Wow. I’ve really been, shall we say, “absent-minded” lately. Leaving my car keys sitting on the treadmill at the gym, going to work without my lunch… (in the first instance, a good samaritan turned them in at the front desk; in the second, I was hungry all afternoon.) Let’s look at a couple other recent examples.
Several weeks ago, Elisabeth talked about Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks on her blog, and included some quotes from the book. It sounded really good, so I immediately requested it from my library (a copy had to be transferred from a different branch.)
When it was available, I went to pick it up! As soon as I held it in my hand, I realized… I have already read this book.
Yep! I read it about a year ago, and had completely forgotten all about it. SIGH. I brought it home anyway, thinking that maybe I would re-read it, but never did. I returned it to the library, unread… or at least, unread this time… or whatever.
Moving on. As we all know by now, Sunday was the first day of Pumpkin Palooza! I made pumpkin waffles to celebrate. Here’s the photo:
Hmm, you might be thinking. Nice can of pumpkin there! The REASON I included that in the photo is… that was the pumpkin that was supposed to go in the waffles.
Yep! I made my “pumpkin waffles,” and when I took my breakfast over to the table, there was the can of pumpkin, unopened. I FORGOT TO PUT THE PUMPKIN IN MY PUMPKIN WAFFLES.
HOW could this happen? I’m supposed to be the Crazy Pumpkin Lady! This was an epic fail. Although- the waffles were okay. Not great, but okay. I still put in all the pumpkin spices so that kind of counts… right?
You can see the problem. Possible solutions include:
- Pay more attention to what’s actually going on instead of thinking about the book I’m reading all the time,
- Have myself committed, and/or
- Start getting more sleep.
I’m thinking I should start with a combination of 1 and 3. These points are actually related, because I keep staying up too late reading. But my book is so good! I look forward to reading it all day, and once I start, it’s hard to put it down. Well, we all know sleep is important, so I’ll try. It would be nice to get through a few days without doing anything stupid.
How is your sleep these days?
Have you made any glaring errors lately?
Top photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
23 Responses
Oh, this is serious… pumpkin waffles without the actual pumpkin! This is something that doesn’t happen to Jenny, who loves her pumpkin-stuff! You might indeed need a little bit more sleep (but believe me, I know how it is when a book captures you so much that you don’t want to do anything but read. What are you reading right now?)`
Yes, you know things are bad when I forget the pumpkin!!! The book I’m reading right now is the second book in Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy, Winter of the World. Right now we’re deep into WWII and it’s written from several different perspectives- there are storylines about Americans, Germans, English, Russians… it’s fascinating.
Ohhhhhh no on the pumpkin waffle fail! I know you’ll get it right next time!
I’m sure it’s harder now with your daughter back in school, but I agree that getting more sleep will probably help you feel more focused. I know when I don’t get enough sleep I just feel off all day, but then again we all have some days where we are kinda losing it!
Ashley, that’s a good point- I WILL get it right next time! And as a matter of fact, I probably won’t make this mistake again. I’ll be extra careful about the pumpkin from now on!
oh that sounds sleep deprived mind/body in action. I’m always prioritizing sleep. I do read before sleep, but rarely keep up no matter how good the book is. The first sign of sleepiness hit in, I turn the light off.
The lack of running may also playing its role into sleep quality. The days I don’t do enough activity, I’m less tired/sleepy by 8pm.
Coco, you are the sleep queen! I’m super impressed with how early you get to bed. I would probably feel like a whole new person if I went to bed at 8 pm.
I remember you talking about this book, Jenny! You were so excited about it and I put it on my TBR list (it’s still there, thanks for the reminder!)
I’m with Team Sleep. Do you track your sleep? I find that extremely helpful – my Garmin always lets me know when it’s time to get more zzz. It will help your body heal, too. Win-win!
Ha ha, no I don’t track my sleep because I’m afraid the data will make me too depressed! I know that makes no sense, but right now I don’t need a watch to tell me I need to sleep more- I already know.
I mean, everything else seemed to be sort of normal absent mindedness but NO PUMPKIN IN THE WAFFLES THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. You might just need more sleep, Jenny! My sleep has been fine lately, it goes in cycles, you know how it is. Hashtag perimenopause.
That said, I have totally gotten a book and started it, thinking “this is familiar,” then I’ll go to my spreadsheet and see that I’ve already read it. Now I try to check my spreadsheet BEFORE I put a book on hold.
Yes, everything else could be explained away, but not the lack of pumpkin. The last couple nights I’ve gotten about 7 hours of sleep, which is good for me. Now I need to start inching it up towards eight… we’ll see.
Sleep…it’s always a moving target. I feel like I have SUCH high sleep needs and rarely meet them, but I feel weak for needing so much sleep. Sigh. I did track my sleep for a while with my Apple Watch, but it got to be yet another thing I was worrying about so I stopped.
If you’re getting committed, I’ll join you. I feel like I blank out constantly with words or remembering why I walked into a room. I blame having so many different things bouncing around in my brain at once. And I have 100% done similar things with forgetting ingredients!
