Mental blocks

I am a relatively intelligent person and a relatively organized one, at least in my head (you wouldn't know it from looking at my desk).  I remember things, for the most part.  I've got my shit together.

And yet. 

There are certain things about which I have incurable mental blocks. 

Where I put my keys, for example.  Every single time I look for my keys, I always have a moment of panic.  "Shit.  Did I put them in my briefcase?  Are they on my desk?  In my pocket?"

And because I have trained myself to put them in the same place every day (I occasionally mess up, but I'm pretty good now), I always find them. 

I need to figure out something similar with my computer.

Our computers at work are laptops that click into a mechanism that essentially turns them into desktops.  It links the hard drive up with a monitor and connects it to the office server and there's a separate keyboard and mouse.  But if I have to work from home, I can just detach the laptop and take it with me.  Easy peasy.

Except that I always forget to bring it back to work the next day.  And when I say always, I am not exaggerating.  I am currently batting .000.  0-fer-5, I think.

I had my computer with me in Phoenix this week, for checking emails and getting some work done (but mostly for watching The Daily Show in my hotel room, because the Hyatt does not subscribe to Comedy Central).  I left it in its little computer bag in the trunk of my car, thinking that I would just grab it when I headed to the bus after dropping the kids at school.  I must have had at least 5 conversations with myself about it.  "Don't forget!"  "I won't, I won't."

At least this morning I was only half-way to work when I remembered that I had forgotten.  All the other times, I was all the way in the building when I had to turn back.  So today, I got off the bus at the next stop, walked across the street, caught the bus going the other way, went home, grabbed the computer, walked back across the street, caught the next bus and came to work.  I was only 20 minutes late.

I guess it's progress?