Jun 5, 2007

Twice the Work

6/05/2007 — cori

I have memory issues. There, I feel better now that that's out in the open. I have THE WORST short term memory and this post is here to prove it. Either that, or I just love to do things over and over again since I can't remember doing them the first time around.

Yesterday was laundry day. I have my little routine where I bring a load into the laundry room in a basket, transfer clothes from washer to dryer then put clothes from basket into washer. Easy. Doesn't require much thought, preparation or genius. I just follow the same order time after time.

Who knew I could mess up something so easy? The day had been rather busy and I was in and out of the house most of the day. I prefer to stay home on laundry day...you know, keep up with the rhythm. And yes, there is a rhythm to doing laundry - at least if you want to have all the clothes folded and put away by the end of the day and not all in one big pile on my bed. So, now you can see that my rhythm was messed up and evidently when that gets messed up, my memory is not far behind.

Another thing I like to do is multi-task. You would think this might be hard for someone with my mental condition...on the contrary, I seem to thrive. My mental lists are rather astounding. I don't even have time to transfer everything from my head onto paper - it would take way too long. I tend to scurry around the house in 5 different directions, on some sort of mission. Often times, the mission is accomplished. But then there are those times when data control gets locked up and I walk into a room and just stare because, for the life of me, I can't remember why I even came in there. Thus sets the stage for my laundry mishap...

Taking the clean clothes out of the dryer was only one of the things my mind was thinking about. I was also getting dinner ready, talking to the kids, feeding the dog, yada, yada, yada. So, clothes are now safely deposited into the basket. Default mode kicks in and I transfer wet clothes from washer into dryer since that is what I always do. Then without thinking, I put more soap and water into the washer and transfer clothes from basket into washer and walk out of the laundry room.

Then about 10 minutes later it hits me...What did I just do??? Don't tell me I just put the clothes I just cleaned back into the washing machine!!! Arghhh!!!! I still have 3 more loads of laundry and its already 6pm. Why was I on auto pilot? Why didn't I think? Why did I just create double the work for myself? Where is the turn off switch for my brain? Actually, I would prefer to CTL/ALT/DELETE and reboot myself. How many other times have I done this and not even realized it?

But I would like to say that we have VERY CLEAN clothes this week! There is always something positive in every situation - sometimes you just have to look very hard for it.

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