A Curious Kind of Life

Tag: Everyday Life

  • I Bought Fall Asters. That’s As Far As We Got.

    I Bought Fall Asters. That’s As Far As We Got.

    So…I bought fall asters instead of mums.

    Don’t shoot me, mum-loving readers. 😂

    I love mums. I really do. They come in all kinds of colors, they make your curb appeal look all nice and fall-ish, and they look adorable with pumpkins and gourds.

    Except…I have no pumpkins.

    And no gourds.

    And no covered porch.

    So, there’s that.

    Anyway, I read somewhere that fall asters are better for attracting pollinators, and since I already have native asters growing in the garden, I figured, What’s the harm in adding a few more?

    Then I went to the garden center.

    And there were pollinators all over the asters.

    HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT?!

    So naturally, I bought a few.

    I had a vision.

    I knew exactly where I was going to put them. I could already picture how darn fall-ish the garden was going to look.

    I brought them home, went into the garden, and randomly placed them in their pots where I thought they looked good.

    And they did look good.

    So…I stopped.

    🤣

    It has been raining a lot lately, which means those asters have now been sitting exactly where I put them for a few weeks.

    Untouched.

    Still blooming.

    And honestly?

    They’re doing just fine.

    The rain has also meant I haven’t had to go out and water the garden every afternoon, so I’m not complaining.

    Adulting is hard to comprehend sometimes. LOL.

    One minute you’re excited because you have pretty new plants for the garden.

    The next minute you’re standing there thinking, Thank God it rained so I don’t have to water anything.

    And somewhere along the way, my carefully imagined vision for where those asters were supposed to go has completely disappeared from my brain.

    Gone.

    Evaporated.

    Apparently filed under Things Past Me Thought Present Me Would Remember.

    Instead, my brain is busy with:

    What shall we have for dinner?

    What other fires do I need to put out at work?

    Dang, I’m so tired today. My brain is fried.

    You know. Life.

    Life is life-ing.

    Meanwhile, the asters are just sitting there waiting for me.

    The main group is all together, patiently waiting in their pots to be replanted.

    They are basically the most cooperative members of this entire gardening operation.

    They’re like, “No rush, ma’am. We’ll just be over here blooming.”

    And then there are the other two.

    The two scattered asters.

    🤣🤣🤣

    Those two have apparently decided they don’t need to be part of the group project.

    They’re just out there doing their own thing.

    No meeting.

    No agenda.

    No regard for the master plan.

    Meanwhile, Past Me had a VISION™ for all of them.

    Present Me has misplaced that vision somewhere between What’s for dinner? and What fresh work fire is this?

    So here we are.

    No pumpkins.

    No gourds.

    No beautifully styled fall porch.

    No strategically placed basket of blankets.

    Because, again, we don’t have a covered porch, and I’m pretty sure putting blankets outside in the rain would not be the cozy fall aesthetic I’m going for.

    Just asters.

    Some together.

    Two wandering around like they’ve gone rogue.

    And me, apparently in charge of Aster Management™.

    Exhibit A:The Main Group — patiently waiting together in their pots.
    Exhibit B:The Two Rebels — scattered somewhere else, apparently having resigned from the group project.

    For now, they’re blooming.

    The pollinators are happy.

    The garden is getting rain.

    I’m getting a little break from watering.

    And apparently, this is my fall decorating.

    🤣

    You know what?

    That’s okay.

    Sometimes you have a vision.

    Sometimes life has other plans.

    Sometimes you buy the flowers and that’s as far as you get.

    And sometimes the flowers are perfectly happy to wait for you to remember what the heck you were going to do with them.

    Life is life-ing.

    We’ll figure out the asters eventually.

  • Things That Should Have a “Where the Heck Is This?” Button

    Things That Should Have a “Where the Heck Is This?” Button

    There are times—actually, most of the time—when I’m cleaning an area of the house and I find something that shouldn’t be there.

    You know the kind of thing I’m talking about.

    It’s not trash. It’s not something I don’t need. It’s actually something important.

    So, naturally, I do the responsible thing.

    I put it somewhere safe.

    And then I lose it.

    Not immediately, of course. That would almost be too easy.

    No. I put it somewhere that I am absolutely, positively certain I will remember.

    “This is a safe place,” I tell myself.

    “I’ll remember this.”

    Future Me has apparently never been consulted about this arrangement.

    The Case of the Missing Universal Plug

    A perfect example happened with one of our universal travel plugs.

    We travel with it because, well, it’s a universal travel plug. It comes with us when we’re packing for a trip, and it’s one of those things you don’t want to discover is missing when you’re standing in your hotel room in another country.

    So imagine me cleaning up a bedroom.

    I find the plug sitting somewhere it shouldn’t be.

    Rather than leaving it there, because I’m trying to be a responsible adult who keeps things organized, I put it somewhere safe.

    Somewhere I won’t forget.

    Or so I thought.

