STBUC

I park my Tahoe in the garage every night and let me tell you I love being able to do that. Thank heavens i have
one vehicle that fits in the garage, barely fits, but fits none the less. Now some of you may think there is no
downside to parking in the garage and I can understand that. However in my world there is a small downside.
Okay, maybe there is only a downside in my world!
Remember me writing about not remembering what a post-it was on my desk for? My memory seems to fail
me sometimes. This may be part of the reason there is a downside to parking in the garage. See, my problem
is I always leave wearing or not wearing the wrong thing! When you don’t go outside to get in your car you can
forget what the weather was when you looked outside and not be dressed appropriately.
Maybe I should give you a visual here because I know you are thinking when you open the garage door you
definitely see the outside! Well I go into the garage and on my way in press the big button to open the garage
door. Then I continue to get into my Tahoe without waiting to look outside. I get my seatbelt fastened, glasses
on, and start to drive. I don’t always remember the weather until I get outside and rain starts falling on my
windshield. Luckily I’ve only had the sunroof open a couple times when driving into the rain.
I get my Tahoe out into the elements and close my garage door. About that time is when it clicks with me that I
forgot my coat or I shouldn’t be wearing the sweatshirt or I left something else behind. Sometimes, like
yesterday, it doesn’t occur to me that I forgot my coat until I’m a quarter mile from my house and it occurs to
me it is raining and I have no coat. Oops! Then there is this dilemma. Do I go back in the house and get the
coat or change the shirt. Do I re-open the garage door or do I turn off the Tahoe and go through my front
door? Oh my goodness so much work! The Tahoe is already started, but does the garage door need to be
opened one more time, I mean I’m sure it only has so many automatic opens left in it (I already need to readjust
it to close tighter again). At this point i sometimes say screw it and deal with not wearing the right thing. Other
times I go inside and change my shoes, get the coat, or whatever.
Is it just me that has this issue? Umm…you really don’t have to answer because I know it probably is.
I’m not complaining though, just letting you know the little stupidity that occurs in my world. I mean parking in
the garage has its benefits…no scraping ice, car is not freezing in the morning, car is not hot on summer
mornings, I can roll down my windows and let the smell of fast food out if I had some for lunch. Lots of good
things.
There is another issue with parking in the garage leading to not knowing neighbors, but we will discuss that
another time. I have a friend coming for dinner and need to get things ready.
BTW – I did try uploading video of me being stupid like I said I would try to do on my last depressing entry, but
it didn’t work. Stupid SmartSpace. I’ll work on that because it is amusing to see me be such a dumbass in
action.

Those who know me may know that sometimes I don’t remember things very well. I’m dependent on my
Google calendar, notes to myself, lists, I text or email myself things to remember. I don’t think I was always
like this, but it has been years. It isn’t because I’m old because I’m not really old. I don’t know why I can’t
remember some things because I remember random things that definitely don’t help me on a daily basis.
Post-its are a great invention. I use a lot of them at work to write people notes so that I don’t ruin the actual
document I’m giving them. At work I also use them to write myself notes and I’ll stick them on my water bottle
or on my purse so I don’t forget them. I use them at home to write things I’m supposed to do or groceries I’m
supposed to buy. So many uses! Well the other day I found myself staring at a blank post-it.
How does one go from having a thought to write something down to remember to a blank post-it in front of
them?! I had something to remember so I got a post-it. The phone rang so I put the post-it on my notepad in
front of my phone and started talking on the phone. I had a pen in hand as I usually do when I answer the
phone at work so I could have easily written a quick note on my post-it, but I didn’t. I hung up the phone after
only a few short moments and noticed a post-it on my pad. Hmm…why was there a blank post-it on my pad?!
I must have had something to write on it. Then I got that there is something I wanted to do, but I don’t
remember what it was feeling. So I sat there staring at a blank post-it with a pen in my hand. How did I
honestly forget that I got the post-it & stuck it on my pad and more importantly what did I intend to wrtie on it?!
Is it possible my post-it method had failed me?!
Then I started thinking about how I really should not have forgotten what I was doing in such a short time. You
know how you lose things from your mind. Like when you are downstairs in the kitchen and remember
something upstairs so you go to grab it and halfway up the stairs you realize you have no idea why you are
going upstairs. Come on…I know this has happened to you before! (If it hasn’t now would be a fantastic time
to lie to me to make me feel better.)
I used to have a sharp memory. I used to be able to get a post-it and remember what to write on it! I still have
a sharp memory on some things, but how did I lose it on basic life skills. So strange. I have learned to cope
with this though or so I thought. My Google calendar, post-its, multiple lists have been serving me well. At
least until this blank post-it incident. Now I may have to re-think my strategy.
iPhones are fabulous. I can easily access my Google calendar and that almost always keeps me from double
booking. iPhone also has this great little feature called a notepad. I thought this would be a good way to
remember, but the thing is I never remember to actually look at the notepad for anything I’ve written. In
Australia I used it for notes to my blog and that worked, but as far as random notes to jog my
memory…useless when you don’t remember to look at the notes!
A concern I have is I’m about to start school again. I’ll be back at UW for project management. Yes, I can still
get accepted by UW! The thing that worries me is I struggled a little with the memory thing when I started UW
Business School back in 2001. I pulled through, but I had not been on a multiple year break from school. I’m
sure tests will be more of a challenge and I’ll have to come up with a better way to remember things. I feel like
I may need to buy a pack of post-its and highlighters and things to go into the new backpack I bought for AU
(the first backpack I have bought since high school, I got one for high school graduation as a present and I used
it up until AU).

