My attention span is seriously lacking.

Really, I feel like a 5 year old these days. At work, at home, everywhere, I have an attention span as long as the largest word The Shrub can pronounce correctly. I don't know why. Perhaps it is the onset of Spring weather. Perhaps not. At any rate, I'm going to give you a few random snippets I have pulled out of my memory banks while daydreaming recently.



This winter, I went to my college to attend a memorial service for my favorite professor. Afterward, there was a reception in a church hall. I scanned the crowd, trying to find someone, anyone, who was familiar to me. First I saw another of my professors and his wife. Then I saw a few fellow psychology majors. There was this other guy, one who sat behind me at the service, who looked really familiar, but I wasn't sure how I knew him. I wracked my brain and just couldn't come up with the connection. He was really handsome, but I knew he wasn't a student with me. Later, I was introduced to him by someone else I was chatting with, and it came to me. Before I could think about it, these words popped out of my mouth: "I know you--you were my doctor in college!" The moment the words came out, I was mortified. But it's true: he was my physician during school. And yep, that pretty much ended the conversation, especially when some freak standing nearby made a comment about how he hoped I hadn't been fooled by the guy pretending he was a doctor.



On a totally different note: do you ever wonder about the whereabouts of past crushes or significant others? Not in a stalking way and not in an "I wish I was with him" kind of way, but just in an "I'm curious about whatever became of him" sort of way. I have found myself having those kinds of wonderings lately. Whatever happened to Scott Stephenson, the first crush I remember having, who moved away to Colorado in the third grade (or so) due to his dad being transferred? And what about Moses, the guy I met during my short tenure as a Bennigan's hostess, with whom I ended an otherwise promising relationship for reasons I no longer remember? Jim, of that last carefree high school summer--what has life tossed his way? And what in the world might Wesley, he of the Winnie-the-Pooh tattoo and chosen last name "Robin," be up to these days? I hope their lives have turned out well, as they were each wonderful in their own way.



During my fit of bathroom closet cleaning a few weeks ago, I discovered a stash of jewelry I forgot I had. Some of the pieces hold huge sentimental value for me, for varying reasons. But the ring I put on that day, and have worn every day since, is a small gold one made of two tiny intertwined dolphins. The feel of the metal around my finger brought back vivid memories of the day I purchased the ring, during my post-bar exam backpacking trip to Europe. I was hiking up a really steep hill in Athens, Greece, where friends and I were killing some time before boarding a ferry to the islands. The hill was lined with tiny shops and we ducked in and out as our whims dictated, inspecting the wares to see if a trip souvenir was at hand. In one of the shops, I saw my cute little ring and knew instantly that I wanted it. While I stood at the cash register chatting with the friendly native/shop owner, I admired the framed photo on the wall, in which he stood with his arm around none other than then-President Bill Clinton. Having this ring on my finger again reminds me not only of the circumstance of my purchasing it. When I wear it, I smell the warm, spicy Athens air, feel my muscles straining to climb that hill and feel the lightheartedness that ran like a river through that entire trip, and through my life at that time.

See, I told you: random thoughts.