I'd Forget My Head If It Wasn't....
My forgetful moments used to be related to stress. Now they seem to be related to breathing. Lately I’ve been forgetting things. I have an excuse—I have too much to do. By choice. If I can do three things comfortably, I try to do five. And so, while trying to keep all the balls in the air, I forget some, and unless they are magic hovering balls, or my husband is there to send them back up into the air, some balls hit the ground. The trick is to know which ones to let drop—dry cleaning, taxes…in other words, things other people can do. Yes, late in life I have discovered delegation. But I still have too much to do, and even with my husband’s help keeping the balls aloft, I forget things.
My husband and I bought our daughter a laptop as a college graduation gift. We ordered it this December, even though she graduated last May and is now doing post graduate work in engineering. This was not a matter of forgetfulness, but rather a matter of building the right computer at the right time. It was due to arrive at our house the day after she left to visit her brother in Reno on her way back to California. We planned to make a special trip to Reno to drop the computer off, and then go shopping. It was all going to work out perfectly.
Of course we left the computer at home. Two and a half hours into our three hour drive, my husband started beating his head on the steering wheel—figuratively, since we were on the freeway—and mentioned that perhaps we should have put the computer in the car before we’d left. I called my daughter and confessed. She said she’d expected us to forget the computer and it was okay.
Yesterday, I prepared the box for registered mail, the agreed upon method to send the computer to now computerless daughter. (She left her old laptap with her brother, whose computer had just crashed.) For those of you who have never used registered mail, you have to seal all openings with brown paper tape. It has to be paper, not plastic. I took my time, did a beautiful job. Then I went to the post office before school started and waited in line with my beautiful box. After two lengthy transactions, it’s my turn. I lift my box, look down at the top...no address. And I don’t know the address.
Back to the car, back to class. The computer is now sitting in my living room, with an address on top.
I wonder if I’ll remember to put it in the car when it's time to go to work?
Poor Jeannie and the DD!!
Poor Jeannie and the DD!! The up side is your little girl is a loving and forgiving child!
I'm not particularly forgetful...yet...but my day is coming. Yesterday, I locked my keys in my car...and DH was supposed to come by school and unlock my car...but he forgot to come by, so he had to make another trip to complete the task...and on and on...
My biggest blunder is that in splitting my day between two schools...I'm notorious for leaving something I need at the other school...
The computer will arrive, and the DD will rejoice! And
you'll remember it ALL!
Have a great day!
Did the Post Office ask you to post that???
We applied for my son's passport, yesterday. My husband forgot to bring the paperwork with him. DH called to tell me to pick up the paperwork from home. He told me where to find the paperwork. He also thought we might need our passports, just in case. We got to the post office, waited on line, and showed our driver's licenses and our son to the woman behind the counter. We both cringed when she asked for the birth certificate. The thing that was on top of the passports that I had grabbed earlier.
Yes, I completely understand your blog. Maybe it isn't us, maybe it is the post office that makes people forget things? Governmental mind control?
How I know what day it is...
Yes, it's that bad sometimes. I don't know what day I'm in, especially since the writer's strike, since I used to know when all my shows were on. *G*
Now, I ask Mike, or if he leaves for work, I know it's a weekday. Free Will Horoscopes come out on Wednesdays, we get paid two days a month, and Saturdays we spend with my father, generally, and otherwise I just sort of wing it. More often than not I have to stop and think about it. So, you are not alone...
Sam
Laughing
You ladies all had me laughing and feeling better about my memory lapses. And, by the by, I did get the computer to the Post Office and sent of this morning. And come to think of it, I did feel kind of "controlled" while I was there......
It only gets worse as you
It only gets worse as you age, Jeannie. I blame it on having so much info in my brain only so much more can be digested---hence some things fall through the cracks.
Oh Estella...are you saying
Oh Estella...are you saying the brain cracks widen? Hokey smokes--this could get scary! I can just imagine what might fall through in the future....
Jeannie
Hi Jeannie
Your post had me laughing, as this sounds so much like something I would do! And it's not quite as bad as the time I was at a lake with my sister and (collectively) our five little girls; we'd reached the car before we realized we'd left one of them back on the beach! She was just two, and still happily digging in the sand when we sprinted back to get her, but it was pretty horrifying. I won't tell you if it was my little girl or hers...
