What's the worst thing you have ever forgotten?

[quizzical]

In the “I forgot” category, there are two worsts that come immediately to mind; for now, I’ll just mention one of them: my English final during my freshman year of college.

Funny thing is that my roommate was taking the same class, but since we had been given the option of writing a paper in advance, or taking the final, she had chosen the paper, while my procrastinating self (surprise, surprise) chose the exam.

So on Saturday morning, my roommate was sound asleep when I got up and headed out to breakfast. It turned out to be a lovely winter’s day: sun shining on crisp, clean snow, a brilliant blue sky. Instead of going back to the dorm after breakfast, I indulged in a lovely long walk around campus.

I arrived back at the dorm room around 10:45 a.m., to be greeted by my roommate in this manner: “Well, how was it?”

“How was – what?” I replied, confused. How did she know I’d been on this lovely long walk?

Her eyes doubled in size as she gaped at me. “The ENGLISH final – How was it?”

“That’s not till Monday,” I corrected her.

Now her eyes took over her entire face. “No, it’s TODAY! From 9 to 11! I thought that’s where you were!”

“No, no, it’s Monday – I wrote it down,” I said, flipping through my class notes and looking at the margins, because that’s where I wrote all those important memos-to-self: in the margins of my notebook. And finally I found what I was looking for, up in the corner of a page: “English final, Saturday, 9 a.m.”

Holycrapholycrapholycrapholycrap…….

After a moment of frozen panic, I numbly walked over to the lecture hall where the exam was taking place, at that very moment, for maybe another ten minutes. I peeked in. A few stragglers were scribbling away, the professor nowhere in sight. I loitered around the door until she showed up at 11 on the dot. I forget what tumbled out of my panic-stricken mouth when I raced up to her, but the very first thing she said was, “Don’t worry.” And she let me take the makeup exam, already scheduled for – you guessed it – Monday morning.

So, one of the worst, but, wow, it could have been EVEN worse.

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[Anonymous]

I’ve burned numerous items on the stove when I got distracted by something and forgot until I smelled it burning. I’ve forgotten to pick up my child from a friends house after work, and I drove her there the night before. I’ve locked my keys in the car, and I often lose it in parking lots too. I’ve gone to meetings and appointments up to a week early because the time got stuck in my head, but the date did not. I’ve also forgotten a candle burning in the bathroom and the glass it was contained in broke due to the heat causing hot wax to be all over the vanity top.

I work early in the am and will tell myself to get gas on the way home from work, because the tank is empty, and I’ll forget until I go out to my car with just enough time to get to work, and find I’ve forgotten once again to fuel up my car. I will often tell myself of someplace I need to go while I’m out, and I’ll completely forget and go home. I do this all the time btw.

I’ve put a lbs of frozen burger in the microwave to thaw, and then change my mind and cook something without burger, but I forget about the burger and leave in the microwave all night causing it to spoil.

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[Anonymous]

Well first off thanks to everyone who post on this site. I am very glad I have found it. I am not yet diagnosed but pretty sure I am ADHD.. Any way I have 2 stories that I find funny. The first one being I had an appt with the doctor for testing and go figure I forgot all about it til the next day at work when I got asked about it bye a friend of mine. And second one is I have read numerous on people leaving there keys in there car. Well I one time locked my keys in my car, only realized because I started going into the store and realized I didnt have my wallet went back to my car to realize that I didnt have my keys. lucked out because there was a tow truck driver in the same lot who was kind enough to get them out for me. So after getting my wallet out I relocked the door and went into the store.. I then came back out shortly later and remembered that I never actually got my keys out of the car. So I called a friend he came down I broke into my car with a coat hanger which I did very often. So was quite good at it. Then offered friend a ride home.. Got to his place left car running got out and started talking away and guess what?? I left my keys in the car running and locked the doors because thats what I have always done.. So in less then an hour I had to break into my car 3 times.. Needless to say I love my new car.. If I lock my keys in now I just call on-star.. They can un-lock it for me.. haha Thanks again every one!!

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[Lucky77]

It sounds like I’m in the majority here with the following that have been forgotten…

– Mother’s birthday (along with many other people’s b-day, but my mom will lay so much guilt on you that it is truly the worst!)

– Plans to go over to friend’s house for dinner – totally let the day come and go and completely forgot to go

– So many thing regarding my daughter’s school – forms that need filling out, supplies needed to bring, forgetting I volunteered to make a treat etc. I’m sure I have a reputation at that school!

– I am surprised my car is running, because I can’t seem to keep straight when it needs an oil change. My husband has now taken over this chore as there have been way to many times where he checks the oil and there is barely any left!

– Doctor’s appointments, well any appointment for that matter (dentist, massage, hair, etc.) I don’t even want to guess on all the money I have spent on missed/late appointment fees.

So as you can see my life usually involves a ton of apologizing! I feel like every week there is someone I’m apologizing to for missing something…

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[Curlymoe115]

I printed out a new organizer for work and I forget to use the thing. I have a million stickys on the walls of my desk but spend a ton of time looking for the one I am looking for. But I guess it is better to be fast then good because once I find it I can whip through the activity. I usually only get half a break because I lose track of time. Started new meds but half the time I forget to take them. Birth control patch I forget to change it. I don’t know what good the meds for ADHD are doing because nothing has really changed except I sleep through the night most of the time now. Last week I was half way to my car when I realized that I made arrangements to pay everyone else in the office but I forgot to fill out my time sheet and get it signed. This working thing is for the birds, but right now I need the money so I have to keep at it.

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[laddybug3]

My house keys. I knew my keys were in my purse somewhere and then I remember they where on the table in the kitchen. Wasted an hour looking for them in my purse.

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[wolfshades]

Forgotten keys seem to be a theme with us, doesn’t it? We need them every day – which is probably why it happens so often. I’ve gotten *so* frustrated when I’m late, and heading out the door, and can’t find my keys anywhere. ….only to discover they were in my hands the whole time.

But worst than that for me are grocery store-related instances:

1) Going to the store with my iPad – and putting it down in order to pay for them, and forgetting all about the iPad until I got home (three times so far – and each time I’ve been lucky, or had honest clerks who held onto it for me)

2) Going to the store to get some frozen food. Brought it all home and put it on the counter…got distracted by another thought, which I immediately acted on. Decided to watch a cool TV show. Decided it was late, and so I should go to bed. Got up in the morning, brushed my teeth, had a shave and a shower. Came out to the kitchen, to notice the now entirely thawed out and useless “frozen” food.

There are others too. Like the time I ran the kitchen tap to do dishes. Put the soap in, made sure the water was hot enough. Noticed it wasn’t filling that quickly, and figured I’d have time to go check Facebook. So I did. Got completely engrossed in a conversation there. Noticed out of the corner of my eye this creeping little hint of a small river, moving slowly toward me from the kitchen……

Thank God I got diagnosed as having ADHD. Else I’d have to conclude I was batch**t crazy.

Oh, and sometimes…trying to tell non-ADHD people about all of this is like trying to explain an orgasm to a bicycle.

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[Anonymous]

Yup…it’s routine routine routine for me…….car-keys are in a tray by the front door, a-l-w-a-y-s……ALWAYS, or it’s on!!!! Glasses on my face, a-l-w-a-y-s……sometimes I forget and sleep with them on….what the hell is with that????

Anyway….everything that is part of my/our daily life, the administrivia……is rote…….much like Pavlov’s dog. It took a long time to get everything needed on a day to day basis, in it’s place……….but finally, it is, and it’s good. Life is so much simpler…….like a dog I trained myself to salivate when the bell rings!!!

Hahahaha…the hard part was my partner who is a “Linear Liberal”…..a C’est La Vie…type, who just thought I was an obsessive control freak…funny. The crazy conversations we’ve had!!!! So, years later…..hours, days, years of explaining she gets it…and me. I think having two ADD children was her real impetus to understand, but who is going to question the morality……we are now on the same page.

Honey, don’t move things around in the kitchen cupboards for variety please……I’ll never find a glass. No, don’t re-arrange all the bedroom drawers for “a change”……..gawd I need my clothes and I don’t want to search high and low for socks!!!!!! I finally shared this little story with her. If I was blind and went out for a little walk……would you re-arrange all the furniture in the house before I came back and not tell me???? No…..she said. Well….it’s similar to that, I said.

Hahahahahahahha….she got that one…..a simple story ended years of debate. She gets me….she get us (me & the kids) life is less frenetic…….ahhhhhhh harmony………-ish.

Oh ya ……..I think my record for leaving the house and getting almost a block away before going back for something is SIX!!!!

toofat

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[wolfshades]

Six, huh? That’s quite a lot. I think my magic number so far is four. And this doesn’t include all of those times when I was just simply too far from home to go back.

My wife changed *everything* around the place, all the time. I mean everything. There were so many times I’d come home from work and discover that she’d gone on a spree, and nothing was where it was when I left in the morning. We had some crazy arguments about it too – back in the day when I had no idea I had ADD, yet somehow knew the importance of having places to put things because otherwise I’d be sure to forget. Back then, ADD behaviours had some more common names: “laziness” and “stupidity” among the top three. (And those were things I called myself)

Anyway, now that the marriage is done and I’m on my own, things are better now. Especially now that the furniture and cupboards have stopped morphing on a daily basis.

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[Anonymous]

Haaa……..well sure…..I wasn’t gonna share the too far to go back home things….that’s just…….crazy, right!!!! Good giggle Wolf thanks.

List lists lists lists lists…..alway leave with a list. Not as in listing to one side or another….but a list of things to-do, pick-up, take back.

Glad to hear the furniture and cupboards have ceased morphing……….ya gotta love when that happens.

toofat

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[Anonymous]

I’ve just found this site and am rather excited. I apologize in advance if I do so go on.

First my worst as far as how badly it could have ended:

I was on the highway a few minutes driving home and glanced in the rearview to see I had forgotten to strap in my toddler in his car seat! He was just sitting there free as a bird with no restraint at all. As usual I had many things in my hands when I got to the car and just sat him in his seat while I unloaded. Then forgot I hadn’t strapped him in and closed the door. Yikes!

Next my worst for the affect it had on someone elses day:

My husband drove back from the cottage in his vehicle before the kids and I in mine one weekend. He took the laundry bag I gave him. After he left I realized that my keys (car, house, everything) were in a pocket of a pair of pants I was wearing earlier that weekend. Those pants were in the laundry bag my husband took home. It’s a 3 hour drive and he has no cell phone. I had to call him after he got home and get him to drive back with my keys so I could go to work on Monday. He had to make that 3 hour drive 3 times that Sunday. I always put my keys in my purse as soon as I get to the cottage now.

One of my personal best: I had a thought that it would be nice to call so-and-so (old family friend like a 3rd grandma). It had been awhile. Then I realized she had died months before. That was a shocker. OK maybe not ADD, maybe just repressed, but truly scary to realize.

There are many many more.

– Dogs left outside all night..

– Forgot to get gas before I got on the highway to go home after the empty light came on on the way to work (thank god for CAA).

– Birthdays I remember a month before sneak up on me and run past before I know what’s going on (almost always).

– Forgotten anniversaries (about half and half).

– Forgot to leave $ under my sons’ pillows from the tooth fairy. Yes I said sons’ as in I’ve forgotten it for both of them. I told them I forgot to call the toothfairy and tell her there was a pickup at our house. One time I forgot 2 days in a row for one son.

– I NEVER remember peoples’ names when I first meet them. I swear it’s like their name gets bleeped out when they say it because I just don’t absorb it. Crazy head of mine just disregards unimportant things like people’s names (hang my head in shame).

– Get to a room or to the top of the stairs and realize I have no idea why I’m there. Give up and go back and then see something that triggers the memory of why I was going there in the first place. Go back up. Lather, rinse repeat.

– Go back into the house to get something only to find a few other things I forgot to do/bring and then lock up again and start walking to the vehicle only to realize that I still didn’t get what I went back in for in the first place and we’re late (again) for school/work.

I’m sure I could go on but I guess I already did.

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[Anonymous]

I have forgotten important things such as family birthdays, work report due dates, and I have a very difficult time keeping in touch with all my friends/family. I tend to focus on people I actually talk to and spend time with rather than people who I haven’t seen but still love a lot. It goes all the way back to middle school I would always forget my textbooks, homework, and etc… in my locker and I would also forget similar stuff in my early high school years. I am on medication now so I am doing much better!!

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[Anonymous]

I always say that my memory is good, but REALLY short. And that is SO true. I’ve forgotten birthdays, appointments, things… but here are my favourites:

1. I lost my (full) grocery cart. In the grocery store. The lady who’s cart i adopted for a while, did not appreciate that I thought her groceries were more interesting than mine. Another time, I left the grocery store and couldn’t find a few items. I searched everywhere for them. As I traced my steps backwards, i realized I’d actually added them to different carts that were in the same aisle as mine. If you come home with mystery groceries, it was me!

2. When I was in university, I was home for 3 days when I couldn’t find my bike to head to work. That would be my singular form of transportation, alone in the city. I had ridden it to school 3 days earlier and forgotten, walking home that day. Luckily it was still locked up when I scrambled there to find it! I was late for work.

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[Anonymous]

The worst? It’s really bad, and I don’t know if I’m ever going to feel like I deserve the forgiveness I’ve been given. A couple weeks before her wedding I was really stressed and beating myself up for how often I would forget about dinner time and not feed my son, amongst other stressors. I couldn’t figure out what she needed that could be so important and failed to check the many messages she had left. As it turns out I totally failed at being a bridesmaid and didn’t make it to the wedding at all. How do you do that to your best friend? The only thing I can come up with is that I’m a horrible person. Because of my overwhelming guilt about the whole thing I never made any attempt to talk to her or apologize (for 4 years), but beat myself up about it on a regular basis. I reconnected with her about 6 months ago, and she told me she had never stopped thinking of me as a friend and accepted my apology. I know she means it, but I still can’t let go of the guilt and forgive myself.

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[Anonymous]

I have forgotton aniverserys, my childrens birthdates, appointments, meetings, where i left my car, my own birthdate, how old i was, pin numbers, passwords, school plays, you name it…. Even with reminders, if i dont act straight away it generaly gets forgot

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[Author]

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