Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The Upside of Idiocy

To someone like me who has no long-term memory, life is a constant series of unexpected gifts. For instance, this morning I woke up to a dreary drizzle and a muddy yard. Standing in my closet, I mused aloud to Annie that "It's days like this when I wish I had a pair of boots."

She looked at me like I was nuts. "Um, you DO have a pair of boots ..."

"I do not," I responded airily. "Those were my dad's boots, and I had to throw them out a long time ago." You'd think I'd learn after almost nine years of marriage to take her word over mine, but noooooo ...

"No," she said patiently, by now used to my disability, "you have another pair besides those. I saw them just the other day in the closet."

So I looked, just to make her happy you know, because I was sure I'd not have forgotten something as important as a pair of boots and ...

Standing there on my little shoe shelf was a pair of boots. "Wow!" I exclaimed. "I have a pair of boots!" I danced around the closet, it was like Christmas in March.

When you're an idiot, every day has the possibility of holding little gifts you didn't even know you had. I just hope Annie doesn't count this as my anniversary present ...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know too well what you mean, does this run in our family? Why can I remember to close ALL of my XHTML tags but can't remember where my keys and wallet are? And where is my brown belt? Have you seen it? Oh yea i'm wearing it...

Anonymous said...

the upside is you can hide your own easter eggs!
have those boots ever been on your feet?

Jeff Hebert said...

Those boots have indeed been on my feet (although the photo is not of my boots, just some that look close -- we still haven't gotten my digital camera back from the repair shop, which is irritating the hell out of me).

I wear them when I ride, which isn't terribly often. But yes, definitely used, and for horses to boot.

Denise said...

Jeffrey, I hate to tell you this. It gets worse. When Stephen was little, I suddenly realized I didn't know where he was.
"Stephen!," I yelled. "Where are you?"
"I'm right here, Mommy," said this sweet little voice. I was holding his hand the entire time. Breathing a sigh of relief but unwilling to admit my stupidity, I said:
"Good, I just wanted to be sure you knew where you were."