I wanted to tell you something - what was it now?

I was thinking of telling you guys something, but I cannot for the life of me think what I wanted to tell you .  It is so annoying. Now I will not get any peace till such time as I remember .

I am completely zapped.  What's happening to me?  This seems to be happening to me more and more frequently, (much to the delight of my mom, who as a function of her age forgets a lot of things). She says, "see, you are already worse off than me and then you tell me I don't remember". Good for her I say .  If it makes her happy, it makes me happy too). Okay, so where was I?  Hmm....., Yes, I was telling you what a pain my memory has become of late.

When exactly did this start?  The mildest symptoms I noticed was during my school days.  Mom used to come to drop me off at the bus stop.  About 5 minutes before the bus arrived, I used to remember, "Oh, I've forgotten, my calendar at home, I have forgotten my pencil box at home ....."  Mom would give me an exasperated look .  I would then run home, pick up the missing item and come back just in time to catch the bus, all huffing and puffing and out of breath.  But I was not always that lucky - occasionally a text book would be forgotten at home nonetheless, or homework would be left undone.  You can take a guess at what the teacher would ask me - no prizes for guessing - it would be "do you ever forget to bring your lunch box"?  Imagine my amusement and relief when I finally did that too, and thought, that it would be ironical if my teacher were to ask me that question today.

Years went by.  My forgetful remained with me.  Lost keys, forgotten slippers (I used to wear my dad's slippers when running off to my neighbour's house and then - yes, promptly forget them there and return barefoot - it would be only next day, when my dad would be desperately looking for his slippers, that the finger of suspicion would finally be pointed in my direction.  I would be totally clueless, until I was sent to check up in my neighbour's house, where lo and behold!  My dad's missing slippers would be there, neatly left at the doorstep ).

My forgetfulness got me into many a scrape during my college days and working days.  I still get frequent nightmares where I have an exam and have forgotten to open my books and study for them! During my working years, it was not infrequently that I was pulled up by my boss for forgetting to do something.  Stupid, exasperating me.  I found it increasingly difficult to live with myself.

It was really too much when I once went to work on my scooter, came back home and as I was getting out of the auto, I tried desperately to remember how much I paid for the auto that morning. .  I could not for the life of me remember.  It was about 5 minutes before I remembered that I had gone on scooter that morning and forgotten it at work 

Now I am getting on in life. in more ways than one.  My forgetfulness is playing a game of one oneupmanship with my age.  Not infrequently, I pick up my land line to call my husband and land up calling my own mobile no. or try to call someone from my mobile phone and end up dialling my own landline!  Not uncommon is for me to pick up the phone and dial the number and horror of horrors, when the other person picks up the phone, I have already forgotten whom it was I had called. The short gap between the person's "hi/hello" and my surprised, "hi" without reference to a name invariably betrays me.  So I don't call people so often these days. which leaves me short of jobs to do.  So I try crossword puzzles - what is the other word for "confident"?  The clue is 4-7 starting with "s" and the letter "a" features somewhere in between.  Oh dear, I have the word at the tip of my tongue, but it just won't come. now I won't get sleep till I remember the word .  Oh, never mind. if you know the word, let me know.   Now you know why mom feels I am worse off then her?