Thursday, March 11, 2010

The disorganized mind

As if you need further evidence of my dingbattiness: I lost my wallet yesterday at the grocery store. So that means that in the span of a week, I lost half a gallon of strawberry ice cream (still unaccounted for), my cell phone, and my wallet. If only I'd committed to doing another buy-nothing week this week -- like having no cell phone temptation while in the car, with no wallet, it'd be a cakewalk.

Last night, as Peter was making all the credit-card-cancelling calls (I hate the phone and get really impatient with this sort of thing) he had to put me on the line to talk to the agent and request a new card myself. As he handed me the phone, and I thought to myself, "Yeah, that's how it was last time too." And then I thought -- how many times have I lost my damn wallet?! The answer is: several. And several phones, too. A couple of highlights -- I dropped one phone onto the train tracks, and one Hannah dropped in the toilet at a park. My detritus is scattered all over the place -- and across at least two states.

I just asked Peter whether, should I suddenly become super-responsible about my possessions and never lose a personal item again, he would miss it. I think on some level, I hope my absentmindedness is part of my (limited) charm, like an idiot character in a sitcom: "Erica lost her phone again!" ::sad trumpet:: "Oh, that Erica!" ::laugh track:: I eagerly anticipate his response.

UPDATE! Peter's response: Honestly? I would love it if that went away. I don't find it charming, I find it frustrating.

And what I told him is, it's like my frequent lateness at the office: it's lucky I'm awesome in so many other ways. I'm great, but I cost. Still. I'm working on it, chief.

2 comments:

  1. Everyone is a compromise. I can't help of think of the romanticized stories where a spouse dies and the survivor says something along the lines of, /sniff "Joe always used to shit his pants. I always loved that about him!" Which is complete horseshit. Sure, they miss everything about the deceased now that they are gone, but the pants-shitting was probably annoying as fuck when they were alive. We've all got our flaws. It's just a matter of how tolerable they are. For example, if you lost your wallet every month, you'd probably get a good bitch-slapping but once or twice a year is forgivable due to your other redeeming qualities.

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  2. No, no. I KNOW Peter will miss my heroin habit when I'm gone.

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