If you're absent-minded and you know it clap your hands!
Clap! Clap!
Does knowing you're absent-minded make you any less so?
Last week I made two mind-blunders that caused other people some amount of inconvenience. On Wednesday I was handed some tulips which were thoughtfully chosen for a special person's birthday. The desired recipient lives close to Petra and I and it was my job to either give them to him that evening as soon as I arrived home, or put them in a vase and give them to him early the next day.
As I walked with Petra to the car the next morning and saw the wilted tulips sitting in the back seat I tried to think of a valid excuse.
Petra: "Why are there flowers in the back seat?"
Jeremy: (suddenly realizing some of the possible implications) "They're for (birthday boy) and...um...I was supposed to give them to him."
Petra: "Don't you know that you should put flowers in water ASAP."
Jeremy: "Yes...I forgot."
It turns out that I would see him (and the person who gave the flowers to him through me) later that same day. Unfortunately they were both present around noon when I remembered that the tulips were still sitting in car. As I made my way inside with the wilted tulips in hand I saw the giver's face drop as she saw the gift.
Oops.
Then a couple days later I was grocery shopping. I was in a hurry. As I went through the checkout, I put the carton of bottled mineral water for the workers at our house down on the bottom part of the cart. After I incorrectly entered my debit card PIN for the second time, I continued to load the other bags into the main section of the cart. As I arrived at the line of carts in which I would push mine into, I took the bags out of the cart and made my way to the car. Fifteen minutes into my drive back home I remembered that the carton of water was still in the cart. "It'll be a random act of kindness" I thought. "Someone will really appreciate having free mineral water." More importantly, I didn't want to try to tell the cashier what happened in my broken Croatian only to have her look at me with a blank stare.
So I went to the next grocery store and bought a few new bottles of mineral water not wanting to come back without drinks for our workers. But as I payed for the water I realized that someone may have actually done the 'right thing' and returned the case of mineral water to the cashier. Usually when you buy drinks like that it's in order to have something special for guests. Whoever found the case might have thought that I went to a great effort to pay for the beverages.
So I returned and found I was right. The cashier who had been patient while I remembered my PIN smiled and handed me the case of mineral water.
"Why am I so absent-minded" I thought as I walked out.
I still don't have an answer. The one thing I do know is that I am absent-minded.
Or am I?
Clap! Clap!
Does knowing you're absent-minded make you any less so?
Last week I made two mind-blunders that caused other people some amount of inconvenience. On Wednesday I was handed some tulips which were thoughtfully chosen for a special person's birthday. The desired recipient lives close to Petra and I and it was my job to either give them to him that evening as soon as I arrived home, or put them in a vase and give them to him early the next day.
As I walked with Petra to the car the next morning and saw the wilted tulips sitting in the back seat I tried to think of a valid excuse.
Petra: "Why are there flowers in the back seat?"
Jeremy: (suddenly realizing some of the possible implications) "They're for (birthday boy) and...um...I was supposed to give them to him."
Petra: "Don't you know that you should put flowers in water ASAP."
Jeremy: "Yes...I forgot."
It turns out that I would see him (and the person who gave the flowers to him through me) later that same day. Unfortunately they were both present around noon when I remembered that the tulips were still sitting in car. As I made my way inside with the wilted tulips in hand I saw the giver's face drop as she saw the gift.
Oops.
Then a couple days later I was grocery shopping. I was in a hurry. As I went through the checkout, I put the carton of bottled mineral water for the workers at our house down on the bottom part of the cart. After I incorrectly entered my debit card PIN for the second time, I continued to load the other bags into the main section of the cart. As I arrived at the line of carts in which I would push mine into, I took the bags out of the cart and made my way to the car. Fifteen minutes into my drive back home I remembered that the carton of water was still in the cart. "It'll be a random act of kindness" I thought. "Someone will really appreciate having free mineral water." More importantly, I didn't want to try to tell the cashier what happened in my broken Croatian only to have her look at me with a blank stare.
So I went to the next grocery store and bought a few new bottles of mineral water not wanting to come back without drinks for our workers. But as I payed for the water I realized that someone may have actually done the 'right thing' and returned the case of mineral water to the cashier. Usually when you buy drinks like that it's in order to have something special for guests. Whoever found the case might have thought that I went to a great effort to pay for the beverages.
So I returned and found I was right. The cashier who had been patient while I remembered my PIN smiled and handed me the case of mineral water.
"Why am I so absent-minded" I thought as I walked out.
I still don't have an answer. The one thing I do know is that I am absent-minded.
Or am I?
1 comment:
Bro' this is just a full proof that you are MAN.
GOD has wired us this way...
:)
Post a Comment