Posted 8/7/2012 4:21 PM (GMT 0)
Fibromyoucha, I think that I have done all of the things that you mentioned, and many more. I have forgotten a number of appointments over the years. It is a wonder that my son ever got his braces off as a teen, or that they worked properly. I relied on him to help remember the appointments, and you know how well teenage boys sometimes are at remembering. Things have gone much better with our 15 year old daughter, as she always remembers, and sometimes nags me about her appointments. She is actually getting hers off earlier than anticipated. If there were only some way of programming her nagging into an electronic device, I would probably remember a lot of other things much better.
When my kids were little, my husband often worked weekends, and I was always looking for something different to do to pass the time with them. One Saturday morning, I had an eye appointment scheduled in a town 11/2 hours away. A new mall (the states largest one) had opened in that same town just a few weeks before, so we decided to check it out. What I hadn't thought about was that it was during the Christmas shopping season. It was pouring down rain, and we had trouble finding the mall. I unloaded the kids-all three under 10 years, with the youngest being in a stroller, and went in. It was wall to wall people. I was walking and pushing the stroller. Our oldest son, who was about 9 at the time, was a real go-getter. He kept getting way ahead. Our youngest son, who was about 6, kept lagging way back and looking in the store window displays. I was so afraid of losing one of them. What made matters worse, our daughter, who was riding in the stroller, kept grabbing everything within her reach. There was an ice skating rink in the mall, and the boys got to go ice skating. Everything went well with this. Then, we were ready to leave. We got on the parking lot, and could not find the car. It was POURING rain with no signs of letting up. We searched and searched for several minutes, and finally found it several rows away from where I had thought it was. I started to put the kids in the car, and realized I was missing our oldest! I listened, and finally heard him screaming (thank goodness) several rows away. He had gone off to try to find the car by himself and had gotten lost!
One night, I was going to Kmart. My husband wanted me to pick him up a couple of shirts that were on sale. Again, it was pouring down rain, and I hurried through the store, paid for my items, and hurridly put them in the car. I got home, got my items into the house, and discovered that my husband's shirts were missing. I drove back to the store in the rain, thinking that they were still sitting at the check-out stand. I got out of the car at the store, and started in. I walked by a row of empty shopping carts, and noticed something in an empty cart. Of course, it was my husband's new shirts. Although they were in a bag, they had sat in the rain for probably a half hour, and were soaked! At least no one had taken them.
This is my husband's favorite story. I constantly lose my keys, and sometimes they turn up in some strange places. One time years ago, I had been to the grocery store. I brought the groceries in, and could not find my keys. After searching all over, I adopted the "oh well, they will turn up" attitude that I have had to develop over the years in order to keep myself sane. I had long before had an extra set of keys made for these situations. A few days later, my husband was driving down a busy street in our SUV, and a man in a car pulled up next to him at a stop light. He honked his horn, and motioned for him to roll his window down. The man yelled, "Hey, do you know that you have a set of keys hanging out of the lock on your back door?" Sure enough, I had left them in the door lock when I had finished unloading the groceries.
Several people have mentioned using various features on their cell phones to remind them of appointments and other things that they tend to forget. I no longer even own a cell phone because I cannot remember to keep one charged. Or, if I remember to keep it charged, I do not remember to keep it with me for when I need it. I am also "electronically challanged" and cannot figue out how to use any of the features besides making a call on them.