I've never been particularly good at keeping track of my things but in the past couple years the number of important items I lose has risen exponentially.
The very worst thing I ever misplaced was Mini-baboo. He was one, and I was in college. One day I left for class. I drove about 2 miles towards the babysitter before I realized that something was missing; something just wasn't right... then I turned around and went back home, where he was napping, and got him.
In the past three months, I have lost the following:
- My very cool prescription racing sunglasses (which I then replaced).
- The Compact wireless adapter I bought for Mini-Baboo's computer. I hid it from him, to restrict his Internet access, and now it's just gone.
- My "other" keys - these are the ones that include my classroom key (the janitors had to let me into my room each morning for nearly 2 weeks), my house key, mailbox key, and the key to the filing cabinet in my classroom that I never use; all the little tags that get me into the gym, have my USAT number, and identify me as a frequent shopper at several grocery stores. My car keys are on a separate ring. I found them last week.
- My cell phone, several times, (but thank goodness, I can call that and find it).
- Several gels that I bought at the bike shop a few weeks ago.
- Assorted other odds and ends that I've already forgotten about
The upside of this is that I'll tidy up and suddenly find all the lost stuff and it's like Christmas. Saturday I straightened up and packed for a triathlon; by midday I'd found so much lost stuff that I giggling and all happy. I now have two cool pairs of prescription racing sunglasses. The only thing still missing is the compact wireless adapter.
Poor Baboo suffers. We have AAA for when I lock my keys in the car, or leave the headlights on...and he always tries to get optional loss coverage for anything that we buy. And I'm never allowed near the remote control.
Yesterday, however, I topped even myself.
After talking to several parents on the phone, sending and returning emails, and recording grades, I stood up and got ready to leave and realized that my right shoe was missing.
That's right. ONE shoe. Was missing. From my FOOT.
Welcome to my world.
I walked around my classroom for a while wondering what on EARTH I could have done with my other shoe. The minutes ticked by, and I finally resigned myself to the realization that, yes, I was going to have to drive home this way. I was imagining the look on Sweet Baboo's face when I arrived, sans one shoe, to tell him I'd lost my shoe.
I imagined that he would say, in his kind and patient voice laced with just a bit of stifled laughter, "well, where did you have it last?"
and I would then scream, "ON MY FOOT!" and then he would be all hurt because I'd screamed at him.
I finally found the shoe on a shelf under my keyboard. I'm not sure when or why I put it there, but I am getting a bit tired of all this.
It sucks up a lot of time, stalking around the
house at 6:30 am screaming "ALLRIGHT, DAMMIT, WHO TOOK MY KEYS? I KNOW SOMEONE TOOK THEM BECAUSE I--OH, oh, never mind. Here they are, on the fish tank. I found them."
I thought of behavior modification or learning how to locate things, but to be honest I've had 42 years to deeply entrench these bad 
habits and as I have said several times, I am lazy. As well, I don't realize something's missing until several hours or even days go by, so retracing my steps is nearly impossible.
So, I'm considering some sort of remote control device that might allow me to tag certain objects and beep them when I can't find them.
And I know what you're thinking. I've already decided that the remote control for such a device would definitely be tethered to a cinder block or something equally cumbersome.
I'll keep you posted on my research.
...
