Yesterday, after dinner, as we were winding down chatting about nothing in particular, Elka kept bounding around us, nose in our elbow pits. Look at me! Look at me! she said. We were confused – this was unusual behavior. And then we realized that even though we had an entire conversation back-and-forth conversation about feeding Elka dinner that evening, I had completely forgotten to actually feed Elka dinner. But she had not forgotten. All these things that I do everyday and now these tasks are blended together in a mash of colorless oatmeal and now that I’m 50 and my short-term memory is going – the question – did you do X today? becomes a guessing game. Did I make the bed? Did I feed Elka? Did I empty the washer? Did I take my fiber pills? (OMG the fiber pills – my bowels certainly remember if I’ve taken them or not).
You know on youtube, there are people who celebrate not only their birthday on the actual day, but spread it out to an entire week? Or maybe an entire month? They buy themselves gifts everyday for 30 days? Could I even think of 30 things to buy myself? Maybe I could. Anyways, I don’t often buy gifts for myself (gifts: I consider gifts to be brand new things at full price, maybe useful, but more likely semi-useful, just desirous and coveted) – but I found this octopus trivet and bought it and told everyone that they bought it for me for mother’s day! hahaha.
On our 5th time through garage declutter (it never ends, really- you think you’re done and the garage looks fantastic and then three months later it’s filled with…crap again) – I’m ready to declutter my kayak. I bought this kayak after my summerlong lessons a few years ago (which I loved) and took it out on the water…maybe 3-4 times. And then it’s been in the garage since then taking up space. I considered selling it, but I’m giving it to Team River Runner, a non-profit that takes veterans and their families out on whitewater trips. I had met a few members when I was out and about. It makes me a little sad that it didn’t pan out, but it’s also ok. Out of the garage you go – take care of all your kayakers, keep them safe and have a blast.
