THE ARW MYSTERY

Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this! I don't have a PDA or anything like that, but I do have a little date book that stays open on my desk at all times. It's the only way I can keep track of my life. It's not that I am juggling numerous appointments each day, like some corporate types. It's just that if I get absorbed in one thing, I tend to forget everything else. So I need reminders sitting right in front of me, of any appointments for the week, deadlines to be met, and things I want to accomplish, etc. The spaces in this datebook are fairly small, so over the years I have developed the habit of abbreviating things, using acronyms, and using colored pencils to indicate importance. In general, this works well for me. But occasionally, I screw up royally.

For instance, take this week. Every day for the next four days, I have the initials ARW written on the page, in red. Red indicates "Don't you dare forget this!" It skips Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and then there it is again the following week on Sunday through Wednesday. ARW. In red. Trouble is, I can't for the life of me remember what ARW stands for. I have been wracking my brain all week, trying to remember why I wrote that. Then I enlisted my husband's assistance, when he arrived this weekend. In the end, he was more obsessed with figuring it out than I was, and will probably stew on it during his entire drive back to Houston.

I wish I could blame it on old age, but I've been like this my entire life. For instance, I'm forever putting something away in a safe place, so I will be able to find it when I need it, but then I forget where that safe place is. People see my lists and think I am a super-organized control freak, but actually they are a much needed coping mechanism for just getting by. If you come to a dinner party at my house, you will probably laugh, as does everyone else, when you see my list on the refrigerator door, of all the things I plan to serve that evening. If only you knew how many times I have been putting things away after a dinner party, only to discover that one of the main dishes was still sitting in the refrigerator, because I forgot to serve it!

So, this isn't the first time I have forgotten the meaning of one of my own abbreviations. They always come back to me eventually, so I'm not too worried. I know it doesn't have anything to do with The Bountiful Sprout, or with the on-line class I am taking, which are the only critical things going on right now, as far as I know. I'd feel better though, if it weren't written in red.