May I Have a Word, Please

No, seriously, I mean it. I'm looking for a word and it's not coming to me. So I look at my wife and say something like, you know, it looks like, or it sounds like, or it means something like we were just talking about. Why can't I think of it? She usually can.

And how about trying to remember the name of a movie, a book, a personality, even a friend and it won't come to you. Running through the alphabet sometimes helps. Most times when I say I think the name begins with “B” it usually turns up beginning with “S” or something else. If not immediately solved the missing word or title will pop into my head hours or days later when I'm not thinking about it. At that point who cares?

Most people attribute this retrieval problem to the aging process but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. And it's not just me, of course.

Part of my job description these days is “filler inner” meaning when my wife is talking to someone else and she pauses I fill in the word she's trying to come up with. Sometimes she'll tell me to wait a minute, let me think. She thinks and then says, OK, what is it? I fill her in and she continues the conversation.

Let's face it. We need each other not just to complete each others sentences but to remember what to add to the grocery list, when to buy gas, when to water the lawn and the zillion other little things that keep a household running sanely.

Oh, and how is this for “sanely?” We went to sleep last night concerned our bottom freezer wasn't closing properly. So my wife woke up at 6 a.m. today, went downstairs, sealed it with duct tape and came back to bed. Later, we emptied it and I touched something inside which made a snapping noise and now it's back to normal. Now that's insane.

But it worked.