September 1, 2007
"Ialways have trouble remembering three things: faces, names, and I can't remember what the third thing is.”—Fred Allen.
The other day I went to the post office for stamps. I wanted those new ones, the ones that have the same price for years to come even if the US Postal Service raises postage rates 10 years from now.
So without a doubt in my mind as to the name of the stamps I placed my order, “I would like a book of Timeless Stamps.”
To which the clerk replied, “Sure, I know what you want, but you mean to say Forever Stamps don’t you?”
Oh my. I did mean to say Forever Stamps but could not retrieve the name. The great part is that the clerk, who has to be pushing 60, knew exactly what I intended to say. Bless him.
As I opened my mail at the tall worktable in the lobby of the post office, I sorted through the ads, flyers, and sundry junk mail. An advertising brochure for a name department story caught my eye. In it were samples of the latest men and women’s colognes. You know the flyers, the ones that have the scented side panels.
So I stood there sniffing for some time and put the men’s aftershave and cologne fragrances in one pile and the women’s in another. Some were not to my liking so I put them in the discard pile. The others I thought I probably should keep in case I wanted to buy one and couldn’t remember the name. I stuck those into my computer/tote bag.
Time to leave so off I went to finish my errands.
At the wireless coffee shop that afternoon I pulled out my computer only to find my junk mail discard pile from earlier in the day. Not only was the entire lot of trash in there but so were the fragrance samples I wanted to keep.
There are no words to describe the jumble of smells that now reside in my tote bag. My computer even smells.
I could have sworn I threw those in the trash at the post office. Groan.
The very next day my husband called me from work and said, “I forgot. I was supposed to remind you this morning. You told me last night to be sure and remind you at breakfast and I forgot before I left for work.”
“Remind me of what?” I asked without a clue as to what I wanted to remember.
“Well, I don’t know. I forgot.” he said.
“So,” I said, “Let me get this straight. You forgot what you were supposed to tell me in case I forgot.”
“That’s about it. I’ll call you if I remember.”
I hope we paid the light bill.
