Memory Lapse

As happens almost every year, I moved from one office location to another. Because of construction, I had to store everything but those items I used on a daily basis.

 

When I finally had the opportunity to move into my new office a few weeks ago, I discovered two boxes of my office supplies had disappeared. People who know me know I have something of an office supply fetish, so I invest my own money in having supplies that actually work as opposed to those that often come in the public sector where the cheapest bid wins. In those two boxes was a couple hundred dollars’ worth of materials. Because everything was stored in an unsecure location, I figured someone decided they liked my office supplies as much as I did.

 

I let the appropriate people know and whined to everyone else for the following three weeks.

 

Today I got a call asking if my box had a certain couple of items. I confirmed that it was my box.

 

When I asked about them, I was told where they were found.

 

Then I remembered that was exactly the place I put them so they would not be “stolen.” I hate when that happens.

 

Finding the right hiding place proves to be a challenge – especially when the best ones are so good they are forgettable – especially two months later.

 

After work, I quickly incorporated the found supplies into my office arrangement. I will stop whining and pretend nothing happened while I happily staple with my good stapler and hole-punch with my good hole-punch. Maybe no one will notice – except those who read about it.

How Did That Get There?

I bought a new iPod for my recent road trip so I could download my entire music library to give myself the full range of music to match whatever mood I found myself in. Over the course of the trip, I made it through a variety of genres and in each one, more than once as an unfamiliar song began to play, I asked myself, “where did that come from?”

 

To be honest, I have not completely listened to much of the music in my library because I like free stuff. My 15.2+ days of music consists mostly of purchases I have made over the years – either digitally or on CD and transferred. Still there are a few dozen albums I raided off the free downloads on Amazon and other sources (LEGITIMATELY!).

 

The problem with most of the Amazon free downloads is that they are sampler albums from many smaller studios. Some of the artists they feature are quite good and may well make it into mainstream circulation at some point; however, far too many of the artists will never make it out of their garage. Most of the songs that made me scratch my head at how they came to be in my library came from these albums. One takes this risk with freebies.

 

Of course there are a few of the collections in the library that I listened to on repeat at one point and now wonder what I ever heard in the songs. Conversely, some of the collections have grown in favor with time. And of course there are the classic standbys that are as good today as when they came out.

 

I enjoy the way the standby classics transport me back to earlier events. Certain songs I hear transport me to high school while others take me back to the dorm at college. One in particular takes me to a San Antonio dance club in 1986 (I Wanna Be a Cowboy). The power of music never ceases to amaze me in the ways it can alter my mood, recall memories, and cement new experiences into memory that any other medium.

 

Free stuff is too alluring for me to resist, so I will continue to download the good, bad, and ugly as it becomes available. You never know when that rejected song will be the one most perfect for a special occasion.

 

Or which one will have me again scratching my head.