Losing It
Thursday, April 24th, 2008Losing things drives me nuts. I absolutely hate losing things, so it’s lucky that I’m really good at finding them. I have a system which involves backtracking over the last place I remember actually having it and then retracing my steps after that point, taking into account certain proclivities towards where I lay things down and the immediate environment. If that fails, I start searching areas one by one and sealing them off as I finish with them. I try to do it as thoroughly as possible and my guess is that I have close to a 99% success rate. I tell Marilyn whenever I find something she has misplaced, “I am the finder of lost things“. I say it in a real official voice (thus the bold font), so it makes it all the more impressive.
This system falls apart at the point when it is not contained to one area (my house for example) AND has been a lengthy span since I last remember having it. This is the case with my video camera. I haven’t thought about it for several months and can’t for the life of me remember where I had it last. It could be in storage (in any number of boxes), it could be in the old house (doubtful, I looked where I thought it should be and it wasn’t there, but possible), it could be at my in-laws, it could be in the trunk of Marilyn’s car or even possibly in another unknown location. I remember taking it somewhere for some reason, but can’t put my finger on it. I remember talking to Robert Lee about another camera that was in the same case, but why and when and where escapes me. It’s really upsetting, one because I want my camera and two because I begged for that particular, somewhat expensive video camera. Just losing it like it was a Wal-Mart receipt is unacceptable.
Eureka! As I typed that last sentence, I remembered where Robert and I had that conversation. I jumped up and went to the living room (I’m at my in-laws) and sure enough, the case was in the corner. Everyone at ease, this was only a test.
Ahem.
I am the finder of lost things.