The Nest

Blame it on the hormones. I'm "nesting" like crazy. I'm also creating a lot of nesting issues by forgetting where I left things, losing things altogether and putting things in completely wrong places.

Everyone I know admits to sometimes walking into a room and not remembering why they went there. Or walking up the stairs to get something that was right in front of your face the entire time. Or opening up the fridge to find the car keys or opened mail or the scissors.

It turns out the brain eventually runs out of space and we can only remember things that are distinctively different. We have to create folds to remember new information - or else the "memory" just passes through quickly, only to be recalled for a short time. I think pregnancy has, um, accelerated this process because I am quickly losing my mind! I reserve all of my useful brain time for work, when my income depends on remembering whether a person wanted salt on their margarita.

My nesting instinct is causing me to turn entire areas of the house upside-down. It's not just your typical open the windows-bright sunlight-glaring at you dirt-spring cleaning. I have to take things apart and use the dust buster. I used half a spray bottle of cleaner yesterday, just in my household travels. I'm even worried about the "clutter" in the basement, which is the quintessential place to hide all of the clutter you don't want to worry about - ever.

But with the nesting, comes the absent minded placement of items. I searched for the checkbook for two days, only to find it right behind the basket we always keep it in. We needed copies of our paystubs for an application - which we had two weeks ago - but has mysteriously disappeared. I couldn't "find" my black shirt in the laundry today for over an hour. That is, until I saw it sitting in a pile in the basement. NEXT TO THE WASHING MACHINE.

Gregory is convinced that I am just building a nest somewhere in the house. Perhaps in my sleep. We're going to open a closet and find that I've shredded those paystubs with my teeth and fashioned a nest out of them. We'll find missing socks and jewelry and my garden shovel (where could THAT be?) all woven together. Part of me hopes it is true - then I'll be able to find all of these things that have gone missing!