Battle of the brain fog…
Okay ladies, I’m going to need some love, support, encouragement, reassurance, whatever you can offer after what I’m about to share with you! I am hoping that I am not alone in these crazy, what the heck happened to my brain moments! I am completely accustomed to providing the comic relief in our family for the things I say or do, such as calling the humans by the dog names and the dogs by the human names. I mean we all do that right? The occasional super simple geography or directionally challenged questions, they are routine for me. However, these days my brain cell lacking moments have gone to a whole new level! Let me, so vulnerably and embarrassingly, share a few of these moments with you:
On a date night out with my hubby (we do those now that the “boys” are grown) we were driving home on Main Street through our little hometown. Mind you, I have traveled this road more times than I can count. This particular time I saw a yellow flashing light up ahead to which I exclaimed, “Wow, I’ve never seen this before.” My husband, very patiently, looks at me and asks, “Seen what?” I very confidently responded, “The train.” His patient look turned to complete shock and he says with a tinge of sassiness, “Um, it’s not a train. It’s a crosswalk! The lights are yellow. Train crossings have red lights and tracks!” LOL!!! I mean really….where did that come from? Obviously I know that a train cannot possibly go through the buildings, which line both sides of the street. Scary! We had a few moments of hysterical laughter, tears included. My husband was so anxious to get home and share this latest brain flub with our “boys”. They too had a great laugh followed by lots of head shaking!
On to the next moment, this one is CRAZY! It is still hard for me to believe but it truly happened. A few months ago I made a quick stop at the store to pick up a few things. I decided to multitask and call my mom as I ran in. I grabbed my few items, proceeded to the self check out, rang up my items, put them in the bag and left. It should be noted that my mom and I were talking about a sad, emotional subject regarding the failing health condition of a relative. Anyway, one VERY important step in the shopping process was omitted. I FORGOT TO PAY!!!! So, as I said I bagged my groceries and left. While I’m driving home, less than five minutes from the store, still talking to my mom (on my Bluetooth of course) all of the sudden I had this overwhelming “holy s*&#!” moment where I screamed, “I forgot to pay!!!” My mom in her sweet, comforting, calm voice and having NO clue about self checkout says, “Look in the bag and see if you have the receipt. I’m sure you paid.” “Um, no, I’m sure I did NOT pay.” So then I make a U turn and head back to the store, praying the police are not in the front waiting to arrest me. (Yes, this is directly where my anxious thoughts take me.) I park the car, grab the bag, and go back in to the store where I immediately confess, “I didn’t pay for my groceries.” God love the response of the cashier, “No, you sure didn’t!” She thanked me for being so honest and coming back…uh, HELLO I left without paying of course when I realized it and pictured my pending arrest, I would come back!!! I explained that I was in the midst of a deep, sad conversation about a sick relative while I was checking out, (another reason to be present and not multi-task), and totally forgot to pay. She re-rang my order of 3 items, (you probably pictured a whole cart full based on my reaction) I paid, she thanked me again for my honesty, told me that she hoped my relative would be okay and handed me my one bag of paid in full groceries, and sent me on my way. I mean, who does that?
There are many more incidences, thankfully not as blog worthy as these, but unfortunately I can’t remember them all. I thought my memory was bad after giving birth but now in my mid 40’s I feel like my memory percentage is somewhere in the 15-20% range! I am totally blaming distraction, hormones and dealing with lots of life changes for my crazy, forgetful, what the heck did I just do, moments. For the love of my sanity please tell me you can relate! If you could be so brave, please share some of your brain fog moments with me. I mean really, did you read mine?