Dropping Details

VBS is less than a month away and this VBS director is up to her eyebrows in plans.

Have you ever had so many details floating around in your brain that some just slip out? Kind of like filling one’s bucket too full and trying to carry it?

Some details are humorous – like sitting down at the table for a meal and realizing you forgot the silver ware.

Or worse – being so into drama rewrites that you forgot to make supper.

This week a wonderfully patient friend and her daughter went VBS shopping with Angel Girl and I.

And by “went shopping with us” I mean she drove us to the big city and picked up the details I kept dropping.

Our list was massive – everything from rubber ducks and hula hoops to scrapbook paper and brass paper fasteners. By mid afternoon we would walk into a store and I would look at her and say, “What exactly are we getting here?”

Then we spent 10 minutes finding a certain kind of paper only to stare at it blankly because I couldn’t remember why we needed it. Two stores later it came to me. Too late.

We only forgot our teenager daughters twice. Good thing they have cell phones and lots of patience.

Oh – and a good sense of humor because I might have embarrassed them when I started dancing in the aisle at the party store.

Or when I sang along with the background music.

At one point I asked my very patient friend what it meant that I knew every word to the oldies songs playing, expected her to say I must be getting old. Instead she replied without missing a beat, “That you have a good memory.”

Bahahahahah!

Hello My Name Is…

I am terrible with names.

Sometimes I can’t even remember my own children’s names – and I’m the one who named them.

Once my niece brought her roommate Danni to a family gathering. Such a cute name – but do you think I could remember it?

No way.

Every time I saw this gal I called her something else. Billie, Bobbie, George. It started as an honest mistake – but quickly turned into a joke.

She still remembers me and asks my niece about her crazy (but fun!) Aunt Melinda.

A few weekends ago at my nephew’s wedding I had a nice conversation with a young man that I knew I knew- but I could not remember his name.

Finally – two days later it came to me.

But the most embarrassing moments happen when I don’t even recognize their face.

Last fall at a benefit for a good friend battling cancer – I was stopped at the door by a familiar face. She hugged me and we had the most interesting conversation – mostly because I had no idea who she was.

I picked up enough clues from our one-sided talk to figure out that we knew each other from college. But it wasn’t till later that night that I remembered who she was and how she would know this mutual friend.

Embarrassing.

A similar incident happened at a thrift store recently. She looked familiar. She sounded familiar. She obviously knew me well enough to carry on a conversation over the rack of ladies long-sleeved shirts.

But I was clueless.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to carry on an intelligent conversation while you are frantically trying to figure out who it is that you are talking to?

I really need to find a way out of these muddles.

Is there a polite way to say, “I’m sure you are very important to me but I can’t remember you?” without offending someone?

Maybe there’s some food I can eat to improve brain function. Aren’t carrots good for that? No – wait a minute – carrots are good for your eyes.

I guess I’m just doomed to embarrass myself.

So if we happen to run into each other and I don’t call you by name or if I look a little confused, help a gal out and introduce yourself.

“Hello, my name is…”

I thank you in advance.

Merry-Go-Round Thinking

I will admit to being in the middle stage of life.

Alright, I will even confess to being over 40.

At least I’m not alone. My friends and my sisters seem to age right along with me. But we’ve noticed a disturbing trend recently. Let’s call it “mental slippage.”

You know the feeling, when you’ve opened your mouth to say something and forgot what it was that you were going to say.

When you look at someone and don’t remember their name.

When you lose the word you need in the middle of a sentence.

It’s embarrassing and it’s becoming more frequent! It happened to me several times at our recent family camp out. My oldest sister just said, “Don’t worry honey, the right horse will come along in a minute!”

When I looked at her blankly, she just laughed and explained that one of her friends compared our minds to a merry-go-around. If we miss the right horse the first time around, just wait, it will be back!

What a perfect illustration! Sometimes the horses come around too fast to catch it, other times the merry-go-round is so big it takes a long time to get there, but eventually, you’ll remember the word you lost.

So the next time your mind slips a little, just laugh and remember “the right horse will come along in a minute!”