Calendar Blind Spots

I have a mental thing going on.   I don’t know if it’s excessive compartmentalization or a memory thing but once I put something on my calendar, I forget about it.   So let’s say next week is your birthday.   I likely have forgotten your birthday is even in July, let alone what day it is.   I find out, and am pleasantly surprised you’ve gotten a year older, when my calendar lets me know.

This poses a problem for friends, relatives and children’s birthday parties when I need to know the birthday is coming up days before the event so I can do something such as get a fun train set from Amazon in time to be shipped and be put in a colorful bag before we depart for the party at the bounce house place.   In comes the calendar again to save me.   Whenever I put an entry on the calendar for Little Teddy’s birthday party I also add an entry for five days before to buy him a present.

Are we having dinner together next week on Thursday?  I really don’t know.   If you saw me and said, “see you on Thursday” I might even say, “see you then” followed by a quick calendar check after you’ve left the scene to find out exactly why I might be seeing you that day.  

So is this some sort of mental filling system error on the part of my brain or is it more like not remembering where you parked your car three weeks ago at the office because it wasn’t something that was put into the, “I need to remember this long-term so I’d better make a serious note of it”, type of thing?

Suffice it to say, I have a system that works well as long as I make calendar or date-based reminders when I find out about the item/event, so later I’m alerted at the proper time.   Over the years, I think I’ve become more dependent on the calendar and less-dependent on my brain for these kinds of things.   When the “brain training” fad rolled around a few years ago I had fun playing some of the little skill games and did fairly well at them, but how that translated to remembering things once they’ve been “calendarized” I’m not sure.

The Big Boy Update:  My son had fun participating in my daughter’s music therapy lesson today.   One of the things they typically do in the session is sing emotion-based songs.   This evening he told me he enjoyed singing the mad song, the happy song, the sad song and the silly song.   Chelsea told me he was having fun but the best part was during each song he would suddenly yell out, “ATTACK!” and jump around the room doing his “moves”.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  After school today I told my children I had gotten blackberries and raspberries at the store if they wanted them for snack.   While I was cleaning up the lunch boxes I heard my daughter ask, “why are these so soft?”  I looked over and couldn’t help laughing to see her with five raspberries, one on each finger.