Monday, February 06, 2006

Has Anyone Seen My Sunglasses?

Time to talk about memory. I'm 48 (49 in July). To my kids I'm sure that's ancient. Amongst my colleages at work I'm in the oldest 10th percentile. I work in high tech, a youthful field - our company is only 20 years old, for example. But I worry that I'm certainly old enough to be getting a bit what they call "senile" For example, I wasn't sure if our company was 20 or 25 years old, so I had to go check the embroidery on the back of the comemmorative vest they gave out. And I struggled to bring the word "comemmorative" to mind - going thru a bunch of words starting with 'com' until it popped up.

But 48 isn't really terribly old. So why is my memory really starting to suck big time? The SO is constantly telling me "you told me that" (an anecdote about work or something) or "why didn't you tell me that earlier" (you don't remember that I'm going to be at a team dinner tonight?). He's exasperated about the former and irritated about the latter. I struggle to communicate effectively at work. I can't keep all the stuff straight without consulting my notes and my writing is going to the dogs, too, so my notes aren't always great memory aides, either.

When do you start worrying that memory flaws are more than just 'one of those things you have to cope with as you get older' I'm already seeing an internist and a cardiologist, do I need a neurologist, too? Perhaps.

There is one really nice 'upside' - when I go back to my old favorite books to re-read them, they're familiar but I don't recall enough specifics to be bored with re-reading them! (Yes, I *am* a modern day Pollyanna)

Back to the title of this post - where the hell are my sunglasses? The dang rain has finally stopped and I'm getting blinded on the commute!

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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell him everything. Let him weed thru it and figure out on his own what's important and what's not.

Top of your head? Top of the fridge? Under the cat? In a coat pocket?

ohdawno said...

Coat pocket is a good guess. Another one is under the seat in the car. Now if I can only remember to look there later...

Frank Baron said...

It's a peri-menopause thing Dawno. Not to worry. Happens to all women of the female persuasion. Perfectly natural. Bosoms bow to the law of gravity. You become your own personal sauna.

And the grey cells go on the fritz.

You're welcome. :)

ohdawno said...

I think for every grey cell that's gone on the fritz I'm getting a grey hair too. *sigh*

Anonymous said...

I've suffered from this for years--and I'm only a few months older than you! Dang frustratin', if you ask me. *sigh*

Frank Baron said...

Luckily, guys are immune. I'm 54 and still in complete confac of my controlities.

Anonymous said...

That is lucky, Frank. rofl

Mark Pettus said...

One of my favorite conversations with myself goes like this:

"I remember thinking, I'll put it here, that way I'll know where it is when I need it. Where was I at when I thought that?"

Then someone sees the look on my face and asks, "What are you looking for?"

"I don't remember." :(

Mac said...

Heh--one of my housemates spend ten minutes looking for her keys the other morning.

They were clutched firmly in her left hand.

Mac said...

I just read the other comments. Mr. Baron is quite apparently feeling the call of the wild today.

He's a pocket-patter, though, so don't take any crap offa him.

ohdawno said...

"Pocket-patter" hmm. Are we sure that's due to forgetfulness? ;-)

I still can't find my sunglasses. I do want to state for the record that the reason I haven't posted more this week is not that I forgot the URL to my own blog. I've had what's left of my mind on something and couldn't really focus on blogging. Will make up for it, I promise :-)

Joanne said...

Why am I here, again? Oh yes, the memory thing. I don't remember when I started to forget. ;) But I do know where my keys are at all times. LOL

ohdawno said...

Sean said: "My question is: why are you working on your computer while driving? :)" I actually could do this - I have voice recognition software that I've used to dictate stuff onto my laptop while making the 4 -5 hr drive down Interstate 5 to SoCal. For the most part it comes out nearly comprehensible - sometimes there will be some gobbledegook between paragraphs.

Why do I do this? I started telling myself stories on those long trips, when I had to go solo and couldn't find a decent radio station, to keep myself entertained. I found the trips go much faster. But I also found that by the time I got home I couldn't remember most of the story and was to freaking exhausted to try and write it down anyway! So I got the software. It's Via Voice by IBM. and it works pretty well.

Ray Wong said...

I am 25 (ahem) and I can't seem to find my keys all the time. I've been absentminded since I was a kid. I can't wait for me to be really old, like 35, then I'll really lose my mind.

ohdawno said...

Ray, we all know where you blog - don't provoke the over 40 crowd to come there and flame you ;-)