    Fast-forward to the next time we’re packing our luggage.

    I need the universal plug.

    I know we have it.

    I’ve seen it.

    I have personally picked it up.

    And yet…

    Where the heck is it?

    Suddenly I’m searching through drawers, cabinets, closets, random containers and every other place I could possibly have put it.

    And the most frustrating part?

    Before I cleaned up that bedroom, I probably saw the thing all the time.

    It was right there.

    In the wrong place.

    Annoying me.

    Waiting for me to put it away.

    But now that I’ve actually cleaned up the room and put everything where it supposedly belongs, I can’t find the one thing I’m looking for.

    Apparently, I made it too safe.

    The “Safe Place” Is Not Actually Safe

    This has happened more times than I care to admit.

    I’ll find something while cleaning and think, Oh, this shouldn’t be here.

    So I move it.

    I put it somewhere logical.

    Or somewhere that makes sense in that particular moment.

    And then I completely forget where that logical place was.

    Sometimes I’ll even remember the thought process.

    I moved it because I didn’t want to lose it.

    Great.

    Where did I move it?

    No idea.

    And that’s when I start retracing my steps like I’m investigating a crime scene.

    Okay… I had it in this room.

    Then I picked it up.

    Then I was cleaning this.

    Then I thought, “I should put this somewhere safe.”

    And that’s it.

    The trail goes cold.

    The item has entered witness protection.

    Is It Just Me?

    This is the part where I started wondering:

    Is this just me?

    Because surely I’m not the only person who has a designated “safe place” that is apparently so safe that even I can’t find it.

    And if you have ever cleaned your house, moved something important somewhere “better,” and then spent 45 minutes looking for it later, you already know where this is going.

    There may actually be a reason our brains do this.

    When we’re cleaning or putting something away, our attention is often focused on the bigger task rather than creating a detailed memory of exactly where we’re placing one particular object.

    And when we put something somewhere unusual—especially because we’re trying to make sure we don’t lose it—we may not create the kind of strong memory that helps us retrieve that location later.

    In other words, our brain may basically say:

    Got it. Thing is safe.

    And then immediately move on.

    Thanks, brain.

    Very helpful.

    Maybe Future Me Needs a Little More Help

    I’ve started to wonder if the problem isn’t necessarily that I’m forgetful.

    Maybe the problem is that I keep assuming Future Me knows what Present Me was thinking.

    Present Me:

    “I’ll put this right here. I’ll definitely remember.”

    Future Me:

    “Who are you?”

    😂

    Maybe the solution isn’t another storage container, another organizational system or another drawer labeled “IMPORTANT.”

    Maybe I just need to stop creating mysterious little hiding places and calling them “safe.”

    Because apparently, a safe place is only useful if I can actually find it again.

    Until then, perhaps what I really need is a button.

    A big one.

    Right in the middle of the house.

    WHERE THE HECK IS THIS?

    Press it.

    The house pauses.

    A tiny alarm goes off.

    A voice from somewhere in the ceiling says:

    “You put it in the drawer under the printer.”

    And I would like to formally request that technology make this happen.

    Until then, I’ll keep looking.

    And when I finally find that universal plug?

    I’m putting it somewhere I’ll definitely remember.

    Probably.

    Maybe.

    Let’s not get carried away.

  • Welcome to Everyday Discoveries

    Welcome to Everyday Discoveries

    I have a tendency to wonder about things.

    Sometimes they’re important things.

    Sometimes they’re completely random things.

    And sometimes they’re things that probably don’t need to be questioned at all—but now that I’ve thought about them, I need to know the answer.

    Why do we do that?

    Why is that so difficult?

    How does that even work?

    And, perhaps most importantly, why didn’t anyone tell me this before?

    That’s where Everyday Discoveries comes in.

    This isn’t going to be a collection of product reviews or a list of things you should buy. I’m not here to convince you that you need the newest gadget, the latest must-have item, or another thing to add to your Amazon cart.

    I have enough stuff.

    What I do have is curiosity.

    So this is where I’m going to follow some of those little questions that pop into my head while I’m going about my everyday life.

    Sometimes I’ll start with something that happened to me.

    Sometimes I’ll notice something I’ve never really thought about before.

    Sometimes I’ll wonder whether something that’s happening in my house is just a me thing—or whether the rest of you are doing it too.

    And sometimes, I suspect, I’ll go down a rabbit hole and come back with far more information than I ever intended to have.

    That’s okay.

    That’s kind of the point.

    Because I’ve realized that everyday life is actually full of things worth noticing.

    We just don’t always stop long enough to notice them.

    So consider this my invitation to pause for a minute, get curious about something ordinary, and see where the question takes us.

    We might learn something.

    We might discover something completely unexpected.

    Or we might just end up laughing at ourselves.

    Honestly, I’m good with any of those.

    Welcome to Everyday Discoveries.

    Let’s see what we find.