July 20th, 2020

Welcome to my life.  

I used to be such a linear thinker/planner/doer.    If I started a project at Point A and ended it at Point G, you could absolutely bank that B-F were done.  Not only done, but done well.    Lately, not so much.  And it's all my fault.  Seriously, it is.  And I don't know what happened to me.

Take the last Friday for example.   I put one load of laundry in the washer and had another on deck, ready to roll.  Then I decided it would be a great day to make a batch of brownies while the laundry was going.  So I consulted my recipe book and lined up all of the ingredients necessary on the countertop. So far, so good.

Then the phone rang.  While I was on the phone, I noticed some leaves had tracked into the house so as soon as I hung up the phone I got the broom and dustpan to clean it up.  Broom and dustpan in hand, but still in the utility room, I remembered that I also needed to replenish the paper towels in the kitchen and the toilet paper in our bathroom.  So I snagged one of each.  My arms were really full at this point so I left the broom and dustpan in the kitchen leaning up against the sink and continued toward our bathroom.  

Now at this point I was still carrying both the papertowels (which I should have also left in the kitchen) and the toilet paper.  As I walked to the bathroom I noticed that I had accidentally left the light on in our bedroom.  I turned off the light with my elbow and saw that the closet doors were left open.  I set the toilet paper (but not the paper towels) on the bed to close the closet doors - a job that requires at least one hand apparently - then job done. I walked out of the room.  

As I leave the room I peeped into Tim's office and saw that his large mug of iced water was nearly empty.  Being the nice lady that I am, I tippytoed in and got his mug,  walked back into the kitchen to refill it, and returned it to his desk.  Meanwhile, the roll of paper towels was still neatly tucked under my elbow.   As I left Tim's office, I stubbed my bare toe on the doorframe, which reminded me that I ought to be wearing shoes.  Now where did I leave my sandals again?

Oh yes, the family room.  Off I go to the family room to find my shoes.  They were, exactly as I left them.  I put my shoes on and noticed the sofa looked all mussed.  So I tidied things, returning toss pillows to their proper spots.  I also noticed the dirty plates and napkins from the previous nights dessert were still on the ottoman/coffee table so I picked those up and headed back to the kitchen (paper towels still under my arm).

Dirty dishes in the dishwasher, used napkins into the garbage.  Done.  Good!  Now what was I doing before?  I saw the broom and dustpan.  That's right, I needed to sweep.  So I swept the front call, the kitchen, the living room, the hallway just to cover my bases since I wasn't sure what precipitated the idea in the first place. 

What else was I doing before that?  Oh yeah, laundry.  I checked on the washer, it was done. Shifted that load to the dryer, except the things I air dry and began a new wash load.  I hauled forth the air-dry garments  and draped them artistically around the house on various wooden chairs to dry.  I set the paper towel roll on the puzzle table in the family room because I needed both hands.  And this was  when I saw some crumbs on the rug and realized that I really needed to vacuum all of the area rugs.  

Back to the utility room to get the vacuum.  Now our vacuum cleaner, which works great, recently lost some sort of important "pin' thing that keeps two rather important parts connected.  So vacuuming requires a special sort of finesse. And two hands. And total focus.  I got the job done but as I returned the vacuum to the utility room I noticed that the dryer was now done and, I'm going to be brutally honest here, I was surprised to see that.  Mostly because I had completely forgotten that I had put a load into the dryer in the first place. (sigh)

Removed the dryer load and transferred the wash load to the dryer.  Back to the bedroom with the clean clothes to fold them and what the heck is a roll of toilet paper doing on the bed?  Oh yeah, I meant for that to go to the bathroom.  Off I go with the toilet paper roll to the bathroom.  Once that's taken care of, I checked to see if Tim needed more water.  He did.  I refilled his glass once again and delivered it.  

Once I left his office I kept thinking there was something else I needed to do but what was it?  I stood at the kitchen window looking outside. Oh yeah, water the flowers.  I went outside and took care of watering the flowers, returned inside and removed my now wet and sandy shoes and put them in the utility room to dry.  Oh look, the dryer is done again.  Removed the clothes and walked to the bedroom with them to fold and sonuvafun, there is already a pile of unfolded clothes waiting to be dealt with.  I put everything else on hold to fold and put away those clothes.

Now what was I doing before that?  I couldn't remember.  And then I wandered back into the kitchen and saw all the ingredients for brownies laid out on the counter. Oh yeah! I was going to bake a batch of brownies. Dang.  And look!  The paper towel spindle is empty.  I had completely forgotten about the paper towels which as you may or may not recall were still on the puzzle table in the family room.

See what I mean?  Lately my brain is a maze, I need a map and a compass to get through a day.  Life has become an Escher drawing.  And I am dismayed.

I used to be the person everyone else came to with questions.  I was "Answer Lady!"  Like a geeky white collar super hero.  At every job I ever had, anytime someone else didn't know the answer, I knew it.  And they knew I knew it so they came to me.  And if I didn't know the answer, I would find it.  Straight lines.  Problem solver extraordinaire.  

So far I'm still getting done everything that needs doing.  I may need a little nudge here and there to stay on top of it all, but everything on my gotta -do list is still getting done.  Just now, I'm having to write the list down.  

I'm not sure if this is just because I'm getting older or is it the added stress of what's going on in the world right now or I'm just slowly losing what's left of my mind.  Or perhaps some combination of factors.  But I want to go on record as saying that I. Do. Not. Like. It.