“Please remember to take out the chicken at three o’ clock,”said Akemi as I prepared to head out for my lunch meeting with former Dark Matter director and stunt coordinator John Stead (aka The Stead Muffin).
“Leave me a reminder,”I suggested.
“Okay,”she said.
Two hours later, I returned home to this –
And this –
And these –
So, yes. I remembered to take the chicken out.
I have a terrible memory. Normally, this would be cause for concern but, to be honest, this isn’t a new development. I’ve always had a terrible memory. When I was a kid, my mother used to call me The Absentminded Professor. Then as now, I think it’s less a memory retention issue than it is a not-paying-attention issue. When I’m writing – which is 99% of the time, even if I’m not sitting in front of a laptop – I’ve got something on my mind, so you can’t just start talking to me and expect my full, undivided attention. For this reason, I’m not good with names, faces, dates, or places. Also, pretty much anything that requires recall.
Fortunately, I do make it a point to take notes.
Unfortunately, I can’t read my own handwriting half the time.
P.S. I got 9/10. And, no I didn’t take notes.
NOW we know why you’re a writer. If you didn’t write everything down you’d just forget it all. I should’ve been a writer; I can’t remember crap.
My son is the same way. I like Akemi’s notes – may have to adopt that idea. And just in case you forgot, please tell Akemi my Suji pin arrived!! The order confirmation said she wants to know, but I can’t reply to the e-mail.
That girl gets it done! She takes good care of you.
400F! And here I thought you lived in an enlightened country that uses the metric system.
I, too, have a bad memory. I have buffer space for about 3 items in my brain. Any more than 3 and I need a list. Maybe it’s an attention thing. I got 4/10 in the test, but I was getting bored after about the third question.
Well that settles it, I don’t have a photographic memory! And….I hate numbers and anything related to math.
So how did the chicken turn out??
Ha ha! I was called the same thing when I was young. But now that I’m older, yes, it’s just blamed on getting old. But, I agree, like you I’ve always been that way. Also bad with names, dates, or places.
I’d comment on this but I forgot what I wanted to say.
I know someone who is exactly the same, memory like a sieve. I see him every day when I look in the mirror. Now if only I could remember his damn name…
Well, you did ask her to leave you a reminder!
I got 5/10 on the memory quiz. I’ll blame it on “I’m not awake yet”.
I typically have a pretty good memory, but I also take notes for work. This is my 21st year here, and I take daily, dated notes in notebooks. I save them for a few years in case I have to go back to something.
I once walked right past my own mother on the street without recognizing her. Names? Ha. I know why I am excellent at test taking in multiple choice form, it is like recognizing written notes. Memory from lectures or reading without annotating? Horrible. Fill in the blank questions? Doomed. Short answer essay? Yes, if I have practiced, because it is like duplicating notes. Reciting memorized poetry? Yeah, when I was a teenager, but not now. Farewell, Jabberwock, The Raven, and The Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock. Trivia? Spotty, depends on the subject. Movie quotes? I have to practice to keep the ones I like refreshed. I can’t tell jokes except for Why does Ariel wear seashells?…
Akemi knows you well! I try to use habit, keys, glasses, shoes, coat, bag all go in the same spot when I get home to avoid panic. Because I have found my comb in the fridge, my toothbrush in with the cutlery and my keys in the sleeve of my coat, can’t tell you how many weird places I’ve found my glasses, worst of course is broken after stepping on them twice.
I’m the same way, always have been! And sometines it’s a pain in the ass. I’ve learned two things from being absent minded. I don’t remember the first thing, but the second is that I have to write shit down!! Have a nice day!
Nancy
Well, Akemi knows you well. 🙂
Nope, numbers and definitely names I’m no good at remembering. I hate to admit it but I’ve worked with some people for years and even now don’t remember what they’re called…. Well, how do you ask them name without hurting their feelings? Anyone please?
Oh and that memory test there… I did improve after the third attempt. Does that count?
NO no no….you are not tricking me to take that quiz to FAIL.
