Details and Multi-tasking

I'm at the liquor store. It doesn't open until 11:00 and I wonder why. But I take some time to continue reading the interesting article in "The New Yorker" about these people from the United States who lived in China for many years and then moved back to the U.S. The differences between the movers there and here was amazing. In fact, the difference in the social behaviors between the people of the two countries was amazing. And then I go into the liquor store after being pushed aside at the door by the people who wanted to be first. So as I'm looking for some "good" vodka and pretending like I know what that is, I get sidetracked with watching the customers-the man with the rubber hand, the tiny, fat woman with a voice like a cartoon character, the furtive man in the business suit-until I finally just grab something and stand at the back of the line to pay. My, those customers are fast! They all know exactly what to buy.

On the way home, I study a woman I've seen once or twice who gets on the #33 bus wrapped in a long, fleecy, self-belted garment that's really a robe. And then I go to my knitting group and one of my co-knitters tells this story about her parrot which she's had for 33 years and how if you get a parrot you'd better prepare for a life-long commitment because they live as long as humans do. Her parrot's name is Hawkeye and she gave him away once for five years when her children were small because he imitated their crying and that drove her crazy.

Riding back, my friend JoAnn told me this awful story about these friends of hers whose daughter died. The child's father, who's really a strange person, took custody of their granddaughter and he won't let them see her. They are in the process of trying to gain visitation rights so the lawyer advised them to have lots of people sit with them at court so the judge can see all the support they have. And they didn't tell the father of the child so he was there with only his new wife and his parents.

So I'm talking on the phone with my sister. I sit in my dark bedroom so I won't be distracted. But I'm really trying to keep from multi-tasking while I'm talking to her and which she can always sense. Then she gets all over me because I don't remember details. But how can I when the world is so full of Chinese moving men, liquor store customers with rubber hands, a parrot that sounds like a crybaby, and a mean father who won't let his eight year old see her grandparents???? No wonder life's details escape me. No wonder I'm no good at multi-tasking anymore.