Thursday, May 03, 2007

Autopilot on standby

There are some things in life that we do without even thinking about it. Like breathing, for instance. That's an instinct, a vital life function. There are other things that we learn, and after awhile they become second nature, almost as if they were instinctual. Like driving. What used to be scary and intimidating and stressful because you had to remember and look at so much, is now easy, automatic. You just drive, and think nothing about how hard you're pressing the pedal, you don't freak when you have to check your blind spot. Some things are so automatic, that I sometimes wonder if I even did them. I frequently get scared that I forgot to flush the toilet at a friend's house because it's such an automatic task. I don't even think about it, and hence I don't remember it. Same with putting the gas cap on after a fill up.

Yet, despite all of the automatic things I do each and every day, I manage to forget some things.

It wasn't until yesterday around 10 am, after I had been awake for 4 hours or so, that I noticed what I had forgotten. I had been busy taking care of my patients, giving baths, changing bed pans. I got a call to take some pain meds to one of my patients the next floor down. I decided to take the stairs since they're closer. As I ran down the stairs, that I noticed what I had forgotten. Something that I have done everyday for the past 15 or so years of my life.

Yes, as I ran down the stairs, the bouncing under my scrubs told me that I forgot to put my bra on that morning. I was going commando, and I didn't even know it. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? I can't decide.

2 comments:

Lara said...

Girl, you must shut up NOW!

The fact that you can even GO Commando and not notice it until you are "bouncing down stairs" kinda makes me hate you.

(If I didn't like you so much!)

Enjoy it while they're perky! ;-)

J.R.G. said...

hill - err - ee - us.