{"id":1961,"date":"2011-08-04T21:10:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-05T04:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2011-08-04T21:10:31","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T04:10:31","slug":"so-like-when-does-the-pause-part-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/?p=1961","title":{"rendered":"So, like, when does the ‘pause’ part start?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Don’t know if it’s the weather or just a particularly bad week but I find myself forgetting things as soon as I put them down. Heck, earlier today I spent 5 frantic minutes looking for a set of car keys that were dangling from my index finger…<\/span><\/p>\n

I phoned Canadian Blood Services to see if I was under a deferral for malaria from a holiday in Mexico just after Christmas. I had my blood donor card, the dates of the trip jotted on a note pad and, just in case I was no longer deferred, a couple of times when I could go in to donate blood. In other words I’d covered all the questions the\u00a0CBS<\/span><\/a>\u00a0nurse would ask.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a few minutes of listening to the usual selection of tinned music and pleasant messages of “all our agents are busy…blah-diddy-blah-press 1”\"\"<\/a><\/span>, the nurse came on the line. We ran through the verification questions – name and number on the donor card, my birthday, address and phone number: all those vital security measures to fend off ne-er-do-wells intent on making illicit blood donations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, I rattled off all the information and there’s a noticeable pause where the nurse usually says, “okay, Mrs. B…what can I do for you today.” She coughs and says, um, are you sure about that phone number? So I give her my cell phone number. Nope. My work number? ah, no, that’s not it, ma’am.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

what was that address again?<\/p><\/div>\n

“O<\/span>h crap (yes, that is what I said<\/em>), my husband comes up with phone numbers that are\u00a0almost the same because he says it will be easier to remember but they’re just a number\u00a0different and I get confused with which one is which…<\/span><\/p>\n

The nurse tries to hide the fact she is giggling.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I swear, I’m not having a stroke, it’s my damn husband…” <\/span><\/p>\n

Now she is laughing out loud. <\/span><\/p>\n

I run through the numbers again and finally hit on the one she has on file…<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then I’m at work this afternoon and a customer calls. She wants to know why I phoned the other day. I look at her file but there’s nothing in the way of a clue. <\/span><\/p>\n

I remember actually making the call yesterday.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember a conversation we had 2 months ago about a trip she was about to take.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only thing I don’t remember is why I called her yesterday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Considerate person that she is, she says it must have been to wish her happy birthday. We chat about how her trip went but after 5 minutes there is still a blank spot where an answer should be. <\/span><\/p>\n

‘Oh well’, I say, ‘happy birthday’.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It doesn’t stop, does it, this slow, meticulous decline into senility? After turning 30, I noticed the lug nuts were getting a bit loose and then, at 40, the wheels began to wobble off the bus. Now I feel like I’m sitting at the side of the road with a lap full of ditch water, holding a steering wheel and wondering where the hell my car went.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t know if it’s the weather or just a particularly bad week but I find myself forgetting things as soon as I put them down. Heck, earlier today I spent 5 frantic minutes looking for a set of car keys … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[455,12,453,221,454,452],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2005,"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions\/2005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suddenalarm.blaseckie.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}