where, oh where . . .

so today . . . i received the scholastic books i ordered as 'end of the year' gifts for my students. yes, today. i'm now accepting bets on whether or not i will be able to find those books at the end of the year. and if you are betting against me, the odds will definitely be in your favor!

last year i bought books to give out, and then totally forgot i had them. until i ran across them in july . . .

i lose stuff--well, actually i don't lose stuff, i just can't always remember where i put it. i started thinking about why that is, and decided to write a TOP TEN LIST OF WHY I CAN'T FIND WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR.

10. i have a lot of stuff, which means there aren't a lot of unused spaces to put new things that come into the house. i try to rotate older, unused things out of the house to create space, but you know how i am about letting go of stuff.
9. i am constantly moving things around. i am always trying to think, "is there a better way to organize this stuff? is there a more logical place to put these things?" and then i move them. but my mind doesn't always agree with itself about the logic used, so even though i can remember that i moved something, i can't always remember to where . . .
8. i don't always put things away. i admit it. sometimes i just toss things onto the nearest horizontal surface. this mostly happens during the week when i am busy and tired. then on the weekend i try to return things back to their assigned places. but if i need something between the tossing and the putting away, i am not always successful at retrieving it.
7. some things don't actually have a place where they belong. this gets tricky. because what happens if something doesn't have a place, is that i keep moving it out of the way, which results in never really knowing where it is.
6. some things have more than one place where they belong, like my car keys. they can belong in my handbag. or they can belong on the end table. or they can belong on the end of the keyboard. or they can belong on the kitchen table. or they can belong in my pocket. or they can even belong on the front seat of my car. all of those are acceptable places for my keys to hang out. which is why sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to find them . . .
5. some things get stashed. another confession here--there are times when we are in crisis mode, and everything must be whisked out of sight. this usually means tossed into a bag or box and "temporarily" stacked in the garage. that stack of "i'll just put it here for now" stuff just keeps growing.
4. someone moves things. i am sure of it! i'm not making any acusations here, but there are times when i know that something is not where i left it. i don't know how it happens. maybe i sleep walk . . .
3. things get put in the wrong place. remember the orange silk blouse? yeah. enough said.
2. someone borrows something and doesn't return it. yes, you know who you are!

and the number one reason i can't find what i am looking for . . .
1. sometimes i just forget. my brain fails me. they say there is an epidemic of forgetfulness, and not only in the elderly. it is a result of information overload. i mean, think about all the things you have to remember just to run your computer, and your cell phone, and your ipod (i'm still carrying around the "ipods for dummies" book, because my ipod hates me and refuses to do what i want it to do!)

so i am thinking of putting the new books in the trunk of my car. i always eventually look there. even though my trunk is usually just home to my reusable shopping bags and car duster, for some reason i think that is where my stuff goes to hide from me . . . and since my car will be at school with me, on the last day of school when i am sitting at my desk thinking, "didn't i buy books to give to the kids today?" i can go check in the trunk of my car. and the books will be there! and i can be proud of myself, because for once, i remembered where i put something.

well, sort of . . .