Have you found your brain retaining less and less of what you want it to? Do you often go into a room and forget why?

Do you know where my book of stamps is?

What do you do to remember things? I make lists. Lots of lists. Problem is, I often lose my lists.

This is not my beautiful life.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Answers

All of the above. My boy had to get me a clapper for my keys  now I clap my hands and they start beeping. (very useful). I want to know, when you typed the Preamble, was the Schoolhouse Rock music playing in your brain?

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Did they have that on Schoolhouse Rock? I didn't know that. I had to learn it in the third grade. I had no idea what half of those words meant. I thought for quite some time that they were securing things for their asses ("...and our posterity") And as far as I was concerned "Do ordain" was one word.

I've just always known it. It took a bit longer to know what it meant.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

As I get older and get more and more absent-minded, I find myself blurting out an explanation for it, as if anyone cares. I forget something I shouldn't, feel dumb, and say, "Well, my gray matter just gets a little smoother every day!" I receive strange looks from people that have apparently never lost a brain fold, but I know their time will come. I figure when I die, the mortician will find something in my head resembling a large creek stone... perfectly smooth, gray and useless.

I have set things in front of the door so I won't forget them when I leave, and when the time comes just step over them, or even worse, move them out of the way. I will go and get the mail, and then go out to get it again, since I forgot I had already done it. I went out yesterday, a holiday, to get the mail from Saturday that I had already gotten once on Saturday and twice on Sunday. Of course, the neighbors are always outside when I do this.

I go to the store to get cat food and toothpaste, and come back with $43.77 worth of impulse crap, and no cat food or toothpaste. I go to bed and remind myself to get up a little early to fill up on gas in the morning. Then, in the morning I get in the car and say, "Holy shit! I need gas, and I'm running late!!" I write a letter, put it in my purse to mail, and carry it around for weeks. I see it every day, and think, "I need to mail that", but then it reaches a point where it is too old to send and it would be embarassing, so I write an updated one and carry it around for weeks.

I get behind at work, so I bring stuff home to do, but leave it in the car and just have to drag it all back into work the next day, unfinished. I have five tubs of butter in the fridge because when I'm at the store I can never remember if I am almost out, so I buy more just in case. Same with paper towels. I'll bet I have 10 rolls in the garage, just collecting dust, because I always use the new ones and the stock never gets touched. Anyone looking for some vintage Brawny, circa 1995?

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

I have these friends and every time I go to their house for game night, I leave something there. My keys, My phone, My wallet, My dog, My boyfriend. They don't invite me back now because last time I left my boyfriend, he drank all their beer.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Just this morning I forgot whether I'm 26 or 27...

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Sometimes, usually by Wednesday or Thursday, I can't remember what I wore to work on previous days that week. I get hives on the train thinking "Oh Shit, did I wear this shirt on Monday? People at work will think I am a skank or something." I try and try to remember but if you offered me a million dollars at that point I could not tell you what I was wearing a mere two days before. Scary.

Oh, and one time I wanted to wind my watch up so I pulled out the little pin on the side to re-set the time and then got distracted. Needless to say, I forgot I pulled the pin out and did not remember to CHECK if the pin was out and for five months I thought I needed a new battery. I bitched and moaned about this expensive watch my husband bought me blah blah blah how could the battery die so fast blah blah bring it to the dealer to have it repaired. Like this. My best friend finally said "Let me see that damn watch already" rolled her eyes pushed the pin in. Talk about your Kelly Bundy move of the century...

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

i always leave the house in the morning thinking that i am forgetting something, when usually i'm not. i greet my friend with, "i feel like i've forgotten something.. but i have no idea what."

actually, i remember a lot of stuff i don't need to, and usually remember what i do-- with a little prompting. heh.

which reminds me, i need to go finish the laundry.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

I usually walk into the room and forget what I wanted or what I was going to do, then it hits me hours later. Very annoying. I also forget to feed the dog every once in awhile. Then her tummy growls and I remember.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

I just remembered the earliest indication that I was starting to lose my mind, at the ripe old age of 26. I was watching a couple of children for their mother, and decided to take them to McDonalds. I bought them some food, carried the tray outside so that we could eat by the play area, and I could watch them while they climbed around. I dumped the tray when we were done eating, but hung around for another 20 minutes or so afterward. When we were ready to leave, I couldn't find my keys. I looked through my purse about 12 times, dreading the obvious conclusion that I had put them on the tray and thrown them away with the food wrappers. They were pretty heavy, and could have easily found their way to the bottom of the full can.

Finally, I had no choice but to take the top off the can and start rooting around in the trash. I'm sure my nose was all wrinkled as I picked up each piece of garbage with the tips of two fingers, like a prissy vagabond. The manager spotted me, came out in a hurry with a weird look on his face and asked if I "needed any help". I told him what I was doing, and he got one of the kids who works there to dig through the trash for me. They just don't pay those people enough, lemme tell you. I felt awkward just standing there watching this poor guy sort through refuse on my behalf, so I took one more look in my purse. Hey, what's that? A secret compartment, all zipped up? Well, they can't be in there, because I never use that pocket, but I'll check...what the hell!?! There are my keys!! Ha ha! How funny! Stupid Lady had keys the whole time! Ha ha! McDonald's Kid was not amused, so I mumbled an apology and slunk out of there, leaving him standing in a pile of waste. I have never used that zippered pocket before or after that day. On reflection, I really should have slipped him five bucks for his trouble. Maybe I did, and just forgot.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Schoolhouse Rock. Uh huh!! I have all the videos....next is the box set.

While I was reading that....I was humming along.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

List do not always work. Even if you don't lose them.

I thought the "write it down so you don't forget it later" thing was a FABULOUS idea! Everytime I'm at work typing away and something pops into my head that I need to take care of later, I got it down on a yellow posty.

It. doesn't. Help.

What the HELL is:

Tori.
Eggs
96
Cow
Pretty
Yes
Mean anyway?!? I have no clue! And *this* is my attempt to get organized? HA!

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Hey Pamie...

Coincidentally (or serendipitiously?) I wrote about a very similar problem in my last journal entry-- guilt about my cluttered home and mind. I bought this book called "Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui" which says that when you have clutter around you, your mind gets tangled and your energy gets tangled and all this other crap. Basically, your energy stagnates when it hits clutter, it doesn't flow. Or something.

If I had your address, I'd send you the book. But since I don't, you should hightail it over to Amazon and pick yourself up a copy. :) Since I can't seem to explain it myself. :)

Meg

P.S. The entry, for anyone who cares, lives at http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/Mopie/090599.html.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

Um...I read all the answers in the forum so far, and laughed at several of them and now I cannot remember what the question is.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

oh this is my life!

i spend way to much time standing around going "now why am i in the kitchen again? i swear i was headed for my bedroom originally..."

the worst and most annoying, has to be when i think of something that i REALLY need to do, and i head off to do it, and by the time i get there, it's gone. and that whole "if it was important you wouldn't forgot" line does not apply. it could be calling to change a doctors appointment, telling my mother that her child is not to be found, calling to buy a plane ticket. but i DO know all the words to every beatles song and i can remember what people were wearing the day i met them. not their names. just what they were wearing. *sigh*

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

i can remember my passwords , but what are they for? i can remeber everybodies phone number , but i ring , then i forgot who i rang. It seems it is contagious , or inevitable. personally i wish i could purge all the useless information (P.E , basic maths-i have a calculator for that) and store then new, more witty and conversation savvy info , but i can not. I am cursed with the same crap over and over again.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1999

I don't think the clutter problem and forgetting things are necessarily the same problem, although a cluttered place might make it easier to forget stuff -- out of sight, out of mind.

I find the newsgroup alt.recovery.clutter very helpful, and there's a dcluttr mailing list also.

Anita of Anita's Book of Days

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

I think it's great to hold on to useless information. Just like I will never throw away the 5 toys that I bought for part of the cast of a community theater production 4 years ago before I realized that it would be too expensive to buy presents for everyone (besides, some of the people just didn't have the kind of personality that made you go, "Oh, this would be perfect for them!") but then I couldn't give only part of the cast presents, so I just kept them in my closet; I never want to forget that there used to be a cartoon called Sport Billy about a kid with a magic duffle bag filled with magic sports equipment. If that means that I still haven't made copies of a script that I've been meaning to for 3 weeks, so be it. I'll sacrifice the ability to remember whether I've washed certain body parts in the shower (I sometimes have very long showers simply because I keep washing under my arms- I'd rather err on the side of caution) to retain the quadratic formula.

If I absolutely have to remember something then I make some sort of weird string of logic to help me remember it. If it's just some boring way to remember, I'm sure to forget; I have to make it interesting. For instance, I remember the code for my voicemail as they year I was born and the year I lost my virginity. Usually, however, I like it to be some sort of six degrees of association-- "I remember it had something to do with Spiderman and biscuits. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to tell my roommate Jack called from NY" (I'll let you make the connections.)

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

Aghhh!! The story of my life. People makes jokes about the early stages of Alzheimer's, but cripes, does it *really* start in one's 20's and 30's? I've been like this for so long that it doesn't bother me too much, but there are days (like when I don't realize that *I've* taken TWO of my allergy pills until I'm jumping around like some deranged marionette), when it just doesn't seem that funny.

And hey, I was gonna ask if anybody saw *my* book of stamps...I think I have bills to mail.

JL

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

For our second anniversary, my husband bought me a Franklin Planner. I remember thinkin' "Ohmigod - this guy is gonna be one of those that buys me a vacuum for Christmas" (incidentally, I got a rice steamer the next Valentine's Day). I thought the planner was the most unromantic thing I had ever received, but I'll tell ya - I live by it. Everytime I remember that I need to do something, I write in in my planner and review it first thing the next morning. If it says: "phone, photos, water, lunch, dentist, books", then I remember to throw my cell phone, water bottle, lunch, and library books into my bag, throw my photo developing order to York in the mailbox on my way out the door, and call to make a dentist appt as soon as I get to work (of course, I have to look at the planner again once I get to work). Then throughout the day, I randomly jot down "laundry, chicken, prescription, CD's" and remember that after work, I need to stop at the store and pick up chicken and get my prescription refilled, stop at the post office and return the CD's I hated, and start a load of laundry as soon as I get home. I'd be lost without this damn planner that also has my entire life's events (past and upcoming) jotted in it, all the addresses and phone numbers of anyone I'd ever met or hope to meet (I'm sure I'll need this address to Harrison Ford's house someday), everyone's birthdays, and the Christmas wish list of my own (for those moments when my husband might ask me what I want instead of guessing what I need - I know I'll get that beautiful silk pillow someday instead of a new dishwasher.......). Now if only I could find my planner in this mess on my desk......

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

....(what was I going to write here?) Oh yeah..I have always been forgetful, my parents used to call me the Absent-Minded Professor. I think they still do. My wife (a pathalogically neat person) teeters tenuously on the edge of insanity every time I start a sentence with "Now where'd I put...". Being forgetful does have its advantages though. Nobody expects me to remember their birthday, aniversary(except my honey, of course!) , family gathering, etc. I was going to make a point here, but....ahhhh!

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

A friend and I in high school had a theory. Basically it boiled down to this: Your brain has a limited capacity, and eventually it will just fill up.

It gets really bad for us people who always remember everything (or used to). It just means that your brain will fill up *faster*!

Arrrgghhhh!

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

Uhhh... I was going to post something here, but by the time I got finished reading everyone else's postings, I forgot what it was.

No seriously!

I thought I was the only one starting to go batty at this young an age. First I need glasses to work at the computer, now this.

I've always had problems with remembering things -- my whole childhood is a blur -- but it's getting ridiculous.

You know what's truly frightening, though? I don't know if this is true, I honestly have no idea, but it's my little theory. My brother's ex-girlfriend from many years ago swore that when she drank Diet Cokes while studying for finals, she couldn't remember anything when she went to take her tests, and blamed it on NutraSweet. She'd read something about how it can screw with your short-term memory. I filed this away in the back of my mind, thinking I had nothing to worry about, since I rarely drank sodas anyway (except at the movies or on the rare occasion we would order pizza), and NEVER diet ones. Then I joined Weight Watchers, and around the same time quit my job and started going to the movies a lot more. I decided since I was drinking so much more soda than before, and because diet sodas count NOTHING on Weight Watchers, that I would bite the nasty bullet and make the switch to disgusting diet soft drinks. Gradually my habit of wandering into rooms and not remembering why I did it, or forgetting the things I went to the grocery store for, those sorts of things, got much worse. I really thought I was losing it -- then I remembered what Kim had said about Diet Cokes!

I like to blame aspartame/NutraSweet for all my memory problems, anyway. It makes me feel better. Let's just pray I don't have early- onset Alzheimer's.

-- Anonymous, September 08, 1999

my friends always stump me with this one question:

"what were we JUST talking about??"

me: ". . . . . . .?"

that's when you have to wonder if you lead a double life where you sleepwalk at nighttime to go smoke crack. so far there's no evidence of this, but i'm really starting to wonder...

-- Anonymous, September 09, 1999

This is all me too. It really does start in your 20's. I'm 27 now and it's happened to me for years. And like Mary Ellen, for about half of the year I was 26 I kept thinking I was 27. I'm glad I really am 27 now!

I really hate it when I'm really sleepy. I have all those sleepy thought conversations in my head, and then I physically feel my memory of those thoughts being wiped away, and a split-second later I'll have no idea of what I was thinking about, no matter how hard I try to remember. Actually, it seems that the memory fades faster the harder I try.

My ex-girlfriend was even more scatterbrained than me. We would have to conduct frequent searches of her house to find her keys. Usually they would be on her person. Eventually I stopped playing...I would make her search for them herself for a while before I'd help, cuz I knew they'd be someplace obvious.

One day she came home in tears. She'd had a bad day, and to make matters worse, she claimed that her car key was stuck in the ignition. No matter how hard she tried, she said, she couldn't get it out. She was convinced she'd have to call a mechanic. I said I'd look at it. I went out to the car, got in, *put the gearshift in PARK*, and took out the key. Hee hee! :)

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

lately, i've been loosing my shoes. it's really annoying. for a week, i thought i was going crazy, b/c i couldn't find the cute umbrella (yeah, like it's ever going to rain again) i usually keep in my purse. i vividly remember taking it out- "oh, i don't need this tonight," but had no idea where i put it. turns out i left it in houston. i think i am definately getting dumber, and it's not the drugs. at least, that's what i keep saying. when i remember.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000

I have been known to forget what I was saying in mid-sentence. I'll just stop, and realize I can't remember the last word that came out of my mouth. It's terrible, and quite embarassing.

I once thought I'd lost my sunglasses, until someone pointed out they were on my face.

Every day when I get home from work, I put my keys, badge, purse, etc. in exactly the same place so I don't lose them by the next morning.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2000