Pages

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Marj: On losing one's mind

My friend Marj and I have reconnected over this blog. She jumped wholeheartedly into retirement, relocation, and even grandparenthood while I am still bumbling my way around my Third Third.

So Marj offers advice and experience and leaves me laughing in the process. (She says that when the movie is made, I should insist on Emma Stone playing me. Emma Stone is NOT in her Third Third; Emma Stone hasn’t even entered her Second Third….)

Anyhow, my New Thing for today is to have my first Guest Blogger: Marj. Enjoy!
“Literally everyone I know thinks they are losing their minds. I find that reassuring because if EVERYONE thinks they are losing their mind, that means we are all OK. Because statistically only a percentage of us will lose our minds. But how do we know which group we are in, and how can we tell when it starts?

“I bought some new jeans and decided to cut the tags off and wash them because I had a partial load of laundry almost ready to go.
“But as I was walking thorough the house to the kitchen to get the scissors to cut off the tags, my husband urgently called me to come over to the window – there was a large squirrel playing in our yard. He had told me about the squirrel earlier in the day (as I was reading the newspaper), and now that it was back, he wanted to be sure I saw it. After commenting appreciatively on the squirrel, I continued in the kitchen, having no idea why I was there. I went to the refrigerator and got a diet Coke while I tried to figure it out. Then I saw the jeans lying there and resumed my project.
 
“Got the tags off, put the jeans in the washing machine, and went to the bedroom to get the laundry basket with the rest of the laundry. On the way to the bedroom, my husband asked if I knew how old the tomatoes were. I went to take a look at them to try to figure it out. It was hours later when I went to the closet to get some shoes that I realized the laundry basket was still there and the jeans were still unwashed in the washing machine.
“I attribute a significant portion of my problem to my husband. He asks random questions at random times, makes irrelevant comments all day long, and feels no guilt for causing me to lose my train of thought. Apparently he HAS to say whatever pops into his mind as it pops into his mind or he will lose it forever. And I HAVE to have him group his comments and questions and save them all until I am not trying to do anything. This is retirement. Ask any woman.”
Marj also told me earlier: “I had no idea you want A Job. My goodness! You and I are so different! When I retired I wanted my husband to get a job – but that didn’t work out for me. Whenever I scanned want ads on his behalf, he always said why would I want to do that? I thought it would be great if he had a place to go all day, and for us (me) to have more money to spend.”

Not to mention, the jeans would get washed….

1 comment:

  1. Marj, if you want to see the squirrel, you have to look when it's there. But I don't bother my wife unless it's a moose, or maybe the Steller Jay. But if I really need to get stuff done - I make a todo list that I keep in on my lap top, with a copy in my pocket, to help me remember why I was going downstairs. And you don't have to humor your husband. Tell him to take a picture of the squirrel.

    ReplyDelete

Sharing Button