Kate’s Escapades – The List..

Ever feel like if you have to remember one more thing, your brain will go into overload status and explode?

Like when you’re going to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  It’s just a few things.  No need to write them down on paper.  You can remember them.   You go through the items on the mental list in various orders to see how they will best flow, so that hopefully you won’t forget something.  You set the order, and you start running the list through your mind: milk, ranch dressing, bread, toilet paper, pickles, and eggs.  You repeat the list in the car all the way to the store.  You repeat it as you get your cart and head down the first aisle.  You always say it in the same order, over and over and over.  You sneak  through the aisles of the store like a character in a spy movie, in the hopes that you won’t run into anyone that you know who might want to chat with you.  If you break the repetition  in order to respond to human interaction, you run the risk of forgetting  “the list”.

The best way to get home with everything you need is to shop for the items in the exact order of the mental list.  This may necessitate some zig zaging through the aisles because you can’t just cross off an item willy-nilly from the  middle or end of the list, or the flow will be broken.  (I love to use the phrase “willy-nilly” just because it upsets my children.  Just thought I’d make that confession here.)

You’re going along, doing fine, zig zagging, repeating, feeling pleased with yourself…  As you reach down to grab the ranch dressing, out of the corner of your eye you see the bight red ketchup bottle  practically shouting at you.  “You need me. You’re almost out!”  You hesitate for just a moment and think, “It’s ok.  I’ll just toss it in.  What could it hurt?  It’s only ketchup. after all. ”

And then it happens.  Random items start popping into your head: “chips…cookies… butter…dog food…wait a minute, am I out of toothpaste?”,   interrupting the carefully practiced order of your list.   Try as you might, you can no longer seem to get back into the flow. ” Milk, bread, ranch dressing…wait a minute.  Maybe  it was milk, ranch dressing, bread.  What else was there?  Eggs?  Pickles?   That’s only five things.  What was number six?”  Try as you might, you can’t seem to come up with the  missing item number six.

You wander the aisles hoping “it” (item 6)  will catch your eye, and “it” never does.  You finally give up in frustration. It’s okay, you rationalize.  It’s not like it’s a life or death dilemma here, just a missing item.  You go home.  All is well.  The world has not ended.  No big deal.  You put the kids to bed.  You put yourself to bed.   All is still well. You lie in bed thinking, “What did I forget?”  And then it dawns on you…toilet paper. The missing item was TOILET PAPER.  How could you have forgotten something as simple and necessary as toilet paper? You hope you have enough to last until you make it to the store again.  You don’t want to have to resort to a box of tissues placed strategically on the counter.

Next time you vow that you will make a written list.  It takes less than 5 minutes. That’s what a smart person would do, after all.

But somehow, when the next week comes and the need to pick up a few things arises again, you think, “It’s just a few things.  I can remember…”

~Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

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