Is There A Connection? Other Than A Birthday, Of Course.

Two days ago I had little trouble remembering small items. Like clocking in and out on the timekeeping software at work.

BOOM! Have a birthday and consistency went flying - straight out the window. Now I'm wondering if it will ever be seen again. The posse is out looking for it but, I don't know.

I forgot to clock in yesterday. Which I do from time-to-time. It's not regular. Usually not even once a week. Until this morning. When I forgot, again.

It's not like I'm new to this. I've been using timekeeping software here and other places for the past ten years, or so, and the only thing that changed was a mark in time. Are they related? God, I hope not. If they are, if the change in my odometer is the cause, or I'm in real trouble.

Little things like this bother me. Can you tell? There was the coffee incident a few weeks ago when I opened the canister of coffee and put the lid down where I regularly put it down, then couldn't find it again to save my life. The weird thing about that was when I got home and hubby said he had found it - exactly where I thought it should be, only it hadn't been. I blamed a poltergeist, but still wondered if I was losing my mind.

Now there's the timekeeping issue. It's a small thing, really, but is it a portent of bigger, uglier things to come? I hope not. I don't need this. After all, I'm only thirty-two. I am. My picture looks older than that, but I've decided to distill age down to birthdays via algebra.

A(C-B/R)

A = Attitude and I have decided I'm thirty-two. Young enough to have fun and be silly and so on, but old enough to avoid most of the pain and embarrassing stupidity I created for myself in my twenties.

C-B = Birth Year subtracted from Current Calendar Year (that gives your chronological state).

Divide that by R - your Real Chronological state. Since the result of C-B and R should be the same, that's like dividing 2 and 2 or 90 and 90 or... You get the picture. The result will be 1.

So, in my case, it's 32x1 = 32. So, I'm thirty-two and will be until I decide otherwise.

What's causing me head scratching now, though, is that I wasn't particularly forgetful or prone to losing things in my thirties. I wasn't particularly forgetful or prone to lose things up until two days ago.

Sure, I had the occasional miss, but it wasn't consistent. Like coffee lids and timekeeping misses and so on.

Hmm. Nope. Not going to adjust the attitude. I'll just pay closer attention. Not quite to the stage of leaving notes around for myself. After all, I haven't misplaced the coffee lid since that one time, and nothing Earth shattering resulted from that. I did put the remote for the ceiling fan down in a strange place and we hunted for it, but I found it without too much difficulty. I'd just left it on the mantel while I closed the window one evening.

I guess it's just the occasional one-off experience of life and living. And I'm busier than I've been, so I have more on my mind. Yeah... There's a good excuse. I'll borrow that.

Good thing that's solved. I'll just pretend all is well and not pay attention to missing my timekeeping issues which, to give myself credit, are only in the morning when I first arrive.

Oh, wait. Maybe there is something wrong, after all. Maybe I like my job too well and am too excited to get started... Hmm. Is there a solution for that? I'll have to think about it.

In the meantime, I hope you don't suffer from memory lapses or head scratching. I hope your day is perfectly wonderful, otherwise, just attribute it to Wabi-Sabi, which I think I will do!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Am I Losing My Mind?

That's a rhetorical question by the way. I sometimes think I've lost it. Other times I think I'm losing it and occasionally I think it's there, fully intact and functioning.

Not this morning though. Either I'm losing what little mind I have left, or I have a poltergeist. Of the two, I'm not sure which I would prefer.

See, what happened is, I came downstairs this morning. I was remiss last night and didn't set up the coffee or my MIL's pills or any of the normal stuff I do to save time when I'm getting ready to leave for work. It's not a big deal - just five minutes or so. So, I came downstairs. I put water in the coffeemaker, got the filter into the basket and got the coffee from the freezer. All's well to this point.

Somewhere along the way I took the top off the coffee canister and put it down. Scooped coffee into the filter and went to put the top back on the coffee canister... It's nowhere to be found. I mean nowhere. It's as if it evaporated or something.

I know I got it out of the freezer. I didn't open the fridge or the pantry. I carried it to the counter. I opened it and, because of habit and familiarity, I'm not paying attention just now. I had to have set it down. I scooped the coffee and... The damned lid is gone.

Now wait, says I to myself. It was just here. I look. Nothing. I feel (we have black granite counters and the top is black). Not here. I squat down to get an eye-level view even though I know that I'm not that blind. Not there. Oh, well says I to myself. It'll turn up. I open the cabinet where we keep the cups - my cup isn't there. Huh. I wander out to the car and there it is. A simple case of forgetfulness last night that was easily remedied this morning. No muss, no fuss, no bother.

Except I still cannot find the top to the coffee canister. I have spent the last twenty minutes looking for the ruddy thing, and it isn't here. It was. I swear it was - I peeled it off the container, set it down and... poof. Gone.

Checked the freezer in case I was daydreaming and left it there. Nope. I've since checked three times.

Checked the car in case I was stupid and took it out and left it when I got my coffee cup (checked that, the garbage barrel and recycle barrel three times along the way). Nope, nothing. Not in the laundry room through which I had to pass to get to the garage, and not on the dryer where we sometimes leave things on our way in or out.

More head scratching.

I mean, I know I had it. I know it was here. I haven't forgotten the object - just where I put it down. And there aren't that many places. Didn't open the fridge. Didn't open the cabinets except the one in which we keep the cups. Didn't open the pantry. It's a process of elimination. Or it should be.

Checked the counter. Checked the garbage in case I got weird. Checked the cabinet, checked the counter. Now I'm starting to worry. Am I losing my mind? Checked the floor. Checked the island. Checked the freezer. Checked the drawer where we keep the coffee filters. Checked the drawer where we keep the silverware.

This kind of stuff is not the kind of stuff I do. I do other stuff, like forget to do things or go places and have to go back. But I do not misplace simple objects. And this scenario - me poking around in the places I've been or think I might have been this morning is both a waste of time and stupid! It's just the plastic lid to a plastic coffee canister but it's bugging me. As you might have noticed.

Checked the pantry. Checked... You get the picture, I'm sure.

For the moment I have a solution. I'll take the plastic lid off the other can of coffee that's sitting in the cabinet, unopened and vacuum sealed, and use that lid to close the open canister in the freezer. Until I track this one down.

We've all been here and done this. Wallets, car keys, credit cards, just about anything and we all know this is going to bug the crap out of me until it turns up. That's what these things do. Poke and prod and nudge and cause massive amounts of head scratching. Then, if and when we find it, we say, Soo that's where I left it! and it all becomes perfectly clear.

Right now, though, I'm in the 'this is bugging me to death' stage, so I'm going to send this off and get back to hunting.

Have a loss free day!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories