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Losing it
G and I went on a romantic date to Costco on Saturday afternoon. I had the keys to the car in my purse so I drove us there while we chatted away about work and our kids and the upcoming summer and other sundry things. You know, like you do. We parked out in the nether regions of the lot since it was an hour before closing and everyone in the Boston metro area had realized they needed bulk toilet paper and mega packs of dog food.
We went in and spent a good 40 minutes amongst the packs of batteries, double sleeves of bagels, containers of blueberries, and bulk candy (for his bishop's office jar, of course). We bought our things, packed them into boxes, and headed to the car.
We darted around cars and carts and trudged up the hill to the back of the parking lot. As we came closer and our car came into view I said "that's weird, it looks like there's smoke coming out of our tailpipe." We decided maybe the car behind ours was creating an optical illusion. We got closer. "No, there really IS smoke coming out of our tailpipe. What's up with that?"
It was then that I reached the car and realized IT WAS ON. As in running. I had gotten out of the car, left it running with the keys in it (unlocked) and shopped for close to an hour. Seriously. Preoccupied doesn't even begin to describe it. Oy.
At home, I confessed the whole saga. Kids, go mark this date on the calendar as the day your mom began to lose her mind.
This does, actually, have me worried about my brain. Please tell me you've done something forgetful + absent minded + loopy? Otherwise I'm going to have to spend the next week googling symptoms of early onset dementia...
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Reader Comments (12)
I forget things all the time. I leave my flat iron on (hello, house fire anyone?) and am notorious for leaving the stove top on. It's ridiculous. Let's tell the boys to book our nursing home so we have adjoining rooms, shall we? :-)
When Sterling and I were at BYU we shared one car. One day he was to drive to campus, park at the Marriott Center parking, and then I would pick up the car after my class and drive it home. When I got to the car...it was running. He'd left it running in what must have been a mad-dash for class. Can't remember how long it was going...but it was certainly strange.
Laughing out loud at this one!
I've done that. Looks like G didn't notice it was running either-at least you'll have dementia together and you won't even realize it.
This morning I made a menu, but my brain was not clicking so I only made it for 3 dinners. I then made a grocery list and went shopping. Around 5:00 tonight I realized that I hadn't gotten 3 out of 4 ingredients for tonight's dinner. They weren't even on my LIST and I had the cookbooks open in front of me...I feel your fear. I use to be able to make menus and do the grocery shopping for 2 weeks, now it's only 2 1/2 days :/
This made me smile. Two days ago when my husband went out the front door he discovered my keys in the lock. They had been there all night....starting early in the evening....about 5 o'clock. It was 7 a.m. We live in a town home and our car is parked directly across the parking lot from our door. I had no idea. I remember hearing a loud noise coming from downstairs the night before and wondering absently if the door was locked, but absolutely no clue that it had a cluster of keys hanging out of it. I too feel your fear.
Annie:
I went to a scrapbook crop a couple of years ago. I got there at about 7:00 am and had a bunch of stuff to carry in (this is my excuse) and spent the whole first half of the day scrapbooking. Around lunch time I started freaking out becuase I couldn't find my keys. Eventually I convince myself that maybe they are locked in the car--only to find the car running at 1:00 in the afternoon. I could not believe it. I still can't believe that nobody took the car. That was about 4 years ago and I still consider myself of sound mind so no need to google early dementia. Just google--too many things on my to-do list.
Oh my goodness, those were a hoot (and a relief) to read! Thanks for chiming in and dialing down my panic. Keys in the door overnight, cars running (who knew this was a common thing?), things left on. I love all your loopiness.
Done the exact same thing in the REI parking lot...that was when I realized maybe I was a little too distracted. Glad I'm not the only one. <3 you.
Currently, I can't find my 3 lb., Costco-sized bag of Craisins. How, pray tell, does one lose a 3lb. bag of Craisins?
I made chili and left it cooking on the stove when I WENT TO MAINE. You read that right. Yikes. That's when I knew I was OLD.
Annie, this makes me laugh. Truth be told, your dad did this sometime in the winter at the university. He parked in the lot and went inside to a meeting and did some further paper work etc. When he went back out (a couple of hours later? - not sure), the car was running and he realized that he had never turned it off. The best one I know is the story about Ralph Degn. In the dead of freezing winter, he decided to go turn the car on to warm it up so he wouldn't have to suffer the cold. This is at their home in Wellsville, and hey, Wellsville winters are colder than Logan winters. And the cold of evening sets in earlier because they are in the shadow of the Wellsville range at about 4 in the afternoon. Anyway, he went back inside where Mary Ann was just starting a DVD. She asked him if he wanted to watch it with her and he thought "why not?" So he sat down and watched the entire thing. They talked about it, etc. then he decided it was time for him to go on the errands he had planned. When he went out to the car, he was surprised to find it running. I can just see it: All the snow and ice for ten feet around the car is melted, and there are small animals prostrate with the heat, panting at the side of the car. He said that the steering wheel was HOT. Never mind the cost of the gasoline he used while enjoying a DVD.