The last thing I remember forgetting was linking to your site in my latest blog post. I was so excited about receiving your postcard that I forgot to hyperlink your blog address. When I glanced at my post today I realized I hadn’t done that even though I was convinced I had…oops. Fixed now 🙂
Ha ha, thank you Elisabeth! And, I agree that if I tracked my sleep with my Garmin, it would just stress me out.
Having high sleep needs is tough. I know a couple people who need 10 hours a night, and they get it! But they don’t have kids- I don’t know how you could possibly do that with kids.
I can relate to all of this! I once started reading a book and realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t working and DNF’d. About a year later I heard some chatter about this great book and got myself a copy, started reading…and realized that it was that same book and that it was still a DNF.
My husband lost one of his car keys a while back. A while after that he noticed that it seemed like something was off with the doors not locking. The other day we were out driving around and I dropped something under the seat. I fished around to get it back and found a whole treasure trove of missing stuff – including his car key! The doors don’t lock if the key is in the car lol.
I’m excited for pumpkin season this year. Usually I don’t make anything b/c I used to be the only one in the house who eats pumpkin so I end up using part of a can and then throwing the rest out. But now I have a reason to keep pumpkin around b/c it’s very good for dogs. Sometimes Doggo gets restless toward the end of the work day, so a good low calorie distraction is to give her a frozen Kong that’s stuffed with canned pumpkin and her kibble. It takes a while for her to use up a can of pumpkin and it takes me a while to use a can of pumpkin – but both of us together can get through a can in reasonable time.
Ah, brilliant solution for the pumpkin! I agree, it’s very hard to use up the whole can. Some cats like pumpkin too- I wonder if mine do? I’ll have to try it.
Glad to know I’m not the only absent minded one these days.
I don’t know if it has to do not enough sleep or aging, but I have veered from charmingly clumsy to dangerously inattentive. I currently have three Band-Aids on my hands because I keep cutting myself with knives while cooking. And dropping things. Let’s not get started on me dropping things. I drop so many things. *sigh*
Meanwhile, we also have a dog who eats pumpkin, so a can of pumpkin never goes to waste in our world!
Engie, I think you’re also distracted by all the things going on in your family. But it’s good to know I’m not the only one.
I am terribly absent minded so I can so relate to this post. That’s why I have a fob that will ring on my keys so I don’t misplace them or can easily find them if I do. I also use my apple watch to locate my phone (I push a button and it makes the phone make a specific sound). You know who doesn’t need any of these aids – Phil. He is not at all absent minded and I am so very envious!
I forgot a couple of things when I left my parents house on Saturday night. I really thought I had it all but nope. I left one of the sound machines and the Wimpy Kid book Paul was re-reading. I try my best to use lists to keep track of everything but then I get distracted in the middle of doing something and it all gets derailed! Better sleep would certainly help – I did not sleep well on Friday night when I shared a room with both boys and my niece!!
It’s funny how some people are naturally focused. In our house, I’m usually the focused one and my husband is the one losing things. That’s why I’m a LITTLE concerned about my recent state! Maybe I need to start making more lists.
My eyes kept getting wider as I read this post! I chuckled at the first one but felt bad by the second. I hope you get some rest and calm, Jenny
I love reading your blog today because I forgot that it was time for pumpkin everything! AND HOW COULD I?? Also I am also losing it in the very same ways, so this post makes me feel way less freaked out about my mental abilities. It MUST just be an age thing.
Poor Jenny! It’s one thing after the other.
I left my AIRPODS at the gym once. Thank God for that FindMy feature for Apple products because I didn’t realize I had left them there until the next day and was able to see that they were at the gym through the app. And a Good Samaritan turned them in, too!
I am FINALLY getting good sleep and OMG JENNY IT IS LIFE-CHANGING. I am really trying to prioritize getting to sleep at a decent hour so I can get at least 7-8 hours of sleep as I get used to wearing my CPAP mask (well, I’m in bed for 7-8 hours but it does take me a while to FALL asleep). I hope you can figure out a way to get more sleep!
HAHA I will always remember how I once made banana-nut muffins, without the, um, banana. So I go to take a bite, and was like, hmm, these are rather bland…what the heck? *eyes drift over to counter, notice bananas still sitting there….oh.* Hehe.
My mom is notorious for being very scatterbrained. I think it’s because she simply doesn’t pay attention in the moment to what she’s doing- like, she’s doing it on autopilot, and thinking about other things. I have literally told her, ok, mom, you need to think out loud in your head, “I’m putting my glasses case back in my purse” or whatever, because she’ll just mindlessly put things away, straighten up, etc and then is looking all over for what she put away earlier!! Maybe try that technique- I’ve heard that’s supposed to help (naming things out loud (well, in your head).
Oh, Jenny. No pumpkin? This is… a tragic emergency. You were denied your true pumpkin waffle (tragedy) and we need to remedy it asap (emergency). I hope that the NEXT batch were better. And hey you already had the pumpkin! 🙂
I tend to zone out – bad when listening to an audiobook for a long time at a stretch. I’ll just sort of let the narrator drone on and then I snap to attention and think, what? Why are we now on to subject Z when we were on P? So yeah, I get it. Hang in there.