Oh my gosh! Karen, you win!
Oh my gosh! Karen, you win! Thank goodness for oblivious two year olds, lol.
Jeannie
I win! I win!!
I've not logged on here for awhile but I've got to share this story.
It was our first vacation in several years. We were going to fly to California to visit relatives, see friends, show off The Child (then 9 months old).
I was always late for work. I mean, ALWAYS. Not by much. A few minutes only. Rarely more than five, never more than ten.
I have to leave early that day as we're flying out in early evening so I'm determined to be to work on time that day.
I leave the house 15 minutes early. I drop off Elder Son at day camp. I'm driving to work and think "I shouldn't have taken this road! I should have gone the other way instead."
But no matter, I'm making good time. In fact, as I get into the left lane to turn up the hill towards work, I see that not only will I be to work on time BUT I will be early. 30 minutes early!! Woo hoo for me. I did it. There's nothing to it.
Just as I turn into the parking lot at work, I hear it. A little cough from the back seat. I glance in the rear view mirror and there he sits, The Child.
Yes, I'd forgotten to drop him off at child care. The road I was wondering why I was on it? That's the road that led to his child care.
I hang a quick U-turn and head back down the road and drop him off.
And arrive at work 45 minutes late.
(sigh)
ani
Lol, Ani, you do win! I can
Lol, Ani, you do win! I can just imagine what you felt when you heard that little cough. So glad I'm not the only one going a thousand miles an hour. Do you think kids make us feeble minded? Is that the connection?
:) Jeannie
ani!
I'm just thrilled to see you're back...
Okay, I've got one... but it could just be stupid. I probably shouldn't share this, but hey...
I wanted to make sure Mike would be home tonight in time for dinner since I was making something new... so I called him on my cell. Many times, he calls me on the home phone, and I laughed because as I called him, the phone rang, and I picked it up, and it hung up, and I figured he and I were playing phone tag, each hanging up as the other one called...
You see where this is going right?
It took three times before I realized I was calling myself on the home number, not his cell number...
Aiy.
Sam
Milk
Hello Cigar Gals -
Been loving your posts for a few weeks now, and I love this topic Jeannie! Although last week's junior high commentary had me snorting.
I'm with you on the Post Office conspiracy. I've always thought the lady who helps me looks a little.....zombie-ish.
Anyway, kids are all accounted for but once I was loading the minivan at our local Wal-Mart. The kids were smaller, and as I recall it was rather cold, so I was rushing everyone in, snapping car seats, throwing my purse in the front seat and getting the car started so the heater could de-thaw us. When I got home I realized I'd driven the whole way with a jug of milk on top of the minivan. No idea how it stayed up there - best milk I ever drank!
-Tasha
Tasha--too funny! Between
Tasha--too funny! Between kids and post offices, it's a wonder any of us are sane.
Jeannie
If my mother forgets any
If my mother forgets any little thing her first comment is, oh dear am I getting Alzheimers. She is 85 and has a better memory than me or my sister. I've been saying for years that I blame my poor memory on all my dead brain cells. How many of you guys have had a ohno second - when you press send and realize at the same time when it's too late that you were sending it to the wrong person.
Ohno moment
Oh, like say the time I wrote my husband a long email commiserating him on his job woes and sent it to his boss? Yes, I'm familiar, lol.
Your mother sounds amazing. :)
OHNO! Moments
Or the time I sent this raunchy joke to a couple of coworkers and as I hit the "send" button, realized I'd also sent it to the head of our legal department?? Oiy.
ROTFL--you've topped me
ROTFL--you've topped me Karen. That's awful.
That's what my mom always told me!
About leaving my head... seriously, I think I have that sort of thing down to an art (obviously there's no science to it!) My days are full of such mishaps and misplaced things and all sorts of re-dos that I think might be vaguely amusing if my life got an aerial map like those Family Circus cartoons, or maybe it would just be extremely sad... :)
Just go put the computer in the car now, Jeannie! (Of course, I'd do that, and forget and swap cars with DH or something like that!)
Of course...
(Of course, I'd do that, and forget and swap cars with DH or something like that!)
Fedora--that is exactly what I would do, too. And it was so cold, I was worried about the battery--but I imagine the battery is going to get cold in the back of a mail truck, too. Anyway, I'm happy to say that the computer is now in transit!