Out of my mind....back in 5 minutes!

I am trying to remember what subject I was going to write about today...

Oh, yeah....my memory, or lack thereof.

I once read that the way to tell the difference between normal memory lapses and something more serious was this: If you forget where you left your car keys, that's normal. If you find your car keys and forget what they are for...then you should start worrying.

I know that my mind gets cluttered... causing me to forget even the most inane things....however, as I get older I am finding that it is getting more and more difficult to remember.

Sometimes a thought will pop up in my head...and two seconds later....*poof* it is gone forever. It seems that the harder I try to recollect the thought....the more I become panicked and fearful that I am losing my mind (some may say that has already occurred!!)...This normal (right?) part of aging can be really frightening.

"Write it down"....."make a list" you say. I have tried to make sure that paper and pen are handy at all times....but unfortunately I can't always remember to look at my lists...or, even find them.

I have a wonderful "Birthday Reminder Book" filled with important dates of my friends and family. The only problem with the book is that you have to remember to look at it each month!

Another aspect of this memory loss is trying to remember names of people...especially when you are in a social setting and you see someone approaching you.....you know that you know them...but, for the life of you, can't remember their name at that moment. I have told Dave many a time that if I seem to be stumbling when someone comes up to us at a party....'please introduce yourself to them so that I can hear their name as you shake their hand'. This usually works fine, but is so embarrassing and humiliating.

Or, how about a movie title....or a song title....???? You can try to retrieve the memory all to no avail...but then days later it suddenly pops into your head! aaaagh!

I also find that I can sometimes remember things that occurred 20,30 years ago with more clarity than I can recall something that happened within the last few minutes. This is mind-boggling to me.

I know that there are many articles about exercising our brains...doing crossword puzzles, Soduko, Jumble, etc. but, even these tend to frustrate me. My mom does a crossword puzzle every single day (!), but she still calls me all three of my sister's names before she gets to mine.

So, like wrinkles and aches and pains, I guess that this is another aspect of aging that we need to accept and deal with.

Well, I need to end for now and go and run some errands....now, if I can just remember what those errands were....