If it's not tied to me
I can forget it. When I tell many people, including some who have known me for years, how absentminded I am, they often poooh-pooh the idea. Because I don't tend to forget much in business and other meetings, they assume I must be exaggerating.
I'm not. If something isn't attached to me, or if someone speaks to me while I'm going through one of my many reminder rituals, I can forget it.
Case in point: lunch today. I had to take Sarah to her violin lesson and hang out there for about an hour. No problem; I have reading I want to do, and I needed to call my mom. Last night, to make sure I wouldn't forget the book I'm reading, I put a pair of glasses in the book cover (I safeguard each book I'm reading in a black leather book cover), then put the book on my dresser. At the last minute, though, I realized I could still forget the book because it wouldn't be directly in front of me on the dresser in the morning when I was grabbing my stuff (keys, wallet, handkerchief, knife, etc.). So, I put my keys on top of the book.
This morning, I was running right on the edge of late, as usual. After my shower, I dressed quickly, started grabbing stuff from the dresser, noticed the keys on the book, took both of them, and left. I drove to the lesson, made my call and read, and then took Sarah to lunch at a place near our house. We ordered, the guy told us the total, and I reached for my wallet--which I'd left on my dresser.
You see, each day after I put my keys in my pocket I reach one more time to the dresser, for my wallet and comb. I'd reached one more time today, but I'd grabbed the book. The ritual part of my brain knew I'd reached enough times, so it let me leave.
I apologized to the guy who'd taken our order, apologized to Sarah, and drove us home. All ended well--we returned to the restaurant, repeated our orders, and enjoyed our meal--but it was a classic case of my forgetfulness.
If you're ever around me while I'm packing or getting ready to go somewhere, and I ask you not to talk to me, please remember this incident. I'm not trying to be mean; I just don't want to forget anything. I really am that absentminded.
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2 comments:
i feel your pain! my purse, which is relatively small, lives in a drawer in the kitchen; my keys live in the drawer above it. when i travel, my purse goes into a larger shoulder bag along with water, shoes, toiletries, etc.
my travel ritual, on the way out the house, is to set my shoulder bag down in the kitchen, pull the keys out of the top drawer, pull my purse out of the bottom drawer, put my purse into my shoulder bag, and head out.
a couple weeks ago, i was heading up to DC, and my sister - being helpful - picked up my shoulder bag when i came downstairs and took it out to my car for me. hence, i had no shoulder bag when i entered the kitchen. hence, i grabbed my keys - but not my purse - and left for the airport.
fortunately, when i realized - about 10 minutes down the road - what i had done, $sister was willing to grab my purse and bring it to me at the airport. so it was a fairly painless lesson in how seriously ritual-bound i've become about travel prep... especially since the reason i noticed, in the first place, was that i was going through my usual mental pre-flight checklist (boarding pass? check. passport? check. phone? oh, shit.) while driving down the road.
-lisa
Good job recovering on that one. I have gone to cities without many different items, including dress shoes, a belt, and a tie. It's never fun.
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