I'm extremely prone to distraction. This is why I'm a slow reader.
I practically read any book I read twice, because of the amount of re-reading I do, as I go along.
My mother had the same affliction, and my father, albeit to a lesser degree. So, I blame their DNA.
In me, my distraction levels can be rather ominous.
I was just afforded another example of this, just an hour ago.
I was at the local vehicle registry place, where you get the little sticker to renew your license plate validation. So I fill out the information and the girl did the processing and asked how I'd like to pay. I then insert my trusty chip-embedded VISA card in the little terminal. Sounds pretty simple, right?
She turned to go over to the place where the stickers are, and in that interval of time I drifted off to Australia or somewhere. She returned and handed me the sticker as the VISA machine spat out a little piece of paper. She tore it off and said, "Oh. You didn't do it?"
Meanwhile I'm thinking in my head, "You know? Kangaroos have to be the most amazing creature ever…." and my mouth says, "Pardon me?"
The VISA thing… it didn't work. Apparently you have to DO certain things.
I say, "I'm sorry" and re-insert the card.
Again… seconds go by, and now I'm hang-gliding somewhere, entranced by how the tops of trees from this altitude sort of look like broccoli. The machine spits out yet another piece of paper, and this time it actually says on it, at the bottom and in real small font… "What the hell is WRONG with this guy?"
I swear! That's how bad I am.
Up till then, this was almost fun, but now the girl is looking at me with an angry face. There are a lot of other people in this line, you bozo!
So again, [third time, if you're counting] I re-insert the card, profuse with apologies, and now I force myself to stare intently at the machine, not looking to the right or left. No more dreams.
It worked. I leave with the new sticker, which I had intended to apply as soon as I was outside.
But in the interim, I forgot.
Now I am home and the sticker is still on the passenger seat of my car, sitting there.
It sometimes amazes me that I somehow make it to work every morning, instead of just aimlessly driving off into the distance…
*****
1 comment:
Heh, you sound like my husband. Once he kept forgetting to put the license sticker on the plates for a couple weeks, it was in the car on the passenger seat the whole time but he kept getting distracted. Then one morning he went out to the car to go to work and had a lovely $150 ticket stuck to his window for having expired license plates. Between the ticket and the wrath of his wife, he has never forgotten to put that sticker on again!
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