I’m sure I will manage just fine. I will learn to not leave blank post-its around. Maybe I’ll get more tech savy
with my mind and learn to use notes on iPhone. Who knows. Suggestions are welcome.

I’ve been slowly pulling out Christmas decorations. Slowly because I still have stuff hanging around from my trip. My
guestroom has random stuff on the bed and floor that I haven’t put away. It would only take me a few minutes to clean, but
I haven’t bothered doing it. I have my backpack laying on my bedroom floor with about a third of what was in it from the
plane. I have some other random stuff around that. I have one more decoration left up from my sisters & friends decorating
my house. Multi-colored stars can be considered Christmas can’t they?
The first thing I pulled from the garage was my pair of white spiral trees I love these trees. I don’t know why, but it is my
favorite. They are meant to go outside, but I like them so much that I keep them inside. At first I put them by my front
window so people could see them, but now they are in front of my fireplace where nobody but me can see them. If I spend

the money on them why shouldn’t I be the one to enjoy them? I love having them on when I’m doing stuff in the kitchen,
watching TV or reading. I call them my Christmas trees since I don’t have an actual tree.
I bought a new light tree the other day. This tree has LED lights that string from the top to a large circle bottom. Nancy
and Sue-Lynn helped me untangle lights and put it together lastnight. The lights go between white and blue and it has a
star at the top that also lights up. This tree is bright and I love the way it looks. I did buy it to go on my front lawn, but now I
want to keep it in my house to look at. It is turned on in the dining room right now. Maybe I should expand my kitchen table
and put it on that and use it instead of the chandelier for the holiday season.
I have no lights outside at the moment. I did buy some LED snowflakes to put on my fence. I’ve never put lights on my
house since the front faces a small side street. I’ve put blue & white lights along my fence and a couple of the front trees.
However I didn’t do any lights last year. I just keep thinking if I take the time to pull them out and put them out I have to take
the time to take them down and put them away. So much effort for such a short time! I will eventually get out into the
freezing cold weather and put up my new snowflakes, hopefully I have enough and they look okay. I’m also considering
buying another LED tree to put by my front door so people outside can enjoy because I can’t bring myself to move the tree
from my dining room….yet! I know I have to move it, maybe just to the front window.
Who decided Christmas lights should go outside anyway? I like looking at my trees in my house.
If you are stuck on the fact that I don’t have a tree up, I feel it is a lot of unnecessary work. My family never comes to my
house for Christmas, I go to their homes. I like looking at Christmas trees, but they take so long to set up and take down.
And there is that little detail that I never remember to water living things in my home so it dies quickly. When I did have a
roommate and a tree I did make a point of remembering to water it and well, it barely made it through Christmas.
I kinda feel the same about most of my decorations including the lights and garland that I bought to go on my stairs. It looks
great when it is up, but it is so much effort. Okay, really not that much effort, just something I’m not feeling like spending
time on. Yeah, maybe I’m lazy. I did just finish my first batch of chocolates and am halfway through the second.
Chocolates take a long time to make, but everybody seems to want them and I don’t mind eating a few.
Well that is all for now. I bought Eggnog and Vanilla Icecream so I’m going to my myself an Eggnog milkshake. A real
milkshake which I have been wanting since I came home from Australia because their idea of a milkshake is mixing flavor
with milk and throwing a spoonful of icecream on the bottom. Mmm….milkshake. Good thing I spent 2 hours at the gym
today because you know I’m not doing low-fat Eggnog…its the holidays people! Eat & drink & be merry or something like
that!