What was that again???

I have a terrible memory. I use to have a great memory. I think it's probably the only reason I made it through school, but since I've given birth my memory has gone downhill and is no longer great. I forget things I've thought of one minute ago. I'm lucky to remember what I'm writing about right now. It has gotten that bad. I do the daily crossword in the paper every morning, drink green tea, and take fish oil pills because I read all of that will help. I'm not sure it does.

Usually when I'm cleaning or cooking or doing any of the other number of household chores I'll think of something that we need. It could be food or toilet paper or any number of things, and unless I write it down, it is usually forgotten until I need that item and then remember that I have forgotten it. I try to be good about it and write it down on a piece of paper. That inevitably gets lost or gets left in the car while I'm inside shopping, but sometimes it makes it into the purse and all is good. Most of the time I don't have paper. For example I will be cleaning in my bedroom or bathroom, the room farthest from the kitchen or office. I'll replace the toilet paper and say to myself, "that is the last of the toilet paper so I must put that on the list." By the time I make it into the kitchen to put it down on paper I've forgotten what the item was that I needed.

I decided that what I needed was another method to remember what it is I need to remember. I started trying to remember the first letter of the item I needed. So in cleaning my bathroom I'd think we need toilet paper, T. T. T. T. When I would come across the next item, such as toothpaste, I would think, "TT. Toilet paper and toothpaste. TT." Sometimes the letters would spell a word and that would make things even easier for me, "BOAT...bananas, oatmeal, apples, and toilet paper." The system would work until I could get to paper or sometimes the store.

Wednesday I was making a mental list of all the things I needed to do before this weekend. I told Madison so that she could help me remember to do some of the items when I got home. She asked me if I could get her some cough drops. I told her certainly I could do that and that I also needed some powder to put in their shoes to soak up the god awful smell both girls' feet leave in them. In my head I thought, "CP". Later that night, not having been to a store yet, I thought of something else I needed and thought, "CPH...hmmm...CHP, chips, like the TV show. That will be easy to remember."

Thursday was SueG day, which is an every two week thing where we do food, fun, and maybe errands. I had told her I needed to run to the bookstore to pick up an order I had placed and since it was by the mall we ran in and picked up coffee and some hair products we both needed. As we drove home she asked me if I need a Target or Walmart run. I said oh, yes, I do, I need...and I thought, "CHIPS", and then I tried to remember what the hell that stood for. And I couldn't remember. The only thing I could remember was the P for powder. I explained to her the problem and she started naming off things she thought it could be.

SueG: "Candy, chips, chapstick, cotton balls, cologne, cat food, cell phone, comet..."

SueG: "Hair spray, hairbrush, hot tea, hammer, hand soap, helmet..."

We ran through everything we could thing of from personal items to household items. I could not remember. We never hit the right item or if we did it wasn't triggering anything in my memory. She wanted to go to Target and wander up and down the aisles hoping to spot the items, but I veteoed that. Instead I went home and got out my unabridged Webster dictionary. Elliot and I sat outside and I went through the entire dictionary in the "c" and "h" section. At some point my neighbor wandered over and joined in the guessing game.

Neighbor: "Chocolate, cake, coffee, hot dogs, headache medicine, ham..."

He too eventually got bored and went home. I completed the Webster dictionary to no avail. By this time I was sure I had a tumor pressing on my brain that was preventing my memory from working. I was contemplating calling my doctor to schedule an MRI when Madison came home. She knew the "C".

Madison: (coughing) "Cough drops. You were suppose to get me cough drops for my cough."

She had no idea what the "H" stood for and neither did Darcy, although they both ran through already named items until my head was spinning from all the help. I told my mother the problem.

Mother: "What was the I?"

Sigh.

I told my friend that night at dinner.

Jyoti: "What was the "S"?"

Sigh.

I gave up telling the story. I resigned myself to the fact that I might never know what the "H" stood for, and obviously it wasn't an important item that we all just had to have in our house. It wasn't until this morning that the item came to me. I was collecting dirty clothes for the laundry when I went into Madison's closet and there it was...the "H". Hamper. Madison needed a new hamper as her wicker one is falling apart and Elliot enjoys chewing the pieces that are falling off. I needed cough drops, a hamper, and some powder from Target.

Neighbor: "You realize don't you, that this anagram thing you had going will now never work again for you. You'll have to come up with a better way of remembering things."

Yeah, I'll work on that. If I can remember...