Of Lost Things and Last Minutes by Konnie Enos

My side of the room is generally organized chaos. My loosely defined nightstand consists of a tray table, an end table, a medium and small set of plastic drawers, and a mishmash of boxes and bags to keep everything I want in easy reach nearby.

Chaos means stuff gets lost. Now if this haphazard area is bumped, things generally fall onto something below them. Occasionally, they manage to find a crevice to reach the floor. The real issue is when someone intentionally knocks things over or manages to kick them under the bed.

Now, my husband and children are not apt to come riffling through my nightstand unless they need something stored in this mess. I tell them where to look and avoid them having to do any searching. They can generally manage this without dislodging anything.

Of course, we also have dogs in the house. At present count, there are four of them. Tiny Ivan couldn’t reach anything on my nightstand let alone dislodge it even if he wanted to. He also generally avoids my room. Then there is the three-legged Xavier and the medium-sized Gunner. Both of which probably could dislodge things if they had any interest in doing so. Like Ivan, they are old enough to prefer sleeping over puppy-exuberant mischief.

On the other hand, Lakota is not only our largest dog but still young enough to retain a significant amount of puppy exuberance. I also have some snack food stored on my nightstand. Plenty of incentive for her to investigate. Since she won’t come anywhere near me, she does this when I’m not in the bedroom.

First I noticed the contents of my garbage can were getting strewn around. We quickly figured out she was getting into it so I now put it where she couldn’t reach it. (It’s now covered.)

Unfortunately, that means she explored further. On more than one occasion she knocked things off my nightstand. This action, unfortunately, put some of my snack food within easy reach for her. Finding things that included jerky sticks just encouraged further exploration.

Needless to say, I’ve had to pick things up more often than usual lately. (I’ve also had to get creative to keep my snacks away from her since some of it is chocolate.)

For these reasons when I recently reached for a small box of tissues I’d precariously perched on my jewelry box, I couldn’t find it. I assumed it had fallen during Lakota’s most recent foray.

Now falling to things below them, or even the floor in front of my nightstand isn’t an issue because I should be able to still see them. Managing to fall and fly or otherwise get knocked under the bed is a different issue.

Since my husband and I are both senior citizens and both suffer from arthritis getting down on our protesting knees and looking under the bed is not an easy thing to do. Getting back up from that uncomfortable position is even harder.

When the two of us could not immediately see the box of tissues by searching the floor in front of my nightstand we assumed it was under the bed. Jerry enlisted Royce for the search.

I’m not sure if that was a better choice. Due to his size getting down in the confined space beside my bed is not easy for him either. There is also the issue of like most males, including his father, Royce has object blindness. He can be looking right at something and not see it.

He, however, dutifully comes to my bedside.

I tell him exactly what I’m looking for and where I last saw it, as in where I know I placed it. Due to the cramped conditions and the object blindness, I am not expecting much. In fact, I’m already considering annoying Melinda and asking for her help.

Royce glances over my nightstand and says, “It’s right there.”

“What? Where?”

He picks it up from BEHIND my jewelry box and hands it to me.

Its position and the other things up there, such as my bottle of lotion, meant it was mostly blocked from my view even though I’d been closer to it than Royce was.

Thinking of Royce just reminds me that I started this year’s gift shopping late. As in I didn’t even start shopping until after I would normally already have it wrapped.

When I noticed that, I immediately did some shopping and managed to get him a gift which was delivered a few weeks ago. I have, however, repeatedly put off wrapping it.

Now I can no longer put it off. I have to wrap his birthday present sometime today before we serve dinner.

Why?

Because we always unwrap birthday presents after dinner and today is the day.

Happy birthday, Royce.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.