Upside Ann

When I clean the kitchen, I put the butter dish in a cupboard.  Even leaving the butter out, even leaving the butter out in the middle of summer, our butter stays rock hard.  Not cool.  But that is why it is not in the refrigerator.  Now you have the background for the story. Last week I cleaned up.  Typically, I am not all that good at putting EVERYTHING away.  But I did.  I put the butter plate on top the stack of plates we use for meals - just while I wiped down the counter.  Then maybe I walked away or maybe the portal opened immediately.  All I know is that FOR DAYS I have not been able to find the butter.  I looked in the cupboards.  Even the cupboards where I don't think I have ever put the butter.  Even the, gasp, refrigerator. Yesterday was Sunday and on Sunday my Auntie comes for dinner (that is lunch in non-farm speak.)  I made meatloaf and real mashed potatoes.  Butter was still missing so I broke down and...

 Once upon a time, I used to - on occasion - pretend I forgot something.  Yeah, I know. Bad me.  But I was 22 or so.  And even at that young age it wasn't the thing I regret most.  I was in graduate school and there was a lot going on.  The thing is, it wasn't very long before I actually did START to ACTUALLY forget things.  Maybe it was stress.  I WAS in graduate school.   Maybe I just trained myself to forget.   Unfortunately, that affliction didn't stay at Duke.  It followed me forward and progressed in funny ways that made me into the proverbial absent-minded professor.  For example, I once forgot to go to class.  Honestly, forgot.  To go.  To class.  To a class in which--- I was the teacher.  OMG Now that I am a parent, rather than forgetting things intentionally, I will sometimes lose things intentionally.  I'm guess that most parents of a suitably low caliber have done this...tho...