On a positive note, I got my SUJI pin. Akemi added artwork…soooo cute!
Getting this today realllly made my day.
THANKS Akemi
I’m bummed. I only got 5 out of 10. I think my memory has gotten worse over the years. I think part of that is my inability to read books and such anymore. I graduated second in my class of 100 (and the school before I graduated I was 20 out of 1000 students) so I HAD to have had a better memory. As I’m aging, my memory for names is HORRIBLE. Its embarrassing.
I have to leave notes like that for Jeff especially when it comes to something important I need for him to do. When he has free time and isn’t directly doing something for Patrick, he is usually on the computer or playing video games. I have a constant “to-do” list to keep me focused that usually has no less than 40 things I have to get done. Since Christmas it has gotten better (not just Christmas but all the other things I had to do like “visit day habs for Patrick & decide on one.” Things that take time. On my current to-do list is my 25th anniversary video that I haven’t finished scanning pictures yet for. It would be so much easier if these pictures I want to use were digital. I told Jeff the way I’m going it is going to the a 30th anniversary video. But it will get done. Right after getting all of the 2017 receipts into Quicken (I have a file box packed tightly full of them) and getting my tax return done. But once Patrick starts going to his day hab, I will have a hour drive there to drop him off, an hour drive there to come back home to work or go to appointments, then an hour drive back 6 hours later and an hour drive home again. Four frigging hours of driving. I’ll have to put a note on my car dashboard that says “This is the only place where Patrick will not regress or go insane.” That will be enough motivation. I’m going to make Jeff take the drive on his every-other-Friday off so that will give me two days off a month.
Also on my to-do list is to get a baby present for a friend. Her son is now 6 months old. And I have to call the insurance company to tell them what a piece of crap they are. I also have to start shredding stuff–I’ve had to keep every single piece of paper from the school district involving Patrick since he was age 3. Since I don’t have any further battles with them, I will not need most of it. I might like to keep some of it though just to remind myself where we came from and how much he’s grown. The passage of time changes in your mind what actually happen. It will be like a diary in real-time. I just want to shred his identifying information like his social security number and then recycle the rest of the page. They won’t recycle shredded paper here because the value is less. What a shame. It will be extra work. I also have to shred the years where it’s certain a tax audit won’t be called. When we were up in the attic looking for some stuff, Jeff noticed we had boxes from the years 2000, 2001. It’s safe to say I won’t be audited for those years.
I’m in the “we need to start downsizing” because someday we will decide it is too much work, or too expensive to hire the people to do the work, to stay in our house. I want to cut at least 50% of what we have out of here in the next year or so.
I have saved every letter or card someone ever sent to me. I have them sorted into folders. It’s like a diary of my friendships with them. I’m not sure what I will do with them. I could put them in digital form, but there is something about feeling the original paper.
In looking for stuff for the anniversary video, I found love letters I wrote to Jeff in Jeff’s stuff. I used to mail some but I also used to fax some (the days when fax machines were the big thing). I had a fax machine at home for work and he worked for his dad’s business with a fax machine so I’d send him cute notes during the day sometimes. The fax paper ones are faded. I’ve saved the notes he wrote me, but he’s never asked to see them.
Didn’t mean to write so much. I want to get through these before I go to bed. Some day I’ll have some time to go back and catch up. I’m especially interested in this Suji pin thing I keep seeing.
I also have a terrible memory and wonder if anyone will notice “memory problems” when I get older – compared to my “normal” memory problems. It’s ironic, but when I was in first grade I remember wondering why I had a problem with memory. It has been an issue my entire life. I joke about it and say I’m on another planet or that I have undiagnosed adult ADD. However, I’ve been checked, I don’t have ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer’s, etc. It’s embarrassing. I also have a hard time recognizing people, even people I’ve known for a long time -and that’s super embarrassing.
ReminderS! Perhaps I should consider using Akemi’s idea too. XD
Chicken!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk
Akemis reminders are pure gold!