Little Notepads

House Crazy Sarah is always fighting a losing battle with memory.

She has a terrible memory – short and long term – and it probably didn’t help that she dimmed her brain function with Ambien for the better part of a decade (memory loss being a persistent side effect of the drug). Alzheimer’s and dementia run in her family so she veers toward those states rather helplessly.  Her mind is like a tossed salad with all the bacon bits falling to the bottom, where she cannot access them.

She has always had a bad memory. Back when she first moved to Colorado, she forgot her purse at the Dinky Dairy while visiting the mountain town of Fairplay. Her and her ex-husband drove almost all the way back to Denver before she realized her purse was not with her.

They had to turn around and drive back almost two hours to Fairplay to retrieve the purse that she had left conspicuously out on a picnic table. Luckily, some merciful soul had found it and turned it into the Dinky Dairy without swiping any cash or cards. Thank you Lord Father God, Mother Mary, and Baby Jesus!

To compensate for her poor memory, House Crazy Sarah has little notepads all over the house, the car, the kitchen, her bedroom, and her desk at work. She uses them – when she can find a pen – to jot down not only things she needs to remember, but thoughts that are otherwise ephemeral. Once she had to improvise and use a Taco Bell receipt to record a brilliant idea. She probably still has it stuffed in a drawer somewhere.

Memories and ideas pop up on House Crazy Sarah often but by the time she can say, “Oh look!”, the thoughts have already dissolved like vapor into the air. She just now ran in the house to jot down a blog idea but by the time she got to the living room, the idea had completely flown her head.

Alas, she may or may not be able to retrieve it. It’s so murky in there. The elusive thought may circle around again and if she’s lucky, and she’ll capture it on a handy little notepad.

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