Anecdata: Autopilot error

Realized that the mysterious missing volume in my salad yesterday was probably because I forgot about the existence of broccoli and so didn’t think to go hunting further in the vegetable drawer. This isn’t an actual problem. It’s a salad. It has whatever I want in it. Variety isn’t hurting the salad experience, even if it’s an accident. Any given day there’s a slight chance I might forget any particular usual ingredient. Sometimes I taste it and realize something is missing, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I get halfway through and realize I forgot a thing and add it.

It’s interesting to me because the entire reason I can make salads every morning without worrying about spoon issues is because of autopilot. If it didn’t feel like a single task that’s routine enough that deciding not to do it on any given day would be more difficult than just doing it, I wouldn’t be able to. But it’s composed of many small tasks that in no way rely on each other, and the whole process by necessity must be flexible enough to add and remove particular pieces freely or it would collapse entirely the day I happened to be out of spinach or something. So it’s an intentionally variable collection of potential tasks that are individually mostly satisfying but optional. And that makes it extremely vulnerable to my autopilot issues, but not in a way that actually matters.

 

i have to log out of work by swiping an id card through a reader by the door. the id card is attached to my key ring. then i go out to the parking lot and ALWAYS hold up my id card to my car door's handle to open it before realizing there's nowhere to swipe the card, and getting out my car key.

 

Today in a gas station I opened two tiny creamers and poured them into my cup of coffee. Then I opened the third and poured it directly into the trash.

 

Accidentally overfed the cats yesterday because I kept trying to go into the laundry to get a load of washing out of the machine, turning the corner, IMMEDIATELY forgetting what I was there for, looking at Jet warbling hopefully as he does whenever someone goes anywhere near his bowl, figuring it must have been some time since the bowl was full, refilling it and going back upstairs.

This happened TWICE. At least they were happy.

 

Me, looking at photos and recipes of curry, while eating leftover chicken tikka masala: boy I wish I had some curry right now

 

Was halfway through wrapping the bag of sandwich bags in cling wrap the other day before I realised what I was doing. Had the wrap pulled out of the dispenser and everything :/

 

Me, out loud: "I'm going to start the dishwasher."
My body: *pulls garbage bag out and shakes it out*
Me: *stares muzzily at what I just did for a few seconds while the streams re-sync, then puts garbage bag back under the sink and starts dishwasher*

 

put conditioner on wash cloth and applied body wash to head

 

tried to login in just now, and typed in the website address again instead of my username when prompted for login info

 

one that i've done more than once: tried to put the milk in the microwave (it does not fit) which, if it had succeeded, would've resulted in putting raw microwave cake into the fridge

 

-> Timer goes off
-> Turn off oven
-> Pick up hotpads
-> Attempt to take dinner out of fridge

 

that reminds me that i frequently forget the hotpads...

i have at least gotten better at stopping myself by the time i am beginning to reach...

 

i have this really annoying habit of like, hiding my phone away in impossible-to-see places? like under my pillow, between blankets, underneath a book, etc. and i do it ENTIRELY unconsciously. just like, the moment i'm done using it, away it goes. i don't know where this instinct comes from, i feel like a squirrel hiding nuts away for the winter.

 

I went to click back on a tab to continue reading a fanfic and somehow opened a new one instead and typed batman uchiha??? Completely on autopilot??? And ended up finding a lot of "itachi thinks he's batman" memes?????? I dont. I dont even know, like where did that come from

 

>put dinner in bowl, put cup on counter
>go fridge, retrieve jug of oj
>nearly pour oj into dinner instead of cup because "ah, jug and bowl, clearly this is milk for cereal"

 

Me: im cold
Also me: *puts in ear buds instead of getting another blanket* ah yes, primo comfort

 

this was last week: tried to unlock the apartment with my car keys

 

Me: I am cold
*retrieves blanket from room*
*lays blanket down on sofa*
*lays myself on top of blanket*
Me: I am cold

 

Sometimes my ADHD is so bad I actually forget what was doing mid-task. Like, two examples that happened recently -

1. I keep a bottle of ribena (squash? Liquid juice concentrate? Idk what it would be called to non-uk folk) both upstairs and downstairs, and my downstairs bottle had run out, so I put some in my cup before leaving my room to access kitchen kettle.

Reach the top of the stairs, happen to shake the cup, realise there's still liquid in it. Chug it. Much Regret.

2. Making a loaded microwave sweet potato. Reach stage of wrapping cooked yam in foil so that residual heat melts cheese. Literally turn around to put something on other counter, turn back and wonder why I had taken cold chicken leftovers out of fridge. Pick up WARM OBJECT and only realise error when fridge is open and I'm looking at similarly-sized foil wrapped lump on fridge shelf.

I smort. Also, does anyone else have the thing where distraction is way worse when there's another person in the room? Like, they don't have to be interracting at all, they can just be sitting in the corner on their laptop, but for some reason my brain goes 'BE POLITE AND FORGET ANYTHING ELSE YOU WERE GONNA DO' D: