Hoteling Memories

I've read several articles that claim that people may think they are good multi-taskers, but at best, they are good at organizing around multiple tasks. Actually concentrating and giving our best requires a more singular focus.

I often wonder if aging and too much Diet Pepsi is eating away at my brain, or if I simply expect too much from it.

When I was a child, I used to sit at the dinner table and make some comment about my body being like a hotel and as I ate my dinner, I was filling the rooms - veggies, meat, beverage, etc. When the hotel was full, I was done. I had a special room for applesauce as my mother served it at every meal. I think it was her way of bribing me to eat my veggies. She didn't much care if I buried my peas in it, as long as the peas were eaten. Of course now people look at me strangely when I always prefer my peas mixed in with applesauce, even as an adult. But as usual, I digress.

I think my brain is really like a hotel. And I think the rooms have been full, and maybe even over-occupied for a very long time. Now I am kicking out residents to make room for new check-ins and it is leaving some pretty serious gaps in my memory and thoughts.

I can walk from one meeting to the next and at the end of the day, if I don't have notes from the meetings, I can easily forget 80% of what I heard. Hopefully, the 20%I retain is the important stuff- or at least the stuff most relevant to my regular to-do list...but overall, I think I've been pretty lucky not to drop a major ball yet.

One example is even keeping up on two blogs. My mind is so focused on projects for Yellow Cottage Chronicles that I haven't put much thought into what else in life is going on that might actually be interesting enough to post here. Of course I have random thoughts throughout the day as I have conversations, meeting, listen to news, watch a movie, read a book....but by the time I get to the keyboard, the hotel rooms have been vacated and the linens are changed and the incoming guest have no clue as to what was going on before the changeover.

I've often wished to have a camera embedded in my brain. Mostly for those once in a liftime moments that you just wish you could capture and replay. But now, I'd like the camera to be like a security camera in the hotel lobby. Who checked out? When? Who checked in? for what? Where is the bathroom? and the bar? Or maybe I just need a hotel manager.