good at it. I've learned how to be sneaky to look impressive, so that if I'm ever out somewhere with a Rubik's Cube and I know someone is watching me, I can turn it around pretending I'm trying to figure out what to do, then do one of the formulas and act surprised when I get the piece moved where I want it to go!" I laughed, picturing him actually doing that.

"Well you're way past me then," I said. "I still can't do it without the instructions." Bruce said I need to practice doing the formulas while watching to see how the cube moves the piece I'm working on. That's something I've tried to do but haven't succeeded at yet. Bruce said, "Yeah, sometimes I think I know what I'm doing, but then I end up turning one move the wrong way and the whole thing is messed up again!"

"Well," I said. "It was pretty awesome when I finally solved it. It was like my entire brain got drenched in endorphins at that moment. This relief I'd never felt before came over me. Thirty years of build-up, finally released!"

Bruce said, "Yeah...thirty years of Rubik's Cube foreplay finally paying off!" I laughed so hard when he said that.

"Well you know me and how I love formulas. I had no idea it was all about formulas and precise moves," I said. Bruce too said he spent many years just trying to do it one side at a time but it never worked. He said, "Well I think us folks who know how to solve it are now of higher intelligence than others!"

I agree. I don't know if it was tenacity or obsession, but the satisfaction I feel was worth it.