Last November, an acquaintance at school told me about an upcoming appearance by the writer David Sedaris at Cadogan Hall in London. She was going, along with some other teachers, and she suggested I get tickets too.
I've always wanted to see Sedaris live. When I lived in New York I was once supposed to see him at Carnegie Hall with a friend, and something happened -- I can't remember what now -- and I didn't go. So rather than miss out again, I went online and bought two seats for his London appearance. I even bought coupons for glasses of champagne at intermission.
The tickets arrived in the mail, and I stupidly tucked them between two books on our bookshelf. And of course, I forgot about them completely.
Sedaris came and went, on Feb. 27, and neither Dave nor I ever realized we'd missed the event. Our friends at school didn't mention it to us. I only discovered it yesterday when I pulled a book off our bookshelf and found the now-completely-useless tickets.
So that's £98 down the tubes.
I sent one of our school friends an e-mail telling her of our mistake. "How funny!" she wrote. "You must have filed that away in a deep vault in your mind." (She's being charitable. It wasn't filed in my mind at all.)
"It was fun!" she continued. "Hopefully next time he comes around you can get tickets and actually go!"
Have you ever done anything like this? I swear I think I'm getting Alzheimer's.
(Photo: The remains of a tile surface at a building site not far from our house.)
No I have never done anything quite like that Steve but once, as my daughter still reminds me, I poured Coke on my chips - thinking it was vinegar. This was about twenty three years ago.
ReplyDeleteEver heard,"Out of sight, out of mind?" It is true the busier and older one gets. Next time, try the front of your fridge...If my stuff doesn't go there, it doesn't exist...Sorry you missed the show.
ReplyDeleteI think it is just the overload of daily life. I have put things in a "safe place" and then completely forgotten them. I have my annual cat calendar by the phone and do daily task lists to try to remember what I'm doing.
ReplyDeleteI hope Dave's recovery continues to go well and a happy weekend to you both.
oh yes, but not £98 worth. in fact it didn't cost me a cent. my boss at the antique store supports the animal rescue group here and buys all her employees tickets for the fundraiser fried chicken dinner. one year we remarked that the dinner was the next day and not to forget but forget we did.
ReplyDeletei keep a written calendar and each week i review it...not trusting anything to digital calendars, memory or others to remind me...at 70 yr old the mind is not a friend ha ha!!
ReplyDeletehave a great weekend!
Oh yes, I've done the same thing before. I have theatre tickets for what is called the Valley Broadway Series with my friends Julie and Dave and we've had those tickets for every season for years. I've totally forgotten about at least two of those plays over the years. Now I put the dates in my cell phone calendar with a reminder the day before so I won't do that again.
ReplyDeleteNo dementia at all - it's obvious what the issue here is.
ReplyDeleteThe cosmos has decided that come what may, you are NOT to see David Sedaris. Ever.
(And what a shame you're doomed. Sedaris is one of the funniest men alive.)
No. I don't do things like that. I just do things like completely forget to close the front doors before I go to bed. Hello Burglars! Walk right in!
ReplyDeleteOh DANG what a bummer! That would have been a wonderful evening! I am very forgetful, it is a normal forgetfulness, scatter brained always, so, the important stuff I stick on the fridge door- always find-able, since most of my day is spent opening the fridge door.Sorry you missed out on that evening of delight, sorry you spent so much for a bookmark.
ReplyDeleteWell, I do this with small things like "don't sweat the small stuff". However if it's bigger, I'm going to be there.
ReplyDeleteWellll, yes ... one year I bought all the gift cards we meant to give at Christmas and put them, yes, "in a safe place" ... which I could not remember come Christmas Eve at 4:00 p.m. I made it to all the stores by closing time to replace them. Then when I found the originals we used those ourselves. It's a shame you didn't get to use your tickets. Ouch. Next time!
ReplyDeleteAny relation to Andy Sedaris?...
ReplyDeleteI kid, I kid!