Note to Self: Mark Off Doña Quixote Check List Before Leaving House

Photo Credit: Shauna Robertson.

Doña Quixote is my name for my dementing self. During my ventures into the outside world this past week, she showed up rather frequently, as measured by my several lapses in preparedness related to my appearance and/or handbag paraphernalia:

• On Monday during a car trip with Peter, I left my car- and house keys in my other bag, so that, without Peter by my side, I could not open the trunk or car doors when I wanted to drop off a heavy shopping bag so that I did not have to carry it with me while completing my shopping; and back home, I could not fulfill my responsibility to open the door while Peter unloaded the heavy or breakable things from the car.
• On Tuesday, I forgot to charge my phone so that Peter and I had to pre-agree on a time and place to meet after our errands rather than call each other when we were done.
• On Wednesday, I remembered to charge my phone but forgot to put it back in my handbag. I also forgot to comb out my hair after it had dried flat on my head, still slicked in the fourth-grade-boy-just-out-of-the-shower style with which I tame it when still wet. In addition, I forgot to change out of my house shoes into my outdoor ones. I planned to go by bus, but at the last minute noticed that I did not have the right change. Peter did not have any either. I had to use my credit card, which costs $2.50 rather $1.25 in cash.
• On Thursday, I left the house with my apron on and only noticed it when I was about to go into the grocery store. I also unintentionally wore my tee-shirt inside out.
• On Friday, I left the house without the earrings I had put out right next to the necklace I had planned to wear. I did put on the necklace. I felt so undone that I bought a pair of cheap earrings at Name Droppers.

Oh, I hear you say, I have done exactly the same things many times. I hope, for the sake of your tranquility, that you don’t do one or more of them every day; or that these lapses aren’t piled on top of minute-by-minute inside-the-house memory lapses that make you knock yourself on the head, wring your hands, and doubt your identity. If you do, I hope you have not been rendered so insecure that you feel compelled to buy earrings because you forgot yours at home.

In my situation, these lapses are particularly stressful when they involve Peter. They create more annoyances for him to put up with—though, as always, he does so with grace and humor. That I am the one who cares most is evident from the fact that he does not notice the omissions that affect my appearance, though he is usually the one who discovers that my phone is not available or my keys missing. It is I who anguish about my personal appearance. Lapses in this department eat at the heart of who I am, even though I have always thought of myself as “the clever one” rather than “the pretty one.” While I have always tried for a put-together look in my personal and professional life, in previous times I would have shrugged off the little detail of not wearing earrings. On Friday, though, I felt extremely anxious about forgetting my earrings.

What to do about it? Today I am making a checklist to stick on the inside of the back- and front doors:

Mirror check: touch each of the following:

___ teeth brushed

___ hair

___ make-up

___ earrings

___ no apron

___ shoes

___ medic alert bracelet

Handbag check: touch each of the following:

___ phone

___ keys

___ tissues

___ make-up touch-up baglet

___ incidentals baglet: make sure I have cough lozenges

___ asthma puffer

___ bus fare purse with correct change

___ wallet

___ hairbrush

___ snack for low blood sugar

___ shopping list

I am also making a checklist for outside the back door, where I always come in:

___ put phone in charger

___ refill incidentals baglet: cough lozenges, bandaids, lip ice

___ check tissues

Now all I have to do is remember to use the checklist!