Brain fart

Brain fart: A gap, interruption, or uncontrolled shift in a chain of thought resulting in a lull, pause, and/or blank stare during oral communication and sometimes involving the loss of short term memory.
-- Urban Dictionary

Late yesterday afternoon, when I headed down the street to catch my ride home, I reached into my shoulder bag and grabbed for my wallet so I could flash my bus pass to the driver. To my shock and the driver's amusement, I realized I was showing him my ID badge from work. D'oh!

A sign of senility? Or just a brain fart? Call it what you like. I chalk it up to inattentiveness caused by ... texting! Yes, I plead guilty. I was typing a message to Lori as I was walking toward the bus and instead got caught with a momentary lack of focus.

But, hey, I can laugh it off. Even before I had a smartphone to distract me, I had more than my share of mental lapses. .

-- Such as the time when I rode the bus home from work and only then remembered I'd driven that day and left my car downtown. 
-- Or the time I fell asleep and woke up near a cemetery, more than a mile from where we lived.
-- Or the time I parked the car in front of what I thought was our house, only to realize I was on the wrong block.

-- Or, worst of all, the time I rode the bus to where I'd left my car parked for the day, only to realize I'd left my keys at work.

No big insight here. Just a good reminder to not take myself seriously -- and to realize yet again how attempts at multitasking, no matter how innocuous or well-intentioned, can easily go awry.

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