Absent-Mindedness Strikes Again! by Nancy L. Eady

I have written about my absent-mindedness before, in 2018 and in 2023. But I wouldn’t want you to think I am now free of the condition.

Have you ever lost something important, like your keys? Losing your keys at work is maddening because you know they have to be there SOMEWHERE or you never would have made it to work.

That happened to a friend of mine. She noticed about 10 in the morning that her keys were gone, and by 5:00 p.m. that day everyone in the office had looked for those keys - on her desk, in her desk, in file folders, behind her desk, under the two stuffed chairs in her office, under rugs, in the parking lot, in her car, in envelopes she had put in the mail, everywhere in the office she had been and everywhere in the office she had not been. By the time we left work at five (fortunately my friend had a spare key to her car), I was beginning to think that elves or aliens had spirited the keys away. I asked her to text me when she found them.

No texts came to me that night. Instead, she got a phone call the next morning. 

Leaving the house the morning after she lost her keys, I reached into the outer pocket of my purse and pulled out my keys to lock the front door. I looked through the keyring a few times, trying to figure out why my house key was missing, when the penny dropped. I was holding my friend’s keys in my hand! Remembering that I had been in her office the day before., I realized I must have put my hands on the keys and, without thinking, slipped them into my purse because that’s where keys go. I would prefer to believe that aliens or elves or Bigfoot or the Tooth Fairy slipped those keys into my purse when I wasn't around, but my friend and I know the truth. The mind like a steel sieve struck again! 

A Mind Like a Steel Sieve Part II by Nancy L. Eady

 Back in September 2018, I wrote a column about having a mind like a steel sieve. https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-mind-like-steel-sieve-by-nancy-eady.html  It is also known as good old-fashioned absent-mindedness. I have it in spades. 

Today, Mark stopped at Buc-ee’s, a unique gas station chain, so I could run in and get each of us a drink. The square footage of a Buc-ee’s store is between 50,000 and 75,000 square feet, and its shelves are packed with everything from clothing to home décor to snacks to fresh baked goods, candy, and barbecue. The chances of me walking in a straight line through a Buc-ee’s to the drink machine and back are close to zero.  But I tried my best, until on my way towards the registers at the front of the store I came across a row of cute T-shirts flanked by a counter with fresh brisket. I dithered there until I remembered Mark was circling the parking lot waiting for me. So I resolutely turned my back on the T-shirts and brisket and walked briskly through the door to head to the car. Until I realized I hadn’t yet paid for my drinks and had to turn around and go back in to pay. I’m just lucky no one thought I was trying to pull a fast one. 

Reading during lunch can be a hazard also. Once at Cracker Barrel, I read my way from the table to my car and then drove back to the office before I realized I hadn’t paid for my lunch. I called the restaurant to let them know what I’d done, and they let me come back that afternoon after work to pay my bill. Which would be bad enough, but I had done the same thing about a year before at the Pizza Hut lunch buffet. There, I went back the next day, had the buffet again and then explained why I was paying twice. The waitress shrugged and told me that she saw me walk out the day before, but just figured I must have been extremely busy! 

Paying for my food at a drive-thru and driving off before I receive the food has happened enough that it's not an entirely unusual predicament to find myself in.  

And about a week ago, I left the office to go home and found my car still running. Apparently, I had forgotten to turn it off when I returned to the office for lunch. And yes, I have an alarm for when that happens but apparently it was too subtle to get my attention. I was lucky; no one stole the car and the engine temperature stayed steady, so I didn’t blow the engine. 

Tonight, I’m going to bed extra early in hopes to add a little more steel and lot less sieve to my mind. What absent-minded stories do you have to share?